EQi and the transfer to interactive investor

From an Equiniti perspective the sale is a reflection of its strategy to create greater focus in its business activities, in particular, its share registration business.

interactive investor (ii) is one of the UK’s largest direct to consumer share trading platforms and we believe it will be a good home for those customers who are transferring. We hope you understand it was not a decision taken lightly.

The customers who are staying with EQi are those who have joined through Equiniti’s corporate relationships, such as SAYE schemes, and going forward EQi will not be open to new customer sign-ups.

You will need to have an up-to-date email address on your EQi account ahead of the move. Otherwise it will not be possible for you to log in to your new ii account online. Your mobile phone number will be useful too as ii needs this to help you reset your password on its platform. You can check, update or add either by logging in to your EQi account, going to profile and then contact details. Or you can send them to us via a secure message.

ii is an award-winning investment platform, with a 25-year heritage of providing services for people who want to take control of their financial future. The platform is already home to more than 350,000 investors and offers a number of benefits:

• A choice of simple, flat-fee pricing plans to suit different needs so you can select according to your needs.
• Competitive, flat-fee trading charges, with no trading fee for regular investing for a wide range of funds and popular shares (FTSE 350).
• A huge range of shares and funds to choose from, including direct trading on 17 global exchanges.
• Ongoing access to expert investment ideas, market intelligence and a choice of ways to trade, including via a mobile trading app.

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Like EQi, ii is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and your money and investments will continue to be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

EQi will continue to offer the high-level of customer service that you have come to expect. For now it’s business as usual at EQi.

We are focused on ensuring a smooth transfer of your account and a successful future for you with ii.

If you’ve received a message saying that your account will transfer to ii, unfortunately it won’t be possible for you to stay on EQi.

You will receive an email or secure message saying your account is moving if this applies to you. If you did not receive a communication, your account will not move to ii.

Yes, if you wish, but we hope you will give your new service a try. You will have the reassurance of a price promise for the first six months after your account moves to ii, linked to the charges you pay at EQi. However, if you do decide to leave before or after the move you will not pay an exit fee as neither EQi nor ii charge these.

We need to have received instructions to transfer from your new provider, by 5pm on 11 June. Otherwise, EQi ISAs, dealing accounts and SIPPs will move to ii as planned. 

As ii does not offer a Lifetime ISA, it will not be moved to the ii platform.

At a future point, it may well be the case that an agreement is reached to move EQi LISAs to another provider, although no plans have been confirmed as yet.

As ii does not offer a Lifetime ISA, it will not be moved to ii along with your other account(s).

As ii does not offer a CTF account, it will not be moved to the ii platform.

We do expect that there will be a review about how best to look after your account in the future. This may mean that plans are put forward to move your account to another provider, although no plans have been confirmed as yet.

We will contact you separately in regards to their options for their maturing CTF account.

We would like to reassure you that this move will not impact your account and EQi will continue to operate as usual. We will continue to offer the high-level of customer service that you have come to expect.

Your account will remain with EQi and you do not need to take any action.

ii will send you details to help get you online just ahead of the move. To be able to login you will need to have an up-to-date email address on your EQi account. Your mobile phone number will be useful too as ii need this to help you reset your password on its platform. You can check, update or add either by logging in to your EQi account, going to profile and then contact details. Or send them to us via a secure message.

Your account will still move to ii but you will not be able to log in until you provide an email address. Otherwise, you can access your account through ii's telephone service. There are extra charges for trading over the phone with ii.

ii will load up to five years' history of your EQi statements, consolidated tax certificates and contract notes on to its platform, so you will be able to view these for future reference. Your secure message history with EQi will not be migrated.

Once your account has moved to ii you will no longer be able to log in on EQi. The EQi website will remain accessible for those customers who have not moved to ii.

ii will link your accounts that are moving from EQi to your existing account as part of the move wherever possible, so you will have just one login and pay just one service plan fee afterwards.

Your book cost will be moved over with your account when it is transferred to ii.

Any complaint you have raised with EQi ahead of the move will continue to be handled by EQi as the provider you made the complaint against.

No, but you will have the opportunity to set up a debit card to use with your ii account the first time you login to your new service. Or you can add one later if you wish.

No. This means you will still be able to sell your assets that were subject to this check at EQi after the move, but you will have to complete the ii test online to buy any more assets where investment experience is required.

No, these will not be transferred. But they will be quick and easy to set up again on the ii platform should you wish.

You will be asked to confirm whether you wish to receive emails like this the first time you login to your new service and can easily change your preferences at any time after that.

Your ISA will stay 'flexible' at ii until 5 April 2022, meaning you can take money out and pay it back in without that affecting your annual ISA allowance. After 5 April 2022, you will not be able to make flexible withdrawals from your ISA, which means any payments back in would count towards your annual ISA allowance.

Yes, you can. As for transferring to any new ISA provider in a tax year, the act of transferring does not affect your subscription as long as you are subscribed with only one stocks and shares ISA provider at a time.

Yes, and your service plan fee at ii covers you for holding as many Junior ISAs as you need, alongside your own stocks and shares ISA and trading account.

Yes, your SIPP provider will remain the same when your SIPP account moves over to ii.

Your account will move to ii as a pension trading account and this will continue to be held inside your existing SIPP wrapper.

There will be a few exceptions to this, depending on your SIPP provider, and you will hear separately if any of these apply to you.

You will pay a fee of £9.99 a month to hold your pension trading account at ii and if you have other accounts moving to ii too, these will be charged separately.

If you work with a financial advisor for your SIPP at EQi, we are not able to give them any access to your Pension Trading Account at ii, either online, by telephone or post.

Your account charges at ii will depend on which of their service plans you choose to use. You will start on the most popular, Investor plan, but will be able to swap to another from the first time you login if you wish.
ii has three service plans to choose from, each with a fixed monthly fee and different trading commissions to suit your investment style.
In each case your monthly fee includes one free trade a month as well as covering you for holding a trading account, a stocks and shares ISA and as many junior ISAs as you have children. The platform also offers free monthly investing for funds, investment trusts and popular UK shares. You can add a SIPP to any plan for an additional £10 a month.

• Investor Plan - £9.99 a month – online UK and US trades cost £7.99 and other online international trades £19.99.
• Funds Fan - £13.99 per month – online UK and US share trades cost £7.99 and other online international trades £19.99. Online UK investment trust and fund trades cost £3.99.
• Super Investor - £19.99 per month – all online UK trades cost £3.99, online US share trades £4.99 and other online international trades £9.99.

For more detail on charges for all the service plans, read ii's service plan guide.

interactive investor have said six months from migration, if they find that customers would have paid less under EQi’s charging model, they will refund the difference.

The price promise covers your ongoing charges and your online trading activity. It does not cover telephone dealing charges, foreign exchange charges, non-UK resident charges and non-personal account charges and other administrative charges. We recommend you read the full terms.

Individually agreed rates are not considered within the Price Promise calculation, however, ii offers a free trading credit each month and a choice of service plans to meet different customer needs.

Trading commission in UK funds and shares is just £3.99 under its Super Investor plan, for example, with your free monthly trade credit covering two such trades. For overseas trading, as standard you are also able to trade directly in the local currency with ii, which can save a considerable amount in foreign exchange fees over time.

For the above reasons ii does not offer any additional discounts for trading, so, to compare like with like, the price promise covers your ongoing charges (EQi custody and fund platform fees) and your online dealing commission based on EQi’s standard rate card.

You will start on ii’s popular Investor plan, but if you expect to make several trades a month, ii offers two additional plans to help reduce your costs. You can switch to one of these from first login if you wish.

These depend on which service plan you choose, but for Investor Plan, the plan you will first be moved to, they are:

• £7.99 per online trade for UK and US markets
• £19.99 per online trade for other international markets
• Telephone trading £49.00 in addition to the online commission
• Regular investing free
• Dividend Reinvestment £0.99
• Additional charges apply for international trades at sizes of £100,000 or above.

You receive a trade credit of £7.99 a month as part of whichever service plan you choose and this can be put towards the cost of any trade.

You can find all the details for ii's trading commission in ii's service plan guide.

Your monthly service plan fee at ii will start to apply from 1 July 2021 and will be collected on or around the 10th of the month. For transaction based fees, these will begin to apply as soon as you start using your new account from Monday 28 June.

Your monthly service plan fee can be paid easily by setting up a monthly direct debit to cover it. Otherwise it is taken from any available cash in your trading (equivalent to EQi dealing) or SIPP accounts.

ii deducts trading commissions from what you pay or earn from a trade automatically, and you will see the amount on your confirmation screen before each trade on the ii platform.

Commission for trading online in international stocks with ii varies from £4.99 to £19.99 depending on which service plan you choose. If ii have to convert currencies for you as part of an international trade, a foreign exchange fee also applies as shown below:

• £0 - £24,999.99 1.50%
• £25,000 - £49,999.99 1.25%
• £50,000 - £99,999.99 1.00%
• £100,000 - £599,999.99 0.50%
• £600,000 or more 0.35%

If you hold international securities with EQi these are currently held in the form of Crest Depository Instruments (CDIs) which trade and settle in £GBP. When you move to the ii platform your CDIs will be converted to direct holdings in the underlying securities on the relevant market.

The value of your direct holdings will show in your ii account in the local currency with an equivalent value in £GBP also shown. You can hold and trade in up to 9 different currencies on up to 17 global exchanges on the ii platform. If you prefer to trade in £GBP that is possible too, but a foreign exchange fee will apply.

If you live outside of the UK you can still hold your account at ii. There are some extra costs for administering it and ii charges £3.99 a month in addition to your monthly service plan fee to cover these costs.

If you have a company or trust account there are some extra costs for administering it, and ii charges £29.99 a month in addition to your monthly service plan fee to cover these costs.

Your account charge (known as the custody fee on EQi) is paid up until 7 December 2021. This means that ii fees will not be applied until after this date.

At ii each party on your joint account will need their own unique personal login ID and email address to access your account. Ahead of the move it will help if you add an individual email address and mobile phone number for each party to your account records by calling our Customer Experience Centre or provide them through a secure message to us. After the move, ii will arrange for each of you to have your own personal login ID.

At ii, only one member of an investment club can login to view and use its online account. This will be the lead investor (the person we usually communicate with about the account). You may wish to discuss this with your club and agree between you who should be the lead investor after the move. If you decide to change things, please complete and return a change of lead investor form, which you will find under forms on the EQi website.

At ii, one nominated individual can access company accounts and it will no longer be possible for a third party to access them. It will help if, ahead of the move, you can confirm at your organisation who your nominated individual should be and, if we don't already have their details, provide their email and mobile phone number. You can update your contact details by calling our Customer Experience Centre.

They will still be able to access accounts after the move but ii will provide them with their own login ID to do so. It will help if we have their email address and mobile phone number ahead of the move. You can update your contact details by calling our Customer Experience Centre.

If we know an executor is administering an estate before the move to ii then the affected accounts will stay at EQi. Otherwise they will move and executors will be able to access them through ii's telephone service afterwards.

After the move, all your accounts will be linked at ii under a single service plan and you will have one login ID to access them all. Before the move it will help if you can make sure we have the same email address and mobile phone registered for you in the contact details section of each of your current accounts with us.

Your current regular investing instructions will be migrated across when your account moves to ii, provided they are in investments that are eligible for regular investing on the ii platform (a wide range of funds and popular shares (FTSE 350)) and your regular investment amount is £25 or above (the minimum amount for regular investing online at ii). Your direct debit will still be collected on the same date as now, but the trading date will be different – it will be on the 1st Wednesday of each month.

If you currently have regular investing instructions in eligible investments at EQi for amounts between £10 and £25, ii will not make these trades after the move, so you may wish either to increase your investment amounts to £25 or more, or cancel them ahead of the move.

Online regular investing is free at ii and easy to set up.

On the ii platform, for most popular shares (including the FTSE 350) and a range of investment trusts and ETFs, you can choose at individual investment level whether to leave your dividends as cash or automatically reinvest them. Automatic reinvestment is not available for income from unit trusts and OEICs. Alternatively, you can set your whole account to pay all dividends out to your bank account on the same day they are received. It’s an either/or choice.

If you have a mix of dividend reinvestment and income payaway instructions in place, your eligible reinvestment instructions will be migrated across only.

If you have income payaway instructions in place only, these will be migrated across and after the move ii will begin paying any dividends you receive out to you on the same day that they are received.

If you have dividend reinvestment instructions in place with EQi, these will be migrated across to ii with your account, provided they are in investments that are eligible for this on the ii platform. After the move, ii will continue reinvesting these dividends for you provided they have a value of £10 or more and are paid into your account in £GBP. At ii, reinvestment trades are made two days after the relevant dividend is paid into your account.

If you have income payaway instructions in place with EQi (and no dividend reinvestments), these will be migrated across to ii with your account, provided they are in investments that are eligible for this on the ii platform.

After the move, ii will continue to pay income to you and there will be no minimum amount for doing this (at EQi there is a minimum of £10).  In addition, any new dividends received will be paid out immediately rather than scheduled as they are on EQi. For customers with dividends scheduled to be paid after the migration to ii, this money will move over as cash in your account.