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Read how to find, buy and sell shares online in just a few easy steps.
 

We provide access to a wide selection of investments that can meet a broad range of needs.

These generally fall into two categories – ‘pooled’ or ‘collective’ investments and exchange traded instruments such as shares, investment trusts, ETFs.

Pooled (collective) investments – as the name suggests, these investments allow you and other investors to pool your money together to form a large sum. A professional manager will then use this money to invest in a wide range of shares or bonds on your behalf. The manager uses their knowledge and experience to help grow your money or to provide you with an income over time. They’ll typically make all the investment decisions – choosing when to buy and sell individual shares and bonds within the fund.

Exchange traded instruments (ETIs) – These are investments that are openly traded on a stock exchange, which means you can buy and sell them through Fidelity.

There are many different types of ETI:

• Company shares (equities) – shares are individual securities and allow you to own part of a company or financial asset. While owning shares in a business does not mean you have any direct control over the day-to-day operations of the business, being a shareholder does entitle you and other shareholders to a proportional share of any profits.

• Exchange traded funds (ETFs) and exchange traded commodities (ETCs) – ETFs and ETCs combine the benefits of investment funds and shares, offering you diversified, cost-effective and transparent access to global investment markets. They typically track the performance of a stock market index or commodity. They’re bought and sold much like shares and are sometimes known as ‘exchange traded products’ (ETPs).

• Investment trusts – these are pooled funds set up as public limited companies (PLCs) and their shares are listed on a stock exchange. The trust’s investments are chosen and managed by an experienced team who spread your money across a wide selection of investments. Another difference from funds is that they have a fixed number of shares and so they are sometimes referred to as ‘closed-ended funds’.

Coming soon

• CREST Depository Interests (CDIs) – these are UK securities, issued by CREST, which are designed to represent a company share traded on an overseas stock market. They offer a way for you to buy and sell a number of non-UK stocks in sterling.

• Corporate bonds and UK government bonds (Gilts) – in simple terms, a bond is a type of loan. When you buy one, you’re effectively lending the issuer your money and they pay you interest in return. At the end of a bond’s term, the face value of the bond will be paid to you, although you can buy and sell a bond at any time during that term. Companies issue corporate bonds while the British government issues Gilts. They are individual securities.

There are many different types of pooled investment and individual securities and the ones we offer are described below. However, please remember that diversification – maintaining a wide spread of different investments – is one of the most important principles of successful investing. We therefore don’t recommend purchasing individual shares or other securities on their own unless you already have a wide selection of other investments.

You can sell any exchange traded instruments you hold with us. You have the option of placing a Market Order or Limit Order.

We normally pay your money into ‘Cash within the account’ and then you can instruct us to pay this by direct credit to your personal bank or building society. This could take up to 3 days after we receive your money from the sale of relevant exchange traded instrument.

Share dealing is when you buy or sell shares in a public limited company on a recognised stock exchange. You can do this at any time the exchange is open. When you buy a share you become one of the company’s owners and you may be entitled to a share of any profits it makes. If the company does well, your shares may go up in value because more people want to have a stake in the company. But if the company doesn’t do well, the value of your shares may fall. Our share dealing service will also be offering other types investments, in addition to company shares. One of the main types will be bonds, which are loans to a large organisation. As our service develops, we will enable you to buy UK government bonds, known as gilts, as well as corporate bonds.

Yes, given you’re a UK resident living in the UK and are 18 years of age or over. You can also open an account if you’re a member of British Forces living overseas.

You can invest in exchange traded instruments such as shares, investment trusts, ETFs through our online share dealing service. Dealing times will vary depending on the type of order placed. Our service is primarily an online service; however, for some exchange traded instruments such as Investment Trusts and ETFs, you can also invest over the phone.

Please note that when investing in funds, deals are placed at the next available dealing time. If you give an instruction by post, it may be processed on the following business day as investment instructions received in the post are usually processed within 24 hours.

One-off investments

You can make lump sum investments by using a debit card or by sending us a cheque. If you’re paying by building society cheque or banker’s draft, the cheque should be made payable to Fidelity using your title and name e.g. (Fidelity – re Mr J Smith). You’ll also need to ask your building society to endorse the cheque before you send it to us.

Regular investments

Making regular contributions to a savings plan can be a great way to build up a larger sum over the long term. It can also remove the temptation of trying to ‘time the market’ – changing your long-term plan by buying or selling investments based on short-term market movements.

If you’d like to make regular payments into your account, you can set this up online. Your instructions will be processed within five days, and we’ll start collecting your regular contributions from the next available collection date. When we collect money for regular savings, it is held as cash within your account for two working days before we buy your chosen investments. For example, if we collect your money on the 10th of each month, we may invest it on the 12th. This is because a bank may ask us to return the money for up to two days following its collection, although this rarely happens.

Our share dealing service is primarily an online service. We charge a flat fee of just £10 for buying or selling shares online within an ISA or Investment Account and only £1.50 for dividend re-investments and regular savings plan payments.

In exceptional circumstances, you will be allowed to trade over the phone and the fee will be £30 for each order.

In most cases, when you buy UK shares, or shares in a foreign company with a share register in the UK, regulatory charges such as Stamp Duty Reserve Tax and PTM levy may apply.

See details on charging

No, we do not provide advice. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, you should speak to an authorised financial adviser.