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Sharedealing for Existing Customers

How to use Sharedealing

Your step-by-step guide to buying and selling shares online. You can view your account balances, access market data, and buy and sell shares. When you use our online sharedealing service you’ll be making your own decisions without advice. Remember that the value of investments, and any income they generate, can fall as well as rise. So you could get back less than you invest. Investing should be regarded as a longer-term strategy of at least 5 years.

How to access your Sharedealing account

Before you can start buying or selling shares, you’ll need to log on to your Sharedealing account and view your portfolio page.

Log on to online banking using your Secure Key.
Find your Sharedealing account in your list of accounts.
Select your account to open it in a separate window.
Select My Portfolio to access your full sharedealing account.

How to buy shares

Select Buy on the black toolbar at the top.
Select the Trade from account drop down box near the top of the page and select your nominated first direct 1st Account.
Enter the name or the code of the shares you want to buy and select Get price.
Enter the number of shares you want to buy in the quantity box.
If you’re buying shares within a stocks and shares ISA, you’ll need to enter a limit price. This limits the price you’re willing to pay so you don’t oversubscribe to your ISA. You’ll need to enter this in pence (for example ‘£1.00’ would be written as ‘100’).
Select Preview order to check whether you’re happy with the price. This price is only available for 15 seconds.
You can accept it by choosing Place order. If you change your mind, select Cancel or Amend to return to the previous screen.
You can view your order confirmation in Messages. This is on the left-hand side menu on your portfolio page. You should receive a confirmation within 24 hours.

How to sell shares

Once you’ve bought shares, you’re in control of which shares you want to sell and when.

Select the Sell button on the black toolbar at the top.
Select the Select investment account drop down box near the top of the page then the account you want to trade from.
Select the blue Sell button beside the shares you want to sell.
Enter the number of shares you want to sell in the quantity box, or choose the Sell all button.
If you want to set a limit on the price you’re willing to sell your shares for, enter a limit price. You’ll need to enter this in pence/cents (for example ‘£1.00’ would be written as ‘100’).
Select Preview order to view your order details and check whether you’re happy with the price. This price is only available for 15 seconds.
You can accept this by selecting Place order. If you change your mind, select Cancel or Amend to return to the previous screen.
You can view your order confirmation in Messages on the left-hand side menu on your portfolio page. The confirmation should arrive within 24 hours.

When's the right time to sell?

We’ve got tools to help you make better-informed selling decisions. You can:

Set up email trade alerts on your portfolio page.
Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter to stay up to date with what’s happening in the market.

Good to know

If you place an order outside of our normal market hours, you’ll be shown an indicative price. The actual execution price won’t be received until the order is placed to market.

Because there’s a risk of higher price volatility for orders placed when the markets are closed, you may want to consider entering a limit price. This sets a limit on the price you’re willing to pay or the price you’re willing to sell your shares.

If you don’t enter a limit price, your order will be executed at the price available at the time it’s placed with the market.

How to open a new Stocks and Shares ISA

Here’s how you can move shares from your investment account to an ISA:

Under Products & Services, select ISA.
Read the important information and agree to the terms.
Select Submit ISA application and your stocks and shares ISA will be opened within 5 business days ready for you to trade.

Important: During busy periods (for example at the end or start of a tax year), it may take us longer to process your instruction.

How to fund your Stocks and Shares ISA from your Investment Account (Bed and ISA)

Select the Sell button on the black toolbar and the account you want to trade from.
Select the blue Sell button beside the shares you want to sell.
Enter the number of shares you want to sell in the quantity box, or choose the Sell all button.
After 2 working days, the money from the trade will be in your first direct 1st Account.
Select S&S ISA Uninvested Cash under My Portfolio to view the account number and sort code then make an online payment from your 1st Account to your S&S ISA Uninvested Cash account.
Follow the steps above to buy shares in your stocks and shares ISA.

How to reactivate an ISA

Each tax year, you need to apply for a new Stocks and shares ISA:

Under Products & Services, select ISA.
Read the important information and agree to the terms.
Select Submit ISA application and your stocks and shares ISA will be opened within 24 hours, ready for you to trade.

Important: During busy periods (for example at the end or start of a tax year), it may take us longer to process your instruction.

How to transfer in ISAs

If you hold uninvested cash or shares with another ISA manager, you can complete an ISA transfer form to move them to Sharedealing:

Under Products & Services, select ISA.
Select Apply.
Select Transfer an existing ISA.
Select Print form to print a copy of the form to complete and return to us. If you don’t have a printer, select Email us and we’ll send you a copy.
Please note that Stock Transfers can take up to 30 days and cash transfers up to 14 days.

Shareholder Rights Directive (SRDII)

The law is changing to ensure that you, as a shareholder, are kept informed of corporate actions so you can exercise your rights. This applies to shareholders with voting shares (i.e. shares that give you the right to vote on the company’s corporate policy and certain corporate events) in companies who:

define the shareholder as the legal owner of the shares; and
have registered offices in the EU; and
trade on an EU regulated exchange

If you hold voting shares in companies who meet this criteria, from 3 September 2020 under the new Shareholders Rights Directive (SRD II), we’ll be required to send you notice of more corporate actions than before.

If you hold Shares in companies who do not meet this criteria, there will be no change to the information you’ll receive.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the fees for first direct Sharedealing?

There is a £10.50 quarterly account fee for the Sharedealing account.

The trading fee for buying and selling shares by telephone is £25.00. However, you can do this online at a much lower fee of £10.50. This then reduces to £7.95 once you’ve completed 9 online trades in a calendar quarter.

How do I transfer my share certificates to you?

To transfer shares held in certificates to us, you need to complete a transfer form, which you can find online in your first direct Sharedealing Portfolio. Just follow the steps below:

Select Products and Services from the toolbar at the top of the page.
From the left-hand menu select Share Transfer.
From the next menu select Share Transfer – Depositing certificates.
If you have access to a printer you can now print the form, otherwise select email us and we will send you a form through the post.
Complete and return the form and share certificates to first direct Sharedealing. We recommend that share certificates are sent via recorded delivery or registered post.

How do I transfer my shares held with another broker to you?

To transfer shares from another broker to first direct you need to complete a broker transfer form, which you can find online in your first direct Sharedealing Portfolio.

Select Products and Services from the red toolbar at the top of the page.
From the left-hand menu select Share Transfer.
From the next menu select Share Transfer – From another financial Institution.
If you have access to a printer you can now print the form, otherwise select email us and we will send you a form through the post.
Complete the form and return to first direct Sharedealing and we will contact your current broker to arrange the transfer.

How do I transfer my account to another provider?

To arrange a transfer of your shares with first direct Sharedealing you will need to contact your new broker and request a share transfer form. Complete the form with details of your account and send this back to your broker. They will then contact us directly to arrange for the shares to be transferred to them.

There is an exit fee of £15.00 per line of stock for the transfer.

Once you have made the payment this will show on your list of beneficiaries for future payments.

How do I fund my Sharedealing account?

How do I subscribe to my Stocks and Shares ISA?

To fund your ISA, firstly, ensure that the ISA account is open for the current tax year. You can check this by looking at the balance to subscribe on the Move Money between accounts page.

To fund the ISA select Move Money Between accounts.
Select the settlement account as the account to transfer from and the S&S ISA uninvest cash account as the account to transfer to.
Enter the amount to transfer and confirm payment
Funds are available to trade in the ISA immediately

Please note any funds transferred to the ISA from the settlement account will debit your linked bank account overnight.

Can you send me a consolidated tax certificate?

Consolidated tax certificates for the account are usually produced at the beginning of June. We’ll send these to you in the post. If you’ve not received these by the end of June, please send us a message by logging onto Online Banking and we can send you a copy.

I want to increase my settlement limit

How do I order copy of statements?

To order copy statements please log into your online banking and send a secure message. Please include in the message what statements you require and the dates of the statements.

There is a charge of £10.00 plus VAT per copy of statement, this is capped at £100.00

All copies will be sent to you in the post.

How do I order copy of contract notes?

To order copies of your contract notes please log into your online banking and send a secure message. Please include in the message what you require and the dates of the trades.

There is a charge of £15.00 plus VAT per copy of contract note.

All copies will be sent to you in the post.

How do I close my account?

We’re sorry you wish to close your account. Please ensure all cash balances have been transferred out, and any shares held are either sold or transferred. Once the account has a zero balance, please send us a secure message by logging into your online banking to request that the account is closed.

The account will be closed in 3-5 working days and you will receive confirmation in the post once completed.

What markets can I trade on?

I’ve sold my shares, where is the money?

If you’ve sold company shares then the trade will settle two working days later. If you’ve sold a Gilt then this will settle the following working day. On the day of settlement funds will automatically sweep to your linked bank account overnight.

Temporary changes to our Sharedealing service

Due to the impact of coronavirus we are temporarily changing our opening hours to 7.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays. This will allow us to focus on our most vulnerable customers. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this causes you.

We are also changing some of our phone services and online features during this time

Changes to phone service:

28-day limit orders. We’re temporarily suspending the ability to place extended limit orders over the phone. You can still place limit orders online, where you can instruct us to buy or sell at a fixed price or better within one business day.
raise and invest. You’re currently unable to specify a £ or $ amount that you’d like to trade over the phone. Instead, you have to select the number of shares you want to purchase or sell, which you can do online.

Online feature change:

fixed price quotes. If you’re shown a ‘fixed price quote’ when placing a buy or sell order, please check your order status after submitting. If there is volatility in the market, the fixed price quote may be rejected in which case you’ll need to place a new order.

Any questions?

If you’d like more information, take a look at the key features or the terms below:

The UK FSCS Information Sheet and Exclusions List is relevant to cash balances maintained within the product account.

You can find general information about financial products and managing your money on the Money Advice Service™ website.

If you need help, please chat with us in our App - go to 'Help' and select 'Chat now'. Or in Online Banking, select 'Message us'.

Alternatively, you can call us – although please be aware that call volumes are very high at this time so it may take longer than usual to answer your call. The helpline number is 03 456 100 105 and lines are open from 7.30am to 7.00pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays.