The Share Centre | www.share.com Reviews 1,147

My Share Centre account was recently transferred to ii. None of my SC history has been transferred. Despite a very tardy reply to a secure message assuring me that I would be able to access past statements, the only statement showing on 'history' is for February 2021. It would seem that all information from SC has been removed/lost.

I have been a customer of The Share Centre for several years. I have only needed to contact customer service a few times but each time they have been excellent. Special mention for Paul Whelan, Ian Forrest, Louisa Apuzzo, Lauren Gordon, Jerusha Cross, Tony Romano, and the probate team. These are just a few of the people who have been especially helpful. Thank you all of you. Sorry, I couldn't stay longer.

I could not fault the service I had with ShareCentre. However, it appears the migration to ii has not been a seamless one. The hard earned funds I have placed in my daughter's CTF are no longer part of the portfolio. I am assuming this is due to an administration error as part of the migration. I have contacted Customer Services through secure messaging several times and received no update or resolution. If this is how customers are treated by an "award winning" platform, I will be looking for another provider if this is not resolved quickly and efficiently.

Follow recent communications with the Share Centre, my person view is that as company they are evasive, provide mis-information and on two occasions direct lied to me about my children’s CTF accounts. In my most recent conversation they told me they were closing down, which i suspect just means changing their name to Interactive Investor.
In short, if got some hard earned cash that you never want to see ever again just open an account with Share Centre...oh sorry Interactive Investor.

I had an account with Share centre as recommended by my bank. At the end of 2020 I was encouraged to move over to ii. I have since learnt I am now going to pay £19.99 a month for an account I was paying £1 for. There was nothing clear in the literature and I feel like I have been mislead. I do not think this is a great way to do business and as a result I am in the process of closing my account. I am leaving this review to inform other Share centre people about the fees if they were not aware.

The transfer to iii is appalling. My daughters account is open on iii but all the funds are still on TSC. I cannot access my sons LISA any more. My note to them below. I had a reply to this, which to paraphrase, said "If you don't like it, go away"

We have £30k invested with them. Why is this so difficult?

My note:

**********
Hello –

I am trying to setup our family accounts on the new platform and have just had the most unhelpful conversation with their admin people and I need your help.

• Currently, we have 4 accounts in the family, me (Steve), Wife (Margaret), Son (Jonathan) and daughter (Eleanor). The customer numbers are xxx465, xxx135, xxxxx439 and xxxx610 respectively.
• Under the share centre we have provided authority for me to act to administer all accounts and this has been working smoothly for a long time
• All accounts are linked to my email address

I need the above situation to be mirrored on the ii site for online access so we that can continue on the same basis. When I called the helpdesk, it was impossible to get any sense from the agent who simply repeated the same mantra about “data security” and “protection of assets”. They were unable to offer any help whatsoever. They could not even provide confirmation of whether the address on file was the same for all people, despite me having authority to discuss / administer all accounts. They could not/would not add my email to all accounts. All requests for help were met with “computer says no” response.

I appreciate that the change management needed in moving to a new platform is non-trivial, but someone in the process needs to look at the migration from the customers point of view. It should not be this difficult.

I really hope you can help resolve this to my satisfaction We have all been very happy with the service we have had with TSC and would like to continue using the new platform, but if this is indicative of the level of service we can expect, then we may need to look elsewhere.

I was a happy and satisfied customer, until recently. I received an email from TSC on 6/1/21 telling me all about my my forthcoming transfer to II. This came as a shock to me as it was the first I had heard about it! The email told me if I wanted to transfer to another platform I had until 31/12/20 to tell them...a week earlier! I set up a platform with another provider and initiated the transfer. TSC then emailed to say it was too late and I was going to II. I tried logging on to II, but they say they need me to enter a code they had previously sent to me. It must have been with the notification they didn't send me about the transfer, as I didn't receive that either. My transfer to my new provider has also been rejected and I cannot access my account until I call II. On a number I will be charged to call, have no idea how long I will be kept waiting or even if they will resolve my problem.
Fantastically horrible customer service.

I have used the Share Centre for many years and have successfully migrated my account to Interactive Investors following the merger.
As an amateur investor I am disappointed with the loss of assistance in selecting suitable investments. The Share Centre offered their views on the investment - both for and against (with a disclaimer of course) There was also a summary on 'What the brokers say' giving the number in favour of buying against selling. Statistically everything is there - but there is no personal touch. It has lost that friendly feeling.
In the past I have recommended the Share Centre to friends and family - I don't feel I can do that at present.
I enjoy investing in UK companies - not for quick profits but for long term investments with companies offering moderate returns in these days of low interest rates for cash deposits.
Anthony Pride FCCA

I had an account with the share centre since the late 1990s. Their service was exemplary. I could not praise them highly enough.
I was disappointed when they agreed to be bought over, but realise these things happen.
However, the process of transfer has been horrendous. In mid January, well ahead of the transfer date, I created my ii login details. However, the system would not accept my National Insurance number (even though it had been transferred with my account from Share). I called, and was told this was a glitch that would be sorted. I called again last week, and was again told it was nothing to be concerned about.
Yesterday was 'moving day' and still I cannot log in. I have no idea where my money is, and after waiting for 18 minutes on the ii helpline, I had my call disconnected. I then rang Share, and was transferred through to ii, and did manage to speak with someone at ii. They could not say why I could not access my account, but that someone would be looking into it. The same response I have had every time I have managed to speak with someone.
Today I got an email to tell me that I had a secure message from ii, and that I could access it by logging into my account. Getting into my account is the very thing that I cannot do! So this message was utterly useless!
I cannot adequately voice my disappointment with ii, particularly in comparison to over 20 years of fantastic service with the Share Centre. Assuming my money has not gone missing, I expect I will be transferring away from ii as soon as I can.

I am very sorry to be leaving The Share Centre against my will after a period of about 12 years. During that period I have enjoyed tremendous service and virtually everything I have asked for gets done and I have every confidence in the Share Centre staff, thank them for looking after my account, and wish them well on their next journey.

The Share Centre has been awesome to me and I will certainly miss all of the staff.

The woman who helped us get set up was absolutely brilliant. She was from Tunis originally but her English was very very good and she had a great sense of humor.
Her name was RIM.
Good luck with everything Rim.

Erin, in Customer Services was a" real star" in helping Migrate my Account to Interactive Investor.
Thank you Erin

Share Centre has recently become part of ii interactive investor. In order to create my new account I rang and spoke to Josh B, who was new to the job he told me, but nevertheless he was amazing - helpful, charming, funny and easily helped me to set up my account, also answering any questions I had. It was a good start to my day. Thankyou Josh

Update: Following sending in a complaint I am much happier. The complaints team actually listened to me and I am pleased to say we were able to resolve the issues. Got to communicate with a person directly really helpful. Just a shame it took posting this poor review originally with 1 star....

Trying to assist my mother transfer the holding to her from my late father. They won’t accept LPOA as more than 6 months old. So now extra stress and expense to meet their demands.
LPOA does Not have an end date!

Just had to phone ii to set up my new account. Share Centre staff were always very pleasant and helpful. This person was totally charmless and abrupt. Not good as an introduction to ii.

I phoned today and was pleased that Leor was able to talk me through what I needed to do. I so appreciated his patience and assistance.

I phoned as I required help with setting up my account with II. The young lady called Holly was very helpful and pleasant. She talked me through the steps and it was all sorted.

I USED to be a very happy and satisfied customer of The Share Centre. I didn't have a large share dealing account but was quite happy with paying the reasonably priced charges that were levied on the account and any transactions, and their charges for managing my albeit small Stocks and Shares ISA were also quite reasonable.

Then II appeared on the scene and everything changed. The monthly charge for having an account was going to increase by around 200% (and probably more) and any transaction charges were also going to be increased by a similar factor. So I decided NOT to opt in to their 'offer' to move my accounts to II and opened accounts with another platform on 1st November 2020 and asked for my accounts to be transferred to it.

We have PARTIAL sucess, as my dealing account was finally moved yesterday 25th January 2021, but I'm still waiting for the ISA account to be moved. and even then I won't be able to finally close the account as my holding of Share Centre shares (which were part of my account with Share Centre) have, due to the move to II been converted to a "non tradeable" holding with Antler Holdco, whoever they are....! And at the moment no one can tell me what is likely to happen to them.

To be fair, I HAVE now received an apology from Share Centre for the inordinately long time things have taken so far, but I feel we're still a long way from a satisfactory resolution of the whole situation.

I have Lasting Power of Attorney for my mother who has accounts with Share Centre and Interactive Investors. I phoned the Help Centre who responded in less than 2 minutes and Erin talked me through my options. I did not immediately have all the required info to hand and she was very patient while I got hold of it. I feel confident that I know what is happening now.

Having recently received an e mail from interactive investor reference the move from the share centre, I tried to access my account. It was the first I had heard about this as I have received no letters at all.
A code S13 came up and I was advised to ring customer services. After waiting approx 24 mins. I eventually got through.
I was informed that they had a return to sender request from royal mail as addressee no longer lived at the address. Very suspicious as I have lived here for 40 years and been a member of the share centre for many years.
I was asked to fill in a change of address form in order to get a reset password to access my account as no amount of information from me would be accepted.
As the closing date for acceptance or transfer is 3rd of feb 2021 I am worried about my position.
I was also told that I could not have a share certificate returned to me and the only 2 options were to join i i or the share centre would sell my holdings before the merger WITHOUT MY PERMISSION.
Is this legal?
What can I do?
It is absolutely disgraceful, the way loyal customers are being treated and I suggest the Financial Ombudsman should get involved.
I may add that I have still not received an e mail to reset my account.
Very disgruntled