Charles Stanley Avis 

I have been helping my elderly father-in-law cash in his shares and close his account. Selling the shares was straightforward, but getting the money out of CS has not been easy, still not achieved in fact.
The website was not working so couldn’t action this online.
Sent a secure message.
No response after 2 days.
Contacted them online chat to be told that the person dealing with it had left and so it would be passed to someone else.
Another day goes by and still no sign of the money.
Checked secure messages and still no reply.
Phoned this time and the staff member was able to help guide us to the now working website so we could request the money and close the account.
He confirmed that the response time to secure messages/emails is 5 working days, so if you contact them on a Friday then they won’t respond until the following Friday! Not great service if you have a serious concern.
When asked if he thought that this was good customer service he replied that yes it was. Says it all for this company. Avoid. 1 star.

Further to my review there is a response below from Charles Stanley. They state that my review relates to Charles Stanley Direct, this is incorrect.
They state that their message response time is usually 1 day. This was not our experience.
I will reiterate that when their Customer Service agent was asked if he thought that 5 days to respond to a secure message was quick enough, he felt that it was.
I stand by my review and suggest that Charles Stanley spend more time improving their service and less time trying to justify their poor service.

I went with Charles Stanley Bournemouth . Laura was my contact there. I invested a large sum and was told to give it 5 years. I did this, and made the grand total of £16,000 in five years with an investment of £330,000. Make of this what you will. Personally I think I was misguided. I know they made more than me. If I’d invested in government bonds, I would have made far more, and I think I should have been advised on this when the bonds went up to 6 percent interest.

I have had several accounts with CS over many years (SIPP, ISA, investment, discretionary ). Mostly the service has been excellent, occasional contact via secure messages has given me a prompt and useful response.
However when I came to 'crystalize ' my SIPP and take a lump sum and regular monthly payment, it all seems to have gone wrong. Staff were helpful but incompetent. BACS payment was ridiculously slow. It took over a month to get my money out. Plus staff misread the CS form and were going to take a monthly payment of about 10 time what the form actually specified.

My experience of using Charles Stanley has been great, I was uncertain if I had 'enough' to invest but was treated as an individual and talked through the process in plain English. I was given an overview of all the investment options and from that I selected a discretionary service I was introduced to my investment manager and I am pleased to say that he has improved my portfolio value by over £85,000 in 7.5 years I would have not got that return in a bank. Not to mention the dividend payments along the journey. It is also very nice to be invited to some wonderful events as part of being a client, drinks at the Royal Academy, seeing the new office and the National Theatre have all being treasured experiences. Please keep up the good work!

I suspect most people review of when service is frustratingly poor and less often unusually outstanding. Right now I am exasperated, and far from the first time, by problems logging in and executing a deal. The site has proven painfully slow and I am regular logged out. Neither the app not web contact seems to work. A slightly more costly competing platform I use is working well, so it is not the signal. There is not a notice of ongoing maintenance, which is quite common on this site. In short, costs seem fairly average for CSD Direct, as does swiftness in carrying out deals and requests, but online access is painful at times.

The same as previous comments of the Charles Stanley website very challenging to navigate. It was also very difficult to determine how much profit your investment was making. As a Newby with a relatively small investment, rather than search for another provider, I decided to stick with Charles Stanley.
When I decided to sell be holdings, I really found how unbelievable difficult is was to get the money into my Bank Account.
1. After ringing CH helpline, I was able to instruct CH to sell my holdings.
2. When the cash was in my CH Account, I tried to transfer it to my Bank Account. Because I could not transfer the whole amount, I assume there were charges to pay.
3. I instructed CH to BACs transfer part of the amount, for which I received a confirmation email. (1day to raise it and up to 3 days for the transfer).
4. Four working days later rang CH Helpline to find that 4 working days are required (as per contract) to check if any outstanding, so my requested BACs had only just been issued.

I have tried to get my money back, due to very little contact, minimal trades etc. I was annoyed the last time Leo West called me, and I told him to close it. He shut me off the internet connection so I couldn’t log in, and no refund of monies still owing to me. No response to emails either, even CCd Grant Ford in the email to action, but no response from him either. I am now thinking of lodging a complaint with the ombudsman, as this is simply a scam. Maybe this review can get my $$ refunded?!?

I've used this service since about 2013. On the whole pretty disappointing and I wouldn't recommend them. I'm finally moving away now as they have changed their pricing structure and increased fees significantly. First point is that they aren't very good at executing trades, especially with their mobile app. You also cannot rely on the figures they provide for profits and losses on any share purchases/sales. There really isn't anything positive I can say about their operation on cost, execution or service. I suggest you look elsewhere and save yourself a lot of problems.

Since their takeover by Raymond James this business has gone downhill.
They used to be brokers and good ones at that now they want to be wealth managers - investment is personal I want control and choice. They are repeatedly restricting access to stocks etc without notifying me - such that I can no longer deal in items I have been investing and trading in for years. AVOID unless you have £200K and want someone else to look after it badly and charge an arm and a leg for doing so

Disgustingly overpriced. So many sly fees that end up adding to 100s of pounds a year even on a relatively small investment. Using this broker has cost me far more than I have made. The running costs are over 100x what they are at my new brokerage, who's app is also far superior.

Average in cost with average customer service - I use multiple platforms. Other reviewers have commented on technical issues: I concur. Not only is the site down for technical maintenance at weekends rather often, but I have faced technical issues accessing and using the site. Regarding the website itself, daily valuations of one's portfolio take place later than other platforms that I use, and using it can be daunting at first. Moreover, cannot access detailed history of one's individual holdings, save by endlessly scrolling through years of transaction listings. There is a rather limited amount of information on investment topics and news. To end on a positive note, I do not receive unwanted mail, paper or emailed.

Good enough for me to continue to patronise, but I now use other platforms too.

Doesn't seem to care about their smaller investors, fees are on the higher end side of the market and have increased over the years. Poor website, but this has since been improved and the mobile app is a lot less glitchy than it used to be, still a limited share trading ability. The website does however provide a decent level of investor information. Looking to move provider to a company that is loyal to its customers and doesn't take them for granted. A great shame as they were at one time undercutting the market on rates and customer service.

08.09.2022
Their website is large but very poorly designed.
It is in need of improvement. It is not user-friendly and needs to be overhauled. So much financial activity takes place on-line, so a good, simple to use website is essential.
Dr S P Gibson BA MB ChB MA MRCP FPCert T(GP) MD FRCP
Retired Consultant Physician and Nephrologist

Invested an amount of money in a SIPP, ISA, Investment managed portfolio. Decided to invest for the long term retirement and to review after 3 years. On that review after the 3 year period our money had not grown in value yet a large amount of fees had been taken. Very disappointing as this is our retirement money, we moved our money to another provider immediately. We would certainly not recommend Charles Stanley.

I have been with this broker for many years and had excellent service. Not got 5 stars on account of value. Not the cheapest a non activity fee structure will encourage frequent traders to stay.

Put my money into a 0% interest without informing me.
Never use this company unless your an expert with lots of time to spend chasing them up.

Brilliant funds platform - great if they had an android App

CHARLES STANLEY are an extremely reputable firm . Just had dealings and very helpful. Charges are very competitive but you get the whole package.
Please sort out the app for the android!!

Thanks

I was wondering why there is only one review for Charles Stanley until I actually tried to leave one on my mobile phone. It didn't seem to be possible. Now trying on my laptop. All I want to say is that this is a good website and I'm very happy with how it works for my ISA.

I'm just looking around for my first investment platform, Charles Stanley were good at answering my questions on the phone. But disappointed they dont have an Android App