Poor savers pay more at fund firm Fidelity

POORER savers are to be penalised with higher charges if they invest with giant fund supermarket Fidelity.

From December 1, those with less than £7,500 in savings with Fidelity will see their annual charges increase by up to 12 times.

Fidelity currently charges savers which invest through its online service 0.35pc a year. If they have more than £250,000 in savings that fee reduces to 0.2 pc.

But now those with less than £7,500 will be forced to pay a flat annual fee of £45. For new savers with just £1,000, that equates to an annual charge of 22 pc.

Savers with £7,499 paying the new flat fee will be charged the equivalent of 0.6pc — almost double what they are currently paying. In a further blow, those with more than £7,500 invested will be able to stick with the current percentage-based charging structure.

It means someone with £7,500 will have to pay only £26.25 a year in service fees to the investment giant.

By contrast, savers using fund supermarkets Hargreaves Lansdown and Bestinvest pay 0.45 pc and 0.4 pc respectively. For a saver with £1,000, this equates to annual fees of £4.50 and £4.

Mark Polson, founder of comparison service The Lang Cat, said ‘When companies move their pricing like this they are almost saying they don’t want customers with less than £7,500. In a way it would be better if they just said that.

A spokesman from Fidelity said: ‘We have made these changes to reflect the cost of providing our service. We think this remains extremely good value, especially for more inexperienced investors.’