rincewind

A long time ago, I was working for a company in England that went public and all employees were given shares.

Looking around the Web today, the share prices for this company are doing nicely (if I can read them right) and wanted to know how I can sell them.

I have the share certificate but obviously can't go into a UK bank to trade them. Can you sell them via a US bank or can I sell them via my UK bank account which I still have active? Would being in the US make it difficult to sell them?

anotherlimey

I don't know what the financial implications are (taxes etc) but you should be able to call a UK broker who will arrange to sell them; if you've never used them before, they'll probably only do it once you've sent them the certificate.

I'm not sure how you'd cash the cheque either...

evoal2003

Put it in the bank?

rincewind

Looking at First Direct (I still maintain my account with them), I can share-deal with them and they'll take my share certificate and turn it into an electronic version.

I'll check on that some more tonight.

Yorkieabroad

Will they?
I have (or had) 2 accounts going - one telephone dealing with First Direct (Where I got the share certs) and one with Etrade (a custodian account). Last time I tried to sell shares though FD (which was a year or so ago) they told me that they'd stopped the telephone dealing and everything was online now - but that I was ineligible for an online trading account as I am in the US - even though I have bank accounts etc with them. Would be interested if that has changed cos I still haven't got round to transferring the certs to my Etrade account...

rincewind

I'll contact them tonight and report back on what they say.

anotherlimey

Can you cash a UK cheque in a US bank? I don't know!

Yorkieabroad

great- thanks. be good if they will, cos its a right pain to get all the certs transferred over to a custodian account...which is why I haven' t got round to it yet!

Ray

See if the company has its own share dealing service ...if not find out who
is the registrar for them ..... Tell nobody you are in the US ...

Big problems ..hopefully you still have a UK bank account and address...

I sold all my holdings back in May when I was there ...

Rodney you plonker

Yes........... It takes 28 days to clear

rincewind

Yep, you were right. Couldn't create an online share account as I'm not a UK resident

Yorkieabroad

Bu99er! Have you checked whether you can open an Etrade account or anyone like that? Not sure if you can open a US etrade account and either trade UK shares through it, or else link it to a UK account. I have bothUK and US etrade accounts, but its a pain transferring the certificates into it, mainly because I have loads of bits and pieces of certificates that were issued through DRIPs etc. I really should get it done, but there always seems something more exciting to do.....

rincewind

The thing is, these are the only shares I have. I had others but I sold those a long time ago.

All I want is to sell them so I didn't want to go with eTrade for one sale. I thought you had to pay them an annual/monthly fee for an account and had to have a minimum balance of $1000

I've contacted my local bank and a local broker and I'm waiting on what they can tell me is possible. I may have to save them for a trip back to Blighty and sell them there.

Manc

mate

see if your local Edward Jones fella could help you.

Edward Jones have agents / franchises in both the UK and USA
it might cost you a bit more than normal, but at least you'd get your cash.

Yorkieabroad

I think UK Etade charge 4.95 per month, but not sure if you have to sign up for a minimum term...also not sure about the min balance.