Rowan Dartington Reviews 6

I would not trust this company as far as I can throw them. I’ve been trying to close my account with them for eight months and have received literally zero cooperation. I have received no communication from them, none. It’s been on me to endlessly call, email and write to them. To add insult to injury their new telephone number is chargeable from a mobile, so I’ve had to pay for that as well. Avoid like the plague.

After being charged a hefty 12% set up fee, RD returned less than 1% pa growth over a 6 year period at a time when the FTSE100, Dow Jones and Nikkei were returning over 5 times that return. Not only that, cash balances were on deposit earning 1.2% at a times when the high street was offering over 5%. RD stopped answering my questions and challenging but continued accepting its annual charges for returning less than inflation. So I switched fund managers. Truly dire performance.

These guys are slow and unresponsive.I would avoid if you can. Waiting over two weeks now for a simple account to be opened - wouldn't trust their abilities in acting fast on any instructions down the line

I have spent a few years trying to deliberate whether my relationship with RD is one of fraud or friction or both. It certainly isn't neither and while I work out how to manage the losses caused by investing in RD I would caution any investor to do their due diligence before engaging. I am certain I will continue to deliberate over the fraud vs friction issue for the foreseeable future. My losses currently are somewhere between 15-20% over a three year period (aside inflationary losses) whereas the income I have generated for RD appear to equate to around 6% of my investment over that period. I will leave it up to the reader whether that equates to fraud or friction, both or neither.

After being with RD for approx 15 years - everything was fine until the 'secure log-in site' was updated. I'm afraid I don't have a computer science degree and so find this new site impossible to access. As I do my own dealing this isn't ideal. Please ask your designer to look at the new Lloyds Bank site - it is so easy and user friendly - take note - unless it is your long term plan to lose your smaller, private investor!

I was absolutely delighted when, after extensive questioning about my risk and experience in share dealing, I was signed up for the Rowan Dartington Advised Dealing service. I had a small investment pot I wanted to build and this annual fee was the best way to get expert advice to learn about trading and investment. My personal broker was excellent and very patient with me. So after 1 year as a satisfied customer why only 2 stars? Someone somewhere in Rowan Dartington decided they were not going to offer this service to investors like me anymore as there is no money in it for them. instead of saying “we don’t want to offer you this service anymore because we made a mistake offering it to you so how can we either help you exit of provide a similar service” they made sure the only advice they gave was to recommend transfer to services I didn’t want. To exit myself I have parked my money in their execution only service where as an inexperience investor I will receive no advice. This was then, in their eyes, my decision and perfectly proper customer support. I wanted a long term relationship and they failed in that respect so if you think about it, the two things people look for in their broker: loyal longevity and an ability to match clients to business don’t exist. I think they knew this strategy of ditching their small investors would cause a slight reputation dent so this review is fair as I am sure it is expected.