Charles Stanley Direct

Updated 17/2/23. A previous issue where correct memorable word characters were not being accepted seems to have been fixed. Thanks, Devs, this has improved usability significantly. I think the app could be improved by enabling you to go away from the app for a short time (max 2 mins) without it logging you out. You can do this on other banking and finance apps but this hasn’t been implemented with CS Direct.

It lacks so many features compared to the website, can even create a watch list. Search function takes a lifetime to load. What a complete waste of time compared to other platforms! Avoid!

While the previous instability of the app appears to have been largely remedied, a new issue has recently appeared. Since upgrading my iOS software, the rotation option in the app to show expanded details of the portfolio no longer works. Rotation lock is off on my phone so seems to be an app/iOS compatibility problem. Expanded view was useful so hoping this gets sorted soon.

These type of apps are a Godsend. I am a buy and hold investor who appreciates the clear, simple layout particularly for someone who doesn’t like being deluged with irrelevant information. I do hope one day Charles Stanley will be able to have international dealing on their platform and of course the app.

You asked for feedback. The app is quite slow, it asks for additional security managers set up a thumbprint question information sometimes hard to get/slow to get hold of. Looking at your holdings, drilling into each position, finding information is sometimes difficult, often not up-to-date or missing. It would be good to be able to see historical transactions, Access the underlying fact sheet easily etc

Quite a major flaw is that it sends you off to your bank app to verify a transaction. Once you do that, you have to return to the Charles Stanley app to proceed. But by that time it’s logged the user out and once the user has logged back in, the transaction has been wiped. So in some circumstances, it’s actually impossible to pay money into the account using the app. Please sort this out!!

Having used this app for years without issues, on upgrading to iPhone 13 I suddenly found I couldn’t log in when not connected to Wi-Fi, it kept saying I had no internet connection. I have read several other reviews with the same problem. I couldn’t resolve this within the app settings itself, but have now resolved it by going to the phone settings-app settings- CS app- switch on to use mobile data. Now it works fine! Maybe that helps others.

As a CSD customer my main complaint is the lack of graphs. It is difficult to gauge your portfolio performance over time. A simple graph for your portfolio would do, and better graphing at a stock or fund level. I am now finding myself searching for other portfolio trackers and so disappointed that I have to do that. What the app does do it does well, but it is really failing on the performance over time visuals and breakdown.

It doesn’t work after restoring from an iPad backup. It just says “loading…”. Also, it doesn’t work in portrait mode on an iPad. Why not? It works in portrait mode on an iPhone. On the positive side, the previous issues with logging in appear to be resolved (where the app would say it was “not connected to the internet”).

Last update has prevented access to my accounts