Finspreads has an introductory offer that lets you trade equities at 10p/point for the first 8 weeks after you join:
http://www.finspreads.com/learn_to_spread_bet/trading_academy_course.aspx
Then it goes up to 50p/point permanently.
I know someone who used to trade with IG Index and he said they were pretty good. I received an email today about a promotion Capital Spreads have on at the moment:
http://www.capitalspreadspromo.com/bloom/
3% margin on FTSE 100 and 5% margin on FTSE 250 is a lot better than CMC, Finspreads...
I'm a newbie (been trading for 6 months), and I've opened accounts with Finspreads, CMC and Worldspreads, and they each have their pluses and minuses.
Finspreads: narrow spreads (0.1% either side), spreads are predictable because they're calculated based on the current market price, very easy...