Hi Steve, here are my thoughts:
"Does anyone know where I can find a searchable table of tracker funds only, such that I can look at (for example) FTSE 100 trackers and other types of trackers."
Sorry, can't help with this. ISTR that Trustnet used to have a separate category for indexed funds but they seem to have done away with that.
"Also, the fundsupermarket I use offers some tracker funds but charges its own additional fee for these"
No need to be so coy about which funds supermarket you're using - Hargreaves Lansdown, I presume?
"Do all fund supermarkets add additional charges onto trackers funds?"
No.
"Do you know of any which do not..."
You could try Interactive Investor.
"...or how to get around these addtional charges?"
Yes - if you're sticking with Hargreaves Lansdown, go for the HSBC tracker funds which don't attract the additional 0.5% + VAT.
"My final question is what happens to the dividends paid by the shares being tracked?"
One way or another, you will get the benefit of them. If you buy income units (AKA distribution units), the fund manager will collect the dividends on the underlying investments and distribute them to you as income annually or semi-annually. If you buy accumulation units, the dividends get reinvested, so their value will be reflected in the price of units. Try using HL's fund research tool to compare, say, the income and accumulation units for HSBC's FTSE 100 tracker and you will see how reinvesting the dividends affects the relative performance of the two. (Make sure you click "price" rather than "total return").
Don't forget that you can also index-track with exchange-traded funds (but again you will pay the extra 0.5% + VAT with HL).
Hope this helps
Nick
