Is H-L really the best choice for fund investing?

Rollinghome

Tears_of_Jenny wrote: »

Hargreaves Lansdown seems to be the most expensive. Add to this their charge of £23.50 (per fund) for transfers and they begin to look expensive (who knows what's going to happen in the upcoming RDR, and if I have to transfer I don't want to have pay hundreds of pounds!)

Had run through my mind too.

If an exit was needed, presumably for smaller portfolios the best way would be either to transfer as cash or switch everything into one or two funds prior to transfer. Not quite so clear-cut for larger portfolios.

Hopefully as HL are making good profits at the moment they've got plenty in hand to remain competitive come what may. (I worked out how much they are making from me the other day, quite a bit.)

masonic

Tears_of_Jenny wrote: »

So IMO, it seems that Chartwell and Cavendish are current winners.

Anyone care to discuss?

There's a difference of just over 0.2% over the 5 year period (0.04% annually). It's less than 0.2% per year ignoring initial fees at Cavendish. I don't think that's enough to hold any significant weight in a decision of who to invest with.

Also, I think the RDR is a red herring. It might be a good opportunity for these companies to adjust their profit margins, but if they wanted to do so I'm sure they wouldn't wait. Assuming they seek to preserve their current margins, this gap will stay roughly the same.

jimjames

Do the figures include the £25 annual charge for Cavendish? Also Cofunds charge 0.25% for switching between funds whereas HL are normally 0%.

Personally I much prefer the HL platform and transactional site over Cofunds (I use them via Best Invest) and would pay a small premium to use that over Cofunds but don't tell HL that!

If I ever needed to move funds away from HL then the simple way to cut the fee to £23.50 is to transfer all to cash or to a single fund. They are not alone in levying this fee as Alliance trust also do so.

Reaper

jimjames wrote: »

Do the figures include the £25 annual charge for Cavendish?

It's a one-off fee, not an annual charge.

soulsaver

Lansdowne wrote: »

Is the Cavendish charge £25 per purchase? The web site isn't very clear which is why I decided not to use them a couple of years ago. I use Cofunds via Chartwell Direct which makes no charge to purchase and gives 0.15% AMC rebate. On occasion I also use Alliance Trust who charge £12.50 per transaction (buy or sell) and give annual rebate of "between 0.5% and 0.75%". With AT you can buy shares as well as funds for the same transaction fee.

There is a 0.25% switch fee with Chartwell that makes them less competitive than HL (where I have a SIPP & where switch is free) if you trade in and out of funds. I'm about £400 worse off over the last year as I have a 6 figure s&s ISA with them (Chartwell) which I rebalance from time to time.
Chartwell share trail commission inside an ISA; cant remember if HL do. Also you have to check the Chartwell discounts before you trade as they don't 100% quite a few (unless their offer has improved); HL you can easily check on line the spread & discount - CW has a b*llache pdf , slow to open & appears sideways so is difficult to read.

sajets

soulsaver wrote: »

There is a 0.25% switch fee with Chartwell that makes them less competitive than HL (where I have a SIPP & where switch is free) if you trade in and out of funds. I'm about £400 worse off over the last year as I have a 6 figure s&s ISA with them which I rebalance from time to time.
Chartwell share trail commission inside an ISA; cant remember if HL do. Also you have to check the Chartwell discounts before you trade as they don't 100% quite a few (unless their offer has improved); HL you can easily check on line the spread & discount - CW has a b*llache pdf , slow to open & appears sideways so is difficult to read.

Appears sideways? CNTRL+SHIFT + "+" or "-" helps rotate pdfs!

soulsaver

sajets wrote: »

Appears sideways? CNTRL+SHIFT + "+" or "-" helps rotate pdfs!

"!"? Doesn't make it more convenient than the HL doc, though;)

piglet2

There seems to be confusion with ATS - they rebate ALL fund manager rebates to the customer on funds as well as offering discounted AMCs. If you are investing monthly online they have just introduced a £1.50 dealing fee which is so much cheaper than HL.........worth having another look I think.

masonic

piglet2 wrote: »

There seems to be confusion with ATS - they rebate ALL fund manager rebates to the customer on funds as well as offering discounted AMCs. If you are investing monthly online they have just introduced a £1.50 dealing fee which is so much cheaper than HL.........worth having another look I think.

There is no charge at HL for investing monthly into funds and nobody should be using HL to regularly invest in shares.

Interactive investor offer the same regular investing service, but with lower one-off dealing charges and with x-o, you can bring one-off dealing charges down to under £6. It therefore pays to shop around depending on what type of portfolio you want and also how you wish to invest.

dunstonh

There seems to be confusion with ATS - they rebate ALL fund manager rebates to the customer on funds as well as offering discounted AMCs.

That would make the charge on a retail fund with a TER of 1.75% about 0.75% if the are giving all the rebates back. Is that their sort of charge range?