Hargreaves Landsdown - new charges

Reaper

HL are changing their charges from 1st August. From a quick read the main ones to note are:

1) "we shall no longer pay loyalty bonuses on holdings worth less than £1000". I am not clear what they mean by this. If they mean total fund value then few will be affected, but if they mean per fund that could affect a lot. EDIT: It is per fund. See post 11 below

2) Non-commission earning investments (shares, ETFs etc) have always been charged an extra 0.5% pa, capped at £200. This has now been capped at £45pa for ISAs and nothing for a share/fund account, but their SIPP (which always seems to get the worst of the charges) remains at £200.

3) Share dealing charges used to start at £9.95 and rise based on transaction size. This has now changed to a flat £11.95, though it drops if you do 10+ deals in the previous month and even further if you do 20+. Telephone dealing remains 1% of the value but the minimum rises from £15 to £20.

4) Transfer out from an ISA or share/fund account now costs a flat £25+VAT per stock.

blinko

Reaper wrote: »

HL are changing their charges from 1st August. From a quick read the main ones to note are:

1) "we shall no longer pay loyalty bonuses on holdings worth less than £1000". I am not clear what they mean by this. If they mean total fund value then few will be affected, but if they mean per fund that could affect a lot.

2) Non-commission earning investments (shares, ETFs etc) have always been charged an extra 0.5% pa, capped at £200. This has now been capped at £45pa for ISAs and nothing for a share/fund account, but their SIPP (which always seems to get the worst of the charges) remains at £200.

3) Share dealing charges used to start at £9.95 and rise based on transaction size. This has now changed to a flat £11.95, though it drops if you do 10+ deals in the previous month and even further if you do 20+. Telephone dealing remains 1% of the value but the minimum rises from £15 to £20.

4) Transfer out from an ISA or share/fund account now costs a flat £25+VAT per stock.

Well glad to see they have brought there dealing charges down. But for me its too late I have already moved to iii

Lokolo

Hmmm I have a number of different holdings (4 in total), none above £1k *sadface*

mr_fishbulb

I have 10 funds and only 2 are over 1K. However I've only made just over £10 in the 3 years I've been with H-L so it's not a massive loss.

kidmugsy

Alliance Trust are increasing charges too. Inflation, eh?

jimjames

For those with chargeable holdings the drop from £200 to £45 looks like quite a big benefit. I saw the details in Investment Times today and it certainly looks like HL are being nimble to react to market pricing changes.

jamesd

Reaper wrote: »

1) "we shall no longer pay loyalty bonuses on holdings worth less than £1000". I am not clear what they mean by this. If they mean total fund value then few will be affected, but if they mean per fund that could affect a lot.

It means "We've increased the price of holding funds in the ISA or fund and share accounts but not expressed it in that way".

It makes HL less attractive for those with smaller total pot sizes and those who have diversified holdings where some pieces are below £1,000.

As I read it that is per fund holding in each sub-account, so you could have almost £3,000 holding of one fund and still have the price increased (Two ISAs and the fund and share account). No price rise for the SIPP because that already doesn't have any commission rebate.

In my case they are raising the prices for funds worth about £8,500.

Totton

jamesd wrote: »

It means "We've increased the price of holding funds in the ISA or fund and share accounts but not expressed it in that way".

The move could save me around £310 p.a. and has put a halt to my thoughts of moving elsewhere at this time. As for the no-trail on less than 1k, this will obviously affect a few but the sums involved are very small and not so long ago the min investment for funds used to be £3,000. It's good to see smaller amounts in play but losing 0.15% trail commission shouldn't be significant imho.

Regards,
Mickey

jamesd

Not that significant but raising ISA and fund account prices is another nudge to encourage me to move elsewhere.

dunstonh

I suspect this is an interim charge change to counter Fidelity and Skandia with their £50 p.a. charge and £68p.a. charge. Both of which are expected to go up post RDR and are low to buy business at this time.

Or it could be that they have got wind of the FSA paper and believe rebates are not being banned and have decided that want to be less cost effective for smaller holdings (to increase profitability when turnover is likely to drop post RDR when they cant take the IFA cut anymore).

browniej

Reaper wrote: »

HL are changing their charges from 1st August. From a quick read the main ones to note are:

1) "we shall no longer pay loyalty bonuses on holdings worth less than £1000". I am not clear what they mean by this. If they mean total fund value then few will be affected, but if they mean per fund that could affect a lot.

I emailed them to clarify this point. Their response is;

"To clarify, as from 1st August we will no longer be paying out a Loyalty Bonus on holdings of funds valued at less than £1000 each."