H-L introduces a Tracker Platform Charge

gadgetmind

Imnoexpert wrote: »

argh! now I'm starting to get annoyed!

This is no different to the "bait and switch" we find with 'phone, savings accounts, credit cards and energy suppliers. You've got time to look for a new platform provider, and maybe someone can confirm the date for RDR-imposed low/no fee switching?

fieldofdreams

Does anybody have any experience of Cavendish? Im looking to move my investments away from HL following this latest round of charges.

From what I can see they charge a one off fee of £25 for switching to their platform - the re-registration of existing funds does not appear to be an option if transferring from HL, so it would be a case of transferring as cash then re-purchasing the funds with Cavendish. Cost of is this is initial charge of the fund less commission.

I currently hold 7 funds with HL and have checked the initial charges with Cavendish (Cofunds platform) and all but one are 0%. The £25 one off fee appeals to me as If I leave my investments with HL I'll be paying £96 per year (4 HSBC trackers )

jamesd

Imnoexpert wrote: »

The description says the charge will be levied "per holding". What does per holding mean? If I hold the same index fund in the "fund and share account" and in the "Stocks and Shares ISA account" do I pay the £24 twice or once? Or indeed if I have bought 3 lots of the fund at different times are these 3 holdings and thus pay £72? Obviously I hope it's just one holding and costs £12!

It's described as a "platform charge" and Vantage is their platform so from the description of the charge it should be one fee regardless of how many sub-accounts its held in.

But I don't trust HL to do it this way, so ask them.

I'm starting to cease to have any real trust in HL's pricing disclosures after things like their misleading description of their foreign share dealing commission. That is explicit about a fixed commission but misleading because it's not really fixed, but is the headlined fixed commission plus a small print commission as a percentage of the very high foreign exchange fee that's likely to cost more than the headline commission.

It's probably also worth checking to see whether HL has been sneaking in increases in charges for other funds by increasing the commission they take on those, using a reduction in their loyalty bonus rebates, without bothering to explicitly tell people about them.

Special_Saver2

fieldofdreams wrote: »

Does anybody have any experience of Cavendish? Im looking to move my investments away from HL following this latest round of charges.

From what I can see they charge a one off fee of £25 for switching to their platform - the re-registration of existing funds does not appear to be an option if transferring from HL, so it would be a case of transferring as cash then re-purchasing the funds with Cavendish. Cost of is this is initial charge of the fund less commission.

I currently hold 7 funds with HL and have checked the initial charges with Cavendish (Cofunds platform) and all but one are 0%. The £25 one off fee appeals to me as If I leave my investments with HL I'll be paying £96 per year (4 HSBC trackers )

You may wish to see this previous thread: Switching funds from H-L to Cavendish (Cofunds)

The Cofunds platform is available via other discount brokers too - see post 2 of the low cost S&S ISAs thread. If you have a small portfolio or think that you might switch again post-RDR changes then you might be better off going with Chartwell, Clubfinance or Commshare as they do not charge an upfront fee. They sometimes have different availability and initial charge discounts for the same fund so it is worth checking this on the websites of all four (Cavendish, Chartwell, Clubfinance, CommShare). (Is there some unofficial rule that Cofunds will only partner with financial advisers whose names start with the letter C?)

Besides the cost, the other thing to bear in mind when choosing a broker for switching to Cofunds is the online functionality.

I used Cofunds with Chartwell before and the Chartwell interface for Cofunds was really good - you could use it to pay in money using a debit card online, buy, sell and switch funds online. I changed agents to Clubfinance and they do not yet have a Cofunds microsite so I cannot do any of the above online. I see from the Cavendish website that their Cofunds interface only allows you to see your portfolio, see your transactions and see correspondence. I see from the CommShare website that you can top up online and switch funds online but you cannot sell your funds online.

I have read on this forum that it is difficult to transfer out of Cofunds but I have no direct experience of that myself.

Are you sure that you cannot re-register your H-L funds to Cofunds? It looks like it should be possible according to this Cavendish page.

The other thing to bear in mind is that there is no guarantee that Cofunds will not introduce extra fees later. According to this Citywire page, they are going to have a fee of £40 + 0.15% to 0.29% per annum for people joining up next year. (To put this into context, the platforms receive about 0.25% trail commission on average paid directly to them by the major fund houses but they do not receive this for the funds that we are discussing in this thread.)

I hope something in this overly long response helps you!

SS2

black_taxi_2

when you read financial newspapers---for just £50 a month you can invest in a LOW-COST-TRACKER

not with HL anymore---fook me £2 a month is a 4% cost before its invested

stockmarket ave return--i will be kind 8%---so your getting a 4% return less t.e.r---cash isa looks better--pmsl

some of the managed funds are less---obviously HL are trying to get rid of the small monthly investor

gadgetmind

saveonarola wrote: »

At present, Bestinvest don't have the BlackRock property tracker. I'm waiting for a response from them on whether they can add it, but I'm not particularly optimistic

Out of interest, has anyone ever considered using HICL - HICL Infrastructure Company Limited -as the property element of their portfolio? OK, it's UK only, and one a single sector of the property market, but the dividends are solid and rising, and it goes for safe-as-houses investments.

bxboards

Pretty unhappy with this - I've got a combination of HSBC trackers and other funds.

What has annoyed me most is that I've only learnt about this new change here - I've had no notification from H-L at all, which considering I've got both a SIPP and Vantage S&S ISA I consider incredibly shabby behaviour. I am looking at around £168 a year from these charges - compounded over 25 years or so, that is a frightening 'stealth' charge.

I've mailed them this morning expressing my displeasure about the lack of communication. With this sort of change, I'd expect a personally address letter in the post, not to learn about it here!

black_taxi_2

im moving my funds to managed investment trust F&C

trackers are being priced up to kill them

dunstonh

You need to remember that the Cofunds platform is bundled and will be banned by the FSA platform in its current guise. Cofunds have said their bundled platform is on its way and to expect percentage based fees to cover platform cost. Most unbundled platforms already working on that basis tend to be around 0.45%. Some more, some less (many are tiered to penalise small amounts but offer better pricing on large amounts).

So, if you move from HL to a Cofunds based platform, then be prepared to move again very soon.

black_taxi_2

is a t.e.r of 1.44% + £60+vat annual charge for a managed isa investment trust the norm?

thx