We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum. This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are - or become - political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

HL's Tracker Charge (slightly different query!)

Ok I know there is a debate raging in the main thread on this but I was curious about my own position and so started my own.

Like many other, I hold a number of HSBC trackers and while I understand HL's decision that they should do "something", this will hit me particularly hard.

The HSBC funds I have are:

- All share institutional
- FTSE 250
- American Index

Now I am examining my options - I hold the All Share and FTSE250 separately as I understand (correct me if I am wrong) that the All Share is heavily biased towards the FTSE 100 and I wanted some exposure to the 250.

My problem / query is - I examined the prospect of going to HSBC direct but the FTSE250 and American Index don't appear on their website? Are they not available direct?

And what is the general feeling for people holding a couple of HSBC funds on what to do next?

Thanks!
The above facts belong to everybody; the opinions belong to me; the distinction is yours to draw...

Comments

  • For the American Index fund, you might want to consider switching to the equivalent L&G fund which costs half as much on HL (£1 a month vs. £2). It has a higher TER though, so get Excel out and work out where the break-even point of making this switch lies - if you have a large amount then the HSBC may still be the better deal.

    For the All-Share/FTSE 250 funds, there is no cheaper tracker, so you might want to combine them into a single holding of the All-Share tracker, and halve the charges that way.

    Personally, after flipping my lid and then calming down I'm willing to wait until HL add the Vanguard funds, supposedly in January. For small investors going with a single LifeStrategy fund may be the way to go, and the rest of Vanguard's range typically have industry leading low charges. So it may be worth waiting.

    One of the best pieces of advice I've ever been given, is once you make a decision to make changes to your portfolio, wait a week before executing the change. This gives you time to mull it over and make sure you're doing the right thing, in this case there's new info coming out of HL every day so it's worth holding off for now. Wait and see.
  • SnowMan
    SnowMan Posts: 3,462 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 23 November 2011 at 1:01PM
    My problem / query is - I examined the prospect of going to HSBC direct but the FTSE250 and American Index don't appear on their website? Are they not available direct?

    Both the FTSE250 and American Index are available through the HSBC Global Investment Centre see those links.

    Only problem is minimum investment is £500, you can only contribute by lump sum (not regular payments) and you can't transfer investment ISAs in (at least at the moment).

    Same charges as buying them through HL except and importantly no platform fee.

    See this post also for info on the HSBC Global Investment Centre.
    I came, I saw, I melted
  • Thank you both.

    Snowman - thanks for those links. I was looking here:

    http://investments.hsbc.co.uk/product/2/selected-investment-funds#/tab3

    Seems I had the wrong place.

    On the basis that my fund values are all below £4,000 - are there any benefits to holding these in an ISA at all? Therefore it shouldn't bother me that it's non ISA, and I can sell my HL holdings, transfer the cash out, and buy new ones?
    The above facts belong to everybody; the opinions belong to me; the distinction is yours to draw...
  • SnowMan
    SnowMan Posts: 3,462 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 23 November 2011 at 3:09PM
    Thank you both.

    Snowman - thanks for those links. I was looking here:

    http://investments.hsbc.co.uk/product/2/selected-investment-funds#/tab3

    Seems I had the wrong place.

    On the basis that my fund values are all below £4,000 - are there any benefits to holding these in an ISA at all? Therefore it shouldn't bother me that it's non ISA, and I can sell my HL holdings, transfer the cash out, and buy new ones?

    I would be reluctant to move them out of the ISA wrapper. If you are not a high or top rate taxpayer and you do not exceed the capital gains tax exemption level (currently £10,600) then it is true there won't be any real difference currently.

    However none of us can foresee the future and you could easily unexpectedly exceed the limit in a future year or there could be a substantial reduction in the capital gains tax threshold should the politicians decide to do that in the future. Just after the last election a major cut in the CGT exemption limit looked possible albeit it didn't materialise.

    It also saves a lot of administrative effort having the ISA wrapper not having to check your gains are below the threshold; OK possibly not now if your funds are relatively small but in the future.

    Remember the HSBC Global Investment Centre only came into being in October this year, they gave me the impression on the phone that they would be accepting ISA transfers in fairly shortly although I don't think they have definite plans.

    I assume you have made investment ISA contributions this year (as opposed to only in previous years)? If you haven't made any contributions this year, and aren't going to, you can always use this year's allowance to get the funds back under the ISA wrapper.

    And there are various possibilities if you aren't likely to use next year's investment ISA allowance.

    Incidentally for their SELECTED investment funds (which is the link you were looking at) you can make regular contributions (I think), but the HSBC trackers aren't part of the SELECTED investment funds.
    I came, I saw, I melted
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 346.6K Banking & Borrowing
  • 251.3K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 451.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 238.8K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 614.2K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 174.8K Life & Family
  • 252K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.