Adding money to H'Lansdown & organizing the spread properly..?

Nine_Lives

Still trying to get to grips with this site. First things first ... trying to explain what i'm asking without confusing you guys :rotfl:

Feb 2012 - my brother begins his S&S ISA subscription. £50 which went into "Fund 1".

Now for March 2012 he selects "Fund 2" to put his (March's £50) money into with the intention of then splitting his £50 in the coming months between the two (i.e. April would see another £50 deposited which would be split - making £75 total in fund 1 & £75 total in fund 2).

He gets a bonus at work this week & throws it into the account (another £50) with the intention of splitting it between the two. Only problem now is you don't seem to be allowed to invest less than £250 (even though it's already been opened with £50), so this £50 he got as a bonus seems to be just sat there as cash, invested in nothing.



This is what his account looks like now:



I see for May onwards, each fund is listed as £50.
- does this mean HL will try & take £100 from his bank, even though the D/D was set up as £50?
- If not, then what's happening here, as in April he's wanting £75 total in each, so by May, he's wanting £100 in each total (this is ignoring the extra £50 he put in today which now seems to be 'floating').

I just don't get it really, i don't get how it's laid out, i don't get why he can't split his subscription & i don't get why April & May are shown as the same amounts when he's subscribing each month.




I also don't think i've done a very good job of NOT confusing the hell out of you guys :rotfl:Sorry, i tried. :A

Ilya_Ilyich

HL's monthly saving program allows you to add money to the ISA each month from a minimum of £50 per fund, which is invested instantly into the relevant fund. If he will have £50 in FUND1 and £50 in FUND2, he therefore needs to pick one of them to add £50 to in April as it's impossible to add £25 to each. He could follow this up by adding £50 to the other in May so they'd both be even.

Currently he's set up to add £50 of new money to both funds (so a total of £100 of new money) in April and future months. The direct debit will take whatever amount is on that regular savings page, regardless of whatever it first was.

The £50 on his account is basically unusable. Only the monthly saving program, which is based on new money, allows you invest from £50. If he wanted to make use of that £50, he needs to either add £200 of cash to his account (he can do this through one-off payments or through the monthly payment program) to bring it to the £250 minimum for lump-sum investments, or simply withdraw it and use it for his next monthly investment.

Nine_Lives

Thanks for that. That helps a lot.

So in short, he constantly (i.e. monthly) needs to keep on top of the above image - each month switching the £50 around, so that one month #1 reads £50, #2 reads £0, and then the following month they get switched.
Correct?

I don't think there was £100 in his account, so thankfully it seems to have only taken £50.

How do you withdraw? We clicked on the withdraw link but it said there were no funds to withdraw & he'd need to sell his funds to generate money. Don't know why as £50 was just added only today (unless it takes 24 hours to clear or something).

Ilya_Ilyich

You're correct there -- he will need to switch around to keep on top of where the monthly savings funds go to. Since it lets you set instructions for 2 months though he should only need to log on every 2 months (e.g. set £50 fund1/£0 fund2 for april, vice versa for may, then log in after 10th may to change back).

With regards the £50 he added this week -- did he actually add £50 in a one-off payment onto the account or did he just add a new instruction to the monthly savings page you pasted above? If it's the latter it won't take effect until April anyway so the £50 hasn't actually been given to HL yet and it makes sense there's nothing to withdraw! I suspect this is the case, and that the £50 that's showing on the account is just this month's regular savings that haven't been used to buy Fund2 yet -- HL takes its direct debit on the 7th of the month but doesn't use it to buy funds until the 10th, so in the meantime it will look like there's unused cash on the account.

Nine_Lives

No, he deposited £50 in a one off payment. Just filled in his card details & stuck the £50 in.

When clicking the withdraw money link - he's actually now allowed to withdraw the money, but it says it'll be withdrawn from his ISA.

Will this be withdrawn from the fund that has been invested in, or will the "floating £50" be withdrawn (which is now what he wants - it's no good floating!). He doesn't want to withdraw £50 from his fund at all.

xylophone

Is your brother making life too complicated for himself?
Might he be better just selecting one fund and contributing his £50 a month to that, at least for this year?

Nine_Lives

Tiz a bit late now as the other has already been selected & paid for.

He said he was sticking with the 2 & leaving it at that until they amount a reasonable sum and/or he's in a position to up his contribution (which took a bit of a knock this week as we found the household is spending more than it's receiving since we no longer have my dads income - so my gf's, my brothers, my sisters & my board money is going to have to go up).

Ilya_Ilyich

The £50 that'll be withdrawn will just be the 'floating' cash, aye. They give you a warning as withdrawing from ISAs is generally a bad idea since you're 'wasting' some of your allowance -- but since your brother is nowhere near that it's not something to worry about.

Nine_Lives

Yeah i was just about to post back here, but you beat me to it.

Indeed, the £50 appears to be the floating money.

Thanks for the help. Problem solved.

Nine_Lives

Well, the £50 has headed back over to his bank account, but something doesn't seem quite right.

In Feb, the first £50 was taken on the 7th & it was showing on the 10th.
In March, the second £50 is taken on the 7th & by the 12th it's still not been invested in the second fund.

Click on the "HL S&S Vantage ISA" drop down box...

Stock value: £50.49 (for the fund he chose which February's payment was invested in).
Cash on account: £50.00.

Forget the £50 that this thread was made about - as that's now been paid back to his bank account.
Surely the 2nd fund should be showing as having been invested in by now?

We've clearly done something wrong.

westy22

The investment date varies each month, normally the 10th but this month that was a Saturday so the investment will be on the 12th (today). The deposit amount disappears and the stock value appears once HL have received the contract note from the fund manager; that is usually later the same day but can be a day or two later on occasion.

Always check the Pending Orders tab to see the current state of play.