Leaving HL without transfer charges

mutley74

ayayay wrote: »

Hi all

Im in possession of shares and ITs and so will be hit with double fees. Ive written to hl asking them to waive their exit fees on three basis:
1. The change to fees for ITs has nothing to do with the RDR so they cant use regulatory change as a reason and thus they have no contractual basis to increase fees
2. Even if under their contract they did have the power it would fall foul of the unfair contract terms regs as per fca guidance since the change has to be for good reason AND we have to be free to exit
3. They have to treat customers fairly pursuant to fca principle 6 and increasing fees for customers who are trapped by high exit fees is unfair

Still awaiting their response. The dilemma i face though is that in the case of my isa i have massive transfer fees to pay because i own a lot of individual shares and ITs Do i gamble by transferring and hope to win at the FOS, or do i just transfer my ITs or do i just trade out of ITs and into shares. Or grin and bear it, and claim at the FOS that im trapped getting a ruling from them that hl must allow me to leave for free in the future.

My sipp is an easier choice, i just pay the current flat £75 fee to transfer out and claim at the FOS.

look forward if you can share your response.
I tried tweeting to HL and Mark dampier a few times - no reply at all- suspect they have gone quiet to media to avoid such issues

SnowMan

Escape from ......

cepheus

I was wondering why MSE hadn't covered the new charging structure of platforms in the weekly newsletter. Perhaps this answers the question?

Moneysupermarket Retail funds via the Cofunds platform, no trail commission rebate.TBC Candid verdict: Very expensive and only basic research, little reason to use.
http://www.candidmoney.com/articles/279/guide-to-fund-platform-price-changes

petepool

Just received an acknowledgement from HL to the complaint sent (see earlier post). This outlines their complaints processand mentions the right to refer to FOS if unhappy with the outcome This can take up to 8 weeks apparently.

I wonder if they are seriuosly looking at this or just waiting for the noise to die down.

I notice the Sunday Times had an article about the new charges yesterday and mentioned the exit fees that HL charge but not others. No discuss as to whether these are valid though.

gterr

I have also had a response from HL. Sounds like it's similar to yours, petepool, since it refers to my 'complaint'. However, my approach to HL wasn't actually a complaint, more of an enquiry as to whether they would drop their exit charges. I was planning to follow up with a complaint when I got a 'no' from them.


They have enclosed details of the FOS, but in their letter they have invited me to get back in touch with them if I want to give them additional information I haven't yet supplied. I'm not sure now if I need to write back to HL to make a formal complaint (and to give 'additional information' in the form of my argument as to why they should waive the charges). Or can I now go straight to the FOS?


Interestingly, husband and I are in identical circumstances and we both sent identical messages to HL via their website. Husband just got a shortish reply by private message. I got the long letter with details of their complaints procedure and contact info for the FOS. Do they have great intuition regarding our family dynamics, or have they spotted me here?:)

grizzly1911

SnowMan wrote: »

If Moneybox do contact you then make sure to mention that Fidelity are just announcing their charging structure and not only are they cheaper for funds at 0.35% pa vs 0.45% pa but there are no exit fees to leave them (regardless of whether your charges have gone up, gone down or stayed the same, and regardless of whether you transfer away today or in 2 months time or whenever)

0.2% on over £250k as well for Fidelity.

Any news on Cavendish?

masonic

gterr wrote: »

They have enclosed details of the FOS, but in their letter they have invited me to get back in touch with them if I want to give them additional information I haven't yet supplied. I'm not sure now if I need to write back to HL to make a formal complaint (and to give 'additional information' in the form of my argument as to why they should waive the charges). Or can I now go straight to the FOS?

If they have stated they are treating your message as a formal complaint, then you won't need to do anything further except perhaps give them some information as to why you think the charges should be waived if you didn't do that in your original message. It doesn't sound like they've given you their final response, so you'll have to wait for that before you can go to the FOS.

SnowMan

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Any news on Cavendish?

Cavendish (via Fidelity Fundsnetwork) come under Fidelity's advised charging structure where RDR changes came in mid-December

There is a 0.25%pa platform charge on clean share class investments (there is an additional £45 service charge under Fidelity's advised model although this doesn't have to be paid by Cavendish clients).

Cavendish don't currently offer a SIPP though

juliamarsh

Letter of complaint to HL posted this morning, took me all day yesterday to compose it!! At least those prepaid envelopes they are always sending us came in handy at last!! Many thanks to everybody on the forum who has given out so much useful information, particularly malfesto, SnowMan and masonic, I have found it really helpful in formulating my complaint. (And the fact that I have done it before, with Alliance Trust...but it still took me all day to write this one!)

Fingers crossed we get a favourable outcome, even if it could take years!!

petepool

gterr wrote: »

They have enclosed details of the FOS, but in their letter they have invited me to get back in touch with them if I want to give them additional information I haven't yet supplied. I'm not sure now if I need to write back to HL to make a formal complaint (and to give 'additional information' in the form of my argument as to why they should waive the charges). Or can I now go straight to the FOS?

My letter confirmed they were treating it as a formal complaint, a given as far as I was concerned as that was the heading of my letter:). HL stated that they will be conducting an invetigation in accordance with FOS rules. I'm going to wait until that's finished before contacting FOS if required.

In the meantime I have contacted II to start the transfer process.

My wife's much scarier when complaining so they are lucky to just have me:)