Leaving HL without transfer charges

armageden

Have secure messaged HL five times now, the last two requesting a letter of their "Final Position" regarding my complaints & also suggesting they have not followed the formal complaints procedure.
The silence is deafening, could phone them but would rather keep a record of my correspondence.I believe HL have 8 weeks to respond before I go formal to the FOS, maybe I'm too spoilt by their normally very responsive treatment of my secure messages !.

ffacoffipawb

armageden wrote: »

Have secure messaged HL five times now, the last two requesting a letter of their "Final Position" regarding my complaints & also suggesting they have not followed the formal complaints procedure.
The silence is deafening, could phone them but would rather keep a record of my correspondence.I believe HL have 8 weeks to respond before I go formal to the FOS, maybe I'm too spoilt by their normally very responsive treatment of my secure messages !.

Probably snowed under with complaints about their unfair transfer charges and dealing with transfers out.

I got a letter today begging me to stay. Not likely after their snotty secure messages.

I need to consider the profitability of my new provider and the possibility that they may not be around in 10 or 20 years. Scaremongering at its best. Sheer arrogance.

armageden

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

Probably snowed under with complaints about their unfair transfer charges and dealing with transfers out.

I got a letter today begging me to stay. Not likely after their snotty secure messages.

I need to consider the profitability of my new provider and the possibility that they may not be around in 10 or 20 years. Scaremongering at its best. Sheer arrogance.

My transfer application went off to the new provider last week so guess that will soon add to HL's slow response times.:)

ffacoffipawb

armageden wrote: »

My transfer application went off to the new provider last week so guess that will soon add to HL's slow response times.:)

I'm off to A J Bell youinvest, I have a lot of respect for Andy Bell. People were complaining about their new charges last year but they are a bargain when you compare them to HL.

Where are you off to?

armageden

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

I'm off to A J Bell youinvest, I have a lot of respect for Andy Bell. People were complaining about their new charges last year but they are a bargain when you compare them to HL.

Where are you off to?

AJ Bell...:beer:

lejog2003

juliamarsh wrote: »

Yesterday I rang them up to ask about this very matter and was given different information to what you have been told. The person I spoke to asked his colleague, came back to me and said that they would be applying their charges at the end of each month, and therefore as long as our investments were gone out of the account by 1st April we would not be charged!

This is certainly not what I was told, that increases would apply from 1st March. And while it may be possible to transfer in cash by April, I was quoted 8-10weeks for an in-specie SIPP transfer and I must have been near the start of the queue.

Has anyone spotted in the literature how HL are going to collect these fees, monthly in advance, monthly in arrears etc?

scepticOfCheltenham

Have just received email from HL saying they will not be treating ITs differently from other shares. Pressure appears to have worked.

ffacoffipawb

scepticOfCheltenham wrote: »

Have just received email from HL saying they will not be treating ITs differently from other shares. Pressure appears to have worked.

Too little, too late.

naedanger

scepticOfCheltenham wrote: »

Pressure appears to have worked.

Only to a limited extent.

As far as I am aware they have not changed their position on allowing people an opportunity to exit free of charge following their increase in charges, which still leaves many people significantly worse off, given all the other new charges they are introducing.

They are also hiking their exit charges. This should serve as a warning. They are not confident of their future competitiveness being sufficient to retain customers, instead they want very high exit charges. What future changes have they planned knowing that customers will (according to them) need to pay high exit fees to escape?

The whole way they have treated their customers is, in my view, shockingly bad and I am surprised the FCA have not intervened. HL have put their own commercial interest so far ahead of their duty to treat customers fairly that they have been willing to issue highly misleading information, have made no attempt to give customers meaningful client specific information, have not recognised legitimate complaints, have discouraged customers from taking their complaints further by giving them very dubious information (such as the changes are required by regulation) and lastly are imposing charges on exits against the OFT's and FCA's own guidance.

The sad thing is that they seem to be largely getting away with it. Complete silence from the FCA - so much for Martin Wheatley (CEO of the FCA) emphasising the need for the FCA to be proactive. In this instance the FCA appear to be failing to be proactive. And we are not talking about something minor.

(For the avoidance of doubt I fully understand that regulatory change means HL and others are losing a significant revenue stream i.e. commission payments from some fund managers. I also think they should be free to increase their charges to offset this loss, but only if their customers are equally free to exit if the increased charges are unacceptable to them.)

JohnRo

It does beg the question what the hell are the FCA doing.. if I was being cynical I'd suggest they're afraid of biting the hand that feeds them.