Leaving HL without transfer charges

tushingham

Ive decided on III from HL

My steps are:
just opened account with III. took 5 mins
writing to HL via secure message asking them to waive fees
If they decline i will send them a formal complaint based on the letter templates here.

Thanks everyone who has contributed so far

t

Imnoexpert_2

Thanks for re-posting this helpful letter.

I obtained a commission report from HL and was rather surprised to see how much money they were earning from me. More than the fund managers were paid. They also got commission on the trackers which they charged me £24 a year extra for when the high value I hold made them quite lucrative without. Some funds eg Trojan Income got no 'loyalty' bonus but accrued high commission for them. So my eyes were opened and I see that for me moving elsewhere - probably II is desirable.

However .... Under HL new pricing I would pay them less than I do now (about £200) - notwithstanding the numerous extra charges. I think this puts me in a fairly weak position. I am going to protest though and I will use the letter as the basis of my argument.

Is there any further advice given my circumstances? Any mileage in the fact that if I transfer in cash I will be hit by capital gains? The costs of re-buying under a new platform?

naedanger

Imnoexpert wrote: »

Thanks for re-posting this helpful letter.

I obtained a commission report from HL and was rather surprised to see how much money they were earning from me. More than the fund managers were paid. They also got commission on the trackers which they charged me £24 a year extra for when the high value I hold made them quite lucrative without. Some funds eg Trojan Income got no 'loyalty' bonus but accrued high commission for them. So my eyes were opened and I see that for me moving elsewhere - probably II is desirable.

However .... Under HL new pricing I would pay them less than I do now (about £200) - notwithstanding the numerous extra charges. I think this puts me in a fairly weak position. I am going to protest though and I will use the letter as the basis of my argument.

Is there any further advice given my circumstances? Any mileage in the fact that if I transfer in cash I will be hit by capital gains? The costs of re-buying under a new platform?

You sound like you are in a weaker position. However you could still use the following:

1) You object to the increased future transfer charges which are not required by regulation and may leave you worse off in future. Likewise the probate valuation charge which may ultimately be payable.

2) You will now be required to pay them 0.45% on all unit trusts. Your plans to move your investments, over time, to lower charging funds will not now work as well as they would have done on their old charging structure (which you would never have chosen). Therefore you expect their unilateral changes to leave you worse off in future relative to the current charges.

Point 2 is only valid if true. The wider point is do you expect their new charging structure to leave you worse off in future. If so use this as part of your argument. (Another person was better off initially because the percentage charge initially was lower than the £24 fixed charge but over time this would reverse.)

I can't see any mileage in the CGT argument. They are either liable to pay your transfer fees or not. If they are liable then yes I think you could argue that they pay those fees as in specie fees for a number of reasons including CGT.

armageden

An ex- Aivva employee told me that every FOS complaint costs the target company £500, (if true), that would go a long way towards explaining why HL are wriggling to avoid sending final response letters & risk escalating the complaint.

jamesd

A company gets a number of free complaints but it's still not good to accumulate them, particularly if the FCA unfair contracts team and/or FOS have said that they should be acting differently.

armageden

jamesd wrote: »

A company gets a number of free complaints but it's still not good to accumulate them, particularly if the FCA unfair contracts team and/or FOS have said that they should be acting differently.

Interesting & useful to know.:)

happyarthur

HL

naedanger wrote: »

Yes, in my view you have a very strong chance (although nothing is guaranteed).

As far as I am aware no-one has had an official final response from HL where they have refused to waive their exit charges. However you may have to be persistent since HL are likely to refuse initially. You need to persist until they give you a response that says it is their final offer and that you can take the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are unhappy).

Since this thread is now long I have pasted below a template based on ones given earlier in the thread. However any reasonable complaint should work.


Senior Client Services Manager
Hargreaves Lansdown
One College Square South
Anchor Road
Bristol
BS1 5HL

Dear Sir/Madam

OFFICIAL COMPLAINT – Refusal to Waive Exit Charges Following Unilateral Charge Increases

Please accept this letter as a formal complaint that you are refusing to allow me to exit freely from my Hargreaves Lansdown accounts following your unilateral increase in charges. (The new charges include a new fee for receiving half yearly paper statements, a new account closure fee, a new fee on cash transfers to another provider, a new fee for probate valuations, and a separate fee for holding investment trusts. And that is only some of them.)

As a result of your new charges I believe I will be materially worse off, now and in the future, and I am therefore going to transfer my investments to another provider. I also object to the increase exit charges that will apply in future and the increased charges that will apply in respect of a probate valuation. Since the reason I wish to transfer is due to your unilateral variation of the contract I do not believe it is fair to expect me to pay any exit charges. This is because I believe it is unfair only offering me two unacceptable options i.e. to either (1) accept charges I would never have originally agreed to, or (2) pay to avoid these changes. Neither option is reasonable. To be reasonable you also need to offer either (a) the option to continue the contract on the current charges or (b) the opportunity to exit without charge.

I further believe that by denying me an opportunity to exit free of charge your unilateral increase in charges is not just unfair but also contrary to FSA and OFT guidance.

I also do not believe these new charges are required by regulation. But even if they were I believe it is still against OFT and FCA guidance to increase your charges without giving customers the option to exit freely. (See for example section 12.4 of the OFT's “Guidance for the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999” published in September 2008. This highlights that a valid reason for varying a contract, such as a regulatory change, is NOT sufficient for a price change to be fair. Consumers must also be given the chance to cancel freely.)

Please agree to refund or waive all my exit and transfer fees and agree not to levy any of the new charges during the period the transfer is taking place. If you do not agree to this then please confirm that I can take my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Please do not telephone me about this matter. For evidence purposes I wish all communication to be in writing.

Yours ...

Many thanks to naedanger for letter template. Does it have to be sent as a hardcopy letter by royal mail or by email ?
We (my equal half & I) are new to this game, but we are about to be taken to the cleaners (transparently) by HL, having been thoroughly cleaned (untransparently) for the past 10 years or so with our now 400k all UT ISAs. Johnsons the Cleaners used to advertise 2 for the price of one - methinks II will be doing our cleaning from now on. Looks like HL are thinking "GOTCHA! one way or another". I remember my wife saying something like this at the altar.

afwone

happyarthur wrote: »

HL
Many thanks to naedanger for letter template. Does it have to be sent as a hardcopy letter by royal mail or by email ?
We (my equal half & I) are new to this game, but we are about to be taken to the cleaners (transparently) by HL, having been thoroughly cleaned (untransparently) for the past 10 years or so with our now 400k all UT ISAs. Johnsons the Cleaners used to advertise 2 for the price of one - methinks II will be doing our cleaning from now on. Looks like HL are thinking "GOTCHA! one way or another". I remember my wife saying something like this at the altar.

My complaint was by secure message, but I got a letter back from them waiving exit fees.

naedanger

happyarthur wrote: »

Does it have to be sent as a hardcopy letter by royal mail or by email ?

Email is fine. I would keep the content formal to ensure they treat it as a complaint rather than an enquiry.

happyarthur

afwone wrote: »

My complaint was by secure message, but I got a letter back from them waiving exit fees.

I`ve been informed that an email should be fine, thanks. What`s a secure message? - I`m a technophobe septuagenarian (it`s legal) and only recently moved on from a quill and squid ink. It took me about half an hour to figure out how to post a reply to naedanger`s post. This second post (of my life) took considerably less! There`s no stopping me now.