Leaving HL without transfer charges

gterr

Logged on to my HL account last night and found that the small cash balance on my Fund and Share account had completely disappeared. Looked at the recent transactions and found that HL had applied a "Re Reg" fee on 4/2/14, and taken all available cash in part settlement of this fee. I'm assuming that this fee is in respect of my request to transfer out which I made at the end of January. The account is still will HL, so I'm not thrilled that they've applied this fee so early. Also, since 4/2/14 they've agreed to waive the transfer fees. I've sent a secure message to HL to check what this Re Reg fee is, and to ask them to refund it. They've done the same on my husband's account.

organic_wanabe

gterr - I have just rushed to check our accounts but everything is still intact. Of course, that may be because they have not yet received our transfer forms. I will be most displeased if they take anything.

gterr

Unbelievable! Just had a secure message from HL. They have waived my transfer fees for my ISA, but not for my Fund and Share account! When I made my complaint I did so in respect of both accounts, and the reply from Client Services agreeing to waive exit fees did not distinguish between the two accounts. There's worse. Because there was insufficient cash in my F&S account to meet the £100 transfer out in specie fee, they've taken the balance from the cash in ISA account!! Presume they've done that for my husband, too. Needless to say, I am contacting HL.

SteadfastJohn

Just registered on this Forum to thank the likes of gterr, Naedanger and SnowMan for their time and efforts. In particular for the HL Complaint template and SnowMan's spreadsheet.

I personalised the Complaint Template and sent it to HL by secure message last Sunday evening without any initial contact with them. I did not receive any initial acknowledgement but on Thursday the postman delivered what appears to be the now standard HL response letter with the magic words included after their initial defense "....we would be happy as a gesture of goodwill, to waive our transfer charges, for any transfer request received within 1 month of this letter. We shall also ensure our new charging structure is not applied to your account while the transfer takes place."

So all very straightforward thanks to the early complainers' efforts. I am now off to kick start my SIPP transfer out to BestInvest. :beer:

gadgetmind

gterr wrote: »

Unbelievable! Just had a secure message from HL. They have waived my transfer fees for my ISA, but not for my Fund and Share account!

My wife's response said "any transfer request" so I'll be mightily cheesed off if they attempted to charge a fee for moving her ISA.

I'll send HL another message.

gadgetmind

gterr wrote: »

Needless to say, I am contacting HL.

Please let me know how you get on.

Also, if the transfer hasn't happened yet, how to they know how many holdings you'll have at that point?

gterr

gterr wrote: »

Unbelievable! Just had a secure message from HL. They have waived my transfer fees for my ISA, but not for my Fund and Share account! When I made my complaint I did so in respect of both accounts, and the reply from Client Services agreeing to waive exit fees did not distinguish between the two accounts. There's worse. Because there was insufficient cash in my F&S account to meet the £100 transfer out in specie fee, they've taken the balance from the cash in ISA account!! Presume they've done that for my husband, too. Needless to say, I am contacting HL.

Sorry to quote own post, but in fairness to HL I have to report that they've responded very promptly to my protest. They've checked with Client Services and acknowledge that the exit fees for both accounts should have been waived. They will return the money taken in error. Same with husband's account.
Worth checking your own accounts, though, folks.

gterr

gadgetmind wrote: »

Also, if the transfer hasn't happened yet, how to they know how many holdings you'll have at that point?

Good point. If they had been on the verge of completing the transfer then calculating and applying the fee on the basis of current holdings might have made sense. But the fees must have been taken from my account immediately after they received the transfer documents from ii. By ii's estimate, transfers out are taking between 6 and 8 weeks. Anyhow, not a problem for me since they have now been waived, but for anyone transferring out and paying fees the timing of the charge is interesting.

fozzeh

rpc wrote: »

That's it - when I move platforms I am going to amend the T&C to require that they provide Sunday roast weekly and grant me droit de seigneur over the senior staff, their spouses and daughters.

If it's in black and white, it must be binding.

Is that you Dmitry? :rotfl:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/creditcards/10231556/Man-who-created-own-credit-card-sues-bank-for-not-sticking-to-terms.html

riccaricca

Hi all, I sent my Complaint letter (I copied the one on here) by secure message on Tuesday night and received an official letter through the post today. As a 'gesture of goodwill' they are waiving my transfer charges for any transfer request received before 31st March and will ensure that the new charging structure is not applied to my accounts while the transfer takes place. They also state that it will only be possible to make an accurate comparison from 1 March and would like to have dialogue with me after that date.
Where can I find SnowMan's spreadsheet?
I'm still not sure where to move to but at least I have a bit more time to decide.