Leaving HL without transfer charges

Fibreoptic

My wife and I requested that exit fees be waived post vast increases in costs on how the RDR was implemented. This was declined by HL but I contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service.

This resulted in both our exit fees being waived although HL stated that "legally" they could still impose them.

I suspect that this is another churn cost in that most people will either pay up or not move due to costs. So my advice is to :-

1. Contact HL and request fee free exit (use secure mail)
2. If the reply is no, raise issue with FOS

Im happy with the result but suspect that many will end up paying out as its the default option. I would have liked this to be legally challenged and all exit fees banned for all providers.

yatinsardana

Fibreoptic wrote: »

My wife and I requested that exit fees be waived post vast increases in costs on how the RDR was implemented. This was declined by HL but I contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service.

This resulted in both our exit fees being waived although HL stated that "legally" they could still impose them.

I suspect that this is another churn cost in that most people will either pay up or not move due to costs. So my advice is to :-

1. Contact HL and request fee free exit (use secure mail)
2. If the reply is no, raise issue with FOS

Im happy with the result but suspect that many will end up paying out as its the default option. I would have liked this to be legally challenged and all exit fees banned for all providers.

Thanks for your message fibreoptic.
How would you get in touch with FOS and are there any specific things that need to be mentioned to them? This forum is so long now, I've tried to see if there are any templates going around for contacting FOS but can't find them.

I'm assuming all of this will take weeks before I can even apply for a transfer?

yatinsardana

Ok so I've decided to read post by post and it should take me about a year to do so on this thread. Currently on post #73.

Up until now, it seems like the process is:

1) Send a secure message to HL ( I did on friday evening) - I used a formal complaint template given by naedanger on this forum. I haven't yet received a confirmation of them receiving the message. I shall wait 2-3 days before writing to them and asking for confirmation. I understand they can take up take 8 weeks to give a formal reply.

2) In the mean time I either wait for their reply or go ahead and transfer to another provider (III). I will pay the transfer fee in that case.

3) I should continue with my investments after transfer. But if in that time HL have denied my request or charged me the transfer fee, I can take it up with FOS. Now the letter to FOS will need to be even more carefully worded and there are just so many rules and regulations that have been posted on this forum that my head is spinning and I will almost certainly find it difficult to word the letter. Should it come to that, I will need your advice please.

4) Should my appeal to FOS be successful, I hope HL would refund the money they charged. I suspect if it does get to this stage, it will have taken 5-6 months to resolve.

5) I shall continue reading my way through this thread and find out what's happened to all your experiences as you all started this journey back in January.

Thank you all for posting and keeping the rest of us updated.

EDIT - also I shall copy and paste all the messages between myself and HL as apparently you lose the messages once you've transferred away

masonic

yatinsardana wrote: »

But if in that time HL have denied my request or charged me the transfer fee, I can take it up with FOS. Now the letter to FOS will need to be even more carefully worded and there are just so many rules and regulations that have been posted on this forum that my head is spinning and I will almost certainly find it difficult to word the letter. Should it come to that, I will need your advice please.

I think that's highly unlikely. I've been following the thread quite carefully and the only people who have needed to contact the FOS so far are people whose complaints weren't being treated as formal complaints, but I think HL have wised up to that since and clearly don't want the FOS breathing down their neck. The older posts show HL doing everything they can to put their clients off persisting with their complaints, but since then it seems they have a policy of automatically agreeing to waive transfer charges.

yatinsardana

masonic wrote: »

I think that's highly unlikely. I've been following the thread quite carefully and the only people who have needed to contact the FOS so far are people whose complaints weren't being treated as formal complaints, but I think HL have wised up to that since and clearly don't want the FOS breathing down their neck. The older posts show HL doing everything they can to put their clients off persisting with their complaints, but since then it seems they have a policy of automatically agreeing to waive transfer charges.

Thanks, I hope so. I'm still on #101 which is in January so I'm assuming a lot has evolved since then like you've said.

If the situation at present is that HL are likely to agree, do you think I should wait for their response before I initiate a move away so that saves me chasing them to refund my transfer fee?
III have an incentive running up until April 30th so I think I can afford to wait about 3 weeks before I have to apply in order to utilise that incentive.

masonic

yatinsardana wrote: »

If the situation at present is that HL are likely to agree, do you think I should wait for their response before I initiate a move away so that saves me chasing them to refund my transfer fee?
III have an incentive running up until April 30th so I think I can afford to wait about 3 weeks before I have to apply in order to utilise that incentive.

I went ahead and got HL to refund me later, but it is up to you whether you are happy to outlay that cash. The III incentive has been extended once, so I wouldn't be surprised if it were extended again.

Sparky47

yatinsardana wrote: »

1) Send a secure message to HL ( I did on friday evening) - I used a formal complaint template given by naedanger on this forum. I haven't yet received a confirmation of them receiving the message. I shall wait 2-3 days before writing to them and asking for confirmation. I understand they can take up take 8 weeks to give a formal reply.

You should not have to wait 8 weeks for their reply to your complaint.
They normally send a letter after a few days offering to waive the fees.

However the actual transfer for some appears to be taking 8 weeks.

fozzeh

Sparky47 wrote: »

You should not have to wait 8 weeks for their reply to your complaint.
They normally send a letter after a few days offering to waive the fees.

However the actual transfer for some appears to be taking 8 weeks.

Complaints have to be acknowledged within 5 working days.
Although targets are set for them to be resolved within 4 weeks, 8 weeks for resolution is the limit for response or asking for more time (generally another 4 weeks). You can refer to the FOS at the 8 week mark regardless of asking for more time.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm#0

DO NOT involve FOS before the 8 week period as you will be wasting your time and their time. And you do not waste the time of those who will try to help you.

Generally, if a complaint gets to 8 weeks then it has been escalated and being looked into at a higher level. These are, generally, the ones where compensation can be justified and quite high.
HL will be looking at getting all complaints resolved because every single one which goes to FOS after the 25th referral is going to hit them hard…£550 which is referred.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/QG1.pdf

Imagine 1,000 people want out. 500 go no problem, 250 with some kicking and a basic complaint, 200 don’t care…leaves 5% have a strong complaint…it gets to the 8 week mark for 50 people.
At this point they can go to FOS…if they have had no complaints this year, then it is 25 x £550 in complaint fees. If they have had 25 referrals already, 50 x £550 is £27,500! You can easily employ an escalated complaints manager for that for a year…let alone a few months.

And that’s based on 5% of 1,000 people.
Do I think that people will be happy with this? No.
According to HL – “As at 31 December 2013, our Vantage Service had over 584,000”.
Even lowering it down (for eligibility); will at least 0.5% have a FOS eligible complaint? Possibly. 2,920 complainants getting to FOS stage…£1.6m…doesn’t even bare thinking about for HL!

Doctor_Who

Sparky47 wrote: »

However the actual transfer for some appears to be taking 8 weeks.

Has anyone who initiated an in-specie transfer out of HL completed the transfer process, and if so how long did it take? My own experience is that very little has happened in 6 weeks, and my suspicion is that a lot of transfers will take considerably longer than 8 weeks!

masonic

Doctor_Who wrote: »

Has anyone who initiated an in-specie transfer out of HL completed the transfer process, and if so how long did it take? My own experience is that very little has happened in 6 weeks, and my suspicion is that a lot of transfers will take considerably longer than 8 weeks!

So far I think sorcerer's progress has been the best with at least some funds transferred over to III.

I'm 8 weeks in and haven't seen any progress, although HL reassure me my transfer will complete shortly. :undecided