HL - Delay Dealing Funds

Catapult

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

Perhaps they are preoccupied with people transferring out to cheaper providers?

Think I'm one of the few that isn't in a rush to move - HL will likely bring their pricing more in line with the competition during the year albeit always at the higher end of the scale.

Update: fund purchases went through eventually. Just hope my Pictet Biotech investment caught an upswing rather than a downswing when it went through...
:eek:

masonic

Catapult wrote: »

HL will likely bring their pricing more in line with the competition during the year albeit always at the higher end of the scale.

It's wishful thinking to believe HL will be cutting their charges later in the year. They were one of the last to announce their charges and had a good view of the competitive landscape at that time. They have ended up around 0.1% more expensive than average, which is more competitive than they have been in the preceding few years. It might seem from reading this forum that they are losing customers and money hand over fist, but I think the vast majority of their 500k customers are staying put and HL will feel the pressure from their investors to maintain profitability weighing much more heavily than any customer dissatisfaction arising from the changes.

gadgetmind

masonic wrote: »

I think the vast majority of their 500k customers are staying put

Yeah, well, it's not called the "Wealth" 150 for nothing. Lambs to the slaughter.

But what do I care? I have three transfers away from HL in flight. If others want to hang around to be bled dry, well that's their choice.

Totton

I'm not getting bled dry at £45 a year. You don't like HL, fine, why not just move and stop bleating?

gadgetmind

Totton wrote: »

You don't like HL, fine, why not just move

I said "I have three transfers away from HL in flight".

and stop bleating?

I reserve the right to complain about their price rises for as long, and as hard, as I like. You and I clearly have the smarts to minimise our fees by moving or choosing the right assets to hold (though you'd be paying much more than £45 for a HL SIPP) but the vast majority of their client base will be paying massively higher fees.

Why don't they move? Well, I think I've covered that already.

gadgetmind

Catapult wrote: »

Think I'm one of the few that isn't in a rush to move - HL will likely bring their pricing more in line with the competition during the year albeit always at the higher end of the scale.

Yes, they seem to be trying for an old school "worth the extra" approach. We're leaving my wife's unwrapped holdings with them as moving would incur high trading fees, spread, and lots of CGT. However, I'll be looking around for better trading platforms come April and will reduce these holdings over the next few years.

It's a shame as I did like HL, and even recommended them for some things.

Rollinghome

Totton wrote: »

I'm not getting bled dry at £45 a year. You don't like HL, fine, why not just move and stop bleating?

If you mean you've only got £10k in funds with them and that isn't likely to increase then I'd tend to agree that, as you'd pay a fortune in fees and account closure charges to leave, there's little to be gained by moving.

On the the other hand, if you mean you're restricting yourself entirely to ITs in order to keep the fees down that could be an expensive way to save money. I've been a cheer-leader for ITs on this forum for years but would never suggest anyone restricts themselves to them entirely, especially now when most are selling at a higher premium than I can remember for 30 years. There are still a few at a reasonable discount but you need to be very selective which is likely to mean a mixture of ITs and UTs until discounts widen again.

For anyone who's going to limit themselves to ITs or shares to keep platform charges down there's probably not much sense in using a high-cost platform like HL anyway when all you need is a broker.

At SVS for example dealing fees are less than half those of HL, there's no account fees at all for dealing or for an ISA and none of those nasty account closure fees etc.

For anyone with a biggish amount in funds then HL becomes a wacky choice. They offered to reduce their fese to 0.25% for my own and wife's account but even at that level it doesn't make much sense. We moved most of our investments away from them a few years ago and just kept part of our ISAs with them. If we brought those investments back then the fees would go through the roof even at 0.25%.

Whether they'll become more competitive in future is anyone's guess but I doubt it. They've decided to move from being the low-cost service they once were to a high-cost service and grown to love those 70% margins on turnover they're now getting.