Hargreaves Lansdown charge 0.45% pa - Alternatives?

Brogden_Fields

Annual charges made by Hargreaves Lansdown themselves are 0.45% of holdings in funds (up to £250k) and this is not capped. This is on top of the fund manager's charges. (HL charges on equities are also 0.45% but this is capped at £45.)

0.45% seems a lot to me. I guess that they were getting this before but we just didn't see it.

Hargreaves Lansdown usually offer good discounts on the initial purchase price, but obviously that is a one off saving, whereas annual charges are recurring and their effect compounds up over time. Both types of charge needs to be considered before making a long term investment choice.

I would like to be able to "shop around" and compare prices, so would anyone recommend any other brokers to take a look at?

Lokolo

There are plenty and SnowMan has created a spreadhseet where you can input figures to find out which platform would be cheapest. I can't get access to Google Docs at my workplace but I am sure someone else will post the link to it....

However, not all platforms offer the same funds.

TCA

Try here: http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

SnowMan

Lokolo wrote: »

There are plenty and SnowMan has created a spreadhseet where you can input figures to find out which platform would be cheapest. I can't get access to Google Docs at my workplace but I am sure someone else will post the link to it....

However, not all platforms offer the same funds.

Link to my post which is updated to link to the latest version of the platform comparison spreadsheet

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=64540489&postcount=15

Also see Compare Fund Platforms

http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/

and the Lang Cat tables

http://langcatfinancial.co.uk/blog/

and the monevator broker table linked to in the previous post.

TBC15

About to go through the same with Bestinvest. Is it possibleto transfer all our holdings ISA’s unit trusts etc over to a cheaper platform including dirty ones that appear to have a locked symbol next to them on the fidelityFund network site.

jimjames

Brogden_Fields wrote: »

Annual charges made by Hargreaves Lansdown themselves are 0.45% of holdings in funds (up to £250k) and this is not capped.

0.45% seems a lot to me. I guess that they were getting this before but we just didn't see it.

Some other platforms charge 0.25%, others charge fixed annual fees which may work out cheaper.

Brogden_Fields wrote: »

Annual charges made by Hargreaves Lansdown themselves are 0.45% of holdings in funds (up to £250k) and this is not capped.

The annual fees are capped at £4000. That relies on you having more than £2million with them. Elsewhere that would cost as little as £80.

kidmugsy

Mind you, I do think highly of HL's service. The people who have answered the phone to me have all been of pretty high calibre. Of course if I had much larger sums invested I might overlook that.

Brogden_Fields

kidmugsy wrote: »

Mind you, I do think highly of HL's service. The people who have answered the phone to me have all been of pretty high calibre. Of course if I had much larger sums invested I might overlook that.

I agree, they answer the phone quickly and they are pretty good. The HL charges on equities of 0.45% is capped at £45, which seems OK for this level of service if you don't need to phone them every week - and I can't think why anyone would. Having an uncapped charge on funds just seems wrong, I'm sure they will think again if large numbers leave.

masonic

Brogden_Fields wrote: »

I'm sure they will think again if large numbers leave.

Their strategy seems fairly clear when it comes to customer retention:

- If you are a more profitable customer with a large portfolio and want to leave, then they will enter into a special arrangement with you
- If you are a new customer or don't have much invested, they will probably still look attractive, since the charge looks reasonable for a small portfolio, and most will not appreciate what will happen as their portfolio grows and the barrier to leaving.

This enables them to control, to some extent, how many customers end up leaving. If they feel they are losing too many, they just need to adjust the proportion they offer lower charges. No need to reduce them for everyone.

zagfles

Brogden_Fields wrote: »

I agree, they answer the phone quickly and they are pretty good. The HL charges on equities of 0.45% is capped at £45, which seems OK for this level of service if you don't need to phone them every week - and I can't think why anyone would. Having an uncapped charge on funds just seems wrong, I'm sure they will think again if large numbers leave.

They're willing to negotiate, see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4889890

Brogden_Fields

zagfles wrote: »

They're willing to negotiate, see [link removed]

Just spoke to them about opening a new ISA account and transferring an existing ISA to them and they wouldn't budge on the 0.45% with no cap up to £250k.