HL exemplary service

pip895

gadgetmind wrote: »

0.25% including fund (etc.) fees and platform fees is very good. Well done! What did HL come down to? I hadn't previously seen anyone getting them below 0.25%, at least not that I can remember.

Sorry my bad - should have made that clear - that's just the platform charge. The Total Fund charge (ranging from 0.09% to ~1%) is in addition to the 0.25%, but the fund charge at HL is marginally lower than on the other platforms I looked at. For instance the lower fund charges on HL more than made up for the difference between HL & Fidelity (who I could get down to 0.2% platform fee). Fidelity also don't/didn't carry all the funds I am using.

MarcoM

I have about 20k with hl. Is there any chance they may reduce the 0.45% fee?
Thanks

grey_gym_sock

MarcoM wrote: »

I have about 20k with hl. Is there any chance they may reduce the 0.45% fee?
Thanks

eventually, i expect so. in the next year or 2, i doubt it.

HL's new pricing was an overall price cut, so they are probably looking to put out a few company results showing rising profits despite the price cut, before they consider further cuts.

also, there will be a further enforced price cut in april 2016, when they can no longer retain any commission on legacy funds. which doesn't help you unless you're holding legacy funds on which they are still retaining commission (which is not all of them).

so i wouldn't hold your breath ...

gadgetmind

pip895 wrote: »

Sorry my bad - should have made that clear - that's just the platform charge.

Ah, OK.

I've got a deal with BestInvest for a fixed £50 (ISA) or £100 (SIPP) platform fee for ETFs, ITs, and equities, so have got overall fees down below 0.375% all in.

grey_gym_sock

gadgetmind wrote: »

I've got a deal with BestInvest for a fixed £50 (ISA) or £100 (SIPP) platform fee for ETFs, ITs, and equities, so have got overall fees down below 0.375% all in.

is that 0.375% just the £50 or £100 plus the TER of the investments held?

or are you adding in other minor cost, such as ...

- bestinvest's currency conversion costs, if holding ETFs which pay dividends not in sterling

- costs of reinvesting income, in both dealing charges and "cash drag" while it's waiting to be invested

- any rebalancing costs, other than by reinvesting income

- the 1-off costs incurred when investing the original capital and new contributions, divided by the number of years you expect to hold the same investments, to give an annual cost

every basis point counts

(feel free to tell me i'm over-analyzing ...)

gadgetmind

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

is that 0.375% just the £50 or £100 plus the TER of the investments held?

Mostly that but ...

- bestinvest's currency conversion costs, if holding ETFs which pay dividends not in sterling

I followed that thread but couldn't decide on a suitable number to add!

- costs of reinvesting income, in both dealing charges and "cash drag" while it's waiting to be invested
- any rebalancing costs, other than by reinvesting income
- the 1-off costs incurred when investing the original capital and new contributions, divided by the number of years you expect to hold the same investments, to give an annual cost

I have added in a "damp finger" estimate for this. Cash drag doesn't bother me too much as I tend to hold around 5% cash anyway, and rebalancing isn't expensive as I tend to do this rarely and only via fresh income.

I also sometimes use a fund (gasp, yes!) for money that's being drip fed, and then sell these when it's time for a rebalance.

gadgetmind

As for over-analysing, I did put HL BI and a slew of others into a spreadsheet to see which vendor/platform would be cheapest for us, and the outcome was that across all of our accounts BI would be the best.

However, this was for a total of £500k+, and for a mixture of ISAs and SIPPs, and only because they stuck with fixed fees for existing equity investors.

lejog2003

kidmugsy wrote: »

What did you do to bring that on yourself? We've always found them excellent. (Mind you, so in their way are Aldi.)

1. I complained when they increased my fees from £72 to £1350 per year.
2. My complaint appeared to be handled by an incompetent baboon, which resulted in HL getting a letter from the Ombudsman telling them to get their act together.
2. I decided to transfer to a cheaper supplier, which took 18 weeks and 2 days, and due to HLs incompetence two months pensions payments were missed. HL ignored my instructions and performed an in-specie transfer of a fund offered only by HL to ATS when I had specified a cash transfer.

Bitter me? Yes, how would you feel if you received no salary for three months? (Last pension payment end of March, next payment will be received end of June).

lejog2003

gadgetmind wrote: »

0.25% including fund (etc.) fees and platform fees is very good. Well done! What did HL come down to? I hadn't previously seen anyone getting them below 0.25%, at least not that I can remember.

I was offered 0.2% capped at £250k without any negotiation. Of course I rejected the offer, it represented a mere 700% increase in fees and over double what I'm paying elsewhere.