HL v. AT for Vang LS 80%

deadpeasant

I have a maxed-out HL NISA and both HL and Alliance Trust unwrapped accounts, and am belatedly trying to assess my holdings post the 2014 platform changes.

(My understanding is that AT charges £75/yr per account with fund-dealing charges, HL charges 0.45%/yr with no fund-dealing charges plus discounts on some funds. If you hold more than about £16k – I do – and don't trade funds much, HL starts getting very pricey indeed for its undeniably friendly interface.)

A large chunk of my unwrapped HL holdings is Vanguard LS 80% acc; on this holding alone 0.45% is well over £75/yr. I don't think HL gives any discount on this fund, so as I see it the only reason to keep it in HL is that they won't charge me to add to it, whereas AT will charge me per addition. So I might as well pay HL £25 to transfer it to AT.

Checking VangLS80 on the Research area of the AT site, I see this:
Initial Charge 0.10%
Our Discount -0.14%
You Pay 0.24%

My questions are: What's a negative discount? Has anyone transferred a holding from HL to AT, and would I get the initial charges when the holding is set up at AT? Does such a transfer count as a sale/purchase? If it counts as a sale, there would be a capital gain on my holding; though not enough to be liable to CGT I'd still like to know. (Also, have I got any of the above wrong?)

Many thanks for any help.

Drp8713

If you are using HL you might want to consider the Blackrock Consensus 85 instead of VLS80 as there is no initial charge (although there is a small bid offer spread) and its only 0.13% a year after the rebate

deadpeasant

But there's still HL's 0.45% platform fee, way more the flat AT account fee that I'm paying already on other holdings. My question is to clarify the costs of transferring to AT.

(Of course your Blackrock tip might be a better buy on AT too; I'll check it out, thanks.)