Hargreaves Lansdown Charges

grey_gym_sock

when you have a larger amount invested, and are looking for low fixed/capped fees, it makes a big difference whether you are holding open-ended funds (units trust / OEICs). if you are, there are very few options with low fixed fees. if you aren't, there are a lot more options (including HL).

hutman

I have tried to transfer my HL S&S ISA to vanguard and been whipped with £150 fund 're-registration charges' related to my 4 Vanguard funds.. madness?

I'm considering selling my funds, transferring the cash back to my account and buying the funds on Vanguards platform.. sensible?

ColdIron

If the £20K annual allowance won't worry you, why not. You could do one ISA transfer as cash or as you suggest just sell up and repurchase. I think you'll be charged an account closure fee either way, £25 + VAT

eskbanker

hutman wrote: »

I have tried to transfer my HL S&S ISA to vanguard and been whipped with £150 fund 're-registration charges' related to my 4 Vanguard funds.. madness?

Who is seeking to impose this re-registration charge, HL or Vanguard?

As per the HL fees published in the page linked further up the thread, they charge £25 per holding to transfer out (and the £30 account closure fee mentioned by ColdIron) but I can't see a permutation of these that would total £150 for four funds and wouldn't expect to see them labelled as 're-registration charges' - I'd have thought that any re-registering would be done by Vanguard but they say they don't levy any inbound transfer fees....

bowlhead99

hutman wrote: »

I have tried to transfer my HL S&S ISA to vanguard and been whipped with £150 fund 're-registration charges' related to my 4 Vanguard funds.. madness?

That does seem mad as their published charges are only £25 per line so you would expect £100 to transfer it out as funds/ shares rather than cash. Unless you have multiple share types for each fund e.g. both the Inc and the Acc version. There's also a £25+vat account closure fee and a £25 cash transfer fee so perhaps that's being added on if you're transferring cash too.

HL are not exactly known for being the cheapest in the business. But not many DIY places do the admin of a transfer of funds away, for free, because customers like to see low up front fees, and don't want to pay to set up the account at the start or to transfer in, so they give you that for free but when you no longer want to be a paying customer, you will have to pay to get out.

I'm considering selling my funds, transferring the cash back to my account and buying the funds on Vanguards platform.. sensible?

Two things:

If you mean "transfer the cash back to my bank account" then you will lose ISA protection on the cash and use up some of your current year ISA allowance. If the total value fits inside that allowance and you weren't going to use it for new money, no problem. You'd avoid the fees for transferring shares or cash to another provider, and it should be quite quick. Obviously you might lose a few percent by being out of the market at an inopportune time.

If you just mean sell the funds for cash, get the cash in your HL account in a few days, then do it as a cash transfer instead of stock transfer, and buy back again at Vanguard end, you don't need to look at ISA allowance limits. You have replaced the 4x stock transfer fees with 1x cash transfer fee so saved some money. If you have £5k worth of stock and it costs you 3% more to buy it back in a fortnight's time, that's £150 lost, so consider that against your potential cost saving.

One alternative approach is just to move the 4 holdings into one multi-asset Vanguard holding on HL's platform (if you can find something suitable) and then you can just pay to transfer over that one line of stock - and then once it gets to the new platform, split it up again. In that way you will still be "in the market" (albeit in a different proportion to your existing 4 specialist holdings) so no need to worry about missing a major market movement ; but pay lower fees than you currently would.

hutman

bowlhead99 wrote: »

That does seem mad as their published charges are only £25 per line so you would expect £100 to transfer it out as funds/ shares rather than cash. Unless you have multiple share types for each fund e.g. both the Inc and the Acc version. There's also a £25+vat account closure fee and a £25 cash transfer fee so perhaps that's being added on if you're transferring cash too.

Here is their email:
Reregistration fee of £25 per holding X 5 = £125 - (Two of these are the VLS 80 @ inc/acc!)
Account closure charge of £25+VAT = £30
The total fees relating to the transfer of your HL Vantage Stocks & Shares ISA is therefore £125+£30 = £155

bowlhead99 wrote: »

HL are not exactly known for being the cheapest in the business. But not many DIY places do the admin of a transfer of funds away, for free, because customers like to see low up front fees, and don't want to pay to set up the account at the start or to transfer in, so they give you that for free but when you no longer want to be a paying customer, you will have to pay to get out.

Two things:

If you mean "transfer the cash back to my bank account" then you will lose ISA protection on the cash and use up some of your current year ISA allowance. If the total value fits inside that allowance and you weren't going to use it for new money, no problem. You'd avoid the fees for transferring shares or cash to another provider, and it should be quite quick. Obviously you might lose a few percent by being out of the market at an inopportune time.

This was my thinking - i have 10k to spare in my current isa allowance and was going to 'realise' this by selling lowest performing Vanguard funds. The rest i thought could stay parked in HL.

bowlhead99 wrote: »

If you just mean sell the funds for cash, get the cash in your HL account in a few days, then do it as a cash transfer instead of stock transfer, and buy back again at Vanguard end, you don't need to look at ISA allowance limits. You have replaced the 4x stock transfer fees with 1x cash transfer fee so saved some money. If you have £5k worth of stock and it costs you 3% more to buy it back in a fortnight's time, that's £150 lost, so consider that against your potential cost saving.

By selling the funds for 10k and transferring the cash back to my bank current account and then using it to buy funds on Vanguard platform.. i thought i'd be getting around all kinds of transfer fees? But the time component.. yes could work against me.

bowlhead99 wrote: »

One alternative approach is just to move the 4 holdings into one multi-asset Vanguard holding on HL's platform (if you can find something suitable) and then you can just pay to transfer over that one line of stock - and then once it gets to the new platform, split it up again. In that way you will still be "in the market" (albeit in a different proportion to your existing 4 specialist holdings) so no need to worry about missing a major market movement ; but pay lower fees than you currently would.

I hadn't thought of this method but it does seem sensible. The reason for doing all this in the first place was to tidy up my funds.. as i mentioned before i have inc/acc versions of same fund and other funds which duplicate to an extent what i currently have... I'd like to put all my money in VLS 100 acc & the actively managed Vanguard global equity fund - 50/50 inside Vanguard ISA Platform.

Thanks vm for your detailed reply

jimjames

Doc_N wrote: »

But for anyone transferring an existing ISA already invested in an investment trust to HL, there's a maximum £45 annual charge?

That sounds a remarkable low fee - is there a catch?

iWeb is even cheaper, £25 one off fee, no annual fee and £5 dealing

hutman

ive decided to consolidate my vanguard funds into one holding.

One fund re-registration will cost £25
Account term - £30
Total - £55

One question.. After my td switch into vanguards platform, this will be my final switch. Just for some comfort what do people think of having all ISA savings in one S&S platform? Will it all be safe, or is better having it split into vanguard/HL for safety?

Thanks

pip895

I would have thought that you would have marginally more risk associated with having everything in one fund house (i.e. Vanguard) than using a single platform.