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Moving investments from Alliance Trust Savings to Hargreaves Lansdown: good/bad idea?

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  • A_T
    A_T Posts: 962 Forumite
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    Doc_N wrote: »
    Precious little trading, as such. Just a regular monthly payment in, invested straight into ATST.

    Maybe iWeb or one of the other really low cost options is an alternative? Hadn't really considered it. Are there any drawbacks?

    iWeb doesn't do monthly plans.

    Selftrade and Halifax might be options.
  • A_T
    A_T Posts: 962 Forumite
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    Lots of comment here about the OP only using ATST. That's up to the OP - noone here knows what the future holds for securities. But if one wanted to hold securities it seems a reasonable option - well globally diversified.

    OP didn't ask for anything other than platform advice so replies should stick to that.
  • Audaxer
    Audaxer Posts: 3,518 Forumite
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    A_T wrote: »
    Lots of comment here about the OP only using ATST. That's up to the OP - noone here knows what the future holds for securities. But if one wanted to hold securities it seems a reasonable option - well globally diversified.

    OP didn't ask for anything other than platform advice so replies should stick to that.
    The OP acknowledged the points I was making about holding one IT and FSCS, so I think it is perfectly fair for me to make these points in case he hadn't considered them.
  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,300 Forumite
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    Just for the record, I'm more than happy to take any sort of advice offered - always keen to learn from people with more expertise than I have.

    My investment strategy's pretty crude. Anyone with ideas for improvement - please feel free to add any comments.

    I was looking for the most cost-effective way of maintaining and adding to my ATST ISA holding (and thanks for the help on that so far) but if there's a better strategy I'm keen to listen.
  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,300 Forumite
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    By the way, HL are offering some rather tasty cashback on transfers at the moment and that was what sparked off the question.

    I gather I can move the existing ATST holding across to HL in specie to avoid the inevitable costs and risks involved in having the transfer take place in cash, so to speak, with a sale by ATS and a repurchase by HL.
  • TheLastMongoose
    TheLastMongoose Posts: 96 Forumite
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    To answer your question about their customer service, I have been using HL for just over a year. I have been very happy with the service. I have managed my account mainly by the website and the iPhone app which are both really good in my opinion. I also placed some orders by phone once and that was easy too.

    As my investments are in funds they are marginally more expensive than some other platforms for me but I've had good service so can't complain.
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 17,714 Forumite
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    Doc_N wrote: »
    Precious little trading, as such. Just a regular monthly payment in, invested straight into ATST.

    Maybe iWeb or one of the other really low cost options is an alternative? Hadn't really considered it. Are there any drawbacks?

    Other than a slightly more restricted list of funds available no other drawbacks but fund choice won't matter to you, they have all shares/investments available that are listed on the LSE.

    iWeb look to charge £5 per investment regardless so you could either reduce down the number of investments each year, say save the money so you only buy every other month or quarterly. If you want to minimise your fees then you might find it's worth moving your existing lump sum to iWeb and then using HL for your monthly investments. I guess it really depends how much is in your account and how much you're adding
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • pip895
    pip895 Posts: 1,178 Forumite
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    edited 12 November 2017 at 9:48PM
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    HL's service and web site are about the best out there I think. I have a large fund holding with them and I really should move to a flat fee provider but I'm torn.

    iWeb is much more basic (I have a small isa with them)- not had any problems as such but nowhere near as slick either by phone or on the web.
  • Glen_Clark
    Glen_Clark Posts: 4,397 Forumite
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    Have you sen the best buy platforms on this website:
    https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/cheap-online-sharedealing
    I use X-O (which I find cheap, efficient and basic.)
    H-L offers more services, but you pay for them and don't need them if you only have one shareholding.
    “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” --Upton Sinclair
  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,300 Forumite
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    Glen_Clark wrote: »
    Have you sen the best buy platforms on this website:
    https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/cheap-online-sharedealing
    I use X-O (which I find cheap, efficient and basic.)
    H-L offers more services, but you pay for them and don't need them if you only have one shareholding.

    Thanks. HL's pretty reasonable at just £45 pa for investment trust ISAs for some reason I don't really understand, and that's very considerably less than the £120 pa I'm paying Alliance Trust Savings for what's obviously a very substantially poorer service.

    The other costs with HL look to be much the same as with ATS, and they're also offering some useful transfer in payments:

    You transfer We pay
    £5,000 - £24,999 £20
    £25,000 - £49,999 £50
    £50,000 - £99,999 £100
    £100,000 - £149,999 £250
    £150,000 or more £500

    Very tempting to make the move, and I'm encouraged that there's been very little negativity about HL so far in this thread.
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