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

badger09

Doc_N wrote: »

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.

I think you’ll find the main negativity about HL comes from those of us who hold (or in my case, held) substantial ISAs invested in funds, rather than shares/ITs with HL. I switched my ISA to IWeb in spring 2014 but keep my small SIPP with HL as their charges are reasonable. Horses for courses:)

bowlhead99

Doc_N wrote: »

Thanks. HL's pretty reasonable at just £45 pa for investment trust ISAs for some reason I don't really understand.

HL can afford to do the share / investment trust platform at relatively low cost because many of their customers are also using their funds supermarket platform at 0.45% which doesn't get capped until a *much* higher level than £45 ; that 0.45% fee on funds is about the highest in the country.

As an example of someone cheaper for your needs, AJ Bell's Youinvest service (http://www.youinvest.co.uk/isa/charges-and-rates) is only 0.25% capped at £7.50 a quarter so if you are looking at £45 a year with HL it will only be £30 a year with Youinvest. They also do a monthly regular investment program at £1.50 a trade.

Dividend reinvestment is 1% of the dividend with a minimum of £1.50, but you could always just turn auto-reinvestment off and manually spend the cash by increaing that month's regular purchase, i.e. no incremental cost over the £1.50 you were already spending if you are willing to wait for the monthly investment date (10th of the month) to roll around.

If you transfer over £20,000 to them they'll refund transfer-out costs from your current provider (if any). Or if you transfer £10,000 to them then your 'friend' can get £100 on the recommend a friend program which perhaps they would split with you. Depending on the value of your account that might be more lucrative than HL's transfer in payment.

I use Youinvest for my SIPP and they are fine. My parents use HL for their ISAs (which we will transfer to Youinvest shortly so I can help them look after them more easily) and they are fine too, other than the high % costs for funds which wouldn't be an issue for you unless you later decided to diversify.

Peter314

I am about to transfer my SIPP from HL to Alliance Trust Savings, because HL's percentage charge for funds works out much more expensive for larger sums than Alliance Trust's fixed charge. I'll miss HL's web site and customer service though...

Doc_N

Peter314 wrote: »

I am about to transfer my SIPP from HL to Alliance Trust Savings, because HL's percentage charge for funds works out much more expensive for larger sums than Alliance Trust's fixed charge. I'll miss HL's web site and customer service though...

You will. The main reason I'm moving away from ATS is that their customer service over the last year or so has become so bad that it makes them more or less unusable in practice. OK, that's a slight exaggeration, but the website's still a disaster area in terms of usability, the delays getting through on the phone are horrendous, but worst of all, they don't seem to care a jot about it.

This was previously an excellent outfit to deal with, but it's been transformed by cost-saving measures into the Ryanair of financial service providers.

Peter314

Doc_N wrote: »

... This was previously an excellent outfit to deal with, but it's been transformed by cost-saving measures into the Ryanair of financial service providers.

Point taken. But I'm not planning on doing much dealing; just buy a couple of well-diversified funds and hold them until I want to start drawing down. Then review options again. The cost savings are more important than customer service in the meantime.

bowlhead99

Doc_N wrote: »

You will. The main reason I'm moving away from ATS is that their customer service over the last year or so has become so bad that it makes them more or less unusable in practice. OK, that's a slight exaggeration, but the website's still a disaster area in terms of usability, the delays getting through on the phone are horrendous, but worst of all, they don't seem to care a jot about it.

I must admit I'm struggling to see what you are trying to do on the platform that you could even need "customer service" for. As you explained it, you only have an investment in one investment trust and make monthly contributions.

Do you not just set up a monthly direct debit and leave it? What sort of other transactions have you been doing that has led you to conclude that, as you put it:

the systems they use are impenetrable, complex, cumbersome and barely fit for purpose. Every transaction is a nightmare

People often exaggerate their claims.

If I woke up after a terrible "nightmare" it might have involved my teenage daughter screaming in terror as she was chased by giant spiders, only to be 'rescued' by Bill Cosby. A delayed direct debit here or there, or my struggling to understand what button to press for a transaction having read the online help for their "impenetrable system" ? - not so much.

If you're moving simply because "the service isn't much cop and other providers appear cheaper for my needs", that's a different story.

Otherwise maybe you are a high maintenance customer who might not be happy with the rivals' service levels either. I only had to call HL once to clarify the forms and process for my mum to take a UFPLS from her SIPP, and once again when a promised emailed form didn't come through to her email. For Youinvest I say the customer service is fine but have only had one phone interaction five years ago - when using the older version of their software and I placed an order online for a fund that they couldn't execute due to it being soft closed so they let me know.

Generally, for day to day business most platforms are fine.

Doc_N

It's been interesting to read all the suggestions and comments - many thanks to all (and I'd be very happy to read any more).

Alliance Trust Savings want £100+VAT to allow me to escape their clutches, which must surely be one of the higher charges around, but I think it's going to be worthwhile for the lower charges I can find elsewhere, along with substantially superior customer service.

Looking at 'Which?', incidentally, I see that ATS is ranked 9th out of 12, with some pretty poor ratings. Hargreaves Lansdown is 1st, AJ Bell 2nd and Interactive Investor 3rd.

redux

Peter314 wrote: »

I am about to transfer my SIPP from HL to Alliance Trust Savings, because HL's percentage charge for funds works out much more expensive for larger sums than Alliance Trust's fixed charge. I'll miss HL's web site and customer service though...

There seems to be a pronounced difference between HL's charges for funds and companies.

Funds, it's 0.45% pa, on the first band up to £250k.

For investment trusts same percentage but capped at £200 a year at the moment, which would be at £44k4 size

Edit: to clarify, £200 pa max for SIPP, £45 for ISA, nil for Funds and Shares outside.

Doc_N

Returning briefly to this thread, I switched to Hargreaves Lansdown in the end for considerably lower fees and what's already proving to be a much better product.

It's a shame that Alliance Trust savings went the way it did through lack of investment. Nice people, severely hampered by appallingly poor, outdated systems. They do their best, but the whole thing creaks badly, the website is awful, and it's just not fit for purpose. Even the transfer was mishandled thanks to systems problems.

Now to concentrate on arranging things in the most efficient way to minimise the HL dividend reinvestment and monthly share purchase fees.

Thanks for all the earlier advice.

reeac

After a number of years administering our own investments we switched to HL who provide the admin. such as dividend reinvestment, record keeping and the issue of periodic reports.. I particularly like their response to our few telephone queries .... they speak clear, comprehensible English and can answer any questions without having to transfer you elsewhere - unusual nowadays.