Are Hargreaves Lansdown reasonable to use?

camden_kid

Are Hargreaves Lansdown reasonable to use? MSE often recommends them but the Trustpilot rating for them and the comments expressed there leave me wondering if I should use them.

I am about to dip my toes into mutual funds and their website is professional and the information they give is well presented and useful.

Edit: By "reasonable" I mean things like fees, customer service, speed of following up enquiries and general helpfulness.

MallyGirl

bear in mind that people rarely leap on to places like TrustPilot to say something nice - it is all about having somewhere to complain.

Some people say that HL is a bit expensive as a platform but that is totally dependent on how much you will be investing. A percentage fee platform would be cheaper for low amounts whereas a fixed fee would be better for high amounts.
Cheaper is not always better - it depends on what you are looking for.

dividendhero

I've an HL account and yes they're very good - they can be a bit pricey for larger portfolios, but service is second to none.

ColdIron

What is your idea of reasonable? Hargreaves Lansdown are reasonable in my opinion but so are most of their competitors. They are good for a novice and smaller amounts

I wouldn't put much store in TrustPilot for anything

le_loup

Completely agree with MallyGirl.

I have tried other, cheaper providers and gone back to H-L after the cheapness has shown itself.

You seem to be just starting out. If so, learn whilst getting excellent service. You can try cheaper when you have more experience and don't need hand holding.

dunstonh

Are Hargreaves Lansdown reasonable to use? MSE often recommends them but the Trustpilot rating for them and the comments expressed there leave me wondering if I should use them.

Trustpilot is heavily abused and unreliable. I have seen scams with a higher rating.

The ratings could be made by troublemakers. They could be made by people who are completely clueless (either good or bad reviews).

HL has a good reputation for service. They are heavy on marketing and often make the marketing look like advice (when it isnt) and they are one of the most expensive platforms going.

camden_kid

Thanks everyone. You have put my mind at ease and I will try them.

Malthusian

MallyGirl wrote: »

bear in mind that people rarely leap on to places like TrustPilot to say something nice

...unless it's a scam, like most of the top-rated "Investments" on Trustpilot.

camden_kid

Malthusian wrote: »

...unless it's a scam, like most of the top-rated "Investments" on Trustpilot.

On the other hand, one of the things that impressed me about HL was their regular and reasonable responses to comments on Trustpilot.

bowlhead99

camden_kid wrote: »

On the other hand, one of the things that impressed me about HL was there regular and reasonable responses to comments on Trustpilot.

Most businesses with a decent marketing budget will address criticism on such sites if the alternative is letting a very critical review fester on social media.

The resources they have available to spend on trying to shut down the criticism and getting invited to comment on stuff in the financial press as a credible investment firm are paid for by you giving them 0.45% of your assets every year when other businesses would charge a third less than that

As others mentioned if they have a million customers and only a few hundred reviews (good, bad or indifferent) it doesn't tell you much.

If they only had a few hundred customers and a million bad reviews, that would be rather more damning and they wouldn't still be in business.

Of course, they may have hundreds of thousands of customers who got suckered in by the marketing or a friend's recommendation and don't realise that they could get the service cheaper elsewhere, so aren't complaining, due to ignorance, apathy etc. Especially when markets have generally been going up for nine years in a row. People don't complain when they are making money because 10% is pretty much as good as the 10.2% it would be if you paid lower fees and easily better than the 0% or -30% you feared you might get.

FWIW my parents use them and service has been fine.

kidmugsy

We use them for our small SIPPs. We've found them very good. If you need anything explained they cope well with questions over the phone.

The secret to keeping the costs down is to avoid investing in "funds" and stick instead to ETFs and shares, including investment trusts.