HL - no platform fee for shares?

James_Green_1982

HL seems to not charge any platform fee at all for holding individual shares.
So you'd only get charged the £11 dealing fee to buy (and sell) plus stamp duty on UK shares.
Would it also be free to hold US or European shares?

So what's the catch here?
Does HL just make up for this lost platform fee (for shares) by the slightly high 0.45% platform fee on ISAs? Plus currency exchange fees on overseas shares?

ColdIron

This is true for company shares, investment trusts and ETFs in the Fund and Share GIA however they do charge their 0.45% in other account types but apply a cap. £45 in the ISA and £200 in the SIPP. No catch and no idea about overseas shares, there may be supplemental charges. Have a look at their fees here

https://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/fund-and-share-account/charges-and-interest-rates

TJB24

ColdIron wrote: »

This is true for company shares, investment trusts and ETFs in the Fund and Share GIA however they do charge their 0.45% in other account types but apply a cap. £45 in the ISA and £200 in the SIPP. No catch and no idea about overseas shares, there may be supplemental charges. Have a look at their fees here

https://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/fund-and-share-account/charges-and-interest-rates

This is correct, I believe HL charge a flat 1% fee at point of transaction to cover foreign exchange costs. So if buying shares in a Vantage (non ISA or SIPP) account, total charges on a foreign share is as follows;

£11.50 buy fee
0.5% stamp duty
1% foreign currency charge
£11.50 exit fee (plus 1% foreign exchange fee) at point of sale

There are no charges for having the asset in your HL Vantage account. In an ISA or SIPP it's 0.45%, capped at max £45 p/a for total portfolio. If the asset is an Investment Trust there is likely to be an ongoing charge automatically priced in to the asset's value.

Not inclusive of capital gains tax liability as outside ISA wrapper.

ColdIron

TJB24 wrote: »

£11.50 buy fee
0.5% stamp duty

• £11.95
• SDRT on non UK/foreign shares? Not in my experience

James_Green_1982

ColdIron wrote: »

• £11.95
• SDRT on non UK/foreign shares? Not in my experience

I think Ireland has 1% stamp duty and some (all?) European shares have a 0.3% FTT (similar to stamp duty?)

ColdIron

You could be right, the only non UK shares I buy are Jersey or Guernsey domiciled ITs where it does not apply. It's not a bad deal, I have a large portfolio of ITs in their Fund and Share account and there are no annual charges. However to be fair quite a few other platforms have a similar low/no fee charging structure

londoninvestor

James_Green_1982 wrote: »

So what's the catch here?

No real catch - HL's pricing is pretty transparent.

However, if you're thinking "but there must be a catch, this is a great deal", have you looked at competitors' pricing? e.g. IWeb is £5 a trade, for a £25 one-off (not annual) account fee. x-o.co.uk is £6 a trade with no additional fee, etc.

HL has a good website and service, and isn't heinous especially if you don't trade frequently - but it's not really market-leading in price. Much less uncompetitive for shares/ITs/ETFs than it is for funds though!