£25 bonus for HL active savings account - expires 06/12/2019

colsten

If you can spare £5,000 for at least 6 months and fancy one of the savings accounts Hargreaves Lansdown offer, you can get a £25 sign-up bonus between now and December 6 2019.

Details here.

£25 Terms and Conditions

A convenient account for the £5,000 could be the 6-months Charter Savings Bank account, paying 1.57% AER. With the £25 bonus, the return would be 2.07% AER. Opening the account and depositing the money is a doddle, particularly if you already have an account with HL. It does, however, seem to take a week before your money actually starts earning interest (memories of Raisin....). I am not sure how long withdrawals take.

quirkydeptless

Shucks, I aleady have an active Savings account

cattie

Me too, else would have gone for it. I'll mention it to my sister who might well be interested.

dcs34

These are normal cash savings accounts aren't they? No risk of loss to the £5,000 "investment", but HL basically offer you one aggregated log-in and deposit function?

NedS

dcs34 wrote: »

These are normal cash savings accounts aren't they? No risk of loss to the £5,000 "investment", but HL basically offer you one aggregated log-in and deposit function?

Yes, that's my understanding. They have aggregated multiple savings products under one umbrella making it easy to "shop" around (within the product range on offer) and move your money from one to another once the fixed term is up. In return, I'm sure HL have negotiated a nice percentage kickback for any funds saved with the providers in question. In some cases, it looks like HL may have been able to negotiate slightly higher rates than one can obtain by going directly to the provider in question. The £25 bonus is effectively giving you an additional 0.5% on your £5K.

dcs34

NedS wrote: »

Yes, that's my understanding. They have aggregated multiple savings products under one umbrella making it easy to "shop" around (within the product range on offer) and move your money from one to another once the fixed term is up. In return, I'm sure HL have negotiated a nice percentage kickback for any funds saved with the providers in question. In some cases, it looks like HL may have been able to negotiate slightly higher rates than one can obtain by going directly to the provider in question. The £25 bonus is effectively giving you an additional 0.5% on your £5K.

Great, just didn't realise HL offered this type of product! Yes some of the rates seem slightly better and also product range is a bit different, I can't see the 6 month product direct with Charter Savings.

Can't quite see how HL make their fees if the rates are better than the provider's own products direct, seems like the provider's would be out of pocket twice per customer. Wouldn't surprise me if HL are running as a break-even just to get savers and more cautious punters onto their platform...only needs a small fraction to get brave and start looking around the HL website...

colsten

dcs34 wrote: »

Great, just didn't realise HL offered this type of product! Yes some of the rates seem slightly better and also product range is a bit different, I can't see the 6 month product direct with Charter Savings.

I couldn't see it on their site, either. If you want to go for it, don't wait - it's scheduled to be on HL until the 28th only https://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/active-savings

dcs34 wrote: »

Can't quite see how HL make their fees if the rates are better than the provider's own products direct, seems like the provider's would be out of pocket twice per customer. Wouldn't surprise me if HL are running as a break-even just to get savers and more cautious punters onto their platform...only needs a small fraction to get brave and start looking around the HL website...

let's not worry too much about HL's profits

dcs34 wrote: »

These are normal cash savings accounts aren't they? No risk of loss to the £5,000 "investment", but HL basically offer you one aggregated log-in and deposit function?

Essentially, yes. I think there might be a tiny risk whilst your money sits in the Barclays holding account before it gets actually invested with one of the savings providers. Unless I am mistaken, that Barclays account doesn't come with an FSCS guarantee. As soon as it is with the savings provider, you do have the £85K guarantee. I think it's an acceptable risk.

st182

Dammit, I've had one of these accounts since it came available- would have liked a £25 bung! :rotfl:

colsten wrote: »

Essentially, yes. I think there might be a tiny risk whilst your money sits in the Barclays holding account before it gets actually invested with one of the savings providers. Unless I am mistaken, that Barclays account doesn't come with an FSCS guarantee. As soon as it is with the savings provider, you do have the £85K guarantee. I think it's an acceptable risk.

I think you're right on that- I'm sure i remember reading about that when I signed up. For info, the barclays holding auto-deposits back to your nominated bank account if funds are still there after 3 days, so best to only put funds in when there is a fixed rate you want is available to transfer funds right away.

However, there is another way, the method I use is to utilise one of their easy access products, and transfer funds immediately into there. Once I decide to go for a fixed rate product, i just transfer out of the easy access, which is instant, leaving a £ in at least to keep it alive, and put it into a fixed rate for the given period. As i write the best easy access for new customers is coventry BS at 1.2%.

colsten

st182 wrote: »

However, there is another way, the method I use is to utilise one of their easy access products, and transfer funds immediately into there. Once I decide to go for a fixed rate product, i just transfer out of the easy access, which is instant, leaving a £ in at least to keep it alive, and put it into a fixed rate for the given period. As i write the best easy access for new customers is coventry BS at 1.2%.

That's what I would have suggested but was too tired/lazy to type it in . Thanks for doing it

over_the_edge

colsten wrote: »

let's not worry too much about HL's profits

They can be paid up to 0.25% commission by the provider, but have said they're deliberately taking less for now, to build up the size of Active Savings. Not clear whether they're taking 0% or somewhere between that and 0.25%.

The providers do save costs for signing up customers (verifying identity, etc) and admin. So they might well be prepared to pay more (in total of interest to customer + commission to HL) than for direct accounts.

Essentially, yes. I think there might be a tiny risk whilst your money sits in the Barclays holding account before it gets actually invested with one of the savings providers. Unless I am mistaken, that Barclays account doesn't come with an FSCS guarantee. As soon as it is with the savings provider, you do have the £85K guarantee. I think it's an acceptable risk.

I believe FSCS does apply to the Barclays account.

They say it's a pooled client account in the name of HLSL Nominee Limited. Which is the same as most of the products with savings providers.

Also, under a FAQ, "What does the FSCS limit apply to?", they say:

"Any cash you hold outside Active Savings with a partner bank or Barclays, will count towards your overall limit with that bank"

masonic

over_the_edge wrote: »

I believe FSCS does apply to the Barclays account.

They say it's a pooled client account in the name of HLSL Nominee Limited. Which is the same as most of the products with savings providers.

Also, under a FAQ, "What does the FSCS limit apply to?", they say:

"Any cash you hold outside Active Savings with a partner bank or Barclays, will count towards your overall limit with that bank"

Correct, HL has the Client Money permission meaning you have FSCS protection against misuse of your money, and protection against Barclays becoming insolvent while it is in the Barclays nominee account.