Hargreaves Lansdown refusing withdrawls

guardy751

I recently signed up with Hargreaves Lansdown and transferred my life savings to them.  After making a modest profit I sold my shares and have tried to withdraw my funds.
Every avenue to withdraw is blocked on both the website and app so I phoned and asked to withdraw through their customer services team which was confirmed and I received a confirmation email.
10 minutes later I receive a call and there is apparently 'a servicing issue' on my account and they are unable to send me my money.  I have phoned every day for the last week only to be told that they can't tell me what the problem is and can't tell me how long it will take to be resolved.
My entire lifes work is held in this account and I am unable to access any of it, I am completely at a loss and don't know what to do.
Any help/advice would be really appreciated.

Flight3287462

I imagine they are viewing your actions as suspicious, short time frame, life saving, profit and then immediate withdrawal.  I suspect they will be doing some due diligence on your account (eg insider trading, proceeds of crime or just HMRC ) before authorising the withdrawal.

guardy751

Thanks, is this a guess or from experience?  I bought shares just before a construction company released their results.  I now think the global economic situation is looking glum so don't want to continue investing, surely if they are suspicious they should ask for my reasoning/account of things?

Keep_pedalling

guardy751 said:

Thanks, is this a guess or from experience?  I bought shares just before a construction company released their results.  I now think the global economic situation is looking glum so don't want to continue investing, surely if they are suspicious they should ask for my reasoning/account of things?

No, because they are not allowed to tip off someone under investigation that this is the case. Your actions almost certainly triggered this as it is the sort of thing a money launderer might do.

i would suggest once this is sorted out you should take some financial advice, sticking tour life savings in the shares of a single company is downright reckless. 

guardy751

OK thanks.  I mean putting my life savings into a company of this size and reputation on share I had confidence in for a short time scale doesn't seem reckless to me.  I wasn't expecting a company of this standing to freeze my funds for something I haven't done as I had no reason to feel guilty/worry about that sort of thing.

Keep_pedalling

guardy751 said:

OK thanks.  I mean putting my life savings into a company of this size and reputation on share I had confidence in for a short time scale doesn't seem reckless to me.  I wasn't expecting a company of this standing to freeze my funds for something I haven't done as I had no reason to feel guilty/worry about that sort of thing.

The fact that you don’t think it reckless is why you really need some financial advice. Just think about how much you could have lost if just before the current crisis became apparent you had invested in one of the companies that have been put into difficulty by that crisis. Investors spread their risk buying into multiple companies and / or funds, gamblers buy into single companies.

HL are tied by financial laws that require them to freeze assets if a client carries out suspicious activity. They are not allowed to let you have your money until the fraud department have completed their investigation and this could take some time. You may not have been aware of it before but your unusual activity would have immediately flagged up a possible money laundering investigation.

Flight3287462

If it was a share you had confidence in, that could very easily be construed as insider trading if you were party to information that was not in the public domain.  Having said that I am a firm believer in buying shares in sectors/businesses you understand/work in because you can watch and see when things are going well/badly for either your company or your competitors that would not be insider trading.

Anyway we are all speculating but I would suggest something has rung an alarm  somewhere.

You aren't going to be losing much as savings rates are being cut on monthly basis at the  moment.  So best just leave them to get on with it and chivvy them up again in a month or so.

guardy751

OK thanks for the help/advice.  I am an amateur investor, I just thought that the new board at Kier Construction are turning things around and had planned for a long term investment in them, when I had issues withdrawing 10% of my investment I got frustrated and tried to withdraw all of it.  I appreciate i am not losing much by way of interest etc but just frustrating not being able to access my own hard earned money.  Will have to wait it out I guess.

Keep_pedalling

guardy751 said:

OK thanks for the help/advice.  I am an amateur investor, I just thought that the new board at Kier Construction are turning things around and had planned for a long term investment in them, when I had issues withdrawing 10% of my investment I got frustrated and tried to withdraw all of it.  I appreciate i am not losing much by way of interest etc but just frustrating not being able to access my own hard earned money.  Will have to wait it out I guess.

Unfortunately this is a frustrating process because you will be kept in the dark and anyone you speak HL will not be able to enlighten you. If you have a look over on the budgeting and banking board you will find quite a few threads where this has happened to peoples current accounts which  for most people will be a disaster. 

Al_Ross

 I have heard this before,that Hargreaves make it very difficult to withdraw your investments.I have some funds myself with them.

Have you tried speaking to their manager,for an explaination?

tacpot12

The thing to do is wait and co-operate with them. You should not need to access your life savings at short notice. Give them time to do what they need to do, and co-operate if they ask you for anything.