Paper share - HL service closed due to Covid, who else takes them?

Disjoint

I signed up with hargreaves L in July to try and register some paper shares. They suspended the service due to Covid. I emailed them every month asking if the service was re-opened, they have no idea when they'll re-open it. In the meantime we have a very large amount of paper shares, and we need to get them registered with an online broker. Who else offers this service? If you know if the service is still open during the crisis that's an additional bonus!

bowlhead99

You could try the execution-only service from Jarvis, https://www.x-o.co.uk.
If you have an account with them, they don't charge to transfer a paper certificate into a nominee account with them (https://x-o.co.uk/how-to.html#transfer-certs), but would charge £15 per company to re-materialise them if you wanted to take them away on paper in your own name again later rather than sell or transfer them electronically.

I have an account with them and it works fine, but I couldn't tell you if they have suspended the 'transfer in paper certs' service as I haven't tried to use that aspect of the service. But they don't have any special banners up on the site saying it's suspended.

milton1970

IWeb - open an account (£25) & use the transfer in process 

Apodemus

Disjoint said:

I signed up with hargreaves L in July to try and register some paper shares. They suspended the service due to Covid. I emailed them every month asking if the service was re-opened, they have no idea when they'll re-open it. In the meantime we have a very large amount of paper shares, and we need to get them registered with an online broker. Who else offers this service? If you know if the service is still open during the crisis that's an additional bonus!

Perhaps I'm not clear on what you are trying to do or on the current restrictions on HL services, so I apologise in advance if I have misunderstood.  But as far as I can make out, HL will still deal (by phone) in certificated shares, so you should be able to sell if you need to.  What you can't do at the moment is transfer certificated shares into your nominee account, which I guess is what you want to do, rather than sell them outright?  If you already have them in certificated form and don't want to sell them, why is there an urgency to transfer them into a nominee account?

drphila

Several brokers will currently allow transfer in to nominee accounts (eg A J Bell, iweb, computershare). Most will require up to 10 working days before you can trade. As well as HL, sellmycertificates and computershare offer instant trades ( and you send them your certs within five days). I've just transfered certs to computershare without trading but I'm not sure if sellmycertificates do transfer only. If you do want to trade and it's small amounts, the broker comparison table on the sellmy certificates homepage gives quite a good comparison of commission rates and minimum charges.

Disjoint

Thank you all for the advice - I think I am a bit confused now (me probably just being thick)
I want to keep the shares, but want to not have pieces of papers everywhere (we have over 100 paper shares of BP as dividends were elected to be distributed as shares as opposed to cash for many years, and that's just one example...) The idea is to get rid of all the paper and have them with an online broker so that all dividends are in one place without receiving paper cheques etc...
HL had a service where you could register your shares with them without selling them. I looked at AJ Bell but it seems they'll let you sell the shares, but I didn't see that they would let you register them with them as custodian.
I'll call them on Monday but if someone can enlighten me that would be much appreciated!

wmb194

Disjoint said:

Thank you all for the advice - I think I am a bit confused now (me probably just being thick)
I want to keep the shares, but want to not have pieces of papers everywhere (we have over 100 paper shares of BP as dividends were elected to be distributed as shares as opposed to cash for many years, and that's just one example...) The idea is to get rid of all the paper and have them with an online broker so that all dividends are in one place without receiving paper cheques etc...
HL had a service where you could register your shares with them without selling them. I looked at AJ Bell but it seems they'll let you sell the shares, but I didn't see that they would let you register them with them as custodian.
I'll call them on Monday but if someone can enlighten me that would be much appreciated!

Apart from the Covid issue most brokers will normally facilitate lodging your certificated shareholdings with them, it's just a case of opening a nominee account, completing a/the Crest transfer form(s) and posting your certificates. In a week or two they will appear in your brokerage account. E.g.,
https://www.youinvest.co.uk/faq/can-i-deposit-share-certificate-my-aj-bell-youinvest-dealing-account
https://www.barclays.co.uk/smart-investor/investments/moving-investments/more-about-lodgements/

milton1970

iWeb allow a simple conversion - through their transfer in process .. fill in a form & attach certificates = done

You can then hold or sell 

Just need to open an account