Hargreaves Lansdown - tech error on my account

joshuadeacon94

Today I tried selling approx 8,000 shares that I held in IAG. But I kept getting errors, telling me it couldn't sell. Eventually, it let the transaction go through, and I thought ah, great. But, then I realised it hadn't gone through, I checked my transactions, not appearing, I checked my emails, nothing. So I tried again, and I continued this cycle 13 times thinking it was a tech error. Eventually, after not working for ages, I gave up.
About an hour after my attempts, I started receiving notifications that all these trades have gone through, and my account is -£112,000 because it sold all these shares that I didn't have in the first place.
Am I liable for this?

Alice_Holt

What did HL say when you phoned them ?

joshuadeacon94

They are closed. I've sent a secure message, and tried to find any out of hours support but nothing. 

Stargunner

I had a similar problem with HL today. I gave my son some money earlier in the year to open an ISA with them and I buy and sell the investments for him. Tried buying a fund today and although it looked liked it went through it didn’t show in the account or transaction history. I know all the financial websites were struggling with demand today and seemed to be in meltdown. Tried again 3 more times with same result. Now all 4 buys are showing and as the total cost of them was more than the available cash balance the account is now showing a negative cash balance. Will have to call them in the morning.

joshuadeacon94

I managed to get through to the stockbroker - who said I need to phone customer support. But he said they are aware of the issue, it’s affecting multiple people. It’ll be interesting to see how they try to resolve this considering I’m technically £122k now in debt to them. 

[Deleted User]

No you are not liable joshuadeacon94.
Sleep easy.

joshuadeacon94

I’ll keep you all posted when I hear the outcome tomorrow. Thanks for the reassurance ZingPowZing
 ZingPowZing said:

No you are not liable joshuadeacon94.
Sleep easy.

masonic

Not a bad day to be short selling IAG, sure it will fall back a bit in a couple of days. When the proceeds of the sale turn up, just buy back the -96,000 IAG shares you currently hold and pocket the difference.

joshuadeacon94

masonic said:

Not a bad day to be short selling IAG, sure it will fall back a bit in a couple of days. When the proceeds of the sale turn up, just buy back the -96,000 IAG shares you currently hold and pocket the difference.

Wouldn’t that be the dream? Although I dont think I could hold my nerve. 

Thrugelmir

If the prices rises in the meantime you would be out of pocket. HL are going to have to correct the trades on their account. Too late to cancel them. Not your problem to resolve. 

george4064

In addition, I wouldn’t bother holding for ages on the phone to inform HL/rectify it. Just send them a secure message and they will sort it.