Difficulty transferring out of H/Lansdown / closing account.

JustAnotherSaver

S&S ISA account wanting to cash in, withdraw all the money & shut the whole thing down.

Funds totally sold so come time to withdraw. For easiness I'll just give example figures.

Under "Amount available to invest" it says £10,000.

However under "total cash" to the left of that and "Total value" it says £10,002.50.

When going to withdraw 'the lot', the only available figure is £10,000.

Not wanting £2.50 to keep the account open, HL get contacted. Their response being:

Your income account balance will include dividends, ‘Loyalty C’ and ‘Loyalty U’ payments received in your account.

Some income account balances can be transferred to your capital account, depending where the balance has come from. Whether you can transfer Loyalty bonus will depend on what type of loyalty bonus that your receive.

Funds purchased prior to 1 April 2014 will produce a cash loyalty bonus, designated as ‘Loyalty C’ on your account.

‘Loyalty C’ will be held in your income account and you can keep your Loyalty C balance in your income account to cover our management charges or transfer it to your capital account for withdrawal or to be used as part of your future trading balance.

Funds purchased after 1 April 2014 will produce a unit loyalty bonus, designated as a ‘Loyalty U’, Loyalty Unit rebate. Please note that Loyalty U has to be held in your income account cannot be transferred to the capital account and, under HMRC regulations, must be re-invested in funds.

‘Loyalty U’ therefore cannot be withdrawn or used to offset our management fees.

Full details of the Loyalty Bonus breakdown can be found by clicking on the 'Income and Loyalty Bonus' tab after logging in to your account and selecting the 'Transaction History' tab.

To be able to either invest or withdraw the Loyalty C income amounts from your HL Stocks & Shares ISA, you will first need to move it from the income account (the account into which we pay distributions) to the capital account.

To do this, log into your account, then click into the Stocks & Shares ISA / Fund & Share Account, then onto the 'cash' tab. From here you will be able to see the summary cash account balances. If you click on the ‘income and loyalty bonus tab’ beneath the ‘Income Account Balance and Settings’ heading you will see a link labelled 'Transfer your Income balance to your capital account now'. By clicking this link and following the instructions you will be able to move the money to the capital account.

Problem is what they say gets followed but doesn't work.

So when the "Income & Loyalty Bonus" tab is selected, the £2.50 is seen under loyalty bonus balance & settings.

However when going to "transfer now" the maximum available is £0.00.

Anyone experienced this and can offer a tip that isn't contact HL (done that - just wondered if anyone here knew)?

george4064

I haven’t been in this exact situation myself, but you could always call HL, go through security and ask them to transfer it over the phone?

masonic

It shouldn't be an impediment to you closing the S&S ISA. I have vague memories of some residual cash in my loyalty bonus account after transferring my S&S ISA out many years ago and a later arranged to have it paid out to me.

JustAnotherSaver

george4064 said:

I haven’t been in this exact situation myself, but you could always call HL, go through security and ask them to transfer it over the phone?

Personally I don't like phoning people. I know some people love it but I hate it & it's last resort. I'll try all online ways of contact & will accept the days of waiting vs phoning if possible.

Regardless, it's not for my account & the other person is not only in the same boat as me as far as phoning people goes but in addition has no clue about the online banking, so they're actually worse off.

Hence trying to get answers via secure messages and here.

masonic said:

It shouldn't be an impediment to you closing the S&S ISA. I have vague memories of some residual cash in my loyalty bonus account after transferring my S&S ISA out many years ago and a later arranged to have it paid out to me.

I remember closing a H/L account years ago and it left something behind too. Was very annoying. I did end up getting the dribble out but can't remember how.

Rollinghome

JustAnotherSaver said:

Under "Amount available to invest" it says £10,000.

However under "total cash" to the left of that and "Total value" it says £10,002.50.

When going to withdraw 'the lot', the only available figure is £10,000.

HL's accounting is confusing. When is "cash" not cash: when it's a loyalty bonus apparently.

Loyalty bonuses earned after 1 April 14 can only be reinvested in funds, and HL only do that when the sum reaches £10 iirc.  Can't be taken as cash. The amount shown as "available to invest" is less the loyalty bonus.

JustAnotherSaver

Rollinghome said:

JustAnotherSaver said:

Under "Amount available to invest" it says £10,000.

However under "total cash" to the left of that and "Total value" it says £10,002.50.

When going to withdraw 'the lot', the only available figure is £10,000.

HL's accounting is confusing. When is "cash" not cash: when it's a loyalty bonus apparently.

Loyalty bonuses earned after 1 April 14 can only be reinvested in funds, and HL only do that when the sum reaches £10 iirc.  Can't be taken as cash. The amount shown as "available to invest" is less the loyalty bonus.

Yep.

A bit of searching on the account and it seems to stem from 2017 when some old funds were sold.

Have sent a secure message saying since the only options on the account are reinvested in the biggest fund or reinvested when I decide - how is the money withdrawn if no reinvesting is desired?

masonic

I suspect the answer will be that it will need to be relinquished due to RDR rules. HL will not be permitted to pay it out as cash.

JustAnotherSaver

I'm not quite sure what that means.

But with a bit of luck they'll finally respond today.

The rest of the money has been put in for a withdrawal so it'll be all that's left.

Weirdly (to me) when withdrawing all the other money, it said that this will take you below the £50 so it'll close your account.

No problem I understand was the option that was then selected.

So we'll have to see whether it's closed or whether this £2.50 keeps it active.

Bit of a stupid system in my opinion. If it's the customers then let the customer have it if they want it instead of putting obstacles in the way.

But then the confrontational response to that is you don't have to be a H/L customer, you could go elsewhere if you don't like it.

Regardless, doesn't stop it being a stupid system.

masonic

What it means is that they cannot pay it out, so it will be forfeit.

The loyalty bonus account is separate, so it won't prevent closure of the ISA.