Any point in staying with Hargreaves Lansdown for my ISA? Trading212 looks cheaper

Sportacus

If you read Stocks & shares ISAs: find the best platform - MSE (moneysavingexpert.com), it has trading212 under "Lower fees, but less established platforms", and HL under "Higher fees, but more established platforms".

Does how established a platform is really matter? You investments are ring-fenced anyway.

All I want to do with HL is keep some money in the Vanguard S&P 500 fund and leave it there, which it appears I can do for free with Trading212, instead of giving 0.45% a year to HL. I've checked the fund itself and it's the same 0.07% annual charge in each platform.

I'm wondering how HL will stay in business with the newer cheaper platforms coming in, are they just relying on apathy to keep their customers?

ColdIron

I wouldn't get too worried about the profitability of HL

george4064

HL will stay in business just fine, just like Waitrose and Sainsburys will stay in business even though the likes of Aldi and Lidl exist.

22225

Is the consensus then that Trading 212, Investengine etc are totally ok and people would be fine having large amounts of money in them? I mean I dont have lots of money, but wouldn't you feel safer having 200kin HL compared to the cheaper platforms??? Because you could phone them or doorstep them???? What do people really think????

Kaizen917

Its funny because T212 specifically isnt exactly a newcomer anymore and they have been generally fine but its also not necessarily wrong for people to at least consider worse case scenarios. Personally, I would think hard before leaving 200k anywhere so I get the predicament. 

There is also always the alternative option that there are other platforms that arent as pricey as HL but also fairly established.

GeoffTF

HL's 0.45% is capped unless it is an open ended fund that you could not hold with T212 anyway. £200K is not a big account nowadays. You are very unlikely to lose your money if T212 goes bust, but you could lose access to it, perhaps for as long as a year. I do not understand why you want to invest all your money in the world's most overpriced market. A global tracker would make more sense.

ChesterDog

Sportacus said:

I'm wondering how HL will stay in business with the newer cheaper platforms coming in, are they just relying on apathy to keep their customers?

I've just moved four accounts to HL from what is generally a very much cheaper (but well-established) platform.

The reason for doing so definitely didn't include apathy. In fact I've used three different platforms in the last twelve months. Or is it four? 

I very much like the fact that HL charges so much in general and is so profitable.

I just ensure it's not me that they're charging (in fact they paid me £5000 for moving to them).  :-)

DavidT67

OP, Perhaps consider elements beyond the cost of the service and look at what you receive in exchange.

HL has thousands of UK based staff, is a UK publicly listed company, a full member of London Stock Exchange, undertakes all customer service, administration and development in-house and onshore.

The same can not be said of Vanguard Investor UK, Trading 212 or InvestEngine.  So do some due diligience and dig deeper into what the lower cost platforms are saving money on and where. i.e. UK staff and customer service.

HL has orders of magnitude more customers and assets under administration then the new entrants. 

HL needn't be expensive if you use it appropriately and make use of the regular cashback offers for transfers and account opening.

solidpro

GeoffTF said:

A global tracker would make more sense.

Current examples?

Rich1976

I would always prefer to choose a larger and well established provider with excellent customer service , and a decent user friendly experience with  customer service staff based in the UK that know what they are talking about. Even if that means paying more for the privilege.

i certainly would not be comfortable using app only providers or which are less established or profitable and equally where the service can be hit and miss.

you have to consider everything as part of an overall package and not just isolate charges .

gravel_2

HL has a broader range of things you can invest in on their platform. T212 is only ETFs and stocks.

For just parking cash/regularly investing in an index ETF Trading212 is materially cheaper in the long run as things stand.