HL JISA New Fees

dreamypuma

Just wondered what peoples thoughts were on HL's new fees on JISAs

My daughter has held a JISA with HL for a while now, I typically fund the account monthly by debit card, and buy ETFs with any cash balance on her account.

As of 1st March, investing into a JISA with HL this way will attract fees (£6.95) per transaction, and recent emails have encouraged setting up Direct Debits for "Regular Investing"

I've reluctantly done this today. However my understanding of this arrangement is that HL only buy investments to the value of the monthly DD value. With no fractional shares on the platform, this will always leave a residual cash balance uninvested. There is apparently never a sweep of the total cash balance on account.

Inevitably, there will need to be a periodic manual sweep to invest uninvested balances which will attract the £6.95 fee.

I think I have this right, and appreciate that historically we've benefitted from one of the best value S&S JISA's on the market. In light of so many low cost adult option, paying fees on a child's account seems difficult to palate.

Is HL's JISA still the best option out there?

DavidT67

The HL JISA remains fee free even after the 1st March, reread the relevant website pages.

https://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/junior-isa/savings-interest-rates-and-charges

https://www.hl.co.uk/help/fees/calculator

https://www.hl.co.uk/accounts/fee-changes

poseidon1

If you can personally tolerate a £14.99 monthly fee for your own S&S ISA/GIA accounts, ii offers up to 5 free Jisas and a similar number of free linked adult family accounts -

https://www.ii.co.uk/ii-accounts/isa/junior-isa/junior-isa-charges

There is no fractional share purchase option, but the periodic sweep of excess cash should normally be accommodated by the monthly 1 free trade facility.

Worth looking at your collective family accounts to see if it is worth migrating to ii, since the more you have with them , the better the value for the single £14.99 fee.

dreamypuma

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81882494#Comment_81882494

This is what is baffling me, as my interpretation is that no fees apply to JISAs. To compound issues, the agents at HL that I have spoken to seem very unclear about what if any charges will apply to JISAs, as they don't seem to be able to differentiate between an adults ISAs and JISAs.

The emails I have received in relation to my daughters JISA specifically says:

"From 1st March we're making some changes to our dealing charges. Trades in funds will incur a £1.95 charge each time you trade online. The amount you pay for trades in equities will vary depending on how many trades you've placed in the previous month, if you've placed between 0-19 trades in the previous month, you'll pay £6.95 per trade. If you have placed 20+ trades in the previous month, you'll pay £3.95 per trade"

"Investing via Direct Debit will remain free of dealing charges, making it a simple and cost effective way to invest regularly"

Having spoken to HL yesterday, I have little or no confidence in them being able to explain what charges will apply as they seem very scripted and process driven. Quite concerning, given that I've always considered HL to be the "Waitrose" of platforms.

dreamypuma

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81882668#Comment_81882668

Feel like I may have shot myself in the foot. I started the inspecie transfers of my SIPP from ii to Freetrade at the beginning of this year. I'm about 4 weeks deep. Primarily:

a) To avoid the (then) £12.99pm fee, now £14.99 - (I didn't feel the need to disrupt the JISA at the time)

b) To avail Freetrade's Transfer offer (1% of all transfer value upto £5K per SIPP and ISA)

c) To consolidate my ISAs and SIPP on one free platform

This was all before hearing about HL's fees. 😣

dreamypuma

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81882494#Comment_81882494

I've just been on the phone to them. The fees quoted in the email are not applicable to the JISA. - Direct Debit cancelled.

Whilst on the phone I've highlighted that they really need to review their marketing emails, and ensure they are targeted at people that are impacted by the products affected. I my case the email received was clear that they had noticed multiple small debit card payments and trades, so the info looked relevant to our account.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81882694#Comment_81882694

Yes I had noted there were winners and losers under the new fee structure.

In my case I have Sipp, ISA and GIA accounts and up until this month was paying £21.99 p.m.

This is now down to £14.99, and with the free family accounts ( used to be £5 each), I now have an incentive to transfer out my mother's ISA from HL to ii and save her the current £12 + per month fee.