Hargreaves Lansdown poor service

lotus_europa

On 16/2/26 Hargreaves Lansdown decided there was an anomaly with my postal address despite me being registered with them at this address since 2009 and holding a SIPP,ISA and fund share accounts.
They immediately placed restrictions on my accounts and used the none guaranteed second class royal mail delivery service to inform me of this situation.
Fortunately I had delayed my trip away so was available to accept delivery on 18/2/26 when it arrived. I was naturally concerned and asked several times whether or not my imminent SIPP payment would be made but received no answer for some reason. Out of curiosity I logged onto my account and tried to make a withdrawal which was readily refused but on trying to make a payment into my account i was allowed to go right to the last line of confirmation which seemed like Hargreaves Lansdown were restricting withdrawals yet allowing money to be added to my account.
I complained to Hargreaves Lansdown expressing concern about the use of the second class mail service for a serious situation meriting restrictions on my account, the inability of the staff to allay my fears about my upcoming SIPP payment and apparent practice of restricting the outflow of money yet still welcoming fresh money despite the account having restrictions placed on it.
Hargreaves Lansdown paid me £50 for the inconvenience experienced and refused to uphold my 3 concerns.
I approached the Financial Ombudsman service.....they refused to uphold my concerns, suggesting the behaviour of Hargreaves Lansdown was reasonable.
How anyone can support the use of the second class mail service to communicate serious matters and staff repeatedly not answering basic questions and still appearing to be taking in fresh money to my restricted account is amazing.
After around 25 years its time for my wife and I to be moving on to AJ Bell. I asked AJ Bell to confirm whether or not they would use second class mail given such a concern and they were quite definite in their answer, no , definitely not.
Would I recommend Hargreaves Lansdown .? .....No. They have been going down hill for some time now and they are one of the more expensive options available to self investors.

eskbanker

Not defending them here, but all financial institutions are tightly bound by regulations and are required to investigate anomalies, during which time some sort of restrictions may be appropriate, so if the independent ombudsman reviewed their actions and considered them appropriate, in light of all the relevant facts, then that's effectively the end of the matter, albeit it's understandable that you'd vote with your feet if you still feel aggrieved.

dunstonh

Hargreaves Lansdown paid me £50 for the inconvenience experienced and refused to uphold my 3 concerns.
I approached the Financial Ombudsman service and dealt with xxxxxx and xxxxx.....they refused to uphold my concerns, suggesting the behaviour of Hargreaves Lansdown was reasonable.

I don't think you should name individual employees of the FOS. It's very bad form on a public forum, and you haven't used your own name, so why should you use theirs? I have reported your post to get them removed.

I also think that the actions of HL are reasonable given the laws that exist that they have to follow. The FCA rejecting the complaint was predictable given that the FOS has no power to tell a provider to overrule the law. You were lucky to get £50.

The same laws apply to AJ Bell or any other platform. Most of the platforms use a small range of very large data providers. So if AJ Bell and HL use the same AML data provider, then the same thing could have occurred.

lotus_europa

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82036925#Comment_82036925

I disagree with your view that naming specific employees of such companies is very bad on a public forum. I work in a profession that readily names me if my performance falls short so why should forums discriminate.

dunstonh

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82036950#Comment_82036950

Neither of those financial ombudsman service employees has fallen short nor done anything wrong. You have chosen to publicly name them whilst you hide behind a false name.

Your discrimination against them is unfair, and the board won't allow it.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82036950#Comment_82036950

Maybe it's acceptable on some forums but the rules of this one are clear:

Do not share personal information

We want to keep our Forum focused on quality MoneySaving content and to keep you safe while doing this. Please do not request or share personal identifying information or arrange to meet up in posts or private messages ('PMs'). This also includes sharing your own or others' names, email addresses, details of where you live or work and any social media accounts.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/forum-faqs/

masonic

It's against forum rules to name anyone here, but if an ombudsman has made a final decision on your case, then the full decision and name of the ombudsman will be published in due course. You are at liberty to link to that (and it will be interesting to read).

lotus_europa

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82037056#Comment_82037056

thank you that is a helpful post

i removed the part of the post that was outside of forum guidelines

lotus_europa

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82036970#Comment_82036970

names have been removed

lotus_europa

names removed

flaneurs_lobster

Can you tell us the nature of the anomalous postal address?

Flat Number/Floor Number being confused type of anomaly or you don't actually live where you say you live type of anomaly?

You might consider that the actions of HL would be disproportionate if the cause was a typo but rather more apposite if you've possibly breached residency or KYC rules.