Hargreaves Lansdown are the fourth online broker that I have had the pleasure of using so, by now, I've got a pretty good point of reference to compare.
Having started with Barclays Stockbrokers and moved on because of the rather expensive costs (comparatively), I dumped almost my entire ... Read review
Advantages: Great site, competetive charges, good extras Disadvantages: Extra charges and £1000 Bos savings account
Hargreaves Lansdown are the fourth online broker that I have had the pleasure of using so, by now, I've got a pretty good point of reference to compare.
Having started with Barclays Stockbrokers and moved on because of the rather expensive costs (comparatively), I dumped almost my entire holding during a month's free trading at Charles Schwab but pulled out before the exorbitant fees kicked in. After a brief but fruitless flirtation ... ...happily in the lap of Hargreaves Lansdown, a classy joint with the added attraction of competetive fees.
In my opinion, there are five elements which combine to make an online broker excellent, very poor or somewhere in between, (poor, faverage or good, lets say). These are:
Price
Quality and reliability of site
Range of investments
Application procedure
Extra stuff
Hargreaves Lansdown are the fourth online broker that I have had the pleasure of using so, by now, I've got a pretty good point of reference to compare.
Having started with Barclays Stockbrokers and moved on because of the rather expensive costs (comparatively), I dumped almost my entire holding during a month's free trading at Charles Schwab but pulled out before the exorbitant fees kicked in. After a brief but fruitless flirtation with the bargain basement broker, Sharecentre, I decided that the service, thought cheap, was entirely too limited, and landed happily in the lap of Hargreaves Lansdown, a classy joint with the added attraction of competetive fees.
In my opinion, there are five elements which combine to make an online broker excellent, very poor or somewhere in between, (poor, faverage or good, lets say). These are:
Price Quality and reliability of site Range of investments Application procedure Extra stuff
So lets go:
PRICE
At the moment HL are doing a deal whereby you get to deal at £4.95 a go for a month. This will increase to £9.95 after the month is out. These prices are competetive. They aren't the best, but compared to Barclays (1% with a minimum of £12) or Selftrade (£12.50), it's competetive. However, there is an annual fee of £48 and this isn't dropped if you deal frequently. It's not that much but its definitely a black star in such a competetive market.
QUALITY/RELIABILITY OF SITE
In two words, not bad. I prefer the vacant minimalism of Barclays but HL are miles ahead of the cheaper members of the brethren like Sharecentre. The homepage is very nice but it drops a bit after that. Generally, the site looks crisp and clean, although some of the text can look a bit dodgy, is easily navigable and reliable. Well, I haven't had any problems.
RANGE OF INVESTMENTS
Perhaps my key problem with Barclays, other than the price, was the limited markets available. I missed out on a couple of real gems when I was with them simply because you couldn't buy some AIM stock and new issues were unavailable for some time. No problems on this account with HL. That said I've certainly been heading more down the straight and narrow as far as investments over the last few months so I haven't tested this one to the limit. HL also do discount paensions and ISAs so if you like what you see with the trading there is plenty on offer. It's always nice to have everything in one placea as long as performance isn't compromised.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
The main problem I found with HL is the fact that to set up a dealing account with them you have to pump £1000 into a high rate savings account with the BoS. Whilst this isn't a bad account (4% interest) and it is managed by HL, it is certainly not condusive to ease of access as far as the service is concerned. I don't want to mess around with thousands of pounds only to find, as I did with all my previous brokers, that there was something about the service that I didn't like. I suppose this is to guarantee that users of the service actually have the funds available, but HL are the only broker I've come across to do this and whilst it isn't neccessarily a downer, it definitely lowered my impression.
EXTRAs
This is the section where HL really performs. As part of the deal you get annual subcriptions to three different trading magazines; Penny Share, Inside the City and AIM bulletin. Whilst this is a nice bonus you have to ask yourself whether it is worth the extra management fees you are paying, especially as for £60 you could probably get all three subscriptions anyway.
Overall:
Well HL are one of the best services out there. The dealing fees are reasonable. The site is good and trading is easy and there are plenty of extras to keep you interested. A five star rating is, however, not deserved for two reasons.. the £1000 BoS savings account you have to open (mainly because of the extra hassle) and the £12.50 quarterly payments (as well as the £12.50 management fee for the BoS account).
If you want to pay a little extra for good service and don't mind changing your savings arrangements dive on in. If this sounds like a problem look elsewhere, there's bound to be one that suits you perfectly.
Advantages: Cheapest Execution only stockbroker Disadvantages: Takes upto a few days to get everything set up.
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) was my second experience with an online stockbroker, my first being with Barclays. The fact that I didn't have to maintain a bunch of paper certificates was a major factor in chosing HL, coupled with the low charges. From an extensive search of many online brokers which offered the paperless CREST system (including Barclays) I decided upon HL. At £9.95 per transaction, plus about £50 a year management free (for the CREST ... ...up the account, which took a few days, I found dealing easy and worry free, there is even a limit option to prevent you from buying (or selling) at unwanted prices. Once completed you will recieve the contract note by post and the deal is done. One irritating point I found was that, you are unable to buy if the money hasn't cleared through your dealing account (and visible on their online system), which can take a couple of days.
You get a monthly ...
thatboymark 11.02.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Hargreaves Lansdown
Advantages: Excellent service. Cheapest in UK. Disadvantages: Absolutely none.
...ALL my share dealing with Hargreaves Lansdown on-line. Setting up the account was very easy on-line. The basic dealing account costs £40 per annum for which you also get 36 monthly publications relating to share tips, broker comments etc on FTSE and AIM stocks. These alone are worth some £120 per annum at normal client prices!
Share dealing is carried out AT A SET £9.95 PER DEAL!! A price that is definitively the cheapest available anywhere in the ... ...approx 4% interest at present. Hargreaves Lansdown charge £12.50 for management of the Securities Account. This is more than paid for if you have an average of £1500 in the account!
Dealing on the net is essentially instantaneous from an easy to use transaction page, supported by real-time prices. Confirmation of the deal is usually given almost instantaneously in a transaction history file, and an e-mail confirms all the details. A contract note ...
wiseoldowl 23.08.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Hargreaves Lansdown
Advantages: Very cheap, Very efficient, Very reliable. Very professional. Disadvantages: Absolutely none!
...years ago I switched to Hargreaves Lansdown and have received 100% satisfaction ever since. Their telephone dealing was absolutely excellent, and their on-line dealing has bees completely without fault.
A good web site, with real-time prices and share quotes, accompanied with an extremely easy to use dealing page, and high security levels, are complemented bt an e-mail return to confirm allk deals within a minute or two, and contract notes received ...
wiseoldowl 15.08.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Hargreaves Lansdown
Advantages: very cheap and reliable Disadvantages: ? high management charges
I have been using HL for about 9 months now and it is the best broker I had so far in terms of cost, accessibility and reliability. I also use Killik but the charges are very high. I have prevoiusly used Teletrade and Charles Schwab before them but they wouldnt match HL in terms of service and cost.
The dealing charges are fixed at £9.95 per trade aand till last week, once you place the order onlin it is executed manually by the delarers. However ... ...on, you will be given a quote and you would have 15 seconds to accept it. If the quote is not accepted within 15 seconds, one has to place the deal again. It is one of the big steps forward for me as I have been waiting for a longtime for this. Some are concerned about the management charges (£12.50 per quarter) which is not too high considering the low dealing charges. ( as far I am aware it is the cheapest flat rate dealing around at present)
...
sivam 10.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Hargreaves Lansdown
Hargreaves lansdown have lost us thousands of pounds in their portfolio management service, we invested our life savings with them, they lost thousands off our pensions and isa products, please beware when investing with them. We were given the totally wrong advice for a short time to retirement, they invested our money in equities which was wrong. The salesmen who came to see us gave us wrong information and completely mislead us. in our opinion ... ...they tell such a good story of other clients who are pleased with their investments, none regarding ones who are very dissatisfied, their charges are very high and this eats into any investment especially pensions, they try and tell people to invest in Sipps, but unless you know about stock and shares you can lose a lot of money. ...
deadfox 17.02.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Hargreaves Lansdown
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Following my earlier comments on the downhill quality of TDW I have just learnt that Hargreaveslansdown offer a free nominee account transfer service to them.
They also allow you unlimited online trades in the first month that you openthe account for only 5 pounds per trade.
Following that, I believe that all trades are at a set price of 15 pounds per trade.
That beats TDW hands down as TDW are planning put up the frequent traders rate to 19.95 per trade.
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