Hargreaves Lansdown

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 with the bargain ...
...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 ... Read review

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 ... Read review

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 ... Read review

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 ... Read review

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) ... Read review