Hargreaves Lansdown Review
Is this broker worth the extra money?
Pros
- Excellent research and education
- Good customer service
- Different accounts
Cons
- Expensive
- Trading instruments
Contents
9.
Introduction
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) is one of the oldest brokers in the United Kingdom and was founded in 1981. It is also one of the biggest with 1.300.000 clients with £96 billion of savings and investments. They offer a great range of products and accounts. They are a fund supermarket, a fund manager, a discount broker, a stockbroker, a pensions specialist, an annuity specialist, a wealth manager and a financial adviser.
Their aim is to simplify your financial life by making it easy and straightforward to manage your savings, investments and pensions under one roof. They offer a wide range of investment products and are know for their expensiveness. find out in this review whether you get value for money!
Target audience
As mentioned in the introduction, Hargreaves Lansdown enables you to manage your savings, investments and pensions in one place. The business model of HL is that they “offer a lifelong, secure home for people's savings and investments that offers great value, an excellent service and makes their financial life easy”. Since HL is more expensive than other brokers, HL is especially suitable for investors who are willing to pay a little extra for better services and platforms.
Stocks
Funds
Bonds
ETFs
They offer five accounts for adults, and three junior accounts. Here we only describe the adult accounts. Click here to find out more about the junior accounts.
Stocks and shares ISA
A simple way to invest up to £20,000 free from UK tax.
- Aged 18+
- Tax-free growth
- Tax-free withdrawals
- No UK tax on income
Min. deposit: £100
Max. contribution: £20,000
Fund and share account
A low-cost, flexible dealing account that makes anytime trading quick and easy.
- Make use of your tax-free dividend allowance, capital gains tax allowance and personal savings allowance
Min. deposit: £1
Max. contribution: unlimited
Self invested personal pension
A flexible pension that gives you the control to choose your own investments.
- Up to 45% tax relief on contributions if under age 75 (up to 46% for Scottish tax payers)
- Tax-free growth
- No UK tax on investment income (i.e. dividends and interest payments)
- Up to 25% can usually be withdrawn tax free, the rest is taxed as income
Min. deposit: £100
Max. contribution: earnings
Lifetime ISA
Save and invest for your first home or later life, with up to £1,000 per year in extra help from the government.
- Aged 18 - 39
- 25% government bonus on any contributions
- Tax-free growth
- No UK tax on income
- Tax-free withdrawals when buying a first home or at age 60
Min. deposit: £100
Max. contribution: £4,000 per year
Active savings
Pick and mix easy access and fixed term savings from a range of banks and building societies, all through the convenience of one online account.
- Up to £1,000 tax free under personal savings allowance
- Taxed as savings interest
Min. deposit: £1
Max. contribution: unlimited
Fees and commissions
The fees are higher than with other stock brokers as you can see in the comparison table below. The fee for trading shares depends on the number of trades in the previous month. If you traded less than 9 times in that month, you pay £11.95 commission. If you traded more than 20 times, you pay £5.95. You don't pay an annual fee for trading shares, but you do pay 0.45% per year on your fund values.
Below, common transactions with associated transaction costs from different brokers are compared. The amount of service fee or custody fee of different brokers is also compared. Check out the comparison page for a complete fee comparison of all brokers.
Shares £1.000
Shares £10.000
Service fee £10.000
£11.95
£11.95
£0
£2.95
£2.95
£0
£1.89
£3.15
£0
£7.99
£7.99
€9.99 PM
£9
£19
£12 PM
In short
Hargreaves Lansdown is more expensive than other brokers. However they help you keeping a good eye on your taxes, and offer good research for investment products. If you solely want to invest in shares and funds, you are better off with DEGIRO of FinecoBank. However if you look for excellent service, good education and extensive accounts, HL might be the right broker for you.
- Excellent research
- Different accounts
- Expensive
- Trading instruments
# Active investors
1,300,000
Money guaranteed
£85,000
Reliability
Securities lending
No
Mobile app
Minimum deposit
£100
Fees
Shares
£5.95 – £11.95
Options
Leveraged products
Futures
Funds or trusts
0.45% per year
ETFs
£5.95 – £11.95
Telephone order
1% min. £20
Service fee
€0
Forex
CFDs
Cryptocurrencies
Customer service
Education
Usability
Trading platform
Bank transfer
Credit card
PayPal
- Low fees
- Investment product range
- Analysis functionalities
- Securities lending
# Active investors
400,000
Money guaranteed
£20,000
Reliability
Securities lending
Yes
Mobile app
Demo account
Minimum deposit
£1
Fees
Shares
£1.75 + 0.014%
Options
€0,75
Leveraged products
£1.75 + 0.014%
Futures
€0.75
Funds or trusts
€0-€7,50+0,10%
ETFs
€2 + 0.03%
Telephone order
£8.50
Service fee
€0
Forex
CFDs
Cryptocurrencies
Customer service
Education
Usability
Trading platform
Bank transfer
Credit card
PayPal
- Ideal for fund investments
- Fundamental research
- Limited technical research
- Monthly fee
# Active investors
300,000
Money guaranteed
£85,000
Reliability
Securities lending
No
Mobile app
Minimum deposit
£1
Fees
Shares
£7.99
Options
Leveraged products
Futures
Funds or trusts
£7.99
ETFs
£7.99
Telephone order
£49
Service fee
£9.99 PM
Forex
CFDs
Cryptocurrencies
Customer service
Education
Usability
Trading platform
Bank transfer
Credit card
PayPal
- Excellent research
- Different accounts
- Expensive
- Poor Trustpilot rating
# Active investors
1,300,000
Money guaranteed
£85,000
Reliability
Securities lending
No
Mobile app
Minimum deposit
£100
Fees
Shares
£5.95 – £11.95
Options
Leveraged products
Futures
Funds or trusts
0.45% per year
ETFs
£5.95 – £11.95
Telephone order
1% min. £20
Service fee
€0
Forex
CFDs
Cryptocurrencies
Customer service
Education
Usability
Trading platform
Bank transfer
Credit card
PayPal
- Many trading instruments
- Advanced platform
- Inactivity fee
- High minimum deposit
# Active investors
100,000
Money guaranteed
€100.000
Reliability
Securities lending
No
Mobile app
Minimum deposit
£600
Fees
Shares
0.10% min. £8
Options
$0.85
Leveraged products
Futures
£3
Funds or trusts
0.10% min. £8
ETFs
0.10% min. £8
Telephone order
£50
Service fee
0.12% min. £12 PM
Forex
CFDs
Cryptocurrencies
Customer service
Education
Usability
Trading platform
Bank transfer
Credit card
PayPal
* Estimated annual costs with £10,000 one-time investment, £100 monthly investment and an average investment profile. Investing involves risks of losses.