Hargreaves Lansdown useless
Hargreaves Lansdown useless
Author
Discussion

Nick928

Original Poster:

365 posts

186 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
Their job is financial/share dealing and the one time I actually need to sell the online & app share dealing doesn’t work and they don’t answer the phones.

On hold for 30 mins (and counting) listening to recorded apologies for the delay while watching the share price drop is adding insult to injury.

Edited by Nick928 on Monday 25th January 17:44


Edited by Nick928 on Monday 25th January 17:45

Simbu

1,915 posts

205 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
I find many are as bad as each other. I've been waiting for Equiniti to sort a transfer of shares away from them for weeks. I'm not allowed to sell now anyway, otherwise I'd be more upset!

Scootersp

4,125 posts

219 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
I've only had my account 6 months or so and what I experienced a few times is that when there is high volatility the system just doesn't cope. Whether that's HL specifically (Other sites suffered the same I think) the main stock market exchanges or both.

It's like a car it's all great until it doesn't work then you resent/hate it!

Nick928

Original Poster:

365 posts

186 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
I typically buy and hold with HL so it’s rare for me to sell but when I do I expect it to work.
Sadly judging by the Twittersphere it seems a common occurrence with HL and not volatility.

Being on hold for an hour while listening to a “sorry for the wait, we’re busy” message every thirty seconds is absolutely disgraceful. I still haven’t spoken to them as I gave up at an hour.

Caddyshack

15,188 posts

237 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
I guess this is what you get with a free or cheap service compared to going to a wealth manager and getting them to do the donkey work on their platforms?

xeny

5,524 posts

109 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
Caddyshack said:
I guess this is what you get with a free or cheap service compared to going to a wealth manager and getting them to do the donkey work on their platforms?
HL is probably the most expensive DIY platform :-( .

Do wealth managers typically muck around with trying to trade a falling share on this kind of time scale? I thought that was more the providence of (some) active fund managers?

Caddyshack

15,188 posts

237 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
xeny said:
Caddyshack said:
I guess this is what you get with a free or cheap service compared to going to a wealth manager and getting them to do the donkey work on their platforms?
HL is probably the most expensive DIY platform :-( .

Do wealth managers typically muck around with trying to trade a falling share on this kind of time scale? I thought that was more the providence of (some) active fund managers?
No, but I wouldn’t have said HL were the place to go to anyway...I was more thinking of getting something active and not mess around with the day to day aggro like this.

CoolHands

23,638 posts

226 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
That’s weird I rang last week and was dealt with straight away.

Condi

20,506 posts

202 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
xeny said:
HL is probably the most expensive DIY platform :-( .
Not necessarily, depends how much you have invested with them. From memory they have a flat fee and so for certain amounts it's actually one of the cheaper ones.

Their app is generally good, or you use the website?

av185

20,464 posts

158 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
Condi said:
xeny said:
HL is probably the most expensive DIY platform :-( .
Not necessarily, depends how much you have invested with them. From memory they have a flat fee and so for certain amounts it's actually one of the cheaper ones.

Their app is generally good, or you use the website?
Never had a problem with HL and any trades they are one of the better platforms imo. Great website helpful staff too unlike many others.

Fees vary depending on the amount invested. 0.45 percent up to £250k then 0.275 percent over £250k.

They do not charge for trading funds either unlike other platforms.

The Rotrex Kid

35,077 posts

191 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
You selling GME? hehe

Nick928

Original Poster:

365 posts

186 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
I don’t use HL for day to day trading only long term investing but in this case the time had come to sell which coincided with the share hitting an acceptable target.
Well it did hit the target and then promptly dropped handsomely as I sat looking at it whilst on hold to HL.

As a result I’m still holding it.

Condi

20,506 posts

202 months

Monday 25th January 2021
quotequote all
Nick928 said:
I don’t use HL for day to day trading only long term investing but in this case the time had come to sell which coincided with the share hitting an acceptable target.
Well it did hit the target and then promptly dropped handsomely as I sat looking at it whilst on hold to HL.

As a result I’m still holding it.
I think you can set limit orders with them? Or is it just "alerts"? If you have a target in mind the leave the order with them to execute.

JulianPH

10,084 posts

145 months

Tuesday 26th January 2021
quotequote all
I have to say that HL is a good and robust platform with great service levels (though it can be epensive).

It is very likely the case that the current lockdown is having a significant impact on you being able to contact them over the phone, but I can't really see how this would impact on an online share sale/purchase order TBH.


TR4man

5,544 posts

205 months

Tuesday 26th January 2021
quotequote all
Just to give some balance, I have had to ring HL three times since the beginning of the year and had little difficulty getting through. Possibly the longest I was waiting would have been a couple of minutes which I think is acceptable in these strange times.

SarlechS

776 posts

215 months

Tuesday 26th January 2021
quotequote all
adding balance too, called them 3 times this year and got through within 5-10 minutes. Good service IMO

VR99

1,397 posts

94 months

Tuesday 26th January 2021
quotequote all
I had a HL account a number of years back, had to close it for work-related reasons but generally the website was great and the customer service decent too..HL processed a SIPP transfer fairly smoothly too. Relatively speaking it is expensive but that's the price to pay for all the bells and whistles, nice user interface etc. The other extreme are some of the less mature providers in the industry where it looks like a 5 yr old designed the website and is generally clunky to use. I don't think any are that bad at present, but id rather pay for a better/smoother user experience.

BGARK

5,638 posts

277 months

Tuesday 26th January 2021
quotequote all
As a test I processed 3 trades yesterday, buying before market opens, they processed at 16:15, so nearly two hours later. I have asked why, they have not responded.