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Post by moonraker on Feb 28, 2018 19:16:43 GMT
I've had another email from Hargreaves Lansdown extolling its new Active Savings "cash management" service, which appears to make investing cash in certain banks and building societies a little simpler - but at the cost of reduced interest (to pay HL commission) compared with what one can get by dealing direct with those organisations. Googling reveals only qualified enthusiasm for the service.
With interest rates remaining very low, one needs as much interest as one can.
In addition to the touted advantages, I wonder if Active Savings will save the delay I occasionally have with some providers of needing to verify my ID when it can't be proven electronically (the record is some 23 days with Tesco Bank) and the problem of making a large deposit when a few won't accept a personal cheque (meaning I would need to pay my bank £27 to send the money electronically or make piecemeal deposits over several days - or nine, in the case of an £85K sum).
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Post by beeje13 on Feb 28, 2018 21:18:58 GMT
All under one roof sort of thing?
I would hope HL can negotiate a good rate from savings providers on account of scale, whether that is the case I don't know.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2018 8:04:35 GMT
HL did bring a more serious focus to the market about 20 years ago, when it was the disrupter in the market. However, now it is the fat cat in the corner, even the likes of Fidelity (the old big boy) is now a cheaper faster player and with the 2018 software is even useable. People like iii are even cheaper and faster, while Virgin Money, offer a range of fire and forget (low benefit) products. Do HL care? No because they spend a fortune on marketing and keep bringing  products like this to the market as if they were gold. |
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bigfoot12
Member of DD Central
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Post by bigfoot12 on Mar 1, 2018 8:36:29 GMT
This very much reminds me of Governor money. When it launched about 8 ish years ago this was fabulous, open one account and split your savings between several building societies. When it matured roll it back into the same BS or switch to a new one, no new forms needed. And the site would warn you if one building society was a brand name of another. And I would get one tax statement each year.
But it has closed now. When it started FSCS was 90% of about £30k, but then it increased to 100% of £85k which reduced the need to diversify for most people. (I still like diversifying even when the FSCS wasn't an issue. I used to split my money so as to have some mature every 6-12 months.) And at the same time QE and funding for lending or one of the other schemes meant that financial institutions didn't really need money from the public.
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Post by moonraker on Mar 1, 2018 9:59:13 GMT
... I would hope HL can negotiate a good rate from savings providers on account of scale, whether that is the case I don't know. After I received the email, I did a bit of Googling that produced an independent comparison of investing direct or through HL. Of course I can't locate it now, but IIRC using HL would result in getting something like .2% less. That's, er um, £170 on a £85,000 deposit. And at the moment HL only offers access to five providers, and two of these haven't figured in Best Buys for my purposes for some time. One still has to check to see who are the market leaders when one has cash to invest. PS: Just did my own check. HL offers 1.95% for five years with Shawbrook; going direct you get 2.25%...
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Post by beeje13 on Mar 1, 2018 21:17:18 GMT
That's a shame, I would consider it if they did a competitive easy access account.
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rick24
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Post by rick24 on Mar 2, 2018 10:23:42 GMT
I would be interested if it could be opened within a SIPP because I have sometimes had uninvested cash sitting on the platform for months before I invest it.
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Post by moonraker on Apr 13, 2021 15:39:16 GMT
Old thread, but just two points about HL;The Sunday Times has been having a go at HL over the Woodford affair and its high fees, compared with rivals.Perhaps HL is trying to turn the clock back as I've just had a PM from them thanking me for the £30K I've deposited with them. Only I haven't, though last week I did take out a stocks & shares ISA for which I have a contract note. There's nothing like £30K sloshing around in my various sets of HL investments. Then I looked at the date within the body of the message: 26 September 2009.  .
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ptr120
Member of DD Central
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Post by ptr120 on Apr 13, 2021 16:03:39 GMT
As people are commentating on an old thread, I thought I'd chip in. I like the active savings offer from HL:
No need to go through the KYC / AML paperwork for any new account I want to open
Some exclusive accounts that are not available direct (although none particularly appealing to me) - Those better offers for going direct seem to be a thing of the past
Regular bonus offers, eg. deposit X and receive Y (I've made use of at least two of those)
I have a couple of easy access accounts through them that, although not available to new customers, still pay 0.55% which is better than I could get elsewhere.
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Post by moonraker on Apr 13, 2021 16:58:22 GMT
Old thread, but just two points about HL;The Sunday Times has been having a go at HL over the Woodford affair and its high fees, compared with rivals.Perhaps HL is trying to turn the clock back as I've just had a PM from them thanking me for the £30K I've deposited with them. Only I haven't, though last week I did take out a stocks & shares ISA for which I have a contract note. There's nothing like £30K sloshing around in my various sets of HL investments. Then I looked at the date within the body of the message: 26 September 2009. . I PM'd HL to express my surprise and within 90 minutes had this reply:
"We sent you a secure message earlier today which relates to a historic transaction on your account. This was sent to you in error and we’re very sorry for any confusion this may have caused. Please disregard this message and delete it if you would like to."
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Post by moonraker on Apr 28, 2021 13:21:30 GMT
As a PS to my last post, today I received a text from Halifax BS apologising for not sending one a month ago about the maturity of my cash ISA on April 8, inviting me to go into a branch or ring them if I needed help. As per my request, the funds had been transferred - on April 11 - to HL for a stocks & shares ISA.
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