Categories
Broker profile

Hargreaves Lansdown

Hargreaves Lansdown is one of the UK’s largest direct investment platform and offers a good range of US, Canadian and European stocks in addition to London-listed shares, bonds and a very extensive range of funds. The firm is consistently praised for high standard of customer service, which is a strong selling point for less experienced investors in particular.

International trades are placed via UK-based market makers (such as Winterflood Securities) and the foreign currency share price is converted to sterling each time with a mark up of up to 1%. This becomes costly for very frequent traders – who could look at firms such as Interactive Brokers or Saxo Markets where you can hold and settle in foreign currencies – but is less of an overhead for long-term investors.

Its nearest rival is probably AJ Bell Youinvest. Like Youinvest, Hargreaves Lansdown’s SIPP is set up to receive US dividends with no withholding tax deducted (and reduced tax on Canadian dividends), which is useful for income investors.

Markets available
Online tradingAustria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA
Telephone tradingAs above
Dealing commissions and charges
Typical online£11.95
Online details1-9 deals per month £11.95; 10-19 deals per month £8.95; 20+ deals per month £5.95
Typical telephonemin £20
Telephone details1% (min £20, max £50)
Other fees and charges
Account fees and inactivity feesNone
Custody charges for stocksDealing account: no charge; ISA: 0.45% per year capped at £45; SIPP: 0.45% per year capped at £200
Dividend chargesNone
Corporate action chargesNone
Currencies
Currency conversion charges1% on first £5,000 1%; 0.75% on next £5,000; 0.5% on next £10,000; 0.25% above £20,000; 1% when converting foreign currency dividends to GBP
Hold cash in foreign currenciesNo
Currencies allowedGBP
Other details
Tax-advantaged accountsISA, Lifetime ISA, Junior ISA, SIPP
Other products and servicesBonds, funds
Minimum account sizeNone
Company locationUK
Further information

Compare Hargreaves Lansdown with another broker