This investment provider offers it all, but it’s not the cheapest
Hargreaves Lansdown is an investment provider that lets you invest in individual shares and funds, as well as a small range of ready-made portfolios. It’s also got some other, more complicated types of investments, strictly for seasoned investors. You can choose to invest in a Stocks & Shares ISA, which won’t cost you any more than the General Investment account.
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The Hargreaves Lansdown Stocks & Shares ISA is an account available to invest in with Hargreaves Lansdown. With it, you can invest using your £20,000 ISA allowance, which would mean you don’t have to pay any tax on your earnings.
If you’ve already got investments elsewhere or money in Cash ISAs that you’d prefer to be invested, then you can transfer it to Hargreaves Lansdown. As Hargreaves Lansdown offers a large selection of shares and funds, these would be able to stay invested and transfer ‘in specie’. However, if you have any ready-made portfolios elsewhere, the investments will likely be sold and transferred as cash.
Other Hargreaves Lansdown products
Alongside the Stocks & Shares ISA, Hargreaves Lansdown offers a Fund and Share account — the same as a General Investment account elsewhere and a Lifetime ISA, for saving for your retirement or first home. It’s also got Self-Invested Personal Pensions, both for yourself or your children (talk about organised!).
To invest a little shorter-term for your kids, there’s a Junior ISA and a BareTrust Account.
Hargreaves Lansdown also offers savings accounts and Cash ISAs.
Uninvested cash in your account will earn 2.53%.
What you can invest in with Hargreaves Lansdown
Hargreaves Lansdown offers lots of different investments.
Firstly, funds. Hargreaves Lansdown offers funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). ETFs are bought and sold on the stock market, hence their name. They’re a low-cost way of investing in a diversified pot with just one purchase. So you wouldn’t need to choose lots of individual shares to make up your portfolio; you can choose a few funds instead.
If you want something even easier than funds, you can invest in one of its ready-made portfolios. These are created by investment experts. This means that you don’t have to spend time choosing your own investments and checking in on your portfolio.
You start by choosing between growth and income portfolios. Growth ones are designed to grow over time, while income portfolios are made of investments that pay dividends. There’s only one income portfolio, this is a balanced risk level portfolio.
If you choose growth, you then get a choice between ‘expert managed’ and ‘track the market’.
Expert-managed portfolios have experts buying and selling the investments that make them up, making decisions on your behalf. Portfolios that track the market aren’t managed as often but will cost less in management fees.
Then, you choose a risk that suits you — from Cautious to Adventurous.
| Portfolio type | Portfolio | Risk | Fund management charge |
| Income | HL Income Fund | 4/7 | 0.03% |
| Growth – Expertly managed | Cautious | 4/7 | 0.85% |
| Growth – Expertly managed | Balanced | 4/7 | 0.85% |
| Growth – Expertly managed | Moderately adventurous | 5/7 | 0.89% |
| Growth – Expertly managed | Adventurous | 5/7 | 0.91% |
| Growth – Track the market | Cautious | 4/7 | 0.3% |
| Growth – Track the market | Balanced | 4/7 | 0.3% |
| Growth – Track the market | Moderately adventurous | 5/7 | 0.3% |
| Growth – Track the market | Adventurous | 5/7 | 0.3% |
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Hargreaves Lansdown fees
There’s no extra fee to hold your investments in an ISA, but there are costs for the underlying investments. The fees you pay will depend on how you choose to invest.
Ready made portfolios
If you invest in ready-made portfolios, you’ll pay an ongoing charge of 0.45%, plus the fund management costs, which are detailed above and will depend on the portfolio you choose.
Funds
There’s no dealing charge for funds, but there’s an ongoing fee.
| Value of funds | Charge |
| Up £250,000 | 0.45% |
| Value between £250,000 – £1m | 0.25% |
| Value between £1m – £2m | 0.1% |
| Value over £2m | No charge |
Shares
You pay a 0.45% fee for holding shares, with a maximum cost of £45 each year.
To buy shares, you pay commission. The cost depends on how many trades you made in the previous month:
| Number of deals in the previous month | Charge per deal |
| 0 – 9 | £11.95 |
| 10 – 19 | £8.95 |
| 20+ | £5.95 |
Features for beginner investors
While it does have options for beginners, namely ready-made portfolios, Hargreaves Lansdown is not a beginner platform. However, when going for the ready-made options, its fees compete with the well-known robo-advisors. There are lots of guides and plenty of information about each investment, so it can definitely be used as a tool to help you learn how to invest.
Is Hargreaves Lansdown safe?
Hargreaves Lansdown is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Your cash and investments are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000.
In addition, your money is kept separate from Hargreaves Lansdown’s own money — it doesn’t trade with or lend your money.
You can open a Hargreaves Lansdown Stocks & Shares ISA online. On the website, you select ‘Join HL’. In the app, go to the account tab and choose ‘Open an account’, but this will just open a web browser.
Then you select ‘Stocks & Shares ISA’, where you’ll be asked for personal information that you’ll mostly have to hand — although you’ll need your National Insurance number.
Once your account has been created, you’ll be able to choose the types of investments you want in your ISA.
Pros and cons of Hargreaves Lansdown
Pros
- Large, well-known company
- No extra cost for ISA
- Offers ready-made portfolios
- Fairly low fees for ready-made portfolios
Cons
- Expensive fees for share dealing
- A little overwhelming for beginners
Editor’s pick: £100 savings bonus
Effective 6.45% rate for six months as a new Raisin customer
Hargreaves Lansdown reviews
Over on our sister site, Smart Money People, Hargreaves Lansdown customers have rated the Stocks & Shares ISA 4.38 out of 5.
Positive reviewers say that it’s easy to use and like the number of different accounts available and the investment choices.
Negative reviewers find the platform to be expensive, with some people saying that the customer service isn’t very good.
Read customer reviews of Hargreaves Lansdown
Is Hargreaves Lansdown any good?
Zoe’s analysis
Hargreaves Lansdown is a pretty intense platform, especially for beginners. It offers lots of different products and a massive range of investments.
However, while its share dealing charges are high— a massive £11.95 per trade — it does offer ready-made portfolios at better fees than similar-sized providers. However, there are lots of ready-made options for lower costs with other providers.
There’s not a huge range of portfolios, but there’s a fair amount of control over the type of portfolio you want — you can opt for both income and growth portfolios, as well as several different risk profiles.
Hargreaves Lansdown Stocks & Shares ISA
| Investment styles available | DIY & fully managed investments |
| Investment types available | Individual shares Funds Ready-made portfolios |
| Welcome bonus | None |
| Platform fees | 0.45% |
| Minimum deposit | £100 or £25 |
| Interest on uninvested cash | 2.53% |
| Flexible ISA | No |