ISSUES with Hargreaves Lansdown

[ANEDJAH]

Hello,
During April 2020, due to their high fees, I requested that my shares be transferred to another broker, which has much lower holding costs/
Almost three months later Hargreaves Lansdown have still failed to transfer my shares to my new bank.
But the situation gets worse. Without my knowledge or agreement, HL sold my ISA shares at a very low price and charged me £100 fees plus 1% Fx charges at £200. Their illicit action has cost me a lot of money.
When I contacted them to complain about their cavalier behaviour they were totally unhelpful denying any responsibility and passing the blame on to the receiving broker.
Have you experienced the same issue and how did you resolve it?
Also, I warn others to avoid Hargreaves Lansdown at all costs.
Many thanks.

This is not an AIBU.

Post on trust pilot instead.

I agree

They can’t deliberately sell your shares for a low price Mistakes happen of course but they can’t deliberately cheat you out of money like you seem to think they have.

YABU to post this on here, go and complain to them but it’s very possible that it is the receiving bank who caused the delay, so you may need to complain to them.

I would speak to the Financial Services ombudsman after putting your complaint clearly in writing to HL. Escalate to the FSO if you're unhappy with their response.

You use HL complaints procedure, and if not satisfied you escalate to Financial Ombudsman.

If HL sold your shares without instruction from you, your case is clear. I doubt they did, though.

It depends on the type of transfer you requested. Some transfers involve a sale by the original holder and reinvestment by the new one.

Have you formally complained?

Never trust a company that can afford the fancy paper they send out on their mail outs.

It 100% depends on the shares you want to transfer

If your new account or bank doesn't offer the same options for shares HL will have no choice but to sell and then transfer the amount gained from the sale to the other provider to either hold as cash or put into similar holdings.

They sell when they need to, if that's a low point in the market then unfortunately that's just life, that's part and parcel of changing stockbroker I'm afraid.

We had a different but also significant issue with HL, that was instigated by Baillie Gifford which was then taken over and successfully resolved by Fidelity.
Absolutely hideous, very stressful, absolutely no fault of mine and went on for a year.

Take it to the Financial Ombudsman. They’ll do a thorough investigation.

I have been very happy with them. I've shifted shares around recently, still within HL but to different funds/wrappers and with a lower commission and everything went very smoothly.

@summerfish

I would speak to the Financial Services ombudsman after putting your complaint clearly in writing to HL. Escalate to the FSO if you're unhappy with their response.

This. You should get your money plus compensation.