In this guide

  • Our verdict
  • How we rated Hargreaves Lansdown's investment features
  • Hargreaves Lansdown fees
  • Hargreaves Lansdown investment choice and stocks
  • Is Hargreaves Lansdown safe?
  • Hargreaves Lansdown account types and products
  • Hargreaves Lansdown ease of use
  • Hargreaves Lansdown customer reviews
  • Hargreaves Lansdown tools, resources and features
  • Frequently asked questions
  • Your reviews
Hargreaves Lansdown Fund and Share Account
4.2
★★★★★
Finder score
4.3
★★★★★
Capital at risk
Price per trade
£11.95
Min. initial deposit
£1

Our verdict

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) offers a premium investing experience with excellent customer service and fund options. Find out whether the platform is worth the high trading commissions.

Gold Finder Awards Badge
Finder Awards 2024 winner
Customer Satisfaction Award

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) has everything you could ask for in an investment platform. It has the accounts, the investments, the resources, and a much-loved customer support team. The platform was built with experienced investors and beginners in mind, with plenty of advanced tools plus options for those who want a bit of hand-holding.

When reviewing the platform, our experts found that HL isn’t the most competitive for commission. But for fund investing, it does provide excellent value. And sometimes you get what you pay for anyway.

If you’re looking for a well-known investment brokerage with a sparkling reputation, we think HL may tick all your boxes. But if you just want the cheapest no-frills platform in town, you might want to shop around.

Pros

  • Wide range of accounts
  • No platform fee for some accounts
  • Free fund trading
  • Great customer service reviews
  • Excellent mobile app
  • Discount for regular investors

Cons

  • Expensive to buy or sell shares
  • Fee structure is slightly complex
  • No demo account
  • Some investors may not need all the features
  • As a listed company, HL has to please shareholders

In this guide

  • Our verdict
  • How we rated Hargreaves Lansdown's investment features
  • Hargreaves Lansdown fees
  • Hargreaves Lansdown investment choice and stocks
  • Is Hargreaves Lansdown safe?
  • Hargreaves Lansdown account types and products
  • Hargreaves Lansdown ease of use
  • Hargreaves Lansdown customer reviews
  • Hargreaves Lansdown tools, resources and features
  • Frequently asked questions
  • Your reviews

How we rated Hargreaves Lansdown's investment features

FeatureRatingDetails
Fees

★★★★★ 2.4/5

HL’s fees are a major pain point and the investing commissions are much higher than most platforms.
Investment choice

★★★★★4.5/5

It offers a wide range of assets with access to plenty of markets.
Safety and security

★★★★★ 5/5

Hargreaves Lansdown has plenty of safety features in place to protect investors.
Account types and products

★★★★★ 5/5

You can invest with lots of options, using all the major tax-efficient accounts.
Ease of use

★★★★★ 5/5

HL has a flawless user experience score, ticking every box with lots of positive reviews.
Tools, resources and features

★★★★★ 4/5

Hargreaves Lansdown offers plenty of tools and resources, apart from social features.

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) is the UK’s biggest and most comprehensive wealth manager. For that pedigree, it does charge higher fees than some other platforms.

Although it’s a bit on the pricey side, HL makes up for it with its choice of accounts, investment options, top mobile app and buckets of trading features.

Hargreaves was a winner in the Finder Investing Customer Satisfaction Awards 2024 for the third year in a row. Find out how to set up an account, what the fees are, and details about investing using Hargreaves Lansdown.

What is Hargreaves Lansdown?

Hargreaves Lansdown is a leading “investment supermarket” for retail investors. It’s trusted with over £120 billion worth of investment from 1.7 million clients.

The platform offers a pretty comprehensive service to suit all types of investors. Read on to find out more about Hargreaves Lansdown and whether it might be the right investment solution for you.

Hargreaves Lansdown fees

Fees score

★★★★★

Platform fee Shares and other investments

  • £0 (fund and share account)
  • £0 (junior ISA)
  • 0.45% (stock and shares ISA, £45/year maximum)
  • 0.45% (SIPP/Junior SIPP, £200/year maximum)

Funds (fund and share account/stocks and shares ISA/SIPP/junior SIPP)

  • 0.45% (£0 to £250,000)
  • 0.25% (£250,000 to £1 million)
  • 0.1% (£1 million to £2 million)
  • £0 (over £2 million)

Funds (lifetime ISA)

  • 0.25% (£0 to £1 million)
  • 0.1% (£1 million to £2 million)
  • £0 (over £2 million)

Funds (junior ISA)

  • £0
UK shares£11.95
US stocks£11.95
International shares£11.95
Funds/ETFs£0 funds
£11.95 ETFs (frequent trader discounts apply)
Foreign exchange (FX) fee1% first £5,000
0.75% next £5,000
0.5% £10,000 to £20,000
0.25% over £20,000
Regular investingYes from £25/month (lower commissions for frequent investors)


£8.95 (10 to 19 trades in previous month)
£5.95 (20 or more trades in previous month)
Withdrawal/deposit fee£0
Inactivity fee£0

It’s tricky to judge and score HL’s platform fees because they’re all over the shop. The platform fee you’ll pay depends on both the type of account you’re using to invest and also the investments you’re buying and holding.

We’ve tried to explain these as clearly as possible, but HL doesn’t make it easy for us. And it’s a shame because HL does actually provide decent value for many investors with competitive platform fees. But it’s hard to get to the bottom of them because it’s a tangled web to say the least.

The key things to note about the platform fees are that it costs nothing to open and hold a general investment account (HL calls this a fund and share account), investing in most types of investments (other than funds). If you invest in funds, your platform fee is a percentage based on the value of funds in your portfolio.

Another downside to HL’s fees are the investing commissions. They’re one of the most expensive (if not the most expensive) across all UK investing platforms. There’s a steep £11.95 to pay each time you buy or sell most investment types. There’s a discount to £8.95 if you make 10 to 19 trades in the previous month or a lower £5.95 if you rack up 20 or more trades.

This sounds like HL are doing you a deal but to qualify for the first discount means spending £107.55 on commissions in a month. And for the best discount, you’d need to have spent an eye-watering £197.05 in commission fees just to qualify. When investing, there’s no platform fee with the GIA but this is more than made up for with these high commissions.

Along with the bank-breaking commissions, HL has a fairly high FX fee of 1% if you want to buy international investments (this does lower on a tiered basis, but only for trades worth more than £5,000).

If you use a stocks and shares ISA for investments (other than funds), the platform fee is capped at £45 a year (or £3.75 a month). If you’re using a self-invested personal pension (SIPP) or a junior SIPP (JSIPP), the platform fee cap is a higher £200 a year (around £16.67 a month).

The only saving grace is that it’s free to buy or sell funds (but the ongoing account fee will apply to hold funds). Fund investing provides the best value with HL and the fees can work out fairly cheap (free if you’re using a junior ISA for a child). The 0.25% fee for holding funds worth up to £250,000 in most accounts is decent and holds up against most competitors.

We warned you that HL’s costs and fees are about as clear as mud. The bottom line though is that the platform offers good value for investing in funds, and for every other type of investment, it’s expensive.

The fee structure may work out well for you depending on how you invest (particularly if you have a high-value fund portfolio), but it’s definitely not a cheap all-rounder.

Hargreaves Lansdown investment choice and stocks

Investment choice score

★★★★★

Asset options6+
Markets4+
Number of investments11,000+
Number of ETFs/funds1,500+
Fractional shares
Minimum deposit£0
Minimum investment£1 (at least one share)

Hargreaves Lansdown has a large selection and variety of investments available, covering a decent range of assets. The fund selection is probably HL’s greatest strength, with around 2,500 to choose from.

Keep in mind that although there’s no commission to invest in funds, you need a £100 lump sum or £25 a month to get started.

The lack of fractional shares is a pain, but to be honest, paying such high commissions – you’d probably not want fractions of a share (otherwise you could pay more in commission than what your fractional share is worth).

What can you invest in with Hargreaves Lansdown?

Is Hargreaves Lansdown safe?

Safety and security score

★★★★★

Biometric login/2FA
FCA regulated
FSCS protection
SSL certificate
Public company

Hargreaves Lansdown is a sturdy and safe place for investors, scoring full marks in our safety and security assessment. As you’d expect, it’s regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

When it comes to security, Hargreaves Lansdown has an excellent reputation and is trusted by over a million customers. It’s considered to be a safe and secure FTSE 100 company that has a track record managing investments for over 40 years.

Your deposits are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which means that you’ll be able to claim up to £85,000 if Hargreaves Lansdown were to go bust.

Hargreaves Lansdown account types and products

Account types and products score

★★★★★

General investment account (GIA)
Stock and shares ISA
Self-invested personal pension (SIPP)
Lifetime ISA (LISA)
Junior ISA (JISA)/Junior SIPP (JSIPP)
Business Account
Interest on cash balances

Hargreaves Lansdown is up there with the best of them when it comes to the account types and products available. HL does have the potential to be your one-stop shop for savings and investments. It even offers investing and pensions accounts for your kids – to be managed by you of course.

The range of accounts on offer include:

Hargreaves Lansdown ISAs

As with all individual savings accounts (ISAs), you get an annual allowance. This is the amount of money you can invest in the tax year, of which most of your profits are protected from tax. Once you’ve used up your ISA allowance for the year, you can continue investing with a general investment account.

Different types of ISA have different allowances, which we detail below.

Hargreaves Lansdown stocks and shares ISA

Your annual allowance for a stocks and shares ISA is £20,000 in the 2023/2024 tax year.

With Hargreaves Lansdown’s stocks and shares ISA, you can choose to either create a DIY portfolio or use a ready-made portfolio based on your goals and attitude to risk.

Benefits of a DIY portfolio

  • You decide which shares to buy and sell
  • Hargreaves Lansdown’s research helps you make decisions
  • Start with £100 or £25 per month

Benefits of ready-made portfolios

  • Have a portfolio based on your risk appetite
  • Hargreaves Lansdown will buy and sell investments for you
  • Start with £1,000

Lifetime ISA (LISA)

Lifetime ISAs are for investing for your first home or for your retirement. You can choose between a stocks and shares LISA or a cash LISA.

Your annual allowance for a LISA is £4,000 in each tax year. The government will add an additional 25% to your savings. This allowance is included in the stocks and shares ISA allowance, so if you invest £4,000 in a LISA, you need to minus that from to find your remaining allowance for the year.

You’re locked into a LISA, which means you can’t withdraw it without losing 25% to the government, so you need to make sure that you’re committed to either buying a house with the savings or saving it for retirement.

Junior ISA (JISA)

If you want to save up for your child’s future, you can save money in a Junior ISA. The allowance for the tax year is . This means that you can save up to this much in your child’s junior ISA without paying any tax on the earnings.

The Junior ISA is for children under 18 years old. It’s managed by a legal parent or guardian until the child turns 18 and is then automatically transferred to them.

Benefits of the JISA

  • Invest up to the annual allowance without paying tax on earnings
  • Friends and family can contribute money to the fund
  • Start with £100 or £25 per month

Hargreaves Lansdown pensions

You can save for your retirement with Hargreaves Lansdown, and when the time comes, you can cash out on your pension with it too. Here are the products on offer:

Self-invested personal pension (SIPP)

Self-invested personal pensions are suitable for people who want to make their own investment decisions – this means it’s in your hands.

If you don’t know what to invest in or whether an investment is right for you, HL does have advisers that can help you, although this is for an additional fee.

You’ll get the same tax relief with a SIPP as you do with other pensions. You can add up to £40,000 to your pension (if you’re a UK resident under 75).

Junior SIPP

For the ultra-organised parent or guardian, you have the option to open a Junior SIPP for your child. Allowing you to save for you child’s retirement. This works pretty much like the Junior ISA and the SIPP combined – there’s a allowance per child per tax year, of which the government will pay 20% tax relief. The “child” (they won’t be a child by the time) can only access the money when they turn 55 (57 from 2028).

If you’re looking for a way to invest in your child’s long-term future, this could be suitable. If you’d prefer them to have access to the funds when they’re 18, consider the Junior ISA instead.

Retirement options

For those who are about to retire, Hargreaves Lansdown offers the following:

  • Annuity (a guaranteed income for life in return for a pot of pension savings)
  • Drawdown (where you “draw down” funds from your invested pension pot to give you an income)

HL Fund and Share account

Hargreaves Lansdown’s Fund and Share account lets you buy and sell shares, investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, and bonds. You can build a portfolio yourself and benefits include:

  • Easily manage investments online, through the Hargreaves Lansdown app or by phone
  • Free to hold shares
  • Discover investment opportunities with a wide range of tools

HL Active Savings

Hargreaves Lansdown offers a service called “Active Savings”, which gives you an interest rate return on cash savings. Instead of having to shop around for savings accounts with the best rates, HL allows you to swap to a new savings account with a better rate without all the hassle of moving.

This is a nice service and allows you to make the most out of savings offers on the market. It’s free to use and HL makes money from the banking partners. However, that rates may not be the best on the market.

Hargreaves Lansdown ease of use

Ease of use score

★★★★★

Apple iOS rating4.7/5
Google Play rating3.2/5
Ways to contact customer servicePhone, email and online chat
UI/UXGood
Desktop or mobile appBoth

Hargreaves Lansdown received top marks in our ease of use assessment. We think it’s great that there are so many ways to contact its dedicated customer support team (and this is part of the reason for the high fees elsewhere).

Most reviewers seem to enjoy the HL app on Apple and Android devices. On the App Store it has an impressive 4.7 out of 5 from over 50,000 reviews and on Google Play, it has a marginally lower 3.2 from over 12,000 votes (as of January 2024).

Also, if you don’t want to invest using the app, it has an excellent desktop platform for investing instead.

Hargreaves Lansdown customer reviews

ScoreRating
Trustpilot4.1/5
User reviews4.3/5

Hargreaves Lansdown won the investing category in the Finder Customer Satisfaction Awards in 2024 for the third year in a row, with 97% of customers saying they’d recommend the service to a friend. It was tied for first place and feedback included praise for its reliable and efficient service, and many customers described Hargreaves Lansdown as “professional”.

One customer commented: “I have used their services for many years, they are professional and know a lot more than me about the financial world, they are not the cheapest, but I would rather pay extra for reliable financial information.”

Not all comments were totally positive. Another customer described Hargreaves Lansdown as: “Competent, but expensive.”

On Trustpilot, users seem to agree and Hargreaves Lansdown has a 4.1 out of 5 “great” score from over 8,000 reviews (as of January 2024).

Hargreaves Lansdown tools, resources and features

Tools, resources and features

★★★★★

Analysis features
Tools for investing/trading
Social features
Learning resources
Additional Features

Hargreaves Lansdown has lots of tools and resources packed into its comprehensive platform. The only area where it’s lacking is the social investing aspect, with no community forum or way for investors to connect and share ideas.

With Hargreaves Lansdown, there’s plenty of features like:

  • Interactive charting
  • Investment research and analysis tools
  • Ability to use a range of trading order types
  • Calculators for regular investing and pensions
  • Articles and guides providing insights
  • Ready-made portfolios
  • Sector reports, investment trust updates and market news

As you’d expect, with such an emphasis on funds across the platform, there’s also loads of fund-related information and research for you to get stuck into.

How does Hargreaves Lansdown work?

To start investing with Hargreaves Lansdown, you’ll first need to open an account. The right account for you will depend on your goals. You might be saving for the future, for retirement, or even for your child.

Hargreaves Lansdown can help you narrow things down and find the right account, allowing you to compare accounts and tick things that apply to you.

To open an account with Hargreaves Lansdown, you’ll need the following:

  • Your national insurance (NI) number
  • Your debit card details
  • Your bank details to set up monthly payments

Does Hargreaves Lansdown have an app?

Yes. And it’s pretty good, too! It uses Face ID and fingerprint technology to keep it secure. Some things you can do with the Hargreaves Lansdown app includes:

  • See live share prices
  • Trade on the go
  • Keep an eye on specific investments
  • Manage your investments
  • View your history
  • Top up

The Hargreaves Lansdown app is available on iOS and Android.

Frequently asked questions

Share dealing platform scores

★★★★★ — Excellent
★★★★★ — Good
★★★★★ — Average
★★★★★ — Subpar
★★★★★ — Poor

Finder scores, in blue, are based on our expert analysis. We also show reviews from users, where we've received more than 10, with a score in yellow. We gather more reviews from customers every year in Finder's customer satisfaction survey.

All investing should be regarded as longer term. The value of your investments can go up and down, and you may get back less than you invest. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. If you’re not sure which investments are right for you, please seek out a financial adviser. Capital at risk.
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