Hargreaves Lansdown

HL cut its headline platform charge from 0.45% to 0.35% in March 2026. The new structure, verified from the HL charges page, breaks down as follows:

Platform charge (annual, on funds):

• 0.35% on the first £250,000 (was 0.45%)
• 0.25% from £250,000 to £1,000,000
• 0.10% from £1,000,000 to £2,000,000
• 0.00% on anything above £2,000,000

Share custody caps (the game-changer):

• ISA: £45/year maximum for share, ETF, and investment trust holdings
• SIPP: £200/year maximum for the same
• Junior ISA: £0 — no platform charge and no online dealing charge

Dealing charges:

• Funds: from £1.95 per online trade
• Shares/ETFs/trusts: max £6.95 per online deal
• Phone/postal dealing: £29
• Regular monthly investing via Direct Debit: free

What HL doesn't charge for: opening or closing accounts, transferring in or out, holding uninvested cash, automatically reinvesting income, or the Junior ISA. The Active Savings cash platform charges savers nothing — HL takes its margin from partner banks instead.

Taxes on top: UK share purchases attract 0.5% Stamp Duty Reserve Tax, as confirmed on gov.uk. Trades over £10,000 incur a £1.50 PTM levy. Irish shares attract 1% stamp duty. These are government levies, not HL charges, but they add to the real cost of dealing.

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Most coverage of HL's fees stops at "0.35% is expensive." That's correct for fund-heavy portfolios. But it misses the cap arbitrage that makes HL genuinely competitive for share investors.

Here's the maths. If you hold £50,000 of funds in an HL ISA, you pay £175 a year. At Vanguard Investor, that same portfolio costs £75 (0.15% capped at £375/year). HL is £100 more expensive — no argument.

Now flip the holding to shares. An HL ISA with £50,000 in shares, ETFs, and investment trusts pays £45 a year, flat. That's it. At Interactive Investor, you'd pay £155.88 a year for the Investor plan. At AJ Bell, shares in an ISA are also capped — at £42 a year — so HL is £3 more expensive than AJ Bell on share custody alone.

The real comparison is against zero-commission platforms. Freetrade and Trading 212 charge nothing for share custody and nothing for dealing. If you trade frequently, that's unbeatable. But if you buy and hold — perhaps 4-6 trades a year through HL's free regular investing service — the £45 annual cap means you're paying £3.75 a month for access to HL's research, app, and service infrastructure.

For a £200,000 share portfolio in an ISA, HL still charges £45. Interactive Investor charges £251.88 for the Super Investor plan. The gap is £207 a year in HL's favour.

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None of this shows up in a headline fee comparison. Most comparison tables quote the fund charge, because that's the number platforms lead with. But the custody cap is where HL quietly beats the flat-fee platforms — and it's almost never discussed.

HL is currently running a promotion that changes the cost calculus for pension investors. New SIPP clients who invest by 31 July 2026 get their platform charges waived until 30 April 2027. Fund charges are paid back into the HL account as cash.

For someone transferring a £150,000 workplace pension from a legacy provider charging 0.5-1.0%, this is worth roughly £525-£1,500 in saved fees over the promotional period — before you consider the likely improvement in investment choice and fund costs. The FCA's investment platform market study found that legacy pension providers charge significantly more than modern platforms, making consolidation a high-impact move for most savers.

After the promotion ends, the SIPP charges the standard 0.35% with a £200/year share custody cap. That's more than AJ Bell's SIPP (0.25%, £120/year share cap) but comparable to Fidelity's SIPP (0.35% on funds, £45/year cap on shares — but Fidelity caps the total platform fee at £90/year for ETFs and shares, which undercuts HL significantly).

The SIPP also gives access to the full £60,000 pension annual allowance, with 20% basic-rate tax relief added automatically and higher/additional-rate relief reclaimable through self-assessment. For a 40% taxpayer, every £60 contributed costs £36 after relief — a 66% uplift before a single pound of investment return. The HL SIPP supports flexi-access drawdown from age 55 (rising to 57 in 2028), with 25% tax-free cash and the remainder taxed at marginal rate. MoneyHelper's pension drawdown guide explains the full tax implications.

One important caveat: HL retains interest on uninvested cash sitting in the SIPP. If you're holding significant cash waiting to deploy, the interest you're not earning is a hidden cost. Vanguard Investor passes through more of this interest to clients.

HL didn't accumulate 2 million clients by accident. The platform has won over 200 industry awards, and the current client reviews on the HL site — verified, dated, and specific — tell a consistent story: the app works, the research helps, and when something goes wrong, a human in Bristol answers the phone.

The investment research is the differentiator that matters most. HL's in-house analyst team produces daily market commentary, fund recommendations, and sector analysis. The Wealth Shortlist — a curated selection of funds HL's analysts believe have the best performance potential — gives less confident investors a starting point without the cost of a financial adviser. The FCA's 2023 guidance on value for money specifically highlighted research and tools as a key component of platform value beyond headline fees.

500+ funds on the platform offer discounted ongoing charges, averaging a 17% saving on the standard OCF. Share price improvement is another under-discussed benefit: HL saved clients over £190 million in a single year by finding better execution prices — on 95% of trades. If you're buying £10,000 of shares and HL gets you a 0.1% better price than a commission-free platform, that's £10 saved right there. On larger trades, the improvement can exceed the dealing fee.

The Active Savings marketplace is another feature most competitors can't match. It lets you spread cash across multiple banks — all through one HL login — while staying within the £120,000 FSCS deposit protection limit per banking licence. For someone managing both investments and cash savings, the convenience of a single platform has real value. See our savings hub for more on maximising cash returns in 2026.

HL is worth the money if you are:

• A buy-and-hold share investor with £30,000+ in an ISA. The £45 share custody cap turns HL from expensive to competitive. At £100,000+, it becomes one of the cheapest options for share-heavy ISAs.
• A pension consolidator with old workplace pensions to transfer. The free SIPP until May 2027 is a genuine deal, and the investment range is wider than most workplace schemes.
• Someone who values a single platform for everything — ISA, SIPP, cash savings, Junior ISA, and a general investment account. The time saved managing multiple providers has a value, even if it's hard to price.
• An investor who reads research and acts on it. If you use HL's analyst notes to avoid a bad fund or spot an opportunity, the fee gap closes instantly.

HL is not worth the money if you are:

• A pure index fund investor with less than £50,000. You'll pay 0.35% at HL vs 0.15% at Vanguard Investor. That's £100/year extra on £50,000. Over 20 years compounded at 5%, that gap costs you roughly £3,300, as even a basic compound interest calculation confirms.
• A frequent share trader. £6.95 per trade adds up fast. Freetrade and Trading 212 charge nothing for standard dealing. If you're trading monthly, you're paying £83.40/year in dealing fees alone before you've even looked at the platform charge.
• Someone who wants a truly passive experience and never reads platform research. If you're buying one global tracker and checking it once a year, you're overpaying for services you'll never use. iWeb charges a one-off £100 opening fee and nothing annually — that's the cheapest home for a single-fund portfolio.

The middle ground — where most people sit — depends on portfolio composition. If your ISA is 50% funds and 50% shares: at £50,000 total, you pay £87.50 on funds (0.35% of £25,000) + £22.50 on shares (half the £45 cap, charged proportionally). That's £110 total. At Vanguard, a £50,000 fund-only portfolio costs £75. The gap is £35 — less than the price of one share trade. For £35 a year, you get HL's app, research, Active Savings, and customer service. That's a defensible premium. See our ISA hub for the full range of ISA options across platforms.

Here's what you pay for a £50,000 portfolio split 50/50 between funds and shares, with four share trades a year. All figures verified from platform websites.

Hargreaves Lansdown: 0.35% on £25,000 funds = £87.50. Shares: pro-rata share of £45 ISA cap ≈ £22.50. Four trades at £6.95 = £27.80. Total: £137.80/year. (Free if using regular investing for the trades: £110.)

AJ Bell: 0.25% on £25,000 funds = £62.50. Share custody cap £42/year. Four trades at £5.00 = £20. Total: £124.50/year.

Vanguard Investor: 0.15% capped at £375. On £25,000 funds = £37.50. No shares, no individual stocks available. Total: £37.50/year — but no access to individual shares.

Interactive Investor: £11.99/month Investor plan = £143.88/year. Includes one free trade per month — four trades = £0. Total: £143.88/year.

iWeb: £100 one-off opening fee, no annual charge. Four trades at £5 = £20. Total: £20/year after year one (year one: £120). No app, minimal research.

For this specific portfolio, AJ Bell wins on price. HL sits in the middle — more expensive than the cheap options, cheaper than Interactive Investor if you use free regular investing. The decision hinges on whether HL's research, app, and service are worth £12.70 more than AJ Bell per year. For most people asking that question, the answer is personal, not mathematical.

If the portfolio were 100% shares at £150,000: HL charges £45/year; AJ Bell charges £42; Interactive Investor charges £251.88 on the Super Investor plan; iWeb charges £0 after the initial £100. At that level, HL becomes genuinely cheap — and the service differential becomes a bonus rather than something you're paying extra for. For the complete picture, see our platform comparison hub and our investing fundamentals guide.

Capital at risk. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. You should seek independent financial advice before making any investment decisions. The value of investments can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited (company number 1896481) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority with firm reference number 115248. HL's Active Savings service is provided by Hargreaves Lansdown Savings Limited (company number 8355960), authorised by the FCA with firm reference 915119 and under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 with reference 901007.

Investments held through HL are covered by the FSCS investment protection scheme up to £85,000 per person — this protects against firm failure, not investment losses. Cash held in HL's Active Savings accounts is protected up to £120,000 per banking licence under the FSCS deposit protection scheme. HL does not pool client money with its own — client assets are held separately with an approved custodian.

Pension and tax rules can change, and benefits depend on individual circumstances. The pension annual allowance (£60,000 for 2026/27) and tapered annual allowance rules apply across all pension contributions. Scottish taxpayers are subject to different income tax rates and bands.