Certificated VCT holdings to online platform.

[flyer61]

Historically I have used Hargreaves Lansdown to convert paper certificates onto their platform and either sell or bed and ISA. Given Hargreaves Lansdown have decided to suspend or even end this service (in fact is HL loosing it's sheen as a top class service provider?) who would you go for?

[londoninvestor]

I had a good experience with Jarvis's x-o.co.uk at the start of this year. If I remember, I posted the certificates on a Thursday, and was able to sell on Monday morning. No fee for the certificate transfer, £5.95 per trade to sell, and no fee to withdraw the cash.

The caveat of course is that that was pre-pandemic, and I've no idea how much their processing times for paper certificates have been affected.

See: viewtopic.php?p=281362#p281362

[Kidman]

I have been affected by the HL services suspension as I wanted to transfer some shares out of their nominee into certificates. I do this as a low-cost way of buying certificated shares.

Looking at their list of which services are affected, transfer out isn't listed but the one that caught my eye is VCT applications.

[UncleEbenezer]

Historically I have used Hargreaves Lansdown to convert paper certificates onto their platform and either sell or bed and ISA. Given Hargreaves Lansdown have decided to suspend or even end this service (in fact is HL loosing it's sheen as a top class service provider?) who would you go for?

Which service are they suspending? Is it just the conversion of paper certs to their nominee account, or some aspect of holding/trading those already in a nominee account?

If the latter, it affects me, and I'd expect to be told!

[Kidman]

It appears that HL have suspended all activities that relate to paper. Hence they will not transfer in or out a certificate but trading proceeds as normal.

See near the bottom on https://www.hl.co.uk/features/coronavirus-information-and-updates

[flyer61]

Exactly that Kidman. I have raised a complaint but I fear it is a deliberate business decision on their part. We are paying for a top of the tree service and they are by stealth getting rid of it. Covid was mentioned but to me that is just [expletive deleted]. Leave any paperwork that arrives for 3 days then get on with it.

[barchid]

London investor used Jarvis pre pandemic, I used them in June (share deal active not x-o) and had exactly the same service. I have used them now quite regularly for about 4 years to put VCT certs into Crest and always found their admin good. When I deposited some certs into Crest with them in June, I sold one the day after it appeared in my account and before I could execute the trade their system was warning me this sale would be for T+5 as it needed to register fully in Crest.
For a low cost platform I find them very user friendly and accessible by phone as well.

[oxmatt]

Same experience for me. I had already transferred some certificates to HL pre-Covid ready for some end of tax year bed and ISA/SIPP activity and only got about half done before the service was cancelled. Now a bit in limbo as I don't really want to pay £50 or so a time to telephone deal with HL - they did offer to waive the fee once but never actually refunded it after charging.

I have since opened an x-o account and have successfully placed my first certificate there (Crown Place) and will most likely seel later this week so I can report back if all goes successfully.

If it does go successfully I'm tempted to transfer my fund and share account in full from HL (but leave ISA and SIPP there for now).

I agree with the previous comments - I fully understand why they pulled these services in March/April when the markets were going crazy and the end of the tax year etc with so much general uncertainty but 6 months later they should have been able to come up with solutions to get back to a more business as usual experience.

[oxmatt]

To follow up on my post above I placed a limit order online on x-o (as they advised for less liquid securities) for my holding at the current bid price. Just got a phone call saying they'd spoke to the market maker and they are doing a buyback at a slightly higher price next week or they can deal today at the quoted bid price and which would I prefer. Pretty good service (assuming it all goes to plan) for £5.95.

[barchid]

oxmatt
That is not an isolated incident, they always do that if they spot it.
Best thing to do is to put on a sale limit for their maximum time, 3 months, then call their dealing desk & ask them to let the MM know they have a seller awaiting a buy back.
Usually, depending on VCT, you receive an email the day before the buy back to check that you still wish to sell. For VCT "recycling", it is a great service.
I use sharedeal active as I opened it before x-o came out, so I have to pay £4 more a trade but tbh, I can't be bothered to change, very happy with Jarvis.
No opening fees nor quarterly or annual charges either, absolutely plain vanilla.

[flyer61]

Thanks for the suggestion to use Jarvis....so far so good!

[Kidman]

Since I was first affected by HL's withdrawal of paper and telephone services I have sent them complaints.
Only one service affects me at ther moment and that is the transfer of nominee holdings into certificates. I would have thought this could have been arranged by getting registrars to send the certificate directly to me (as one does) then HL would merely have to pass the instruction across electronically.
In time I may also want to lodge certificates and use the Bed and ISA service as I have done in the past.
I am now going through their full procedure aided by the Ombudsman to save having to set up an X-O account and pay their transfer out charges.
If anyone else wishes to complain to HL (again) then please do so.