Regular ETF investing with Hargreaves Lansdown

[EthicsGradient]

Slightly to my surprise, it seems the cheapest platform for regular investing in ETFs, ITs and shares (outside any wrapper) is now Hargreaves Lansdown, for which the charge is just £1.50 per investment, with no other fees involved. They do, however, say the range of ETFs is limited; I found this, dated April 2018, which does contain the 2 I am looking at (iShares plc MSCI Emerging Markets IMI and Vanguard Funds plc FTSE Developed World UCITS).

Does anyone know if that's the most up-to-date list there is? It'd be nice to know if there are now other ETFs I'd have the option of buying too.

[MickR]

wont they still charge the 0.45% per annum platform fee though?

[JohnB]

HL charge nothing for ETFs outside a wrapper. The 0.45% applies to funds.

[EssDeeAitch]

II's charge for regular investments and dividend re-investment is £0.99 (and no platform fee)

[EthicsGradient]

II has a platform charge of £9.99/month, with up to £8 of dealing credit for that.

Until an hour before I posted the OP, they charged £0.99/month for regular investing, so HL would be cheaper for 6 or fewer purchases a month, if you're doing nothing else. But then, II announced their charge for regular investing is now nothing.

However, that still means HL is cheaper for 6 or fewer monthly purchases on their own; HL's charges for other deals are £11.95, so if you did, say, 6 of them a year, and 2 regular purchases a month, HL would be £107.70, compared to £119.88 for II. That is, of course, only if no funds are involved, which HL charge a percentage for.

[StOmer]

HL say that they offer the majority of LSE listed ETF's (https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/exchange-traded-funds-etfs/knowledge-centre) and I imagine that if you are registered for other markets the same will apply. I haven't had any problem locating on HL the ETF's that I am looking at. Strange how Vanguard actually works out dearer to hold Vanguard ETF's than buying the same on HL's platform although I believe Vanguard offers a free purchase cost if you elect for their bulk dealing service.

[EthicsGradient]

HL say that they offer the majority of LSE listed ETF's (https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/exchange-traded-funds-etfs/knowledge-centre) and I imagine that if you are registered for other markets the same will apply. I haven't had any problem locating on HL the ETF's that I am looking at. Strange how Vanguard actually works out dearer to hold Vanguard ETF's than buying the same on HL's platform although I believe Vanguard offers a free purchase cost if you elect for their bulk dealing service.

Thanks - that has led me to a tool in which you can check if they offer ETFs as one-off purchases - https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/exchange-tr ... st-of-etfs - but neither it, nor the details of the ETFs it gives as results, seem to specify whether that applies to regular investments too (and brokers do often limit those to the popular ones, since they need a good idea they'll get plenty of purchases each month to aggregate).

It seems to me the problem with the Vanguard account is that the 0.15% annual account fee appears to apply to ETFs, while many other brokers only apply account percentage fees to funds.

[StOmer]

Thanks - that has led me to a tool in which you can check if they offer ETFs as one-off purchases - https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/exchange-tr ... st-of-etfs - but neither it, nor the details of the ETFs it gives as results, seem to specify whether that applies to regular investments too (and brokers do often limit those to the popular ones, since they need a good idea they'll get plenty of purchases each month to aggregate).

I found this list at the HL website, for IT's they allow regular investing for those in the FTSE 350 which probably means the same for ETF's? https://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/regular-investing for a a page containing a link to their eligible ETF's. The list opens in a pop-up window so I couldn't send a link to the actual list/

HTH,
Mickey
ps. You can also in account view, click on regular investing, select shares and search for your ETF to see if it is in their list.