- Experts rate Hargreaves Lansdown's Lifetime ISA highly, noting the significant tax savings available for different taxpayer brackets and the attractive government bonus of up to 25% on contributions. The platform offers a wide range of investment options, including over 3,000 funds and various asset classes, while maintaining competitive fees, particularly for larger investments.
- Across 1775 user reviews on Good Money Guide, averaging 3.8/5, customers frequently highlight the platform's user-friendly app and excellent customer service, with many appreciating the extensive investment options available. However, some users express concerns about high fees and occasional difficulties with account management and customer support responsiveness.
Hargreaves Lansdown Lifetime ISA Expert rating
Our expert rating is the average of the areas listed here, each scored out of 5 by our team.Our experts have rated Hargreaves Lansdown Lifetime ISA across five key areas of our review framework.
- Pricing4.0
- Market Access5.0
- App & Platform5.0
- Customer Service5.0
- Research & Analysis5.0
Pros
- Investment options
- Established provider
- Good interest rates
Cons
- Account charge
See full expert review
Our verdict
Hargreaves Lansdown's Lifetime ISA is a great way to take advantage of the 25% government bonus with your £4,000 Lifetime ISA allowance as fees are low and there are a huge number of markets to invest in.
Does HL have a good Lifetime ISA?
The latest LISA analysis from Hargreaves Lansdown found that if you invested the full allowance in a stocks and shares Lifetime ISA over 30 years, the tax saving for a basic rate taxpayer could be £26,935, for a higher rate taxpayer £59,949 and for an additional rate taxpayer £66,044.
When you deposit money into a Hargreaves Lansdown lifetime ISA, the government will top that amount up by up to 25%. It is one of the best ways to get a head start save for your first home, or to save for your retirement.
Once you add in the government top up, a Lifetime ISA investor could be £129,568 better off than a basic rate taxpayer investing outside an ISA, £162,581 better off than a higher rate taxpayer and £168,676 better off than an additional rate taxpayer
Hargreaves Lansdown's Lifetime ISA also benefits from free account opening.
In terms of administrative fees for the lifetime ISA, Hargreaves Lansdown operates a scaled charging system with a fee of 0.25% on the first £1.0 million of investments, if that money is held in funds
Those charges fall to 0.1%, for fund holdings worth between £1.0 and £2.0 million and fall to zero for investments that are larger than £2.0 million.
However, if the investor only holds UK and overseas equities, investment trusts, ETFs, VCTs or Gilts and other bonds, in their Lifetime ISA, then fees are charged at 0.25% capped at a maximum of £45.0 per annum.
The HL LISA is geared more towards more confident investors Hargreaves Lansdown gives you one of the most flexible Lifetime ISAs where you can choose exactly what to invest in. With the HL LISA you can invest in over 3,000 funds, UK and international shares as well as investment trusts, bonds and ETFs.
Customer reviews for Hargreaves Lansdown
Customer ratings come from reviews left on this site. Every review is read and approved before it is published.Based on 1,775 reviews
- Excellent27%
- Very good38%
- Basic24%
- Poor7%
- Bad4%
Read customer reviews
hideous experience
just speechless! I created the kids accounts. They changed the primary person on my child's account without telling either parent, locked me out when I Phoned about a login issue, then dictated what I do in my own home and with whom. Never had an experience like that!
Website
Excellent platform for stocks, shares and cash investing.
Class
Amazing customer service
Efficient
Very simple app. Brilliant customer service. Good range of ETFs, which I use for long-term investing. Brilliant Cash ISA also, with great interest rate. Trusted and credible. I trust my money is in a safe place.
Good
Communication
Intuitive
Good, intuitive app. Very responsive customer service.
Excellent
Easy platform to use
Confidence
Easy to use platform, very supportive and excellent telephone service.
fantastic
They listen then execute the right strategy
Accessible
Easy to use and patient/friendly when contacted. 5he brand provides access at all investment skill and money levels.
Great for junior ISA
Provide good junior stocks and shares ISA
Quality
Been with them for years and I have always felt they provide me with the best service for my needs as being retired now , not the force of old but heh ho still looking . Pb
Bereavement Support - Incompetent and Difficult
Where do I start.
Claiming they sent forms when they didn't. Then sent them in an email, but the forms were not attached.
Provided all information requested.
Week later I get an email requesting more information. We are all HL clients but they have made a bad situation so much worse because of their incompetence and awkwardness.
I have NEVER dealt with a more difficult organisation in thise who bereavement process.
They offer good products but I am seriously considering moving my considerable financial invesment away from HL.
Utterly appalled.
Overall good but the app could be easier to use.
One of only a few providers of a JISA where you can pick and manage your investments. Setting up the account was reasonably easy. The app UI is ok but not great. Can only fund the account through a card payment is a little frustrating but not a deal breaker.
Free JISA and app is great
Opened up a JISA on HL due to fees and ease of use. Good stock universe and the app works very well. Got no complaints
Good but room for improvement
HL Junior ISA is okay but their website and app need improvement compared to competitors like InvestEngine and Trading212.
Operating outside of Law Demanding Facial Recognition to Verify / Fake Reviews
Hargreaves Landsdown operate outside of the law demanding Facial Recognition to verify accounts of both new and existing customers. They will tell you its the only way to verify, but when you look into the privacy law, this is simply not the case.
The system they use is MITEK. A quick search will show you who owns MITEK. Its the same corporations whom own everything.
Furthermore, HL are using extremely unscrupulous resources to keep their image squeeky clean by using BLACK MARKETING sources to write positive reviews. They pay approx £10 a review. Search Black Marketing and you will find many people happy to lie and cheat for money.
Go onto Trustpilot and see how many reviews they receive per day. I just counted over 20 in 24 hours. This is a statistical impossibility.
Now, do you really want a company that lies and cheats and sells your data to look after your hard earning money?
Think about that
I have been a customer of theirs for many years and i am absolutely disgusted at their practices and you should be too.
Good service
one of the very few services that allows for some investments... It could be improved and made even more powerful (i.e. investments in other currencies) but really probably the best platform for easy access and universe of investments possible!
Not as good as they used to be
I've used HL for more than 10 years. They used to be low cost. Customer service was excellent. Online platform was great. Still not bad, but other platforms are now cheaper. Slower to resolve the occasional problem.
Cheap and easy to trade with, but lacking advanced features for active traders
Hargreaves Lansdown are good value for those that are low volume traders of stocks. If you hold funds then they are not such great value because of the admin fees that they charge. However, they don't charge dealing fees on funds which is a good point. A negative thought is that fund trades have to be placed by 9am or 8am for some in order to receive that day's valuation price. Many other brokers have a cut-off time of 11am-11.30am. HL are also one of the slowest to update fund prices - if you check Fidelity, Morningstar or AJ Bell, at 4pm, most fund prices are update, whereas HL take until 6pm or later.
The process of placing a deal with HL using the app is the best of many brokers that I have used as it is so smooth and quick. Very quick to login. However, there are many small companies, foreign companies or investment trusts that don't load up on the app and only can be viewed or traded on the desktop website.
The app and website are my first choice for checking share prices and news/RNS releases for UK stocks. Historical performance indicators are good too. However there is no provision of key metric data like P/CF, Forward P/E, Debt/Equity, Quick ratio, current ratio, Free cash flow yield, ROCE, ROE, ROA etc so I have to go to Reuters or other sites to check such details.
HL has always been very unaccommodating for those who wished to subscribe to IPOs or share offers, I have found other brokers providing access to new IPOs but HL will not.
They also have a strange system whereby they put dividends you receive into a hidden account and then only 2 weeks later transfer them to your capital account to allow you to trade with that cash.
Watchlists are very good in providing current prices and being well layed out.
It would be good if we could see futures prices for US markets and individual stocks in the morning when the UK is open. I have to check marketwatch or investing.com for that.
Why can't you make charts with HL of different stocks all on the same chart?
The total return chart function is great for funds but why can't that be extended to longer than 5 year periods and for stocks as well?
Richard is the founder of the Good Money Guide (formerly Good Broker Guide), one of the original investment comparison sites established in 2015. With a career spanning two decades as a broker, he brings extensive expertise and knowledge to the financial landscape.
Having worked as a broker at Investors Intelligence and a multi-asset derivatives broker at MF Global (Man Financial), Richard has acquired substantial experience in the industry. His career began as a private client stockbroker at Walker Crips and Phillip Securities (now King and Shaxson), following internships on the NYMEX oil trading floor in New York and London IPE in 2001 and 2000.
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Under Richard’s leadership, the Good Money Guide has evolved into a valuable destination for comprehensive information and expert guidance, specialising in trading, investment, and currency exchange. His commitment to delivering high-quality insights has solidified the Good Money Guide’s standing as a well-respected resource for both customers and industry colleagues.