Hargreaves Lansdown Stocks & Shares ISA Customer Reviews & Expert Rating

The overall score out of 10 combines our expert rating out of 5 with the average customer rating out of 5.
8.7/10Very good

Based on 1,779 customer reviews and our expert analysis

  • Experts consistently rate Hargreaves Lansdown's Stocks & Shares ISA as one of the best in the industry, particularly for investing in individual shares. They highlight the extensive range of investment options and exceptional customer support, while noting that the platform can be expensive for larger fund portfolios.
  • Across 1779 user reviews on Good Money Guide, averaging 3.8/5, customers frequently commend the user-friendly app and website, along with the quality of customer service. However, some users express concerns about high fees and issues with account management, indicating a mix of positive experiences and frustrations with the platform's processes.

Hargreaves Lansdown Stocks & Shares ISA Expert rating

Our expert rating is the average of the areas listed here, each scored out of 5 by our team.
4.9Excellent

Our experts have rated Hargreaves Lansdown Stocks & Shares ISA across five key areas of our review framework.

  • Pricing4.5
  • Market Access5.0
  • App & Platform5.0
  • Customer Service5.0
  • Research & Analysis5.0

Pros

  • Thousands of UK and international shares, bonds & funds
  • Ready-made portfolios with different levels of risk
  • Excellent research and analysis
  • An established and listed company on the LSE.

Cons

  • Can be expensive for large fund portfolios
See full expert review

Our verdict

Hargreaves Lansdown’s Stocks & Shares ISA offers access to a vast range of investments. Investors have access to domestic and international equities, over 4,000 funds, bonds, and more. Another advantage is that the platform offers plenty of research and investment tools to help you make investment decisions.
Capital at risk.

Is Hargreaves Lansdown's Investment ISA: Is it any good?

Yes, we consistently rate Hargreaves Lansdown's stocks and shares ISA as one of the best in the industry, particularly if you are investing in individual shares. You can also invest in a cash ISA through their Hargreaves Lansdown Active Savings account.

Hargreaves Lansdown was ranked as the best self-select investment ISA in 2023 in our awards, as they offer a huge range of investment options backed up by industry-leading customer support and research.

Popularity: Hargreaves Lansdown's Investment ISA is incredibly popular with over 955,000 stocks and shares ISA currently active.

Fun fact: An HL ISA is gets opened or topped up via the website or app every 6 seconds during the busiest hour on the last day of the tax year (between 3pm-4pm).

Special Offer: As it's ISA season, until 5 April 2025, Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) is offering any new or existing clients transferring or contributing a minimum of £10,000 into a newly opened HL Stocks & Shares ISA and/or SIPP cash back between £100 and £3,000. Clients transferring into an existing HL Stocks & Shares ISA / HL SIPPs are also eligible.

In addition, clients topping up their HL Stocks & Shares ISA, Lifetime ISA, Cash ISA or SIPP by a minimum of £3,500 in one single product, will be automatically entered into a prize draw for two chances to win £50,000.

Fees: Hargreaves Lansdown’s ISA costs 0.45% of the value of your portfolio. However, share account fees are capped at £45 per year. Funds are charged at 0.45% for the first £250,000. There is no charge for buying funds, but shares are charged at £11.95 per deal or £5.95 if you do over 20 deals per month.

Automatic Regular Investing

The latest research from Hargreaves Lansdown highlights just how important it is to invest in an ISA as if you invested your full allowance (£20k) in a stocks and shares ISA over ten years, a basic rate taxpayer could save £8,521 in tax, a higher rate taxpayer £19,336 and an additional rate taxpayer £21,358.

Joseph Hill, a senior investment analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown: said that“Albert Einstein called it the eighth wonder of the world, and compound interest has something in common with other wonders of the world – to most people it’s mysterious and beyond comprehension. We asked people what they’d end up with if they invested £10,000 for a year, and their investments grew at 8%, compounded daily. Just 28% of people got the answer right. The most common answer was £10,800 – which is 8% growth without compounding. The actual answer was £10,832.

Hargreaves Lansdown suggests that people reinvest their stocks and shares ISA profits in income funds like Artemis Income and Fidelity Global Dividend funds. Becuase income funds are not just for those needing an income today, they can be a great way of seeing compounding in action if investors reinvest the income.

This can increase the number of units held in the fund, growing the value of an investment and repeating this process over a long period can be a great way to grow capital.

Customer reviews for Hargreaves Lansdown

Customer ratings come from reviews left on this site. Every review is read and approved before it is published.
3.8Basic

Based on 1,779 reviews

  • Excellent27%
  • Very good38%
  • Basic24%
  • Poor7%
  • Bad4%
Read customer reviews

Operating outside of Law Demanding Facial Recognition to Verify / Fake Reviews

Jane Maitland ·

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

Gianluca Spinetti ·

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

richard tomlinson ·

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

Elie Gabay ·

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?

Excellent App but high buying fees

Neil Rimmer ·

HL is an excellent platform as it’s easy to use and set up. It does however have rather large fees when buying a share. Considering the number of clients they have I’m surprised they remain high and is the reason I am looking for an alternative for my Stocks and Shares ISA

My trust in their knowledge is key

Holly Jordan ·

When you are a newbie to investing, it can be overwhelming, there are sharks in the tank that you need to avoid, along with many obstacles to overcome. While no financial organisation can deliver guidance with a crystal ball - I have found Hargreaves's Lansdown to operate with expertise and business integrity with a focus on client satisfaction. This has led me to confidently invest in a safe and secure environment with top class educated guidance. I don't think you can do better than that.

Great value for Junior ISAs

John Zachary ·

Set up Junior ISAs for my kids last year with 0% commission on all trades into and out of the Junior ISAs has been an excellent way to get them started in investing. I use other resources for keeping track of my portfolio but the overall service provides excellent value for money.

SAFE AND SECURE LIKE A TRUSTED OLD FRIEND

James Gray ·

I have been a customer of Hargreaves Lansdowne for many decades, and I use the platform to manage my stocks and shares ISA, my SIPP, plus my Fund and Share Account.
The platform is easy to navigate
The choice of investments is wide ranging.
The customer service is very good, though not as good as it used to be since a cost saving exercise about a year ago.
Obviously, other platforms are cheaper, and for that reason I cannot give it five stars.
It is safe and secure like a trusted old friend, and long may that continue.

No fees on JISA is Great - Webstite Needs Improvement

Justin ·

Love the lack of fees on the product for the junior ISA. Really draws me in to make the most of the contributions that are made to it. However I really don't enjoy using the HL website to manage the JISA. It lacks a lot of the ease of use that you find in other products e.g. Invest Engine, Trading 212 that HL should be able to compete with. Just changing my contribution / d

Good

Neil Andrew harrison ·

Good service speed, feedback clear website

Investors

Kashif Zafar ·

My Friend made a small investment in Hargreaves Lansdown PLC . They are a United Kingdom-based digital wealth management service administering company. The Company provides a range of services, including stocks and shares individual savings account (ISA), Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP), share dealing, fund dealing, drawdown, cash savings, lifetime ISA and junior ISA.
There is so much to like about this company. They have money in the bank. The returns are enormous with ROC of 50% ROE of 46% and a healthy margin of 48%. Gearing is low. Liquidity is good. Analyst sentiment is reasonably positive. The fundamentals are excellent . Revenue is increasing . Operating profits are steady. Cash flow and working capital are all good.
I had a few reservations. New investment last year was 38% down year on year. However, this is understandable in a cost of lockdown crisis. In addition, compared to their peers, such as AJ Bell, they are not doing that badly.
Another drawback is that HL are not competitive for those who are just getting started with investing. Investors with a large portfolio are ok because of the platform fee cap. However, HL could well lose out to new platforms offering commission free trading and no platform fees.
I like the sound of the new CEO and a potential British ISA may bring in more clients.
All in all, this is a quality company that I bought at a low price (P/E 11) with a great dividend story (expected 6.6% this year). which they have consistently paid over the past 8 years: with no share dilution.
This will be a stock that I will hold and enjoy the dividend and probable capital accumulation

Will be transferring a JISA here as it is fee free!

Kishan ·

I will be transferring a JISA to HL as it is fee free and also pays interest on any cash held which my current provider does not.

Stocks & Shares JISA

Raj ·

Been using HL to invest for my daughter’s future. All transactions are quick and simple to execute. Buy & sell orders fulfilled smoothly. I also was impressed with their customer service and help in transferring in a cash JISA from Nationwide. The application process was easy and the response was swift.

Reliable and User-Friendly, but High Fees Make It Worth Exploring Alternatives

Ryan Letley ·

I've been a Hargreaves Lansdown customer for many years, and the platform does exactly what it says on the tin. It's generally user-friendly, reliable, and offers a wide range of investment options and app. However, it is undeniably expensive compared to other platforms. The fees add up, especially if you're an active investor. While I plan to continue using it for now, the market has become increasingly competitive, and it's worth exploring other options that offer similar functionality at a much lower cost.

HL is not acting in my best interests, I have been waiting over 6 weeks for my drawdown funds.

Ronald Keith Sainsbury ·

HL pensions staff have not been helpful, open or transparent with my drawdown application. I am still waiting after 6 weeks and have no confidence in their internal work processes. HL are not acting in my best interests.
I wish I had checked Good Money Guide and other sites before as others have experienced similar issues. Delayed payment appears a deliberate HL policy.

Hargreaves Lansdown Excellent

Jolita Hallas ·

HL currently is a market leader to my investment experience. Top service, top platforms, safe an secure with a large portfolio and great analytics. I would recommend.

Easy to use app. Moderate plans

Mark Hyde ·

App is pretty intuitive and decent value

Investment guide

Prajwal ·

I’ve been following Hargreaces Lansdown it has been helpful to understand present money and investing guide.

Good and safe

Daphne MacFarlane ·

They hold my shares. It’s an easy website to navigate.

Excellent service

Amanda WESTWOOD ·

I like the HL app which allows me to follow markets and my investment with ease. It was also very simple to set up.

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