ISA - frequently asked questions

Online: Complete our online application form using a debit card.

Telephone: Contact our ISA Line on 0117 980 9950 (Mon to Fri 9am - 5pm) with your debit card.

By post: Send an application form and a personal cheque.

You can invest in funds including Unit Trusts and OEICs, UK, American and European shares, investment trusts, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), gilts and corporate bonds. Please note that fixed interest stocks must have at least 5 years to run until the redemption date to be eligible to be purchased in an ISA. You can also hold cash in the account pending your investment decision.

We usually ask for a minimum subscription of £3000 when first opening an account. Subject to a minimum of £1000 per fund this can be split between multiple investments.

You are also able to set up a monthly regular savings instruction of £50 a month if applying online or £100 a month if applying via the post. This is subject to a minimum of £50 per fund.

The maximum subscription for the 2009/10 tax year is £7,200.

From 6th April 2010, the ISA allowance will rise to £10,200 (with up to £5,100 in a Cash ISA). For the over-50s, the change applies from 6th October 2009, meaning that if you are over 50 you can invest an additional £3,000 in the 2009/10 tax year.

Yes. You can split your ISA allowance between a Stocks & Shares ISA and a Cash ISA. The maximum that you can invest into a Cash ISA this tax year is £3,600, or £5,100 if you are over 50 on the 5th of April 2010.

Yes. We would normally ask for an opening subscription of £3000 for a new ISA application. It is then possible to top up your ISA with further lump sums at later dates until your full ISA allowance is used. You can top up your ISA with any amount of money. However, if you wish to place investment instructions, the minimum amount we will accept to invest into an existing fund you hold is £250. If you wish to invest in a new fund the minimum is £1000.

You can transfer existing Cash ISAs into either the Vantage Stocks & Shares ISA or into the Vantage Cash ISA. If a Cash ISA is transferred into a Stocks & Shares ISA the process cannot be reversed.

Our Vantage Cash ISA is open to transfers subject to a minimum total transfer value of £5000. We are unable to accept new subscriptions to our Vantage Cash ISA so if you are saving regularly into a Cash ISA for this tax year, please do not transfer that ISA to the Vantage Cash ISA. For further information on this ISA and to request a Cash ISA Transfer form, please e-mail us via the Contact Us section of our website, or call our Help Desk on 0117 900 9000.

You need to read the Key Features first then you can top up in one of three ways:

Online: If you have online access you can add money with a debit card once logged into your account by selecting the 'Add Money' tab.
Telephone: Contact our ISA line on 0117 980 9950 (Mon to Fri 9am - 5pm) with your debit card.
By post: Send a covering letter, quoting your client number, and cheque made payable to 'HLAM ISA Client A/C'.  If you are not using a personal cheque (or you are using any cheque that doesn’t have your name printed on it) please ask your Bank or Building Society to verify on the back of the cheque that the money has been drawn from your account. The Bank or Building Society may certify the cheque on the reverse with the wording ‘This cheque has been drawn on the account of (your name)’. This must be dated, signed and accompanied by the company stamp.

If you have not opened an ISA for the current tax year you will need to complete a Vantage ISA application form.

The minimum lump sum investment into a new fund is £1000. If you are topping up a fund that you already hold the minimum investment is £250.

You are also able to set up a monthly regular savings instruction of £50 a month if applying online or £100 a month if applying via the post. This is subject to a minimum of £50 per fund.

Yes, you can either do this over the telephone by calling our ISA line on 0117 980 9950 (Mon to Fri 9am - 5pm), or you can send us a Vantage Stocks & Shares ISA application form with a letter of instruction. Please read the Key Features and Terms & Conditions before you apply.

The Vantage Service is a fund supermarket so you can mix and match funds offered by different providers within this one ISA wrapper.

Yes. It is possible to trade in ETFs in our Vantage ISA. Exchange Traded Funds or ETFs are stock market traded investments which track an index i.e. the FTSE 350. They are open ended mutual funds listed on the stock exchange and can be bought or sold through a stockbroker in the same way as an Investment Trust or ordinary company shares. More information about ETFs can be found here.

ETFs are subject to our standard dealing commission of 1%, min £10 – max £50. No stamp duty is applicable on ETF purchases.

If you would prefer to deal online, you can do so for a large amount of ETFs. Our online dealing tariff is:

Investment amount	Tariff
£0-£499.99	£9.95
£500-£1,999.99	£14.95
£2,000-£3,999.99	£19.95
£4,000-£19,999.99	£24.95
£20,000+	£29.95

You can buy the majority of investment trusts in the Vantage Stocks & Shares ISA. These would be subject to our usual dealing commission as detailed above. Please note that 0.5% government stamp duty is charged on the purchase of an investment trust.

The annual management fee is 0.5% +VAT (capped at a maximum of £200 +VAT) and is deducted on a monthly basis. However, this fee is waived on the vast majority of funds. This is because most fund providers would pay us annual renewal commission.

There are very few funds that would incur an annual management fee if held in the Vantage Stocks & Shares ISA. If this is the case this will be indicated by an asterisk next to the Annual Charge figure in the Key Features section of our fund factsheets on our website.

The charge is deducted monthly in arrears based on the valuation at the time. The charge is first taken from income; if there is no income it is deducted from cash held on your Capital account or if there are insufficient monies on either of these accounts it is taken from any accrued Loyalty Bonus. If there is not enough money to cover the fee it will remain outstanding until further monies are received into your Vantage account. If outstanding fees continue to accrue, we may contact you to request payment.

A Vantage Stocks & Shares ISA can be set up to treat income in one of three ways:

1. Reinvestment: Income will be held within your account and accumulated until it exceeds £50 per holding for funds and £200 per holding for other investments, when it will be automatically reinvested. We will do this within 10 working days of the end of each month.
2. Deposit: Income will be held on your account pending your further investment instructions.
3. Pay out an Income: Income will be paid out directly to a nominated bank/building society account. This payment will be made within 10 working days of the end of each month.

The instruction you give will apply to all income paying holdings within that Vantage Stocks & Shares ISA account.

You can change the income instruction by logging into your account online (go to the 'Income Account' section), or by sending us a signed letter of instruction. You can also opt for income to be retained on the account or automatically reinvested by calling us on 0117 900 9000 with your master password (you cannot request income to be paid to your bank account over the telephone).

Alternatively, you can complete and return our Change of Income Instruction form.

Online: If you're registered, simply log in to your account to place a deal. If you're not already registered you can request a PIN here.

Telephone: Provided you have a master password on your account, call our stockbrokers on 0117 980 9800.

Post: Send a signed letter of instruction to: One College Square South, Anchor Road, Bristol, BS1 5HL.

Alternatively, you can download and return a dealing form.

If you are switching between funds there will be no charge to sell a fund, you would be out of the market overnight and on the repurchase of a new fund you would incur the initial charge for this fund, minus any discount we can offer. If you are trading in equities, you will incur dealing commission.

You can set up a direct debit to invest into a fund on a monthly basis in a Vantage ISA. It is possible to set up the instruction online or by sending us an application form. The minimum monthly amount we ask for if setting up the regular savings instruction online is £50. If applying for a regular savings plan into the Vantage ISA via the post, the monthly minimum is £100, (subject to a minimum of £50 per fund).

Payment will leave your bank account on the 7th of each month (or the next working day if the 7th is not a working day) and investments are made on the 10th (or the next working day if the 10th is not a working day).

If you wish to change the amount of money we request from your bank account or wish to change the funds you are investing in, please contact our Help Desk on 0117 900 9000 quoting your master password. Alternatively complete a Regular Savings - Change to Contribution form or a Change your Fund Choice form.

If you wish to cancel your direct debit please provide us with a written instruction. If you would like to change the bank account from which the monthly payments are made, we will require a new direct debit mandate.

We will need to receive any new instructions no less than 10 working days before the next payment is due to be made.

Hargreaves Lansdown receives annual renewal commission from most Fund Managers. We share this renewal commission with our Vantage clients in the form of an annual saving, which we call the Loyalty Bonus. The Loyalty Bonus is credited to a separate Loyalty Bonus Account within your Vantage portfolio.

The Loyalty Bonus can be withdrawn (subject to a minimum of £5) on receipt of a signed letter of instruction, or you can complete and return our Cash Withdrawal Form. Alternatively, you could use this money to fund a further investment into a Vantage account. If you choose to add this money to an ISA it will count as a subscription for that tax year.

Within each Vantage account cash is held in two separate cash management accounts, the Income account and the Capital account. Any dividends or tax credits you receive are paid into your Income account. Any other payments you make into your Vantage account are held on the Capital account.

The Vantage Stocks & Shares ISA Income account can be set up to treat income received in one of three ways:

1. Reinvestment: Income will be held within your Income Account and accumulated until it exceeds £50 per holding for Unit Trusts/OEICs and £200 per holding for other investments, when it will be automatically reinvested. We will do this within 10 working days of the end of each month.
2. Deposit: Income will be held on your Capital Account pending your further investment instructions.
3. Pay out an Income: Income will be held temporarily within your income account and then paid out directly to a nominated bank/building society account. This payment will be made within 10 working days of the end of each month.

The monies held in the Vantage Stocks & Shares ISA Capital account can be used for investment.

We will pay interest on money held as cash in the Capital account. The rate of interest will depend on the value of the cash you hold. View current rates of interest.

Interest is not payable on money held in the Income account.

The interest on cash held in your Vantage Capital account is calculated on a daily basis and credited to your Vantage account monthly (within the first 10 working days of the month).

In order to withdraw cash from a Vantage Stocks & Shares ISA we would require you to send us a signed letter of instruction or, if you prefer you can complete and return a Cash Withdrawal Form. If you provide us with your bank details (account number, sort code, and if applicable the building society reference number) we can arrange a payment of this money by BACS. Alternatively, we will send you a cheque.

Any deal placed will need to settle before the cash proceeds are available to be paid out. The settlement period for Unit Trusts/OEICs is four working days. The settlement period for shares and investment trusts is three working days. We can pay out cash on the day of settlement, assuming that we have received a signed written instruction to do so.

If you already have access to your Vantage portfolio online, any new accounts you open in your name will be displayed in the same place.

If you apply for an account online, you will set up online access to your account as part of the application process. If you apply by post or over the telephone, we will automatically send you a PIN number via the post which will allow you to register for online access.

If you have an existing account and would like to set up online access, you can register for online access on our homepage.

We send an Investment Report containing a valuation and statement of your account twice a year. These arrive with our clients in mid May and mid November. You can view historic Investment Reports online if you have online access set up to your Vantage account.

In order to transfer shares into an ISA they have to be sold and then bought back into the ISA wrapper. This is known as a Bed & ISA. We waive the normal stockbroking commission to sell your shares, saving you as much as £50. All you pay is 1% (minimum £10, maximum £50) to buy your shares back within the ISA and stamp duty of 0.5% (on UK listed stocks). Furthermore, as we buy back the shares immediately, the only difference in price will be the standard bid/offer spread so you will see a small difference in the number of shares you sell and the number you buy back. Please note, if you are selling shares and reinvesting elsewhere a flat £15 charge will apply to the sale.

Once in the ISA, the annual management charge to hold shares is just 0.5% +VAT (maximum £200 +VAT). To Bed & ISA your shares please send us your share certificates, a Vantage ISA application form and a covering letter. If the shares that you wish to Bed & ISA are already held in a Vantage Share Account, we simply require a letter of instruction with the Vantage ISA application form.

Find out more about Bed and ISA

An ISA is an individual allowance and generally the individual must pay for it themselves. However, it is possible for a third party to gift money to the ISA applicant. We would require a completed ISA application form signed by the applicant and cheque with a letter from the third party stating that they are gifting this money to the ISA applicant for the purpose of this investment and that upon investment will have no further claim to the money. In these circumstances we would also need the dates of birth and all addresses that any parties have lived at over the last two years.

HM Revenue and Customs regulations do not set a timescale, however, they do stipulate that you must hold the cash in the account with the intention to reinvest at some point in the future.

Yes. Most Stocks & Shares ISA providers will offer a stock transfer and whilst a few levy exit fees these can typically be recouped by the loyalty bonuses we offer on funds. Some providers may specify that a transfer must be made in the form of cash, in which case, you would retain the ISA wrapper but you would be out of the market during the transfer period, which would typically be 5 – 10 working days. On receipt of the cash proceeds we can reinvest according to your instructions.

It is now also possible to transfer a Cash ISA to a Stocks & Shares ISA but not vice versa.

Yes, existing Cash ISAs can be transferred into the Vantage Stocks and Shares ISA but please remember that this transfer is not reversible. Once you have transferred a Cash ISA into a Stocks & Shares ISA you cannot transfer back. Unlike stock market investments, Cash ISAs offer immediate access and your capital is guaranteed. Furthermore within Cash ISAs you receive your interest gross, but while you hold cash in a Stocks & Shares ISA the interest is effectively paid net. That said, historically, stock market investments have delivered superior returns when compared with cash over the longer term, although they can fall in value as well as rise. If you are interested in transferring your Cash ISA into a Stocks & Shares ISA please complete our Stocks & Shares ISA Transfer Form.

All existing Cash ISAs can be transferred to the Vantage Cash ISA. Currently we cannot accept new investments so if you are saving regularly into a Cash ISA for this tax year, please do not transfer that ISA to the Vantage Cash ISA. You can transfer as many Cash ISAs as you like, all we ask is that the ISAs you transfer are together worth more than £5,000. To transfer a Cash ISA into the Vantage Cash ISA please read the Key Features and Terms & Conditions then complete our Cash ISA Transfer Form.

In order to transfer either a Stocks & Shares ISA or a Cash ISA into the Vantage Stocks & Shares ISA, you would need to complete our Stocks & Shares ISA Transfer form, please read the Key Features and Terms & Conditions first. This should be returned to us and we will then contact your existing ISA provider to arrange the transfer. If a Cash ISA is transferred into a Stocks & Shares ISA the process cannot be reversed.

If you are transferring ISAs from previous tax years this has no impact on your ISA allowance for the current tax year. A transfer does not count as a new subscription.

We have put together a summary of the key protections that apply to you as a private investor:

How safe is your investment with Hargreaves Lansdown

You can log in to your account online (go to the 'Portfolio Administration' section), or send us a signed letter of instruction. Alternatively, you can complete and return our Change of Address form.

Online: If you have an account with us and you have online access, you can log into your account and amend your e-mail address.
Telephone: Provided that you have a Master Password you can call us on 0117 900 9000.
E-mail: We can accept a change of e-mail address given by e-mail as long as the e-mail is sent from the existing e-mail address that we hold.
Post: You can send us a signed letter of instruction, or you can complete and return our Change of Personal Details form.