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Letter from the Editor: The price war is ON

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Letter from the Editor: The price war is ON

So, the price war is officially on…

This week saw Hargreaves Lansdown join the party, with the announcement that they’re cutting their headline charge from 0.45% per annum to 0.35%.

That means we’ve had Vanguard, interactive investor and Hargreaves Lansdown – three of the UK’s largest investment platforms collectively managing around 60.5% of the UK DIY retail platform market’s assets – all announcing fee changes in recent weeks.
On the surface, this all looks like great news — and for many investors, it is. But as ever, the devil is in the detail.

Headline fee cuts make for good press releases, but they rarely tell the full story. As we showed in our analysis of the Hargreaves winners and losers, some investors will pay less, while others will quietly pay more once new caps, dealing charges and account fees are factored in. The danger is in assuming your loyalty is being rewarded, when in reality the economics of your account may have shifted underneath you.

The good news? This is exactly the kind of market competition that ultimately leads to more money in your pocket as a consumer. But, those who gain the most are those who are prepared to switch if necessary. The second bit of good news is that switching is easier than ever.

The approach now is to treat your platform like any other financial product: review it, it, and make sure it still earns its keep. In a price war, the winners aren’t the loudest brands – they’re the investors who pay attention.

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Clare West
Clare West Finance Editor

As a finance writer and editor, I can’t make decisions for you because only you know what’s right for you, and your personal priorities and goals. My role is to understand the things that are going to be important to you, remove anything that could work as a barrier to understanding, and then ensure you don’t miss a thing.

It’s an approach that has won me awards from professional bodies (‘Website of the Year’ at the Professional Adviser Awards 2021; Finalist – ‘Start Up of the Year’ at the UK FinTech Awards 2025) and seen me featured in the press as a commentator and expert.

Finances are about so much more than numbers on a page. Achieving your financial goals allows you to feel peace of mind, have confidence in your future, and achieve the things that matter to you. Financial wellbeing allows for life goal fulfilment.

I’ve spent more than a decade specialising in writing about financial services, so I know that in financial services, trust is absolutely vital. I am delighted, therefore, that everything we do at Investing Insiders centres around trust. Our mission is to write honest reviews based on our personal opinions and professional insights. We are not swayed in our opinions by incentives or influences from providers. Where we have a relationship with a provider that could affect our neutrality, we will let you know. But we are clear; whatever relationship we have with providers, our reader comes first. Simply put, we can’t be paid to change our opinion. My obligation is to you, the saver or investor, looking to build your wealth and protect your future.

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