AJ Bell fee hike will cost savers up to £300 extra

INVESTORS who use fund supermarkets have been hit by a double blow of fee hikes and cuts to interest rates.

Pension firm AJ Bell is revamping its rates on October 1 and Hargreaves Lansdown is cutting its rates on September 10. Some AJ Bell savers will pay up to £300 a year more, others may pay less.

Hardest hit will be small savers with money in funds. The charge will rise from 0.2 pc, capped at £200 a year, to 0.25 pc on up to £250,000 and 0.1 pc on anything between £250,000 and £1 million.

Someone with £100,000 faces paying £500 instead of £200 a year. The firm is scrapping its £100 annual charge to take money out of pensions. Customers will instead be charged £25 a time, meaning costs rise if you dip in regularly, but fall if you make occasional withdrawals.

It will charge 0.25 pc for holding shares, capped at £25 for Sipps, £7.50 for Isas and £5 for Junior Isas. The £100 Sipps annual fee will be scrapped.

Hargreaves Lansdown cut its cash rates on pension savings by up to half in the wake of the Bank of England base rate cut. Vantage Sipp customers will get 0.03 pc on up to £5,000 (down from 0.05pc) and 0.04pc on anything between £5,000 and £25,000 (down from 0.05 pc).

Hargreaves will pay 0.05 pc on £25,000 to £100,000 and 0.1pc on anything above — half what it paid on these balances before. p.thomas@dailymail.co.uk