Hargreaves Lansdown 17+

Some Improvements, Mostly Good

I'm sure a lot of thought went into the design and testing. Ultimately it provides all the information and functionality needed when on the move - and more than the app previously did.

I don't think that the design team thought through logging on using Touch ID properly though. Similar apps are truly "one touch" when they use this technology, but several times the Touch ID has had to be re-set up on my 'phone and even then the previous system of typing in three of the chracters was easier. Now you open the app, tap to the right screen, tap again to log in. Why not - once Touch ID set up - just ask for log in on opening up the app, or go to log in pages automatically. I don't want to open the app for any reason WITHOUT going through log in to view my own account.

Otherwise it hasn't taken long to get use to it, and I do appreciate being able to order holdings in the way I want to view them and then finding that that view remains the sam enext time I log in.

Bit puzzled that we can get real time prices on a website - but cannot see it offered on app (unless I'm missing something)

Two steps forward, half a step back.

Update 1 July 2019: developers got back to me, having noted my comments on sign on. Also, advised me how to switch on Live Prices (which was there all the time, but not intuitive to me). Happy to say this remains one of my most used apps and pretty happy with it all round!

Developer Response ,

Thanks for your feedback about logging in via the app, your suggestion has been passed to our product development team for their consideration.

Live prices are available for clients using the app. To access them please login, tap on settings in the top right, then 'Live prices'. You can then toggle on live streaming share prices and delayed streaming indices.

Touch ID Far Too Unforgiving

Sometimes before turning in, I just want to view my account balance, it's not asking a lot, and for whatever reason my first attempt at Touch-ID access isn't successful but unlike other apps I'm given no opportunity to try again. This is disgraceful if not abusive. The unwelcome four step login process that follows a failed Touch-ID process truly drives me bonkers. I don't have this problem with any other serious financial app. Given the upset I think two stars is generous. Also, the above made me think about other things too, the difficulty of understanding exactly how some one or two of the displayed data is calculated for example and what I thought was a very reasonable near free FOC service is actually quite expensive. I'm not saying anything about the bits of the app that work really well and the fact if not for the above I would give it 5 stars. This is because I've had a long day and now it must end without me knowing what's happening on my account. It'll be days before I give in to that abusive login process even though I know full well this reticence will result in missed investment opportunities. Fed up, NN XX.

Just typed a lengthy addendum and took a screenshot and itvwas gone. Really really getting fed up now. 3 days without straightforward access, I'm getting angry. Plus after 3 days the above is still not listed in recent reviews on the App Store.

Very poor

The app simply doesn’t reflect the same information as their own website, even though it should be the same data source. Live prices are not always live, even though I have live prices activated and it’s indicating a live price to me with a nice green dot and message, but if I look on the HL website in parallel, I see the true live price, as do I with other non-HL sources

Same kind of issue when placing stop loss or limit orders. It gives you a message about price is x% above/below current price of Y, but the “Y” price it shows is massively outdated and sometimes it means its warning you that your stop loss has already been passed, but it hasn’t - it’s the app being out of time

HL refuse to acknowledge this and indicate quite abruptly that this issue is just mine, even though I’ve proved it with screenshots. The app should be an integral part of the offering and to tell me to use the website is just not a solution for people on the move. Given HL is expensive, their service and their seamless, working product should be what sets them apart. Now they’ve failed on both of those counts, coupled with their “it’s you” sentiment, they just lost my business to IG. Not that they will care in the grand scheme of things, but app developers and support functions should take note that you really can lose a client over things like this. They may think the issue is mine, but the business and 30+ trades per month are also mine to give to who I choose

Developer Response ,

We’re sorry to hear you have experienced these issues and we appreciate your assistance in trying to diagnose your issues with live prices on the app. We have conducted both direct testing as well as exploratory testing and currently we’re unable to replicate them, but will continue trying with our commitment to provide the best app experience that we can for our clients.

In line with your feedback about limit order and stop losses, we have a planned change to enable users to pull down to refresh the price shown and ensure it is appropriately timestamped. We are constantly striving to improve our users app experience and hope to see you again soon as an app user, if not a client of HL. If you have any further comments or feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thanks