Get up to 50,000 Avios when you open an ISA or SIPP via Nutmeg

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• Rick says:

  20 Mar20 March 06:47

  Does nutmeg have normal trading account?
  I can possibly bring in 50k for trading.

  • David says:

    21 Mar21 March 01:03

    Depends what you mean by normal.
    Where you pick your own direct investments / funds. No.

    If you just mean outside an ISA – but still into their managed buckets based upon risk parameters then yes.

    • Vand says:

      29 Mar29 March 05:13

      Nutmeg is a managed portfolio, it does not offer personal trading services

• Genghis says:

  20 Mar20 March 06:49

  With only a 1% return on initial investment in avios and a 12 month holding period, it’s only worth doing if you were going to open a Nutmeg account regardless. You’re better off with an ETF with the main trackers having TERs of peanuts. Check out Vanguard.

  • Ro says:

    20 Mar20 March 07:01

    Sorry excuse the ignorance. Whats ETF and TERs of peanuts

    • Genghis says:

      20 Mar20 March 07:18

      Exchange traded fund. Total Expense Ratio (basically what it costs a particular fund to operate and are v low for ETFs).

      • Ro says:

        20 Mar20 March 07:54

        Thanks genghis….
        Guess thats my morning’s reading plans sorted

    • Mike says:

      20 Mar20 March 07:18

      After flicking through yesterday’s Sunday Times ISA supplement, I’ve decided to swap some of my cash ISAs into stocks and shares.
      Two questions
      1) do nutmeg transfers in qualify for this offer. I could easily transfer in enough for the full bonus.
      2) I’m comfortable with their highest risk levels, does anyone have a view of their selected funds vs what’s available elsewhere? (I appreciate this is a very subjective question)

      • Scott says:

        20 Mar20 March 10:34

        In answer to your second question, as it sounds like this is your first foray into investing, I’d suggest some background reading, and as I posted above, would recommend this blog: http://monevator.com/ (I have no connection to it, but it’s a great resource.)

        • Ro says:

          20 Mar20 March 16:48

          Thanks scott…. not come across monevator but it looks pretty good. Appears to be the exact kind of resource I need

      • kevino says:

        24 Mar24 March 15:26

        At the moment Nutmeg are offering 1% uplift for any ISA transfers in, at least to existing customers, so you might want to ask them about that as part of your calculations.

  • Doug M says:

    20 Mar20 March 09:37

    Exactly. With £50K you should be far more concerned with charges and where/how the money is invested than some Avios.
    Mike – look at someone like iweb or Halifax share dealing, and consider iShares, don’t be swayed by Avios. Many people like the Vanguard Life Strategy range, they do a mix of shares/bond with different risk factors. Comments like this are fine for hints and ideas, but always do your own research.

    • Mike says:

      20 Mar20 March 10:55

      Thanks Doug
      My problem in the past has always been I’ve done a bit of research, bought some shares or funds then gone back to things in my life that interest me, I’ve long forgotten to check the performance of those investments.
      I’ve therefore decided that buying individual shares probably isn’t for me.

      So this leaves ETFs (passive or managed) on a lower cost platform

      Or something like Nutmeg, Moneyfarm etc. For me this has the advantage that they may switch funds out of badly performing ETFs since I go through months and years of disinterest.

      I fully appreciate that a sizable proportion of the readership of this site are “sophisticated investors” for whom a significant interest is financial markets etc but this is not me and I think when I try and manage my own investments I’m likely to be the one who loses and allows the winners to win!

      For this reason I feel that a service like nutmeg might compare favourably to self selecting ETFs at least for part of my portfolio.

      My retirement savings aren’t at risk.

    • Mr Dee says:

      20 Mar20 March 14:41

      Nutmeg are not giving anything away for free, they are looking to make profit from the customer long term through fees and charges, some of which maybe collected in the short term. This type of offer is fine for someone who wants a quick return of Avios but investing 50k in a company just for Avios is not a good investment especially if you would save money in fees elsewhere which would mean the Avios is actually costing you money. It is up to each person to decide what is best for them, I don’t like the offer for me but it good to know it is there.

  • Alan says:

    20 Mar20 March 13:02

    Agreed, the Avios earning could rapidly be swallowed up by higher costs.

• Charlie says:

  20 Mar20 March 07:13

  Can £35k be invested now (to get 35,000 Avios), with £15k going into this year’s ISA and the £20k going into a general trading account, with the plan to move the £20k into an ISA after 6th April, thereby maximising ISA allowance for 2 years, but getting the full Avios bonus? (effectively circumnavigating the scenario you describe towards the end of the article).

  Or, are there any other better offers out there – looking to shelter £70k in ISAs (this year and next for me and partner) over the next few weeks!

• Simon says:

  20 Mar20 March 07:40

  Last time Nutmeg was doing its promotions I convinced my friend to finally set up an ISA with them and it’s certainly a slick product. But it should be mentioned that the fees can get a little bit pricey – up to 0.75% in platform fees plus an average 0.19% in fund fees. Compare that to Charles Stanley direct with comes with a platform fee of 0.25% plus fund fees. The fees can add up to a serious amount over a number of decades which is the sort of time scale we are looking at. The 1 percent sign up bonus needs to be compared to the ~1% fees that you will be paying year after year. Nutmeg is certainly very slick but the other platforms might be more suitable for the spreadsheet aficionados that hang around here 🙂

  • Reddot says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:04

    If you choose the robo-advisor (fixed allocation) portfolios, it is 0.45%. If you are lazy like my husband, it is a great way to get him started because the alternative would be all these cash sitting in a low-interest-bearing current account. There is also (my) time-cost of managing (my + his) portfolio. At some point, I will move out of Nutmeg into IWeb.

• BruceN says:

  20 Mar20 March 07:50

  I’m as game to jump through hoops for an avios offer as the next person but I think basing your SIPP/ISA investment decisions on earning a few avios is crackers.
  I agree with the comment above that this should be of interest only to people who were already going to open this account.

• Go says:

  20 Mar20 March 08:15

  Can you transfer in from another sip provider? I have some cash sitting in another SIPP account

  • Rob says:

    20 Mar20 March 08:39

    I asked them this and they told me that it can be done but they don’t encourage it, due to the admin involved. I didn’t get an answer to my question of whether you’d get Avios on such a transfer.

    • BruceN says:

      20 Mar20 March 08:50

      Wow. If they don’t encourage people to transfer *in* because of the admin involved, imagine what they’ll be like when you want to transfer out!

    • Mike says:

      20 Mar20 March 09:06

      Go back to them and tell them there’s a possibility of 50k incoming from me in an ISA if they can be bothered to do the admin and are willing to pay the avios.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      20 Mar20 March 09:10

      Avios aside, most people will have more in a SIPP than in Isa’s and they are a lot less liquid than ISA’s with a long duration. I’d be very keen if I was them to overcome the Admin hurdle.

      Most firms will pay Cash for you to transfer and Nutmeg for all their pro’s and hardly low cost.

    • Alan says:

      20 Mar20 March 13:04

      Not an encouraging response! Fidelity made this process pretty easy by comparison (transferred lots in and also then transferred some holdings into an ISA).

    • Henry says:

      20 Mar20 March 18:24

      I transferred in from Hargreaves Lansdowne during the last Avios promo – it was actually pretty easy and in finding it to be a slick service so far. There was no hassle at all with the transfer.

      Only down side is that this is a new customer only offer – i kept plenty back for transfer in when they offer a top-up bonus, but didn’t look like this is it.

    • @mkcol says:

      20 Mar20 March 20:05

      I’ve recently transferred in my Virgin SIPP to Nutmeg.. Took around 3 months from me opening with Nutmeg to finally have the funds cleared.
      There were things which could have been done better on both sides for sure. I’d say the main pain for Nutmeg was that Virgin do not offer electronic transfers, they need everything in paperwork (sometimes it seemed in triplicate).

      • RussellH says:

        21 Mar21 March 10:23

        Paperwork transfers can be a complete nightmare.

        As executor for my parents, holdings kept in nominee a/cs just turned up where they were supposed to go in a couple of days after I requested them.

        Paper share certificates were a completely different kettle of fish. If it were not for the fact that all company registrars are honorable people, I might have come to suspect that they might have been trying something on. Amazingly, something like 40% of the share certificates sent by ordinary post never arrived and indemnity forms and fees had to be paid. It took months.

        If I am allowed to make a recommendation, Royal Mail Special Delivery, where you get proof of delivery, is (comparatively) cheap insurance.

• Ian says:

  20 Mar20 March 09:30

  Of all the ways we collect Avios I’m most uncomfortable with Nutmeg offering Avios to people for whom ISA and SIPP investments are either a) inappropriate or b) not knowledgeable enough to be able to make this major financial decision without being swayed by the amount of Avios on offer.

  A SIPP in particular is a major lifetime decision, so I consider it unethical to offer incentives to people who are not sure of the consequences of buying such a product without proper research.

  In my opinion there will be a case for mis-selling here, at sometime in the future.

  • Simon says:

    20 Mar20 March 09:55

    a little bit harsh I think. saving for your future can hardly be called unethical.
    Caveat Emptor as with any financial decision

    • BruceN says:

      20 Mar20 March 10:05

      You’re wilfully misinterpreting what Ian said – he didn’t say that saving for the future is unethical. That’s called a straw man argument.
      Anybody who would choose a SIPP based on an Avios offer should probably google ‘the marshmallow test’.

  • Nick M says:

    20 Mar20 March 10:03

    Whilst I agree that it’s likely to encourage people to take out a product that may not be best for them, and always suggest that people seek independent financial advice before making any significant decisions (I am biased though)…. I don’t see how it can be seen as mis-selling? You would be actively going to Nutmeg so you are “buying” rather than being “sold to”… and whilst Rob is authorised by the FCA he doesn’t have investment permissions, and he isn’t advising you to invest with Nutmeg – he is just providing the information…

• RedAlan says:

  20 Mar20 March 10:20

  FYI I took advantage of one of their offers in Sept last year, 10,000 Avios. I only got the points last week after almost 6 months of chasing them and countless broken promises.

  Avios were blaming Nutmeg, Nutmeg were blaming Avios. In the end it was Nutmeg at fault and they said they were clearing a large backlog of Avios transfers which was taking longer than normal….6 months longer!

  So just be aware of this if your needing the points in 45 days times.

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