Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

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With the end of the tax year approaching, wealth management group Nutmeg has brought back its generous Avios offer for opening a SIPP or ISA.

The deal is a little different this time around.  Instead of giving you a flat amount of Avios, you will receive one Avios point, up to a maximum of 50,000 Avios, for every £1 you invest when you open an account with Nutmeg by 9th April 2017.

Full details can be found on the Nutmeg website here.

What is Nutmeg?

Nutmeg is an innovative online wealth management service which offers intelligent investment portfolios to anybody with just £500 to invest with additional monthly contributions of at least £100.  If you are using St James’s Place, Hargreaves Lansdown etc. then the simple Nutmeg fee structure should be of interest.

Your money will be invested in what the company describes as a robust, diversified portfolio that spreads risk across asset classes, geographies and industries. Your Money has voted Nutmeg the best online Stocks and Shares ISA provider for both 2015 and 2016.

How much do I need to invest?

You can open an account with the minimum contribution for an ISA of just £500, as long as you make additional monthly contributions by direct debit of at least £100.   You can also make an initial lump sum contribution of £5,000 or more.

What is the maximum I can invest?

The maximum you are allowed to invest in an ISA in the 2016/17 tax year, which ends on 5th April, is £15,240.  You can invest more – Nutmeg will give you one Avios point per £1 on initial investments of up to £50,000, which would earn you 50,000 Avios – but anything you commit in this tax year beyond £15,240 will be placed in a general investment account.

The ISA limit for 2017/18 will be £20,000.  If you have already opened an ISA with someone else for 2016/17, you can still take advantage of this offer by jumping in quickly on 6th April when the new tax year starts.

This offer is valid for invested accounts opened by 9th April 2017.

How many Avios will I receive?

You will receive one Avios point per £1 invested.

However, it is important to note the following:

you receive Avios based on your INITIAL deposit only – if you deposit £15,240 today and another £20,000 on 6th April for the new 2017/18 year, you will only receive 15,240 Avios

the offer is only open to new Nutmeg customers – if you already have a Nutmeg ISA or SIPP and open a new account on 6th April for the new 2017/18 tax year, you will not receive any Avios

When do I receive my Avios?

Your bonus can be credited to either an avios.com or British Airways Executive Club account and you will receive your Avios points within 45 days of making your initial investment.

If you close your Nutmeg account within 12 months, Nutmeg reserves the right to impose an exit penalty to cover the cost of the Avios points awarded.

How do I apply?

You need to sign up and invest via this special landing page to earn Avios.  Applications via the standard Nutmeg home page will not earn any points.

Remember that your capital is at risk. The value of your investment, and the income you get from it, can go down as well as up.  As with any investment, there is a chance you will get back less than you originally invested.  ISA and Pension rules apply.


How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express card

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Comments (61)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Colin says:

    The last offer (one that expired 19th Feb) came out when I was thinking about changing some investments around and had an unused ISA allowance, so I went for that and duly got my 10,000 Avios. I like the look of Nutmeg and may well take an ISA for the next tax year too and potentially put further investments with them…but I’m a bit narked that having gone for the recent offer I can’t now qualify for the one offering more Avios!

    • the real harry1 says:

      Yes you can because the offer straddles the end of the HMRC year so you can get it from April 6th onwards

      • Colin says:

        As I read it, it seems the offer only applies to net new Nutmeg customers:
        “if you already have a Nutmeg ISA or SIPP and open a new account on 6th April for the new 2017/18 tax year, you will not receive any Avios”

    • pr99 says:

      I think this offer is only for new customers.

  • Stuart says:

    Surprised no one has mentioned this – the last offer was 10k avios for £5k investment. That same £5k will only get 5k avios this time around.

  • Ian says:

    Or if anyone wants a 12% annual return on their money let me know – more than happy to pay this each year on any amounts over £30K. No limits. 🙂

  • Genghis says:

    That’s my plan for next year. If it’s £600 over 6 months for a 12k virgin miles gain, that’s a much better risk reward than what Nutmeg are offering here.

    Back of a fag packet calcs:
    – No growth on Nutmeg (as cash all up front) = breakeven (1% avios – 1% fee) over 12 months
    – with Virgin you can suffer an almost 40% loss and still break even (valuing V miles at 1p and taking into account that drip feeding £100 a month means much less market risk.

    • the real harry1 says:

      yep I’m not out to poop on the post but I’d rather get even just 6K through Virgin next ISA year – the absence of a pound cost averaging option with N does actually matter – history shows that faith in any particular investment mgr/mgt is usually ultimately misplaced, so you’re better off concentrating on where you’re investing, not with whom (ie Nutmeg/ Virgin Money/ HL etc? – it doesn’t matter that much provided they’re reputable but their fees do, plus where you’re asking them to invest your money). N are probably not that bad if they’ve won the Your Money awards but I’m just looking at it from a miles collector’s point of view.

      • the real harry1 says:

        put it this way: I think we came out £30 down in investment proceeds after fees on the Virgin deal LY – but I was extremely happy with that as I factored in confidence in the outcome plus cost per point. So I went for their lowest risk option. As it was Brexit year I in reality could have chosen virtually any other investment choice (with Virgin Money) and done better – but I didn’t – as I wanted to have an assured good outcome, as risk-free as possible. My Virgin miles therefore cost about under 0.3p, which was fine.

        • the real harry1 says:

          it’s like betting on the gee-gees – when you have the option of making a small amount of profit no matter who wins, or losing it all, or winning a huge amount if your nag comes in

          I’d take the guaranteed profit every time 🙂

        • Genghis says:

          I agree Harry. You didn’t poop my post! We made a small loss on the last V ISA but I was happy getting the points for effectively the minuscule amount paid for them.

  • Alan says:

    I wondered if they’ll be offering a LISA? So far Hargreaves Lansdown is the only one I’ve heard about considering it – seems a good idea given the ever-falling AA/LTA limits!

    • Anonymous says:

      Hi everyone,

      Y’all seem to know all this sophisticated financial stuff so I just thought I’ll give my experience of Hargreaves lansdown instead of talking about where/how to invest.

      I have been using Hargreaves for a few yrs now moved there from selftrade as I like to manage my own portfolios due to having economics degree I didn’t wanna waste.

      My experience has been great with them. They don’t charge too much as you can choose if you are willing to pay a lot and also they do extensive research into stocks n funds. If a person is lazy you can choose to have portfolio managed or look at their wealth funds which have rating to show value and past performance etc.

      So I think it is wrong the way this article is written to give the impression that other companies may be bad for investors.

      This article is not balanced in its information as this is about an investment product.

  • Project55 says:

    I’m still new to collecting Avios so not sure if this would be a good deal for me. I could transfer 50k out of my existing III ISA but that would then generate incremental fee’s of £225 (0.45% x £50k). I’d still be paying £20/quarter for my remaining III ISA. The plan would be to transfer the Nutmeg ISA back to III a year later.

    Is £225 good value for 50k Avios?

    • Genghis says:

      Avios are generally valued at around 1p so here you’d be paying 0.45p, which isn’t bad I guess, provided Nutmeg and your current provider would allow in-specie transfers.

  • JamesWag says:

    OFF TOPIC.

    BA781 ARN-LHR seems to be on a 767-300 (763) (at least for dates I have looked at) which has club world seating. The new Polaris seating at that.

    Is this actually the case ? If booked into Club (even using Avios), I presume you’d get a Club seat ?! 15K Avios + £25 RFS fee seems a good price for trying the new CW Polaris seat ?

    https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/United_Airlines/United_Airlines_Boeing_767_300_ER.php
    https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/United_Airlines/United_Airlines_Boeing_767-300_B.php

  • Tony says:

    Very OT- Accor Happy Monday not working for London Novotels; I can find the page with all the Novotels in London @£60, however, none of them has the rate when you click book with this rate, while Sofitel and ibis work fine.

    • Tony says:

      …and by sofitel I mean Pullman

    • Louise says:

      I found this last week and contacted their customer service. They said the rate had sold out.

      I did however snap up Novotel Canary Wharf for this Saturday at 1am this morning

    • pointsarb says:

      Tony, try calling the Hotel directly. I did, and as a Plat (via Amex) they transferred me to a call centre somewhere who provided the Happy Mondays rate for Novotel Blackfriars even though it was not bookable online. Got upgraded to an Executive room upon arrival so for £60/night in London that was a bargain in my book 🙂

      • Louise says:

        that’s the one I tried to book last Monday but couldn’t. Even sent screenshots to them but they said rate had gone even though main search still showed it.

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.