Decided to purchase a S&S ISA for the first time. Would you recommend Nutmeg?

booklover

Hi everyone 

I’ve decided to purchase a S&S ISA, as the current rates of Cash ISAs are so poor. I intend to pay an amount into it every month and make an initial 2k deposit. I’ve been reading up on Martin’s Stocks and Shares Guide, but am still a little confused.  Do I opt for a Do-it-for-me platform such as Nutmeg? Quidco currently offers £100 cashback for new customers who make an initial investment of £500, with a direct debit of £100 a month or more, or a £5,000 initial lump sum.  What is your experience of using Nutmeg as a novice investor? Would you recommend it?   Many thanks

Alistair31

Personally I wouldn’t. Their charges are relatively expensive and they are a loss making business. Obviously their charges are offset somewhat by the cashback offer but I still wouldn’t, their offerings aren’t anything special performance wise.

Alexland

When doing Nutmeg for the cashback the trick is to keep to the minimum contribution and period such that the cashback is clearly more than the high charges.

Nutmeg's lowest annual management fee is 0.45% plus ETF fund manager charges which is 3x higher than Vanguard Investor at 0.15% whose LifeStrategy fund range offer similar asset allocations at a similar fund management charge.

yams

I use Trading212 (who have a free share promo, but will probably be less than the Nutmeg cashback). I like it as it has no fees (for the ISA or for trades), and I can just choose my own ETFs (i.e. a mix of FTSE, S&P500, DAX etc.) but is is more involved.

If you really want to invest in a fund I do think it is hard to beat Vanguard, the only catch being you are limited to Vanguard ETFs.

Look_No_Flies

Don't go with Nutmeg - you'll loose money - it's all marketing 'BS'

So angry with Nutmeg. Today I sent them a version of these facts ....."How can you possible be so monumentally useless at the one thing you exist to do? ...make a return on customers money ???  My account is now over THREE YEARS OLD...and has been in the red for almost it's entire time. How is that possible ???  I opened the ISA with you in April 2017. Today, it is still £76 below the total amount I have paid in !!! How is that possible ???  And here's proof of your consistently pathetic performance ( I'm happy to provide evidence). I opened a new small Stocks & Shares ISA in March 2020 with Legal & General. This is set at "medium" risk and it has already increased in value by over £700.  In that same time you have lost me a further £400. Spend less time pumping out marketing 'BS' - and more time and skill in investing wisely."

Nutmeg have totally wasted the opportunity of a small return on my meager savings over the last 3yrs. I don't have an occupational pension - we're both elderly and living on my state pension.  I'm never going to get back what I've lost over the last 3yrs. They have made me feel hopeless, and so stupid for trusting all the 'BS' reviews. Surely someone inside Nutmeg reading all the complaints has got the bottle to blow the whistle on their gross negligence.

dunstonh

Don't go with Nutmeg - you'll loose money - it's all marketing 'BS'

You will only lose money if the value goes down and you then draw the money out.

My account is now over THREE YEARS OLD...and has been in the red for almost it's entire time. How is that possible ??

Its possible. 2018 was a negative year.  2019 was a growth year.  2020 so far is a negative year following a market crash.  Depending on how you make your contributions, you could easily be down in value (single premium probably wouldnt be as most investors are back to values they had in 2019 but regular contributions could currently be lower than what was paid in.

How is that possible ???

Because the values on the underlying investments are lower than what they were when you bought the investments.

. I opened a new small Stocks & Shares ISA in March 2020 with Legal & General. This is set at "medium" risk and it has already increased in value by over £700.  In that same time you have lost me a further £400. Spend less time pumping out marketing 'BS' - and more time and skill in investing wisely."

Sorry, you have it all wrong.

The stockmarkets fell between around 24th Feb and 23rd March. Since then they have grown significantly but are still lower than before 24th Feb.      Nutmeg was invested prior to the drop and suffered the whole drop.  L&G was invested after most or all of the drop had occurred.  So, it has mainly had growth after the drop.

it does not make the L&G investment better as you are not comparing like for like.

Nutmeg have totally wasted the opportunity of a small return on my meager savings over the last 3yr

An economic cycle is around 10 years.  You have been in 3 years and two of those 3 have been negative years.  Nutmeg have done nothing wrong.  Its just timing.

I'm never going to get back what I've lost over the last 3yrs.

Why do you think that?   I certainly dont see why you wouldn't. History suggests you would get it back and more.

Surely someone inside Nutmeg reading all the complaints has got the bottle to blow the whistle on their gross negligence.

I'm afraid it is your lack of understanding that is the issue here.  Not Nutmeg doing anything wrong.  Try and read up a bit more on investing and understand what you are doing.  You will then realise your errors in this.

649tom

I'm a newbie to investing and this site. 
I opened my Nutmeg Fully managed S&S ISA on March 24th and I'm very happy so far! Not sure I'll stay with them after the 12month no fees offer ends though. 

DireEmblem

Look_No_Flies said:

Don't go with Nutmeg - you'll loose money - it's all marketing 'BS'

I don't completely agree with this to be honest.  The value of your investments in stocks can go up and down over time, and 3 years is not that long a period for investing in stocks.

What I can say, is that I will be leaving Nutmeg shortly.  The reason for this is easy - I joined for the £100 signup bonus last year that has now been paid, and on further review, the performance is less than a global equity fund.  In fact, if you compare the performance of Nutmeg since launch, then it consistently underperforms the Global equity index.  Not by much, but why pay for higher fees, when they cannot prove at least a similar if not better return?  Its the same with lots of articles online - I think they say that only 52% of funds beat their index, and as a relatively small investor myself, my benchmark is the global equity index.  As such I am switching to a Global equity 100% fund, with 0.47% fees.

grumiofoundation

DireEmblem said:

Look_No_Flies said:

Don't go with Nutmeg - you'll loose money - it's all marketing 'BS'

I don't completely agree with this to be honest.  The value of your investments in stocks can go up and down over time, and 3 years is not that long a period for investing in stocks.

What I can say, is that I will be leaving Nutmeg shortly.  The reason for this is easy - I joined for the £100 signup bonus last year that has now been paid, and on further review, the performance is less than a global equity fund.  In fact, if you compare the performance of Nutmeg since launch, then it consistently underperforms the Global equity index.  Not by much, but why pay for higher fees, when they cannot prove at least a similar if not better return?  Its the same with lots of articles online - I think they say that only 52% of funds beat their index, and as a relatively small investor myself, my benchmark is the global equity index.  As such I am switching to a Global equity 100% fund, with 0.47% fees.

'Nutmeg' cannot underperform since you do not invest in 'nutmeg' you invest in a portfolio they build for you composed of varying amount of shares, bonds etc (risk 1-10). Comparing these to a 100% equity fund is not a like-for-like comparison. The comparison that would be more valid is to compare a nutmeg 'fund' with 60% equity with the corresponding equity% VLS, L and G, blackrock multi-assest funds (edit - see Masonics post below). 

The risk level you are invested at may have underperformed in your opinion but since Nutmeg was launched in 2012 - it is not exactly a surprise that funds with lower% of equity would have underperformed 100% equity. 


P. S. I also will be leaving nutmeg as soon as the initial sign up period is over!

masonic

I did at one time perform a comparison of the published performance data for several of Nutmeg's managed portfolios with a cheap multi-asset fund with similar asset allocation and found quite a significant underperformance - beyond the effect of charges. I presented the data in a previous thread, but I'd probably struggle to locate it now. The cheaper fixed allocation portfolios take away that manager risk, but are still high cost.

griffinsaver26

I’m a first time S&S Isa investor as well and plumped to use Nutmeg. I know I’ll be shot down in flames for this, but the clear interface and usability of the app has really helped me and I’ve no regrets with the return it’s showing so far. 
I think next year I will invest with Vanguard but I’m glad I went with Nutmeg as a starting point