Strowz... Any reviews?

kcv11ghu

I looked into the forum, but cannot find anything about Strowz (part of MarketsFlow). They offer 2% interest on an easy access account in return for £1/month... and they are fully FSCS protected up to £85k... but I cannot find reviews anywhere or advices... has anyone got experience of them or know them? Clearly it does not make sense to put £1k in there but if you have £10k, even after fees you get the equivalent of 1.88% which is not bad in current climate... Thanks!

msallen

As they're seeking funding via a Seedrs link on their front page its clear that they're brand new and will not have any customers who can provide a meaningful review yet (although I'm sure people who are invested in them will post "optimistic" positive reviews, and its also possible that people opening accounts will be "invited" to add a review to TrustPilot or similar straight away - which of course will be worthless as a review as all they'll have done is signed up).

If you "feel lucky" then go for it, but don't expect any meaningful and genuine reviews for a good while yet.

EdGasketTheSecond

Web site is long on glitz and short on detail. How exactly do they make 2% interest for you when banks are only paying 0.25% ? There is risk there somewhere.

masonic

https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_FirmDetailsPage?id=001b0000042tX1sAAE

They are not authorised to accept deposits, they only have investment permissions. So it is an investment platform that is offering to pay interest on uninvested cash. It raises the question why? They aren't able to generate a return from that money because it must be ringfenced in a client nominee account. This account is likely to be with a major bank paying little to no interest. It looks like they are in the business of harvesting data from customers and monetising them, but it seems a high price for them to pay (for someone holding £85k in the savings bucket, their total liability per year would be close to £1.7k, in an environment where their competitors are just giving away a free share worth up to £100), unless they can make money from customers in other ways.

When you hold savings in a deposit account, any accrued interest is covered by the FSCS as well as capital if the firm goes bust. When an investment firm goes bust holding client money I believe the FSCS claim is restricted to capital only. However, interest is paid monthly, mitigating the risk of not receiving it.

When a bank or building society goes bust, the FSCS process is usually quite quick, with an aim to start accepting claims within a couple of weeks. When an investment firm goes bust, the administration process is usually costly and slow. It can take a year or more, and the administrators are permitted to recover their costs from client money and client assets (though these costs can be added to a FSCS claim).

With all that said, it does appear to be a tempting option, but there are a few red flags that warrant further investigation.

harsh_but_fair

Do not touch them with a barge pole (whatever that is)...

DiamondLil

harsh_but_fair said:

Do not touch them with a barge pole (whatever that is)...

It prevents one's barge from hitting the banks (or other barges) 

harsh_but_fair

That makes sense I used to think it was somebody from Poland barging into people

Zanderman

DiamondLil said:

harsh_but_fair said:

Do not touch them with a barge pole (whatever that is)...

It prevents one's barge from hitting the banks (or other barges) 

That's not a barge.  It's a narrow boat.  Barges are much wider. But narrow boats do have barge poles.

EthicsGradient

It's unclear from this, but there may be an additional 0.65% pa charge on the account - I can't tell from this whether cash earning interest would be charged for - it's from the site in which their looking for investors in the business:

We currently charge commissions of 0.65% per annum for our investments accounts. Recurring revenue will be generated from our Premium accounts subscription model for £1 per month to access the 2% interest. Freemium susbcription model will be available, with limited features.

https://www.seedrs.com/strowz

Their website seems remarkably free of explanations of their charging structure. Perhaps you have to create a login to find out (never too early to start harvesting that data ...), or download their app. But that may put the effective interest at 1.35% pa, and then there's the £12 a year.

kcv11ghu

Thanks all... a lot of food for thoughts

Pfffill

They've emailed their existing customers this week. Their "Money Buckets" product, paying 2%, is being retired and capital plus interest returned. At the moment they say stand by for new "investment opportunities".