Invest Engine - Sign Up Offer

Alexland

Shankers said:

After registering, I invested £100. The bonus T&Cs mention I need to maintain a minimum net investment funding of £150. My questions are:
i) Does the £150 refer to money in the portfolio, or invested (i.e., in a fund rather than cash on account)?
ii) Would the £150 include the £50 sign up bonus money?
iii) If the full £150 is invested in a fund, then there would be no cash on account to pay for fees, so I imagine it's necessary to fund with more than £100 if the T&Cs require the full £150 to be invested rather than simply held on account?

A few months ago I simply added the £100 and with their £50 (and any £25 referrals) that's the at least £150 they want to see invested in a portfolio. With the "managed for you" option there's no need to consider a cash balance to pay fees they look after all that. If the valuation fell below £150 due to market conditions or their charges being higher than the portfolio dividends then I doubt they would try to claw back the bonus as the customer has met the funding requirement. They don't seem to be doing the normal robo email marketing to encourage customers to add more money into the accounts so doubt they will be long term successful.

DjangoUnchained

ive also signed up and was wondering if the fund drops below 150 about the bonus. I have sent them an email asking for clarification and will let you all know their reply.

Shankers

Some clarification from InvestEngine on this matter: 
'For clarity, the £150 is inclusive of the £50 Welcome bonus and needs to be completely invested (not held in a cash account) for you to be eligible to keep the bonus. We also keep a little bit of cash on a client's accounts to cover fees and this is factored into the promotion. 



If in a years time your portfolio dips below £150 due to the performance of your portfolio, you will still be eligible to keep the bonus. '

DjangoUnchained

i can confirm the above, email recieved, quote "Thanks for getting in touch.



If you didn't add any additional funds to your portfolio over the 12 months and it dipped due to market performance, you will still be eligible for the promotion. Please note, only withdrawals (and possible abuse of the promotion) could affect your bonus. ".

for me it looks like a decent offer.

Shedman

Shankers said:

Some clarification from InvestEngine on this matter: 
'For clarity, the £150 is inclusive of the £50 Welcome bonus and needs to be completely invested (not held in a cash account) for you to be eligible to keep the bonus. We also keep a little bit of cash on a client's accounts to cover fees and this is factored into the promotion. 



If in a years time your portfolio dips below £150 due to the performance of your portfolio, you will still be eligible to keep the bonus. '

That's still slightly ambiguous as, if you opt for a DIY portfolio and request a buy for £150 of a particular ETF, it can be rounded down slightly so that there is still a small amount left in cash (through no fault of your own).  Not being sure whether that would mean the terms hadn't been met we've funded ours with £102 (plus the bonuses of course) so that any rounding down means there is still the full £150/£175 invested.

Alexland

Shedman said:

That's still slightly ambiguous as, if you opt for a DIY portfolio...

I'd suggest if you are only doing this for the cashback then it's probably best to open the managed portfolio and then leave them to make all the decisions as then you can't be liable for them.

colsten

Just had an email from them, advising that they are now also doing ISAs. Min investment £100, no fees. I haven't read further as my ISA for the year is already spoken for. More details on their website.

ChilliBob

Any idea how long the referral process takes? I referred my partner and opened a portfolio for her but it's still showing as waiting for her to open one. Likewise somebody else. I opened the portfolio yesterday morning (for her) 

colsten

Weird. Today, I had 35p paid from InvestEngine into my current account. Presumably this is a dividend payment that I agreed should be paid into my current account though I can’t remember that I did as I never ask for any income to be paid to a non-investment account. There’s no option I can see in InvestEngine to change from Inc to Acc. (I am invested in their Managed Portfolio)

It doesn’t really matter in this instance as I am only in this for the £50 bonus but if anyone wants to use them for real, this may not be a desirable approach. 

Alexland

I haven't seen any dividends paid into my linked bank account and can't see a setting that would change that. I can see from the transaction history that a few of dividends have been received into the account each month from various investment but as yet they don't seem to have been substantial enough (after deduction of fees) to trigger a new purchase to invest. Am about £5 up in the last few months so just reduced the risk a bit as it would be annoying to get back less than the initial sum and earned bonus. Investing for only 12 month goes against everything we always tell people but then the returned money will only then be added into our main S&S ISAs for longer term investment.