Vanguard S+S ISA

madlyn

Apologies in advance as the following has probably been asked before.
Yesterday I opened a vanguard S+S ISA with a £500 deposit, I understand it takes 24 hours for my money to be able to invest, but after that what do I do?
Am I given a choice of what to invest my money in?

jimjames

Yes, you can choose any of their funds to buy with the money you put in

El_Torro

I've never used Vanguard but all the other platforms I use let me give instruction to invest the money straight away, you don't need to wait for the funds to clear. However the platform won't actually invest it until they have your money.

Vanguard doesn't have as much choice as some other platforms (you can only invest in Vanguard funds) but you do still need to make a choice of where to invest. Do you want a multi asset fund? A global tracker? A region specific fund? Etc...

You should really have done your research on how and where to invest before sticking any money in a platform. Better late than never though

ndf9876

If I recall correctly, when I opened mine, I was given the option of which fund to "buy" (VLS100 in my case) and from there I also set up a regular payment (again in my case, VLS80). Again, from memory, the buy order went through once the funds appeared as "cash". You can tell if you have a pending buy order when you log in and look at the dashboard.

As others have said, if you don't know what you're doing and where to invest, probably best to stop and do some research on the subject. I spent weeks (on and off) reading various resources, including this forum, before I made my investment decision.

dunstonh

Am I given a choice of what to invest my money in?

Vanguard is not a whole of market platform.  It only offers it's in-house funds.   So, you will get a choice but it will be limited to Vanguard's funds.   

Normally, you are given the opportunity to select funds when you open  the account or make a deposit.   However, if you selected cash instead, you will be able to buy investments from that once the cash appears in your account.

Albermarle

madlyn said:

Apologies in advance as the following has probably been asked before.
Yesterday I opened a vanguard S+S ISA with a £500 deposit, I understand it takes 24 hours for my money to be able to invest, but after that what do I do?
Am I given a choice of what to invest my money in?

Maybe you are confused about what a S&S ISA really is ( many newbie investors are ) . You do not actually invest in the S&S ISA itself, your money goes into investment funds within the ISA.
The ISA just does the administration part and means you do not have to worry about tax issues.

Your cash will just sit there doing nothing until you choose which investment within the ISA you want .

I suggest you go to the 'Investor Education' section of the Vanguard website and read that carefully .

Also you can read this

Investing in stocks for beginners: how to get started - MSE (moneysavingexpert.com)

madlyn

When I go to the overview of my account it says I have £500 in my ISA but no investments, how do I invest?

Aminatidi

Wait for the money to clear and then buy the fund(s) you want.

As you say it usually takes 24 hours to be available to invest.

madlyn

I opened it on Thursday afternoon, I would have thought it would be available now..

tebbins

madlyn said:

When I go to the overview of my account it says I have £500 in my ISA but no investments, how do I invest?

That's because all you have done so far is stick £500 in, so your account, once the cash is processed into your account, contains £500 cash, and that's it.
 Vanguard will not automatically invest this for you like Nutmeg or other Robo-platforms.

madlyn said:

I opened it on Thursday afternoon, I would have thought it would be available now..

Have you tried logging in and investing the money, i.e. using the £500 to buy funds, does it say "£500 available to invest" anywhere?

Pensioncraft have a video from way back when Vanguard first offered their ISA. The website has changed a little since then though. https://youtu.be/L_O_vKKT4nk

ranciduk

I was in exactly the same boat as you and was confused at the start too 

give it a few days and all becomes clear

It can take a few working days before you money becomes available for you to buy funds