The Pensions cashback and incentives discussion thread

FIREDreamer

vacheron said:

FIREDreamer said:

easysaver said:

artyboy said:

FIREDreamer said:

easysaver said:

artyboy said:

easysaver said:

Not seen it mentioned here but Freetrade will include SIPPs in their free basic plan from 22 January. I don't need lower fx rates, higher cash interest or access to funds from the paid for plans so I intend to wait to open and transfer my SIPP.
https://freetrade.io/invest-for-less

Other decent transfer offers I can find at £250k+ are
- Aviva (£1k gift card, 56 day lock in)
- Charles Stanley (£1.5k + 6 mth of fees, 12 mth lock in)
- Fidelity (£1.5k, 18 mth lock in)
- HL "exclusive" (£2k, lock in to December 2026)
- IG (owner of Freetrade, £2k, lock in to September 2026)
I'm not considering Moneybox and Wealtify given that I want to transfer ETFs in specie.

Freetrade does have a long lock in until December 2027. Not sure I trust HL given that I don't have a SIPP there already, other than that the IG offer is tempting but the complexity of the platform puts me off as does the requirement to hold at least one position in a dealing account.

Good spot on Freetrade, thanks. I guess that's £120 extra a year I'll be saving then, assuming I stick with ETFs (looks like their new add on for mutual funds is for the higher plans only).

As I mentioned before, I'd be very wary of the IG offer, the extremely tight timescales for completing a transfer, plus the absurdly clunky SIPP application process made it a hard no for me.

Also, where did you get that the Freetrade lock in was till Dec 27? I haven't seen anything on the current or previous offer terms that suggest you'd need to maintain it past Dec 26 when they pay out on the current offer?

I kind of see these firms in 3 brackets. Your good old brokers (HL, AJ Bell, II etc), new entrants (InvestEngine, Trading 212, Freetrade, CMC), then the international ones (eToro, IB, IG). I don't feel at ease with the international ones.

Freetrade (https://freetrade.io/legal/2026-tax-year-end-offer):

What if I want to close or withdraw from my account?

If you make a withdrawal or transfer out which causes the net funding of the Freetrade account to fall or you close your Freetrade account before we award the cashback, then this will affect whether you get cashback or the value of it.

We ask you keep the relevant account (i.e. ISA and/or SIPP) open, and do not transfer out for 365 days from when the cashback  is awarded as per the terms of the offer.

The cashback is paid by 5 December 2026.

We ask you keep the relevant account (i.e. ISA and/or SIPP) open, and do not transfer out for 365 days from when the cashback  is awarded as per the terms of the offer.

“The cashback is paid by 5 December 2026.”

Your funds are tied up until 5 December 2027 then, 365 days after payment?

It's quite interesting wording isn't it...? They "ask" that it remain open, but there is nothing set out about forfeiting cashback already paid if you don't. IANAL but I suspect they'd be on tricky ground if they tried any clawback based on that term...

nor me but would I risk the clawback of three figure cashback, probably not especially considering the SIPP is fee free.  In addition, it says (my bold)

16. After the Award is made, if you seek to:

(a) close your Relevant Freetrade Account; or 

(b) make a transfer or withdrawal from your Relevant Freetrade Account which causes the value of your Relevant Freetrade Account to fall below the Relevant Value; and 

(c) within 365 days of your transfer completing, we reserve the right to clawback the Award, to the extent permitted by applicable law. 

FIREDreamer that's my interpretation, yes.

I am tempted to transfer £300k from HL for £3,000 cashback. But a near two year tie in to a newish provider scares me. HL is cheap as I use ETFs.

£200k is already going from HL to Barclays for £2,500 cashback. Started 2 weeks ago, heard nothing yet.

The intention is to transfer back after getting the cashback.

I looked at the Barclays offer after reading your post, but the 0.25% charge and £37.50 quarterly SIPP charge would have cancelled out the extra £500 you would recieve for a 200K transfer compared to Freetrade (assuming a 1 year investment). 

That said however they do say the cashback will be paid "within" 60 days of the end of the offer period, which is  the 14th of February, so I make the latest payment date April 15th. So if the cashback arrived in less than 50 days you could well be in with a shot of cashing the £2,500 out of Barclays (which has no clawback clause as far as I can tell) and getting the transfer started to from Barclays to Freetrade before April the 5th for another £2,000. 

My shares isa is 100% cash at the moment as i want to tidy up my investments. Hopefully it will speed up transfers. Having said that i have probably lost more than 1% sitting in cash just prevaricating over what to do!

artyboy

easysaver said:

artyboy said:

FIREDreamer said:

easysaver said:

artyboy said:

easysaver said:

Not seen it mentioned here but Freetrade will include SIPPs in their free basic plan from 22 January. I don't need lower fx rates, higher cash interest or access to funds from the paid for plans so I intend to wait to open and transfer my SIPP.
https://freetrade.io/invest-for-less

Other decent transfer offers I can find at £250k+ are
- Aviva (£1k gift card, 56 day lock in)
- Charles Stanley (£1.5k + 6 mth of fees, 12 mth lock in)
- Fidelity (£1.5k, 18 mth lock in)
- HL "exclusive" (£2k, lock in to December 2026)
- IG (owner of Freetrade, £2k, lock in to September 2026)
I'm not considering Moneybox and Wealtify given that I want to transfer ETFs in specie.

Freetrade does have a long lock in until December 2027. Not sure I trust HL given that I don't have a SIPP there already, other than that the IG offer is tempting but the complexity of the platform puts me off as does the requirement to hold at least one position in a dealing account.

Good spot on Freetrade, thanks. I guess that's £120 extra a year I'll be saving then, assuming I stick with ETFs (looks like their new add on for mutual funds is for the higher plans only).

As I mentioned before, I'd be very wary of the IG offer, the extremely tight timescales for completing a transfer, plus the absurdly clunky SIPP application process made it a hard no for me.

Also, where did you get that the Freetrade lock in was till Dec 27? I haven't seen anything on the current or previous offer terms that suggest you'd need to maintain it past Dec 26 when they pay out on the current offer?

I kind of see these firms in 3 brackets. Your good old brokers (HL, AJ Bell, II etc), new entrants (InvestEngine, Trading 212, Freetrade, CMC), then the international ones (eToro, IB, IG). I don't feel at ease with the international ones.

Freetrade (https://freetrade.io/legal/2026-tax-year-end-offer):

What if I want to close or withdraw from my account?

If you make a withdrawal or transfer out which causes the net funding of the Freetrade account to fall or you close your Freetrade account before we award the cashback, then this will affect whether you get cashback or the value of it.

We ask you keep the relevant account (i.e. ISA and/or SIPP) open, and do not transfer out for 365 days from when the cashback  is awarded as per the terms of the offer.

The cashback is paid by 5 December 2026.

We ask you keep the relevant account (i.e. ISA and/or SIPP) open, and do not transfer out for 365 days from when the cashback  is awarded as per the terms of the offer.

“The cashback is paid by 5 December 2026.”

Your funds are tied up until 5 December 2027 then, 365 days after payment?

It's quite interesting wording isn't it...? They "ask" that it remain open, but there is nothing set out about forfeiting cashback already paid if you don't. IANAL but I suspect they'd be on tricky ground if they tried any clawback based on that term...

nor me but would I risk the clawback of three figure cashback, probably not especially considering the SIPP is fee free.  In addition, it says (my bold)

16. After the Award is made, if you seek to:

(a) close your Relevant Freetrade Account; or 

(b) make a transfer or withdrawal from your Relevant Freetrade Account which causes the value of your Relevant Freetrade Account to fall below the Relevant Value; and 

(c) within 365 days of your transfer completing, we reserve the right to clawback the Award, to the extent permitted by applicable law. 

FIREDreamer that's my interpretation, yes.

Well I'll set my timer from when the last of my 2 transfers complete then. Quite possible I will leave it there longer but I don't want to be hamstrung if there's another juicy offer elsewhere at that point...

easysaver

artyboy said:

easysaver said:

artyboy said:

FIREDreamer said:

easysaver said:

artyboy said:

easysaver said:

Not seen it mentioned here but Freetrade will include SIPPs in their free basic plan from 22 January. I don't need lower fx rates, higher cash interest or access to funds from the paid for plans so I intend to wait to open and transfer my SIPP.
https://freetrade.io/invest-for-less

Other decent transfer offers I can find at £250k+ are
- Aviva (£1k gift card, 56 day lock in)
- Charles Stanley (£1.5k + 6 mth of fees, 12 mth lock in)
- Fidelity (£1.5k, 18 mth lock in)
- HL "exclusive" (£2k, lock in to December 2026)
- IG (owner of Freetrade, £2k, lock in to September 2026)
I'm not considering Moneybox and Wealtify given that I want to transfer ETFs in specie.

Freetrade does have a long lock in until December 2027. Not sure I trust HL given that I don't have a SIPP there already, other than that the IG offer is tempting but the complexity of the platform puts me off as does the requirement to hold at least one position in a dealing account.

Good spot on Freetrade, thanks. I guess that's £120 extra a year I'll be saving then, assuming I stick with ETFs (looks like their new add on for mutual funds is for the higher plans only).

As I mentioned before, I'd be very wary of the IG offer, the extremely tight timescales for completing a transfer, plus the absurdly clunky SIPP application process made it a hard no for me.

Also, where did you get that the Freetrade lock in was till Dec 27? I haven't seen anything on the current or previous offer terms that suggest you'd need to maintain it past Dec 26 when they pay out on the current offer?

I kind of see these firms in 3 brackets. Your good old brokers (HL, AJ Bell, II etc), new entrants (InvestEngine, Trading 212, Freetrade, CMC), then the international ones (eToro, IB, IG). I don't feel at ease with the international ones.

Freetrade (https://freetrade.io/legal/2026-tax-year-end-offer):

What if I want to close or withdraw from my account?

If you make a withdrawal or transfer out which causes the net funding of the Freetrade account to fall or you close your Freetrade account before we award the cashback, then this will affect whether you get cashback or the value of it.

We ask you keep the relevant account (i.e. ISA and/or SIPP) open, and do not transfer out for 365 days from when the cashback  is awarded as per the terms of the offer.

The cashback is paid by 5 December 2026.

We ask you keep the relevant account (i.e. ISA and/or SIPP) open, and do not transfer out for 365 days from when the cashback  is awarded as per the terms of the offer.

“The cashback is paid by 5 December 2026.”

Your funds are tied up until 5 December 2027 then, 365 days after payment?

It's quite interesting wording isn't it...? They "ask" that it remain open, but there is nothing set out about forfeiting cashback already paid if you don't. IANAL but I suspect they'd be on tricky ground if they tried any clawback based on that term...

nor me but would I risk the clawback of three figure cashback, probably not especially considering the SIPP is fee free.  In addition, it says (my bold)

16. After the Award is made, if you seek to:

(a) close your Relevant Freetrade Account; or 

(b) make a transfer or withdrawal from your Relevant Freetrade Account which causes the value of your Relevant Freetrade Account to fall below the Relevant Value; and 

(c) within 365 days of your transfer completing, we reserve the right to clawback the Award, to the extent permitted by applicable law. 

FIREDreamer that's my interpretation, yes.

Well I'll set my timer from when the last of my 2 transfers complete then. Quite possible I will leave it there longer but I don't want to be hamstrung if there's another juicy offer elsewhere at that point...

Of course, that offer page is a bit inconsistent. In one place it says "and do not transfer out for 365 days from when the cashback  is awarded", and the other "within 365 days of your transfer completing". The second one is from the actual Ts&Cs which brings the clawback period down somewhat.

vacheron

FIREDreamer said:

vacheron said:

FIREDreamer said:

easysaver said:

artyboy said:

FIREDreamer said:

easysaver said:

artyboy said:

easysaver said:

Not seen it mentioned here but Freetrade will include SIPPs in their free basic plan from 22 January. I don't need lower fx rates, higher cash interest or access to funds from the paid for plans so I intend to wait to open and transfer my SIPP.
https://freetrade.io/invest-for-less

Other decent transfer offers I can find at £250k+ are
- Aviva (£1k gift card, 56 day lock in)
- Charles Stanley (£1.5k + 6 mth of fees, 12 mth lock in)
- Fidelity (£1.5k, 18 mth lock in)
- HL "exclusive" (£2k, lock in to December 2026)
- IG (owner of Freetrade, £2k, lock in to September 2026)
I'm not considering Moneybox and Wealtify given that I want to transfer ETFs in specie.

Freetrade does have a long lock in until December 2027. Not sure I trust HL given that I don't have a SIPP there already, other than that the IG offer is tempting but the complexity of the platform puts me off as does the requirement to hold at least one position in a dealing account.

Good spot on Freetrade, thanks. I guess that's £120 extra a year I'll be saving then, assuming I stick with ETFs (looks like their new add on for mutual funds is for the higher plans only).

As I mentioned before, I'd be very wary of the IG offer, the extremely tight timescales for completing a transfer, plus the absurdly clunky SIPP application process made it a hard no for me.

Also, where did you get that the Freetrade lock in was till Dec 27? I haven't seen anything on the current or previous offer terms that suggest you'd need to maintain it past Dec 26 when they pay out on the current offer?

I kind of see these firms in 3 brackets. Your good old brokers (HL, AJ Bell, II etc), new entrants (InvestEngine, Trading 212, Freetrade, CMC), then the international ones (eToro, IB, IG). I don't feel at ease with the international ones.

Freetrade (https://freetrade.io/legal/2026-tax-year-end-offer):

What if I want to close or withdraw from my account?

If you make a withdrawal or transfer out which causes the net funding of the Freetrade account to fall or you close your Freetrade account before we award the cashback, then this will affect whether you get cashback or the value of it.

We ask you keep the relevant account (i.e. ISA and/or SIPP) open, and do not transfer out for 365 days from when the cashback  is awarded as per the terms of the offer.

The cashback is paid by 5 December 2026.

We ask you keep the relevant account (i.e. ISA and/or SIPP) open, and do not transfer out for 365 days from when the cashback  is awarded as per the terms of the offer.

“The cashback is paid by 5 December 2026.”

Your funds are tied up until 5 December 2027 then, 365 days after payment?

It's quite interesting wording isn't it...? They "ask" that it remain open, but there is nothing set out about forfeiting cashback already paid if you don't. IANAL but I suspect they'd be on tricky ground if they tried any clawback based on that term...

nor me but would I risk the clawback of three figure cashback, probably not especially considering the SIPP is fee free.  In addition, it says (my bold)

16. After the Award is made, if you seek to:

(a) close your Relevant Freetrade Account; or 

(b) make a transfer or withdrawal from your Relevant Freetrade Account which causes the value of your Relevant Freetrade Account to fall below the Relevant Value; and 

(c) within 365 days of your transfer completing, we reserve the right to clawback the Award, to the extent permitted by applicable law. 

FIREDreamer that's my interpretation, yes.

I am tempted to transfer £300k from HL for £3,000 cashback. But a near two year tie in to a newish provider scares me. HL is cheap as I use ETFs.

£200k is already going from HL to Barclays for £2,500 cashback. Started 2 weeks ago, heard nothing yet.

The intention is to transfer back after getting the cashback.

I looked at the Barclays offer after reading your post, but the 0.25% charge and £37.50 quarterly SIPP charge would have cancelled out the extra £500 you would recieve for a 200K transfer compared to Freetrade (assuming a 1 year investment). 

That said however they do say the cashback will be paid "within" 60 days of the end of the offer period, which is  the 14th of February, so I make the latest payment date April 15th. So if the cashback arrived in less than 50 days you could well be in with a shot of cashing the £2,500 out of Barclays (which has no clawback clause as far as I can tell) and getting the transfer started to from Barclays to Freetrade before April the 5th for another £2,000. 

My shares isa is 100% cash at the moment as i want to tidy up my investments. Hopefully it will speed up transfers. Having said that i have probably lost more than 1% sitting in cash just prevaricating over what to do!

That's why I love in-specie transfers because it's so hard to press the button again once the funds are in cash, and the more I prevarocate, the harder it gets. Prices go down, wait for them to fall a little further, prices go up, wait for them to fall a little again. 🤦‍♂️ 

What has made Freetrade so appealing this time round is that they offer mutial funds, so I can direct transfer the OEIC SIPP fund I hold with II to avoid this re-commitment scenario. They also support the ETF's I currently hold in my Fidelity SIPP, plus I also noticed that the offer the Vanguard Lifestrategy funds, so I can move my sons S&S ISA away from Vanguard (and their new higher fees) all as direct transfers, pay the one montly fee to Freetrade for everything, AND get more cashback from the ISA transfer to boot. 

It's looking like they are a real one stop shop (for me at least) at the moment. 🤞