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. 🤞 

michaels

Free trade basically don't support any form of drawdown (ufpls with massive fees only) and don't offer linkers which makes them less useful for me.

May give HL and Fidelity a go. If you transfer over a threshold level and then your funds fall in value below the threshold during the qualifying period will you still get the full bonus?

artyboy

artyboy said:

...as a side note, I do wonder how any clawback could practically work, if all you had was pension wrapped funds in your account. I know there seems to be a specific allowance for platform fees to be taken directly out of pension funds, but I wonder if legally they could claw back cashback in that way...

Because to all intents and purposes, it looks like you're using cashback mechanics to make a tax free withdrawal from your pension...

Right... so having secured the £1000 from Fidelity, I'm think I'm going to test this one out. If I transfer out again to HL, their current promotion will get me £2000 for the same amount transferred (just over £250k).

So worst case, if there is some clawback attempt, I'll still be £1000 up on the deal, what's more, HL only requires retention until November to qualify. But I am genuinely curious as to how this will pan out, and by what mechanism any clawback can be achieved...

vacheron

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

I've just been sent the details in an e-mail from them stating:

Hey there,

Freetrade’s subscription plans are changing. From 22 January 2026, the Freetrade SIPP will be available on all plans, as will funds and gilts. 

Following these changes, the Basic plan is most suitable for you based on your account usage. Because of this, you’re moving to the free Basic plan on 27 February 2026. This will happen automatically, you don’t need to do anything. 

I thought I would just still need their "Plus" plan as my SIPP would contain mutual funds, but it looks like these are moving to basic now too.

They also took £120 from me for a years plus subscription just yesterday, but the e-mail says I will get a refund from Feb.

Nice changes for their customers, but doesn't look like people will get much extra now for their paid subscription.

ex-pat_scot

Just trying to locate the latest offers on cashback.
Fidelity are up to £3,000 on £1m+ SIPPs, but with fees at £2,000 then the benefit becomes marginal (granted, the cashback is outside the SIPP and the fees are from the SIPP, but that's not a great incentive overall).
Nothing I can find about HL cashback offers (this New_SIPP_Cashback_Terms.pdf from Feb 2025 seems to be the latest I can find. Hopefully it will be repeated shortly).
I'm with ii.

artyboy

ex-pat_scot said:

Just trying to locate the latest offers on cashback.
Fidelity are up to £3,000 on £1m+ SIPPs, but with fees at £2,000 then the benefit becomes marginal (granted, the cashback is outside the SIPP and the fees are from the SIPP, but that's not a great incentive overall).
Nothing I can find about HL cashback offers (this New_SIPP_Cashback_Terms.pdf from Feb 2025 seems to be the latest I can find. Hopefully it will be repeated shortly).
I'm with ii.

Fees depend on what you are holding. If you're sticking to ETFs then Fidelity's platform is capped at £90/year.

For HL, read back a few pages. It was a targeted offer, but they have explicitly confirmed to me that because I registered through the link that @michaels posted, I am eligible anyway. I'm not recommending anyone proceed on the back of that, but I'm happy to given the audit trail. Which I will reinforce by requesting an extension of their 20-Feb deadline.

ex-pat_scot

artyboy said:

ex-pat_scot said:

Just trying to locate the latest offers on cashback.
Fidelity are up to £3,000 on £1m+ SIPPs, but with fees at £2,000 then the benefit becomes marginal (granted, the cashback is outside the SIPP and the fees are from the SIPP, but that's not a great incentive overall).
Nothing I can find about HL cashback offers (this New_SIPP_Cashback_Terms.pdf from Feb 2025 seems to be the latest I can find. Hopefully it will be repeated shortly).
I'm with ii.

Fees depend on what you are holding. If you're sticking to ETFs then Fidelity's platform is capped at £90/year.

For HL, read back a few pages. 

Thanks! I thought I was going nuts. Couldn't remember whether I'd seen anything or not.
I spoke to Fidelity yesterday to ask about the 0.2% (£2000/yr) or £7.50/m applied, if I had £1m in ETFs. They said it would be both.
I rather suspect they didn't really understand the question, but gave up eventually trying to get absolute clarity.