II are offering a cheaper SIPP option for existing customers, if you ask for it!

fronty

Hi all,

I do apologise if this has already been covered, but I just wanted to share that I have found a reduced cost SIPP option available through II. If you are an existing customer you might not know about it.

I transferred my pension from a discretionary service to an II SIPP about 4 years ago and have been paying £19.99 a month ever since for the fees. This consisted of £9.99 for the investor plan and £10 for the SIPP bolt-on.

However they recently sent out a secure email saying they were putting their fees up, but they also mentioned this thing called a "Pension Builder" plan. I made some enquiries and it turns out you can close the investor plan and just leave the SIPP running on it's own - this is the pension builder plan, and what's more it only costs £12.99/month. So you save £7/month by doing this.

I know it doesn't sound a lot, but why should you pay for something if you're not using it?

I have no idea if they always had this pension builder thing, it certainly didn't seem to be an option when I opened my SIPP, so I only assume they've had it as an option but don't advertise it or tell anyone about it.

In fact, if you look on their SIPP fees page, they don't list it at all and list the SIPP fees as £21.99/month (the new price has gone up by £2/month). Check for yourself: https://www.ii.co.uk/existing-customer/sipp#fees

So if you want to save £84/year (£2,100 over 25 years!), then send them a secure message and ask to be moved onto the pension builder plan.

Cheers,
Fronty.

fronty

Actually, you will save £9/month now that they have put their fees up.

fronty

Ah, here it is, says it's for "new" customers, but just message them and they will move you onto the new plan:

https://www.ii.co.uk/ii-accounts/sipp/sipp-charges

michaels

fronty said:

Hi all,

I do apologise if this has already been covered, but I just wanted to share that I have found a reduced cost SIPP option available through II. If you are an existing customer you might not know about it.

I transferred my pension from a discretionary service to an II SIPP about 4 years ago and have been paying £19.99 a month ever since for the fees. This consisted of £9.99 for the investor plan and £10 for the SIPP bolt-on.

However they recently sent out a secure email saying they were putting their fees up, but they also mentioned this thing called a "Pension Builder" plan. I made some enquiries and it turns out you can close the investor plan and just leave the SIPP running on it's own - this is the pension builder plan, and what's more it only costs £12.99/month. So you save £7/month by doing this.

I know it doesn't sound a lot, but why should you pay for something if you're not using it?

I have no idea if they always had this pension builder thing, it certainly didn't seem to be an option when I opened my SIPP, so I only assume they've had it as an option but don't advertise it or tell anyone about it.

In fact, if you look on their SIPP fees page, they don't list it at all and list the SIPP fees as £21.99/month (the new price has gone up by £2/month). Check for yourself: https://www.ii.co.uk/existing-customer/sipp#fees

So if you want to save £84/year (£2,100 over 25 years!), then send them a secure message and ask to be moved onto the pension builder plan.

Cheers,
Fronty.

Thank you, useful

daveharruk

Pension Builder has been available for well over a year now: Interactive Investor launches Pension Builder to replace Funds Fan (goodmoneyguide.com) - as you say it makes more sense (particularly now as a trade is only £3.99 as of 1st Sep). I can't remember exactly how I found out about it but it was definitely mentioned in an email from them that I got in Aug 2022.

SamDude

I consolidated some of my workplace pensions to ii Pension Builder last Oct/Nov.
They give new customers 6 months free, so that saved ~£78 

(when I clicked on your thread, I was getting excited that there could be a way to reduce what I'm paying... until I read it was the Pension Builder which is what I have already...  ) 

Gary1984

Thanks for flagging this. I've sent them a secure message asking to be changed over. I haven't been using my free trades anyway but at £3.99 now it would still work out cheaper anyway.

LHW99

Does this work if you have an ISA as well? - on the Investor plan you don't pay any more for an ISA do you with the pension builder?

Doctor_Who

LHW99 said:

Does this work if you have an ISA as well? - on the Investor plan you don't pay any more for an ISA do you with the pension builder?

My understanding is that the Pension Builder plan (£12.99) is just for a standalone SIPP. If you want to add an ISA to a Pension Builder you need to upgrade to Investor + SIPP for £21.99 a month

https://www.ii.co.uk/existing-customer/isa

SteveBLFC64

Thanks for pointing this out - however, I went into Account > Subscription and billing, and there's an option for switching over online, no need to send a secure message.   

fronty

SteveBLFC64 said:

Thanks for pointing this out - however, I went into Account > Subscription and billing, and there's an option for switching over online, no need to send a secure message.   

Cool, I hadn't seen that.