Trading 212 easy access ISA 5.2% APY and 1% cashback. Too good to be true?

justpassingthrough24

gravel_2 said:

vipt said:

Hi, I'm new to this forum and trading but did a little reading on trading 212.

1) am I right in saying that I can open an ISA and get 1% cashback and the free share (via referral link)? Or do I need to open an invest account for the free share (or have to open both is and invest)?

2) when opening ISA and getting cashback it is unclear if counts to allowance for year as the information is contradictory 

"How much cashback can I receive? 

Up to £200. It is counted against the total amount that can be deposited into the ISA (£20,000). 

Is the cashback included in my ISA allowance for the current tax year? 

No, the cashback will be received in your Invest account without counting towards the allowance."

3) the fees for depositing over £2000 are 0.7%, so if I deposit £20000, I will actually end up with £19860 in the account, not counting cashback?

4) have I missed a trick with 'transfer of ISA' in the sense that I can move around the same £20000 from previous years to make it work harder?

Thank you in advance 

Important to note that there are three account types on T212 - Invest, which is a general non-ISA investing account, ISA, and CFD (which you can ignore). Understanding this may help you follow better the cashback/ISA allowance question.

1) The free trade is paid into whatever account you fund first. If it's paid into your ISA it does count as part of your annual subscription. If this matters to you then I suggest doing a nominal payment (e.g. £10, although I think £1 is the minimum deposit) into the Invest account before you fund the ISA. This gives you full 20k ISA subscription plus free share outside the ISA, as opposed to almost full ISA subscription plus a free share inside that ISA.
2) The cashback is paid into the Invest account, not the ISA, so it has no impact on your allowance and any gains you make from the cashback will be taxable in the normal course.
3) Only true if you are using a card to deposit. You can do it through open banking (instant) or bank transfer (they say up to 3 working days) for no cost.
4) If you already have ISA money with a bank then you can transfer that money to other banks or into S&S ISAs as long as you use the designated transfer mechanism and do not manually withdraw it. Note that the T212 cashback deal is not available for transferred money - you must pay in 20k of new money to receive the full cashback offer.

Incredibly helpful post, thank you! However I'm not sure about the first point - surely you can deposit £20,000 into an S&S ISA, and still be ok to receive the extra free share without it counting towards your ISA allowance as it technically isn't part of your deposit? Is there something in the T212 FAQs which says otherwise? I'm extremely close to opening an account rather than my usual VG, but seems there's a few hoops to jump through to get started.

slinger2

"If awarded to your ISA Account, please note that Reward Share counts towards your ISA maximum subscription limit as described in Clause 3.3. of our ISA Terms."

"3.3. All contributions made to your Account within each new tax year will be allocated first to your ISA until the maximum subscription or your own pre-set limit is reached for that year. Once the maximum subscription or your own pre-set limit is reached, future contributions will be allocated to the non-lSA remainder of your Account, which we call the general investment account."

Aidanmc

justpassingthrough24 said:

gravel_2 said:

vipt said:

Hi, I'm new to this forum and trading but did a little reading on trading 212.

1) am I right in saying that I can open an ISA and get 1% cashback and the free share (via referral link)? Or do I need to open an invest account for the free share (or have to open both is and invest)?

2) when opening ISA and getting cashback it is unclear if counts to allowance for year as the information is contradictory 

"How much cashback can I receive? 

Up to £200. It is counted against the total amount that can be deposited into the ISA (£20,000). 

Is the cashback included in my ISA allowance for the current tax year? 

No, the cashback will be received in your Invest account without counting towards the allowance."

3) the fees for depositing over £2000 are 0.7%, so if I deposit £20000, I will actually end up with £19860 in the account, not counting cashback?

4) have I missed a trick with 'transfer of ISA' in the sense that I can move around the same £20000 from previous years to make it work harder?

Thank you in advance 

Important to note that there are three account types on T212 - Invest, which is a general non-ISA investing account, ISA, and CFD (which you can ignore). Understanding this may help you follow better the cashback/ISA allowance question.

1) The free trade is paid into whatever account you fund first. If it's paid into your ISA it does count as part of your annual subscription. If this matters to you then I suggest doing a nominal payment (e.g. £10, although I think £1 is the minimum deposit) into the Invest account before you fund the ISA. This gives you full 20k ISA subscription plus free share outside the ISA, as opposed to almost full ISA subscription plus a free share inside that ISA.
2) The cashback is paid into the Invest account, not the ISA, so it has no impact on your allowance and any gains you make from the cashback will be taxable in the normal course.
3) Only true if you are using a card to deposit. You can do it through open banking (instant) or bank transfer (they say up to 3 working days) for no cost.
4) If you already have ISA money with a bank then you can transfer that money to other banks or into S&S ISAs as long as you use the designated transfer mechanism and do not manually withdraw it. Note that the T212 cashback deal is not available for transferred money - you must pay in 20k of new money to receive the full cashback offer.

Incredibly helpful post, thank you! However I'm not sure about the first point - surely you can deposit £20,000 into an S&S ISA, and still be ok to receive the extra free share without it counting towards your ISA allowance as it technically isn't part of your deposit? Is there something in the T212 FAQs which says otherwise? I'm extremely close to opening an account rather than my usual VG, but seems there's a few hoops to jump through to get started.

Open the Invest account first (using a referral link), do verification and make initial deposit. Then your free share will surely be allocated to the Invest account. Then your free to open ISA account, deposit up to 20k and receive the 1% cashback to the Invest account.

gravel_2

I can't speak for paying in 20k as one lump in the ISA as your first transaction as I didn't do that. Based on the terms quoted above, I assume they would award promo share to ISA and overflow your surplus subscription into GIA and you would end up with (if you got a £10 fractional share) - £19,990 own money plus £10 fractional share in your ISA. Separately you'd likely end up with £10 of your own money plus ~£199.90 from the ISA cashback promo in the GIA.

As I said, and as Aidanmc has reiterated, seemingly the most economical way to gain from the current promos is to set up your account as an Invest account (GIA), deposit a nominal amount to it and then open your ISA and do a full subscription.

vipt

I got my accounts opened and finally got the cashback for the ISA (it seems I hadn't clicked the read and accept properly).
I also referred to my wife so she now has her accounts open.
As for the free shares, I got a £10 share for opening my account, then a £10 share for referring to wife. She got a £10 share for opening her account.  So it seems the most probability goes to only £10 shares , either some people got lucky with theirs or I'm just completely unlucky. Still, it's free so can't complain.
I also have an AJ Bell account and when I needed help with through them it was answered within minutes.  With Trading 212 it takes a long time to get any answers and the answers usually are not helpful because they have misunderstood the information, by which time it's quicker to solve the issues yourself if doesn't require input from them. I guess there is a reason I'm charged to hold my account with AJ Bell.

pecunianonolet

vipt said:

I got my accounts opened and finally got the cashback for the ISA (it seems I hadn't clicked the read and accept properly).
I also referred to my wife so she now has her accounts open.
As for the free shares, I got a £10 share for opening my account, then a £10 share for referring to wife. She got a £10 share for opening her account.  So it seems the most probability goes to only £10 shares , either some people got lucky with theirs or I'm just completely unlucky. Still, it's free so can't complain.
I also have an AJ Bell account and when I needed help with through them it was answered within minutes.  With Trading 212 it takes a long time to get any answers and the answers usually are not helpful because they have misunderstood the information, by which time it's quicker to solve the issues yourself if doesn't require input from them. I guess there is a reason I'm charged to hold my account with AJ Bell.

They specify the probability rates on the free share allocation and the lower end, which you and your wife are in is by far the greatest. I think 80% chance if I remember. I got lucky and had one in the 80% tier and one in a higher tier. Found their customer service, even if only via chat, rather good. Some big banks are far worse. Anyhow, you got £30 worth of shares and dividends on top of it should you keep hold of them.

gravel_2

This is what they show when you go to find your link.

vipt

Yes thanks for reminding me about this probability table, I completely forgot about that, so yes our sample of three fits well into the 80%. It's free so doesn't matter and will get cashback in ISA so its fine.

The customer service was via chat and they did come back, but it took a long time. As I say I had managed to find the resolutions well before they came back.  So far I have not actually had a useful answer from them yet but that doesn't mean it's always like that.

Thanks for all your help.

justpassingthrough24

justpassingthrough24 said:

gravel_2 said:

vipt said:

Hi, I'm new to this forum and trading but did a little reading on trading 212.

1) am I right in saying that I can open an ISA and get 1% cashback and the free share (via referral link)? Or do I need to open an invest account for the free share (or have to open both is and invest)?

2) when opening ISA and getting cashback it is unclear if counts to allowance for year as the information is contradictory 

"How much cashback can I receive? 

Up to £200. It is counted against the total amount that can be deposited into the ISA (£20,000). 

Is the cashback included in my ISA allowance for the current tax year? 

No, the cashback will be received in your Invest account without counting towards the allowance."

3) the fees for depositing over £2000 are 0.7%, so if I deposit £20000, I will actually end up with £19860 in the account, not counting cashback?

4) have I missed a trick with 'transfer of ISA' in the sense that I can move around the same £20000 from previous years to make it work harder?

Thank you in advance 

Important to note that there are three account types on T212 - Invest, which is a general non-ISA investing account, ISA, and CFD (which you can ignore). Understanding this may help you follow better the cashback/ISA allowance question.

1) The free trade is paid into whatever account you fund first. If it's paid into your ISA it does count as part of your annual subscription. If this matters to you then I suggest doing a nominal payment (e.g. £10, although I think £1 is the minimum deposit) into the Invest account before you fund the ISA. This gives you full 20k ISA subscription plus free share outside the ISA, as opposed to almost full ISA subscription plus a free share inside that ISA.
2) The cashback is paid into the Invest account, not the ISA, so it has no impact on your allowance and any gains you make from the cashback will be taxable in the normal course.
3) Only true if you are using a card to deposit. You can do it through open banking (instant) or bank transfer (they say up to 3 working days) for no cost.
4) If you already have ISA money with a bank then you can transfer that money to other banks or into S&S ISAs as long as you use the designated transfer mechanism and do not manually withdraw it. Note that the T212 cashback deal is not available for transferred money - you must pay in 20k of new money to receive the full cashback offer.

Incredibly helpful post, thank you! However I'm not sure about the first point - surely you can deposit £20,000 into an S&S ISA, and still be ok to receive the extra free share without it counting towards your ISA allowance as it technically isn't part of your deposit? Is there something in the T212 FAQs which says otherwise? I'm extremely close to opening an account rather than my usual VG, but seems there's a few hoops to jump through to get started.

Thanks everyone for the replies on this post. FYI - I was able to open a S&S ISA and deposited £20k, without opening an invest account first. The £200 cashback then went into my invest account (which I had to technically "open" with a few clicks but the balance was £0). The free share is also being deposited in my invest account and was confirmed once the £200 cashback came in, which took about 30 minutes. Hope that clears things up for people as you don't actually need to open a separate invest account / deposit less than £20k in the ISA. There is no risk of you exceeding your limit from these welcome bonuses.

dlevene

Re. The responsiveness of their customer service.

My ISA transfer hadn't been reviewed by the 3 business days window so messaged them in the chat. Within a few hours I'd had an apology and the transfer had been progressed and passed to my previous provider. Not bad