Chip investment bribe

masonic

aroominyork said:

Are these 'bribes' taxable?

One off incentives generally aren't, with the exception of things like building society distributions to members.

aroominyork

masonic said:

aroominyork said:

Are these 'bribes' taxable?

One off incentives generally aren't, with the exception of things like building society distributions to members.

Interestingly, for Nationwide's £50 'Thank You' following the Virgin Money acquisition, they are advising "If you are only a borrowing member when we make the payment, we are taking steps to confirm how it is treated for UK income tax purposes, and you may be liable for tax. When we know we will put a notice on nationwide.co.uk/tax-terms." 

fabsaver

where_are_we said:

Go for it! I have received the same email and will be taking it up. I have received many of these "bribes" in the past. Make sure you follow the T&C`s. They hope you will eventually put much more than £100 in.

"You must already have an open Chip investment account (with a balance of £0 as of 30 May 2025)"

The above quote seems a bit strange. It implies you have until midnight to open an investment account. I already have a Chip cash ISA which I assume is not an investment account. To be sure, I opened a general investment account with a balance of £0, but I would imagine it is not necessary to do it today?

The only downside is making sure you deposit the £100 before June 10 (in my case I will put it in CHS2 which is a money market fund and has a low risk of losing any money over the period of the offer) and remembering to respond to the email on July 15 and claim a suitable gift card. I don`t see a stipulated time to hold the invesment so I will be selling up as soon as I get the gift card.

That clause discouraged me initially, as I did not have an open Chip investment account on 30 May.

However upon logging in today I see they have updated the terms of the promotion. It now states under eligibility criteria:

"You need to either have:

• never opened an investment account (either a GIA or a Stocks & Shares ISA) with Chip, OR;
• a total balance of £0 in your investment account(s) (i.e. your GIA and/or Stocks & Shares ISA) as of 30 May 2025."

where_are_we

I received my confirmation email from Chip for £30 reward. Only downside is my UK Money Market Fund is down to £99.67 from £100 investment.

• On 15 July, look out for an email in your inbox;
• Then, you’ll be able to follow the steps to claim your £30 reward.

 

allegro120

where_are_we said:

I received my confirmation email from Chip for £30 reward. Only downside is my UK Money Market Fund is down to £99.67 from £100 investment.

• On 15 July, look out for an email in your inbox;
• Then, you’ll be able to follow the steps to claim your £30 reward

I received one today too saying that I can claim my reward on 15th July (good to know I'm qualified). I wanted to invest in UK Money Market, but the unit price was over £100 so I picked BlackRock Balanced ESG instead.  It took a few days for deposit to arrive to Chip and get deployed (they didn't warn about cash drag in the advert).  Now showing £100.37, I'm sure the balance will go down when they collect the fees.

where_are_we

Invest Engine allow fractional share purchase, so I was able to purchase £100 worth of their UK Money Market Fund meaning I own a little less than one whole share. Not all online trading platforms allow fractional share purchase. Those that do, tend to be the newer online trading paltforms. Best to diarise 15 July in order to claim £30 reward promptly.

allegro120

where_are_we said:

Invest Engine allow fractional share purchase, so I was able to purchase £100 worth of their UK Money Market Fund meaning I own a little less than one whole share. Not all online trading platforms allow fractional share purchase. Those that do, tend to be the newer online trading paltforms. Best to diarise 15 July in order to claim £30 reward promptly.

If I knew this I would have gone for UK Money Fund   15th is already in my diary, I had a confirmation e-mail from Chip too  

morgmonster

I did this last month for a £25 bribe. I put £100 in the UK MMF but as it's a minimum £1 a month fee, I took it out after a month (could've done it sooner I guess), lost £1.18 but the £25 was put in my PayPal account when / as promised so quite happy with that. My husband did the same but went for an amazon voucher. I found the account awkward to use compared to my T212 account so I wasn't tempted to move anything else in there.

The only thing I would say is that when I chose Paypal for my reward, it didn't give me an opportunity to enter an email but just said '£25 has been sent to email@email.com'. Luckily my email address on file with them was the same as my PayPal address so no problem, but I'm not sure what would have happened if it wasn't. So maybe safer to get a suitable voucher rather than PayPal if you use a different email for that and Chip.

allegro120

morgmonster said:

I did this last month for a £25 bribe. I put £100 in the UK MMF but as it's a minimum £1 a month fee, I took it out after a month (could've done it sooner I guess), lost £1.18 but the £25 was put in my PayPal account when / as promised so quite happy with that. My husband did the same but went for an amazon voucher. I found the account awkward to use compared to my T212 account so I wasn't tempted to move anything else in there.

The only thing I would say is that when I chose Paypal for my reward, it didn't give me an opportunity to enter an email but just said '£25 has been sent to email@email.com'. Luckily my email address on file with them was the same as my PayPal address so no problem, but I'm not sure what would have happened if it wasn't. So maybe safer to get a suitable voucher rather than PayPal if you use a different email for that and Chip.

Thanks for this info.  My PayPal e-mail is the same as Chip has on their file so I should be ok.  Do you know if I take out the full balance from my investment now, will I still get £30 on 15th July?

where_are_we

Personally, I am not going to take the risk of withdrawing my approximately £100 investment until I secure the £30 on 15th July. I realise this will probably mean incurring an extra £1 monthly fee but this is not a great loss.