Moneybox ad airs today

There is many more options with a better return than Moneybox. I actually stopped using Moneybox its returns are not that great. You are investing £100 a month or so surely that would be better going elsewhere where you have better control on your investment and returns ?

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For instance?

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This article gives an interesting overview…

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/stocks-shares-isas-variant2/?utm_expid=.K7gszvBXT5-ELhkQ4QBEyQ.1&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

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I’m not a financial adviser so not going to give advice. However Rathbone, M&G and Pyford all offer better returns the last time I looked over Moneybox if you choose cautious, For Balanced and Ambitious nearly every big investment company/platform offered better returns for a set amount some even monthly and weekly investments.

Something simple like the LV With profits fund has performed better as well constantly over the years compared to the cautious or balanced moneybox product.

For small amounts Moneybox is the best, as most others don’t accept small deposits. But for £25 a week, many better options out there.

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Thanks for sharing your experiences @Terra_cotta @redshift

From what I recall I didn’t find set up too complicated, but initial DD collection wasn’t particularly well explained. I signed up back in April purely out of interest and experimentation, as I was impressed by the elevator pitch concept.

I think the implementation is rather clunky, but I suspect that’s more to do with the limitations of current banking products, costs and logistics of dealing ETFs and a lack of meaningful coordination of OpenBanking partners, which inhibits the lack of real time round up collection into MoneyBox.

For context my own set up is as follows: I’ve connected two current accounts, a credit card and charge card, which is essentially 3 different providers. That doesn’t make for an easy ride in terms of implementation in the purest, most logical manner (literal round ups on the £ for each product).

That being said, I do think the concept is really excellent. Automatically saving the change, and then investing rather than saving is definitely a step in the right direction. I see the value in this product is in the convenience factor of investing spare change.

If Monzo do launch their own capital at risk investment pot, I could see this being a real problem for MoneyBox, especially if fees (which as relative % aren’t insignificant, but ) are zero and Monzo’s impressively large customer base.

In terms of the criticism over returns, I think it’s worth pointing out that markets, despite the relative lack of volatility are fluid, and from record highs, we are now moving into potentially rockier territory with tariffs on trade and dicier global politics, so you should expect to see fluctuations. A second, probably more important point is that your investment horizon shouldn’t be measured in weeks or months, but years, preferably 5+ years, though possibly longer. It’s a capital at risk product, so you’re investing in an asset that may rise or fall (below your initial capital outlay) in value. Past performance not a reliable predictor of future outcomes.

@daedal do you have any 12 month charts that you could post for easy comparison on the products you mention with costs? I’d be curious, and I think it would be very useful for other forum members to see what else is out there. Of course, you could just go direct with Vangaurd and pretty much pay close to nothing on fees.

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I started with Moneybox about a year ago; I found it’s by far the slowest set up and way to invest money in the history of the world. :stuck_out_tongue::wink:

Rounding up, Moneybox would keep a record and then take one single large lump sum of cash at the end of the week and then I’d have to wait ages (I believe a further week?) for it to actually be invested.

I worked out that by only doing round ups it would take a good while to make any money at all; especially as the account fees were making it a loss.

Upon deciding to close my account I had to wait for my stocks to be sold back and for the direct debit to then clear back into my account; a proccess that took another few weeks to fully complete.

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Yes, the time it takes to do anything is uphill treacle slow. It feels like there’s a batch trade and reconciliation process going on, and one gets the impression that there’s a manual element to their backend processes, but I could be wrong.

I think it’s useful starting with a ‘good’ lump sum, and a little more on top of your weekly round ups. It’s probably not the right product for everyone, especially if weekly spend is low, and investing a weekly sum of £25+ isn’t an option. In those scenarios, if Monzo is your primary account for spending, you’d be better off sweeping savings (on maybe a monthly basis?) from coinjar into another provider, either a Vanguard type player for ETFs, or Freetrade if you want to buy individual shares at low cost. An IFTTT recipe could be really interesting here, if integration allows.

As previously mentioned, if Monzo do move into this space on their own, as alluded to by @Tom a couple of months ago, MoneyBox could find themselves in a pickle.

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I thought it was explained reasonably in the welcoming email.
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But, for me, investing this way is better than not saving at all :slightly_smiling_face:

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I thought so too, except that isn’t what happened

Is it possible to link my Monzo to my moneybox account?

Yes.

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I agree with you.

How many times I told to myself that I will invest someday.
Using moneybox I actually save and invest every month. For small amount(£10-15 per week) it’s perfect, even if the gain is almost half (because of the fees).

Sorry, maybe it is not clear. Save money (emergency account) and invest money(moneybox).

I am waiting for closure of the account because I plan to invest a bit more money on cheaper platform. (Vanguard)

But overall I am/was happy with Moneybox because I thought I never find ‘extra’ money/coins to invest.