Wont install facebook or its messenger on any mobile device so Plum is dead to me
Investment using Freetrader
Wont install facebook or its messenger on any mobile device so Plum is dead to me
Investment using Freetrader
Looks like an app is coming
Amazing theyāve taken this long to be honest.
I believe someone I know is working on it!
Great news, Iāve come to not ~mind~ Messenger so much, but looking forward to get off it! Now they just need to offer more investment opportunities and they might just be my S&S ISA of choice again for the next tax year.
Out of interest, why would you pick Plum over something else?
I like how savings are automated based on my spending and the money available in the bank, say if Iām low on cash towards the end of the month, savings get smaller. This means that each month I can safely invest all the money from my Plum savings without worrying that itās too much or too little. I find the algorithm to be really good ā it almost feels like itās āfreeā money, so I donāt mind putting it all in relatively risky investments.
Also being a complete novice when it comes to investing, I find Plumās simple offering to be really easy to digest (alas a couple more options would be nice indeed), compared to the likes of Freetrade, which I find a bit overwhelming, possibly aimed at more experienced investors.
Another good thing is the ability to invest any amount, effectively owning fractional shares.
Finally, theyāve been smoothing out lots of rough edges lately. For example you can now automatically split your savings between your various investments based on set percentages, which I think is really cool.
If I was aware of other services that offer similar features, Iād be more than happy to try them.
If investments are something you think you be doing long term. Iād highly recommend reading about how fees effect compound interest over the long term. Someone did a guide here a few months ago, Iāll see what I can find.
Plum is expensive for what they do. They take a quid, plus up to 0.9% platform fee and an extra 0.15% for their own pockets. Thereās no two ways of looking at it, thatās a lot!
Iād recommend reading up on a Vanguard Lifestrategy or Vanguard Global All Cap ETFs. If they meet your risk palate theyāve both proven to be good performing, resilient funds.
Edit, hereās the post: A lil' doc to help you understand savings and investment
There is a Facebook group for plum, a lot of people on there have small sums invested and arenāt actually making enough to cover the fee by the looks of it. I think plum could do a lot more to explain the fees.
Frankly the fee should be £1 or 0.15% whichever is higher if they need to cover the technology cost. Doing both is just bad.
Seems like it would be easier, cheaper and better to just use Chip and move the money about manually or wait for ChipX.
Just to be clear, Plumās revenue is the Ā£1 fee only. The 0.15% fee is passed on to the customer at cost which is explained on their site.
They send an alert As always, users need to DYOR and due diligence. Most of the time the info is all there if one only took a little time to look for it, but as we know the average person may not do this for whatever reason. To those of us on forums, itās obvious to read the info on websites, read the blogs and skim read Terms & Conditions, but to others they donāt even think to do these basics which baffles but doesnāt surprise me. There must be shared onus on the individual as well as the provider; thereās only so much companies can do.
Thank you for the heads up, Iām aware of Plumās fees and itās definitely something I will keep in mind if I decide to stick with them.
So far the fees havenāt outbalanced my investments. Even with some negative earnings (the last few months havenāt been the best for the stock market, have they?), I still see a growing balance that I wouldnāt even have saved otherwise, let alone invested.
You could argue that I could still use Plum for automated saving, then move the money elsewhere. You mention Vanguard funds, which is exactly what Plum offer among others ā I agree it would make perfect sense to cut out the middleman. For now, however, I like the simplicity of the process and I commend them for making investing so approachable to beginners.
I did read @nikimukhiās guide, in fact I wouldnāt miss an opportunity to thank them yet again for the brilliant effort and generosity in sharing their knowledge
Plum briefly managed to overtake Monzo in the iOS AppStore and has maintained a top 10 ranking for a few weeks now:
Is anyone else making use of Plum?
I joined a couple of months ago and was thinking it was a bit lacking in features, but Iāve since discovered that there are 2 paid tiers, Ā£1 per month gives you access to the investments feature, whereas Ā£2 a month gives you investments plus other saving features (52 week challenge, rainy day and who knows what else) plus āpotsā.
Iām not keen on spending that, when I could get investments for free(ish) via Wombat or savings features/pots free via Chip. Am I just the wrong fit for Plum, or am I just too cheap for this kind of thing?
Iām using Plum after a recommendation from @gmclean
I use it for a small bit of investing but mainly as way to try and save without thinking about it. It fits quite nicely alongside my Monzo IFTTT integrations to help me save without realising.
I like the fact that every week it works out what it thinks I can afford to put aside and it seems to learn as well. I then use one of their splitters to cipher off a bit of each savings into their investment funds.
Itās a nice simple easy way to save and invest without doing anything at all.
I think how useful it is depends how useful it is on how you manage your money, I donāt have the most willpower when it comes to budgeting so Monzo and Plum help me to save because i donāt need to think about it nor see it, when I manually save I always know itās there and how much so if i need it I take it, however IFTTT & Plum work on their own which allows me save with no brainpower at all, as well as that theyāre not visible every time i open my banking app which allows me to forget the savings exists which in turn stops me from relying on it as much.
Plum is hidden in a folder on my home screen with all notifications turned off, it works well for me that way, I donāt remember the last time i opened it.
Thank you @Addzy, thatās a great reply. Perhaps I was expecting too much from it, whereas if I just look at it as more of a savings tool and nothing more itās doing exactly what itās meant to do. Iād avoided the investment side because I donāt think Iām putting enough away to justify it, but perhaps Iāll give it another go.
Iāll also consider doing as youāve done and hiding it from view, as me checking the app so frequently doesnāt help mattersā¦!!
Is Plum still only usable via Facebook Messenger or has that been removed now/
Itās an app now. I donāt know if you can still use the FB Messenger part.