Plum Savings integration

**Anzo** · February 4, 2019, 8:51pm

Has anyone else had the chance to become a Plum Pal? What are the benefits?

If you’re looking to join Plum…

**christiaanb** · February 5, 2019, 10:42am

I just joined up to try the investment part of their platform. Not sure I like the Facebook Messenger interface. Rather just have a mobile app.

**Juggy69** · February 6, 2019, 10:22am

Wont install facebook or its messenger on any mobile device so Plum is dead to me

Investment using Freetrader

**simonf** · March 11, 2019, 1:13pm

Looks like an app is coming

**frankysnr** · March 11, 2019, 2:39pm

Amazing they’ve taken this long to be honest.

**lewisking** · March 11, 2019, 3:09pm

I believe someone I know is working on it!

**stefanocarlo** · March 15, 2019, 11:52pm

Great news, I’ve 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.

**Codf** · March 15, 2019, 11:53pm

Out of interest, why would you pick Plum over something else?

**stefanocarlo** · March 16, 2019, 1:08am

I like how savings are automated based on my spending and the money available in the bank, say if I’m 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 it’s too much or too little. I find the algorithm to be really good – it almost feels like it’s “free” money, so I don’t mind putting it all in relatively risky investments.

Also being a complete novice when it comes to investing, I find Plum’s 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, they’ve 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, I’d be more than happy to try them.

**Codf** · March 16, 2019, 9:31am

If investments are something you think you be doing long term. I’d highly recommend reading about how fees effect compound interest over the long term. Someone did a guide here a few months ago, I’ll 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. There’s no two ways of looking at it, that’s a lot!

I’d recommend reading up on a Vanguard Lifestrategy or Vanguard Global All Cap ETFs. If they meet your risk palate they’ve both proven to be good performing, resilient funds.

Edit, here’s the post: A lil' doc to help you understand savings and investment

**simonf** · March 16, 2019, 9:47am

There is a Facebook group for plum, a lot of people on there have small sums invested and aren’t actually making enough to cover the fee by the looks of it. I think plum could do a lot more to explain the fees.

**Codf** · March 16, 2019, 9:49am

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.

**Theodore** · March 16, 2019, 11:08am

Just to be clear, Plum’s revenue is the £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, it’s obvious to read the info on websites, read the blogs and skim read Terms & Conditions, but to others they don’t even think to do these basics which baffles but doesn’t surprise me. There must be shared onus on the individual as well as the provider; there’s only so much companies can do.

**stefanocarlo** · March 16, 2019, 12:00pm

Thank you for the heads up, I’m aware of Plum’s fees and it’s definitely something I will keep in mind if I decide to stick with them.

So far the fees haven’t outbalanced my investments. Even with some negative earnings (the last few months haven’t been the best for the stock market, have they?), I still see a growing balance that I wouldn’t 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 – 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 @nikimukhi’s guide, in fact I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to thank them yet again for the brilliant effort and generosity in sharing their knowledge