The robo series – Moneybox

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We launched our robo-calculator a couple of weeks ago and now we’re kicking off our Robo Series, looking at the ins and outs of each one. This week we start with Moneybox, which we consider to be one of the best in the market.

About Moneybox

Its clean and captivating app is targeted at young Generation Xers and Millennials. It’s a particularly great little app for the Snapchat /Instagram generation who might never go near an investment product if left to their own devices (excuse the pun) because it can all be done through the app.

What’s more, it encourages a savings and investing ethic by rounding up card spending to the nearest pound and investing the difference. For example, if an investor spends £2.80 on a coffee, 30p is invested in their Moneybox account.

The extra pennies are barely noticeable and the small and regular amounts quickly mount up. Users can link as many cards or accounts as they like. Apart from using the round-up feature, users can also make one-off investments or set up a direct debit. The minimum investment is just £1.

Investments

Moneybox offers a broad range of products including ISAs, Junior ISAs, Lifetime ISAs and General Investment Accounts (GIAs) with a pension in the pipeline. But to keep things simple it provides access to just three portfolios, making it easy for even novice investors to choose the right investment. It recently added fixed-term deposit accounts.  All investments can be opened through the app, which is well-designed and very easy to use.

Investors can choose between three portfolios: cautious, balanced and adventurous. The underlying investments in each portfolio are a mixture of tracker funds by providers like BlackRock and Fidelity. Moneybox has also launched ethical versions of these portfolios which invest in companies with good environmental, social and governance practices, but they cost a bit more than the standard versions.

How much does it cost?

Moneybox’s fee is a £1 per month charge (waived for the first three months) and an annual charge of 0.45%. £1 a month doesn’t sound like much at all, but it does have an effect on smaller investments. For example, if you add the £1 monthly charge to the 0.45% charge on a £2,000 ISA, the charge goes from 0.45% to 1.05% (£21 a year). In addition to Moneybox’s fees, there are also the investment charges, which range between 0.12% to 0.30% a year.

Support and guidance

There are plenty of guides, videos and blog posts to help investors understand investing and encourage good investing behaviour. Financial advice isn’t available, but there is a good support section and investors can message questions through the app.

What else?

The app is easy to navigate and investors can easily navigate to how much they have invested and how their investments have performed from the landing screen. Moneybox members also get cheap deals from partner retailers. There are always plenty of offers, especially ones that are popular with millennials including subscription-based offers such as shaving kits, coffee and meal boxes (although arguably these might encourage them to spend…).

We give Moneybox a big, fat 5 rating. Click here to see more on Moneybox and here to run our calculator.