Anyone Using Interactive Investor?

[The Trade Winds]

I've opened a SIPP and bunged £20k lump sum into their Vanguard Life Strategy 60% Equity fund (and it's painful to see I've lost a grand in a little over a month :-( )

But the process of making contributions is painful - is anyone else having these issues?

I don't want to make regular contributions via direct debit as it's difficult to know where I'm going to be month to month in the current climate and prefer to contribute on a more ad hoc basis. Since I'm making employer's contributions from my limited, they won't let me use my company debit card so I have to do it by CHAPS and then print out an 8 page form, fill it in, scan it and send it back to them ( and normally some windows update has just screwed up comms with my printer). But invariably they don't seem to pick it up and tie it in with the payment I've made from my bank and I have to send it in again and this whole process takes around a week. Painful.

Just wondering if the other providers, e.g. HL make it so hard to make ad hoc employer contributions?

[Maslins]

I use them. Agree they don't make it easy for employer contributions. I've got a DD set up for it, last time I wanted to change it only option was to cancel the DD with my bank and submit a hefty newly completed form to II with all details again just to change the amount.

I can't comment on other providers...but can you not just set up a DD for an amount you think makes sense. If you have a bad couple of months, put some personal cash in to boost company coffers?

[Lance]

I've opened a SIPP and bunged £20k lump sum into their Vanguard Life Strategy 60% Equity fund (and it's painful to see I've lost a grand in a little over a month :-( )

But the process of making contributions is painful - is anyone else having these issues?

I don't want to make regular contributions via direct debit as it's difficult to know where I'm going to be month to month in the current climate and prefer to contribute on a more ad hoc basis. Since I'm making employer's contributions from my limited, they won't let me use my company debit card so I have to do it by CHAPS and then print out an 8 page form, fill it in, scan it and send it back to them ( and normally some windows update has just screwed up comms with my printer). But invariably they don't seem to pick it up and tie it in with the payment I've made from my bank and I have to send it in again and this whole process takes around a week. Painful.

Just wondering if the other providers, e.g. HL make it so hard to make ad hoc employer contributions?

The point of regular contributions is if the market dips you get more fund for the same cash. And as the market grows you get that money back and some more. If you have put one contribution into a SIPP and are upset that it dipped cos of a war, then a SIPP isn't for you I think.

As for painful. It's not as easy as HL I agree, but then again you pay less (well you don't with a £20k fund, but you will when it's bigger). So you have a choice. But you need to learn what investment is, and how it works.
I guess you've just followed the advice of people on here (II and Vanguard) without really understanding much more. All I can say is that our advice is worth what you have paid for it.

Get an IFA if you're concerned.

[The Trade Winds]

I use them. Agree they don't make it easy for employer contributions. I've got a DD set up for it, last time I wanted to change it only option was to cancel the DD with my bank and submit a hefty newly completed form to II with all details again just to change the amount.

I can't comment on other providers...but can you not just set up a DD for an amount you think makes sense. If you have a bad couple of months, put some personal cash in to boost company coffers?

Yes, that does make sense. £1k a month and top up with a lump sum at year end perhaps.

[The Trade Winds]

The point of regular contributions is if the market dips you get more fund for the same cash. And as the market grows you get that money back and some more. If you have put one contribution into a SIPP and are upset that it dipped cos of a war, then a SIPP isn't for you I think.

As for painful. It's not as easy as HL I agree, but then again you pay less (well you don't with a £20k fund, but you will when it's bigger). So you have a choice. But you need to learn what investment is, and how it works.
I guess you've just followed the advice of people on here (II and Vanguard) without really understanding much more. All I can say is that our advice is worth what you have paid for it.

Get an IFA if you're concerned.

The £20k was a one off - I'll be making contributions regularly as I know you need to buy into the dips.

As for an IFA - I just got rid of mine. I had been using Wealth Matters for years (as recommended by the PCG) but sadly their director had to retire due to bad health and they were taken over by another outfit who neglected to invest the contribution I'd made for the previous tax year - and I was paying them 1% on top of whatever fees the platform was charging.

[Fred Bloggs]

To make things easy as possible with II I had the SIPP contribution form on my computer as a pdf and each time I made a contribution I just edited the pdf to suit that day's contribution. The only fields that need editing are the date and the contribution amount if it's different to the last time.

I then made the bank transfer and immediately after that I sent a secure message to II from my SIPP account with the edited pdf attached. Perhaps not the slickest system in the world, but certainly not the most difficult.

The bank transfer usually shows in your SIPP account after around 3 working days. It is absolutely essential that you include the SIPP account number and surname as a reference on the bank transfer.

All in all, if you get organised it's pretty easy and entirely online. There's no wet signatures etc required, so a physical sign, print, scan is unnecessary.

[The Trade Winds]

To make things easy as possible with II I had the SIPP contribution form on my computer as a pdf and each time I made a contribution I just edited the pdf to suit that day's contribution. The only fields that need editing are the date and the contribution amount if it's different to the last time.

I then made the bank transfer and immediately after that I sent a secure message to II from my SIPP account with the edited pdf attached. Perhaps not the slickest system in the world, but certainly not the most difficult.

The bank transfer usually shows in your SIPP account after around 3 working days. It is absolutely essential that you include the SIPP account number and surname as a reference on the bank transfer.

All in all, if you get organised it's pretty easy and entirely online. There's no wet signatures etc required, so a physical sign, print, scan is unnecessary.

Out of interest, what do you use to edit the pdf?

[Lance]

Out of interest, what do you use to edit the pdf?

an iPad


or you could try https://bfy.tw/ReWD

[Fred Bloggs]

Out of interest, what do you use to edit the pdf?

Simple Adobe Reader does what I need. I use the comment function to place a text box(es) in the appropriate place. Set the text box border to white. Set the font to black and appropriate size. Then save the pdf. I save the pdf each time with a name like "II today's date.pdf". (I think it's obvious, but just in case, it's the text in the text box(es) that I edit each time the form is used).