Review contents
&me makes saving and investing super simple – one of the best things you can do for your financial future. They work with M&G (a very large financial firm), whose experts handle everything and grow your money over time. There’s also consultants on hand to help you every step of the way. The fees are low, and the service is great. 5 stars from us.
&me is a new investment platform (a place to invest and grow your money) by the very large finance company who look after savings and investments, M&G. (They’re actually one of the largest companies in the UK.)
It’s intended to make investing and growing your money over time super easy, and it is! All you need to do is add your money, and the experts at M&G will handle everything, and aim to grow your money over time.
If you’re not sure who M&G are, they’re based in the UK, and have been around since 1901. They look after savings and investments of over £370 billion, and have lots of customers from around the world.
&me uses new technology to make it super simple to use – everything is managed on the &me website¹, and there’s an app on your phone too. Plus, there’s expert consultants on hand ready to help you make the right decisions (you have a few options to choose from) and help with any questions you might have. It’s the best of both worlds!
Let’s go into more detail and see if &me is right for you. If you already think it is, head over to the &me website¹ to learn more and get started. You’ll also get 3 month fee-free.
Yep! It’s perfect for beginners. You can’t go wrong – the experts handle everything for you. They’ll grow your money over time without you having to do a thing. Plus, they’re by your side, ready to help if you need them when you’re getting set up, or any time after!
It’s pretty low cost too, there’s just one simple fee – everything is included in the cost, you won’t pay for any help from the expert consultants. We’ll cover the fees later.
It's super transparent, and you’ll be able to see where your money is invested, and how your investments are performing, any time you like. Plus, you can ask the experts any questions you might have – so you can learn about investing too.
There’s just one thing that might make you hesitate as a beginner – you have to start with at least £500. If you haven’t quite saved this yet, check out Wealthify¹, you can start with just £1 – they’re great too, but you can always move your money over to &me when you save up £500.
Nuts About Money tip: it’s a great idea to set a regular monthly payment if you can – you’ll be surprised how quickly this can build up your savings.
If &me is for you, get 3 months fee-free if you sign up with Nuts About Money.
We all have different goals for our future, especially when it comes to our finances. What &me do first is determine what your goals are, and build an investment strategy to achieve that from a range of set investment options.
So, first, you’ll simply decide what your financial goals are. And these are simple things, such as saving for retirement, saving for a big purchase in the future, or perhaps saving for your kids future. Nothing overly complicated.
They’ll then determine how much risk you’d like to take with your money (don’t let the word risk put you off!). This simply means if you'd be comfortable with ups-and-downs over time as your money grows.
If there’s higher risk, there’s normally bigger ups-and-downs along the way, but over time, it should mean your money grows more. And with lower risk, there’s less ups-and-downs, but your money will likely grow slower.
Normally, if you’re young(ish), and not looking to spend your money anytime soon (5-10 years+), a higher risk option can be a good idea so your money grows more. And if you’re looking to spend your money soon (within a few years), a lower risk option is better suited for you.
Anyway, &me will determine the right option for you, based on a few simple questions.
Next you decide where your money is invested, there’s 2 options:
Classic: this is the ‘standard’ investment option, and covers a wide range of investments all suited to grow your money over time. It’s the cheaper option (more on fees later).
Targeted: with this option, there’s a bit more involvement from the experts, and they’ll review and make changes to the investments (potentially on a daily basis). The investments are also socially responsible, which means they have a positive impact on the environment and people across the world – which is also called ESG (environmental, social, governance). We're big fans of these here at Nuts About Money, saving for your future and the planet seems like a win-win for us.
By the way, you can change your investments whenever you like (called your portfolio). So, if your goals or plans change, it's not a problem.
What’s great about &me is that you’ll get advice from their experts as part of the service. They’re real people, who you can call on the phone for an informal, friendly chat (or video call) about your investment goals and how &me works. It’s pretty cool, and not very common with investment platforms.
They’re not just there when you first get started, you can call them any time (weekdays 9-6pm), to chat about any question you might have.
Learn more about expert consultants on the &me website¹.
With &me, there’s 3 main account options for yourself, and if you’re saving for your kids, there’s a special one too. Let’s run through them:
A personal pension is one of the best ways to save for your future and retirement.
Not only does your money grow tax-free, but you’ll get a massive 25% bonus from the government on everything you put in. How good is that?
You can save as much as your salary each year, or £60,000, whichever is lower.
The only downside is that you can’t access the money until you’re at least 55 (57 from 2028) – although it’s intended for retirement, so you shouldn’t need to access it before then.
A Stocks & Shares ISA is an awesome investment account where everything you make is completely tax-free, forever! This means if you keep adding to it over time, you will probably have a lot more money in the future.
You can save up to £20,000 per tax year (April 6th to April 5th the following year). However, you can only pay into 1 each year.
A General Investment Account is the ‘standard’ investment account, where there’s no tax-free benefits – so you might end up paying Capital Gains Tax if you make a large profit on your investments (when you sell).
However, don’t let this put you off. You’ll only pay tax on your profits, and only if they’re over £3,000. You’ll pay 10% if you’re a basic rate taxpayer (earn up to £50,270), or 20% if you’re a higher rate taxpayer (earn over £50,270).
They’re a great option if you’re just trying out a new platform (like &me), and you’re already using a Stocks & Shares ISA elsewhere. You can have as many of these accounts as you like, so you can use different investment platforms at the same time.
If you’re saving for your kids' future, a Junior ISA is the account for you. You can save up to £9,000 per year and everything you make is completely tax-free. This money is all theirs, and they’ll be able to access it when they turn 18.
So, experts handling everything for you, and are on hand for a chat whenever you need, plus manage your investments on their website and phone app, must be pretty expensive right?
Well, no! It’s all pretty reasonable. The fees are a lot lower than if you were using an independent financial advisor.
You’ll pay an annual management fee, which goes to &me, and then you’ll pay a fee on the investment themselves – which goes to the experts managing those. And as the experts buy-and-sell investments, there’s some small fees for that too. (You’ll likely pay all of these fees wherever you invest.)
All of the fees are a percentage of the total amount you have invested. It’s all automatically deducted from your money, you don’t need to actually pay out anything.
This is the main fee you’ll pay, and it starts at 0.75% and reduces with the more you have saved. So, let’s say you have £25,000 saved, your total fee would be 0.65%.
As your money is invested in investment funds, often called ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, which are groups of lots of different investments pooled together – and are all managed by experts, these have their own fees.
There’s different investments within the 2 investment options, and they have their own fees. (The targeted plan is socially responsible investments and more involvement from the experts.)
And as investments are bought and sold by the experts, there can be fees involved, which is sometimes called a spread fee, and these are around 0.04% per year. This only applies to the classic investment option.
So, with the classic investment option, you’ll be paying at most 0.99%, and this reduces with the more you have saved.
With the targeted investment option, you’ll pay at most 1.15%, and this also reduces with the more you have saved.
Overall the fees are pretty reasonable – you’ll likely not find an expert-managed investment platform much cheaper than that.
In fact, it’s the exact same fees and fee structure as the popular platform Moneyfarm¹, and similar to another popular platform Nutmeg (1.12%) – although &me (and Moneyfarm) become a lot cheaper on savings over £10,000, and fees keep reducing.
If we compare that with a financial advisor, where the average cost is 2.14% (FCA), it’s quite a bit cheaper – in fact around 1% cheaper (and then reduces further as you save more). That’s pretty impressive.
The customer support is pretty epic too. Not only are there expert consultants on hand to guide you through everything, there’s also a separate support team…
The support team can help you with any issues you might have setting up your account, or anything else not related to financial advice. And you can call them on the phone during the working week, from 9am to 6pm. And, you can email if you prefer – their response is usually pretty quick. There’s no live-chat unfortunately.
Yep! It’s perfectly safe to use &me.
&me is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This means they’ve been reviewed and approved to offer your investment services and trusted to look after your money.
It also means that you are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This means that you could get up to £85,000 back if something happens to &me, such as going out of business – however this is very unlikely as they’re part of M&G, one of the biggest financial companies in the UK.
But more than that, your investments are actually held separately to &me’s own money. Your money and investments are held with M&G, all in your name, and they can only be returned to you.
Let’s run through a quick recap and the pros and cons of &me.
We really like &me – they’re helping to simplify investing and saving. Investing for your future is one of the best financial decisions you can make, and highly recommended – with the right investment strategy your money can grow very large over time.
Having experts take care of everything is the best option for most people – you hardly need to lift a finger, just watch your money grow over time. &me work with the experts at M&G to grow your money – one of the biggest investment firms in the world – they know a thing or two about investing and have been doing it since 1901.
The website and app are also super easy to use, and will guide you through the process. And, there’s also consultants on hand to help you make the right decisions (from a few simple options) and offer any other help you might need – all for no extra charge.
The fees are low, and in-line with all the popular investment platform options, and reduce as you save more. It’s also cheaper than a financial advisor.
Overall, we highly recommend &me. It’s a big 5 stars from us. To learn more and get started, simply head over to the &me website¹. You’ll also get 3 month fee-free.
Yep! And it's a pretty good one. Sign up to &me and you'll get 3 months free (no annual management fee). All you need to do is get started on the &me website¹.
If &me is for you, get 3 months fee-free if you sign up with Nuts About Money.
If &me is for you, get 3 months fee-free if you sign up with Nuts About Money.
If &me is for you, get 3 months fee-free if you sign up with Nuts About Money.
This article was written by the team at Nuts About Money, and fact-checked by 2 independent reviewers. You’re in safe hands.
If &me is for you, get 3 months fee-free if you sign up with Nuts About Money.
