Interesting move from Wise.
They’re running a beta investment programme, UK only.
You can invest funds in pots in the MSCI World Index via Blackrock for a total 0.7% annual fee with the option of withdrawing up to 97% near instantly for no fee.
Seems pricey compared to eg Freetrade, but possibly a nice option for money just sat there
If I were to sign up to Wise, I should be able to test this out?
Not sure. I was invited to join the beta
I would have thought so, I only joined Wise a month ago (admittedly before they announced this), and the option is available in the app for me, so I assume it’s for all UK customers
So how does it work, you can choose whether to have a main balance or a jar in stocks? If its the main balance you can spend out of this?
This is just an option for pots.
Your funds in pots are held as cash, but now you can opt to switch the funds to “assets”, which currently means the world index - I’m assuming they’re planning to add more options.
Edit: sorry, not thinking straight. You hold balances in each currency. You can select whether to move from Cash to Assets for each currency. I use my euro and dollar balances like pots, so I was getting muddled. You can switch any currency balance to Assets.
So I’ve played with this a bit and decided it’s not for me.
Firstly, the fee is too high.
Then I don’t really understand the advantage to having an investment as a quasi cash balance.
It also seems wise hasn’t thought it through, because switching from Assets to Cash takes “up to 2 working days”, but I just used the debit card to withdraw 97% instantly and have left the 3% remaining to switch to cash. Hmm.