Products featured in this article are independently selected by This is Money’s specialist journalists. If you open an account using links which have an asterisk, This is Money will earn an affiliate commission. We do not allow this to affect our editorial independence.
Investors can get up to £5,000 from platforms Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor, with both running bumper cashback deals.
Customers could get up to £5,000 with Interactive Investor’s deal*, though they would have to transfer a whopping great £2million pension to an II Sipp to get this sum.
The deal ends on 31 January, so time is almost up for customers to nab the bonus.
Those transferring more normal-sized pension and investment pots could pick up cashback worth hundreds of pounds.
Meanwhile, Hargreaves Lansdown is offering up to £3,500 to customers* who transfer a £1million pension to a Sipp, or up to £1,000 when transferring investment accounts worth £80,000 or more.
We look at how much you could get and how the cashback deals compare.
Cashback battle: Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor are both offering cashback bonuses to investers who open or transfer to them
Interactive Investor
Interactive Investor launched its cashback deal for investors doing some new year sorting of their investments.
To get the cashback, investors much open or transfer funds to an Interactive Investor Isa, Sipp or general investment account before 31 January.
Interactive Investor’s Sipp deal starts at £100 cashback for investors depositing or transferring the minimum qualifying amount of £10,000. The cashback ramps up the more you deposit or transfer, increasing to £5,000 on amounts over £2million.
For the Isa and general investment account deal, the cashback ramps up from £100 on deposits or transfer value of £2,000, which is the minimum deposit, to £1,500 for values over £500,000.
See the table for how much cashback you could earn depending on the amount you put into the account.
> Find out more about Interactive Investor’s cashback deals*
| Deposit/transfer value | Cashback |
|---|---|
| £10,000 – £24,999 | £100 |
| £25,000 – £99,999 | £200 |
| £100,000 – £199,999 | £500 |
| £200,000 – £499,999 | £750 |
| £500,000 – £999,999 | £1,500 |
| £1,000,000 – £1,499,000 | £3,000 |
| £1,500,000 – £1,999,999 | £4,000 |
| £2,000,000+ | £5,000 |
| Deposit/transfer value | Cashback |
|---|---|
| £2,000 – £9,999 | £100 |
| £10,000 – £19,999 | £150 |
| £20,000 – £49,999 | £250 |
| £50,000 – £99,999 | £500 |
| £100,000 – £199,999 | £750 |
| £200,000 – £499,999 | £1,000 |
| £500,000+ | £1,500 |
Hargreaves Lansdown
Hargreaves Lansdown launched its biggest ever cashback deal before Christmas.
To qualify for the deal, customers need to register for the transfer cashback offer and apply by 29 February 2024.
If you are transferring a pension or Sipp, you could get up to £3,500 cashback when you transfer pensions worth £10,000 or more in total into a Hargreaves Lansdown Sipp or Drawdown Pension.
Transfers of between £10,000 and £29,999 will get £100 cashback, while transfers of £1million and above will get the maximum £3,500 cashback.
Investors can get up to £1,000 in cashback when transferring investment accounts* worth £4,000 or more into a HL Stocks and Shares Isa or a HL Fund and Share account.
Cash Isa transfers to a Stocks and Shares Isa also qualify for the deal, but the lodgement of share certificates does not qualify for cashback.
You can get £50 cashback for a transfer worth between £4,000 and £9,999 and the maximum £1,000 for a transfer worth £80,000 or more.
There is no Hargreaves Lansdown fee to transfer investments and the annual charge for holding investments is no more than 0.45 per cent, according to the platform.
Savers who register for the cashback offer and open a new Hargreaves Lansdown Active Savings* account before 31 January 2024 will also be able to get the cashback deal.
You need to add at least £5,000 of new money by debit card or Pay By Bank into a savings product within 60 days of opening the account to get up to £100 cashback depending on the amount added.
> Find out more about the Hargreaves Landown cashback deal*
| Transfer value | Cashback |
|---|---|
| £10,000 – £29,999 | £100 |
| £30,000 – £59,999 | £250 |
| £60,000 – £89,999 | £500 |
| £90,000 – £109,999 | £1,000 |
| £110,000 – £124,999 | £1,250 |
| £125,000 – £999,000 | £1,500 |
| £1million and above | £3,500 |
| Transfer value | Cashback |
|---|---|
| £4,000 – £9,999 | £50 |
| £10,000 – £19,999 | £100 |
| £20,000 – £39,999 | £150 |
| £40,000 – £59,999 | £300 |
| £60,000 – £79,999 | £500 |
| £80,000+ | £1,000 |
Is it worth switching for cashback?
The cashback sums on offer from both Interactive Investor and Hargreaves Lansdown are hefty, but you need to make sure the platform is right for you rather than just taking money to move. Read our guide to the best investment platforms.
If you have a big pension pot to transfer, the Interactive Investor cashback looks attractive – but as with any big decision like this, it is vital to do your due diligence.
Keep exit fees in mind. Your current pension provider may charge you exit fees if you look to leave or transfer your current pension.
If you later decide to move, there is no charge to transfer your account away from HL and Interactive Investor scrapped exit Sipp exit charges in 2018.
All pension investments gain and lose value over time, even ones that are invested in safe asset and investment classes.
You should remember that transferring pensions can take time and during this time you won’t be able to trade and may be exposed to fluctuations in the value of your pension.
This usually takes 2-4 weeks depending on your provider according to Hargreaves Lansdown.
Interactive Investor offers extra bonus for investors of £200 cashback to those who refer a friend or family member.
If you are worried about charges, Interactive Investor has flat-fee pricing rather than fees taken as a percentage of customers’ investments. This can work out better for investors with big pots.
On the flipside, Hargreaves Lansdown charges 0.45 per cent annually on investments, but crucially this is capped at £45 per year for investment trusts, ETFs and shares.
If you are switching to give your investments a cash bump, Hargreaves Lansdown’s cashback deal offers less cashback for the amount you deposit or transfer to an Isa or general investment account.
It is also capped at £80,000 so even if you have a bigger amount to transfer you won’t get more than £1,000 in cashback.
Hargreaves Lansdown also has a cashback offer for its cash platform, which Interactive Investor does not have.
Savers who register for the cashback offer and open a new Hargreaves Lansdown Active Savings* account before 31 January 2024 will be able to get the cashback deal.
You need to add at least £5,000 of new money by debit card or Pay By Bank into a savings product within 60 days of opening the account to get up to £100 cashback depending on the amount added.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.
