If you are thinking of moving your self-invested personal pension, we’ve put together a list of which SIPP providers are offering the best transfer cashback offers and deals that could cover exit costs or give you a top-up bonus when you move your SIPP to a different provider.
What are SIPP and pension transfer cash-back offers?
SIPP providers are constantly battling for the best clients, and many will be willing to offer attractive cashback options for people who transfer their SIPPs.
We have listed below some of the best SIPP transfer offers on the market at the moment. You can also view our SIPP provider comparison page for more information on pricing, investment options and our reviews.
It’s worth noting as well that the FCA only allows affiliates to feature a single offer by a provider so it’s worth checking their websites directly for the most up-to-date information.
Latest SIPP/pension transfer cashback offers
Several of the leading providers regularly offer deals on their pensions, including:
- Interactive Investor – £200 in cash back
- AJ Bell – up to £500 cashback to cover exit fees
- Bestinvest – up to £500 cover of exit fees
- Hargreaves Lansdown – no current offer
Interactive Investor
When you open an ii SIPP and fund it with £15,000 or more, Interactive Investor will give you £200 cashback. This is one of the only real SIPP cash back offers as the others on the market are just to cover exit fees. You only have until the 30th of April to apply for this and you get the cashback after 12 months.
AJ Bell
AJ Bell has a page dedicated to its special offers. They will pay up to £500 cashback for anyone transferring a SIPP, ISA or dealing account to them. They will pay £35 per investment moved and up to £100 general exit fees up to an overall maximum of £500 per person. However, it’s worth noting that this is to cover exit costs and is not a bonus.
Bestinvest
Bestinvest will cover up to £500 in exit fees applied by your existing SIPP provider if the value of the SIPP is over £50,000.
Hargreaves Lansdown
Hargreaves Lansdown does offer SIPP special offers from time to time so we have included it in this list. The last HL SIPP offer was back in 2019 it was offering cashback of up to £500 for any SIPPS opened that summer. We will updated this when the next offer is announced.
Should you switch SIPP providers?
Self-invested pension transfers can take a long time. Fortunately, plenty of providers offer cashback and special incentives to those who want to switch.
This is because maximising your pension pot can often be improved with a switch to a new, better performing provider. According to a recent study from Which, switching to a self-invested pension could save more than £20,000 in the run-up to retirement.
The idea of switching becomes even more attractive when you consider how many special offers leading providers have put in place to attract switches. From cashback to temporary discounts, switching your pension could offer all sorts of benefits.
However, you should be very careful before moving your pension to a SIPP as private or corporate pensions come with benefits that self-invested personal pensions cannot match. If you are considering transferring a pension into a SIPP you must talk to an independent financial advisor beforehand.
You should also not just switch because of a cashback offer, you should see the cashback offer as a bonus for switching, not the only reason. Specifically, if you actively manage your SIPP, as you may find the new provider does not offer the same market access as your existing one.
Also, all providers charge differently for SIPP. For example, Interactive Investors, charge a flat fee, so no matter the value of your SIPP, your fees will be the same. If you were to switch from ii, to Hargreaves Lansdown, where charges are scaled all the way up to £2m for funds, you could end up paying more over time.
The other thing to consider is if you want to give your children a head start on their retirement with a Junior SIPP. Interactive Investor for example, does not offer Junior self-invested personal pensions, where as HL does, so if you were considering moving from HL to II, it would mean managing accounts at two separate providers.
- Related guide: How to start a private pension
How to choose SIPP cashback offers
Each of these looks attractive, but it is important to understand the detail before you commit to a switch. You should consider cashback offers against the overall price of the pension carefully. For example, providers have historically masked higher annual fees when compared to competitors with attractive cashback offers. In other words, they are using your money from high fees to pay for their special offer. Suddenly things don’t look so rosy.
Others place limits. Cashback may rise and fall depending on how much you’re putting in. You might have to transfer quite a large amount to get the full value of the cashback offer. Others will only cover a certain amount.
Special offers on SIPPs, therefore, can be great, but they don’t tell the whole story. When choosing a SIPP always look at all the features and their fees before you decide whether to take the plunge.
When making the decision, you need to make sure you understand all the cost implications. Some of these deals are not actually cashbacks but come with higher-than-normal fees. In other words, they are using your money to fund your own cashback and hoping you won’t notice. The fact that they feel the need to pay you to make a transfer may also say something about the underlying quality of their SIPP. Sometimes it’s worth looking at SIPP provider that do not offer special offers, as the service and quality of the product are the only incentive customers need to sign up.
Should you use a SIPP transfer cashback offer?
New providers will often say they will cover you for ‘up to’ a certain amount, so you need to look beyond the headline figure and see how much they will really give you. Check this carefully, if the cashback offer isn’t enough to cover any costs associated with moving your account away from your existing provider you will need to consider if this provider still offers the best deal for you.
It’s a balancing act. On the one hand you must calculate the full extent of the exit fees you could be facing and on the other you should make sure you read the small print of any SIPP transfer offer. Make sure you understand all the features of the SIPP and its fees. Only then will you be able to decide whether it really is worth making the change.
Ultimately, you will be better off in the long term paying low annual fees for SIPP management and earning the best returns, over a gaining a £250 cashback offer now but paying more for your SIPP for the next 20 years.
SIPP transfers can be difficult, expensive and time-consuming but our comparison can make it easier to choose the best SIPP provider for your account.
Final thoughts: Are SIPP cashback offers worth it?
I’d say generally no. You shouldn’t switch your SIPP from one provider to another just to get the cashback as overall pricing structures and the time and effort can eat into any reward. However, if you are going to switch your SIPP anyway, it’s always worth ensuring you do it in a way that qualifies you for the cashback to make more of your money.
Richard is the founder of the Good Money Guide (formerly Good Broker Guide), one of the original investment comparison sites established in 2015. With a career spanning two decades as a broker, he brings extensive expertise and knowledge to the financial landscape.
Having worked as a broker at Investors Intelligence and a multi-asset derivatives broker at MF Global (Man Financial), Richard has acquired substantial experience in the industry. His career began as a private client stockbroker at Walker Crips and Phillip Securities (now King and Shaxson), following internships on the NYMEX oil trading floor in New York and London IPE in 2001 and 2000.
Richard’s contributions and expertise have been recognized by respected publications such as BusinessInsider, Yahoo Finance, BusinessNews.org.uk, Master Investor, Wealth Briefing, iNews, and The FT, among many others.
Under Richard’s leadership, the Good Money Guide has evolved into a valuable destination for comprehensive information and expert guidance, specialising in trading, investment, and currency exchange. His commitment to delivering high-quality insights has solidified the Good Money Guide’s standing as a well-respected resource for both customers and industry colleagues.
