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$10 Referral Bonus for Referrer & Referee ($5 Min Investment within 14 Days of Sign up Required) @ Spaceship

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Spaceship has extended their signup bonus for another month.

Join over 200,000 customers investing in spaceship with double the normal referral bonus!

Note that referral codes need to be added to your account after you sign up (within 14 days of sign up). Use the referral randomiser to get a code. You MUST invest a minimum of $5 to receive the referral.

NOTE: Fees are changing from November 1st. They are going from free on a balance up to $5000 to $2.50 a month for any balance over $100. If you are serious about using the app, this is no problem, but if you were planning to have a small balance, then this may be an issue for you. See recent forum post for discussion. Personally, I have been using Spaceship enough that my fees are actually going to go down.

Performance of funds can be seen here: https://newwwie.net/ Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

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Referral: random (117)

$10 referral bonus for both referrer and referee

Referee must add a referral code and deposit a minimum of $5 within 14 days of sign up.

(Referrer must have deposited a minimum of $5.)

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closed Comments

  • +8

    Monthly fee $2.5…

    • +8

      The new fee structure caused me to cancel my Spaceship account yesterday. (Had less than $1k in it, and I would probably pay the same in fees as I would earn).

      • yep doing the same.

      • Same. Just withdrew. Good luck to em.

        • +2

          is withdraw all the amount enough? or have to contact them to cancel?

      • +1

        I'm going to close my account too but will wait and see if the stock market recovers a bit first.

        We've got until 1st Nov

    • I wonder if this will negatively drive the price down if it's an indexed fund.

      Does it work off the principle that more people buy, the higher the price goes up?

      • -8

        Yes it has dropped since the announcement. I will be withdrawing my money and cut my losses.

        • +1

          That's just a co-incidence mate.

      • +6

        That's not how Spaceship works.

      • +7

        That's not how managed funds work

        https://moneysmart.gov.au/managed-funds-and-etfs/choosing-a-… has an overview

        The value of the units in the fund will rise and fall with the value of the underlying asset

      • +1

        No the market is down and the assets in the portfolio has gone down, if more people join they will simply just buy more units.

  • +15

    I'll post my recent google play review here so that hopefully no one else gets stung with their excessive fees on low balance accounts:

    "The new fee structure negates average annual returns on smaller portfolios like mine, if you do not have a balance of over 2000 there is almost no point in using this app in my opinion. I will be moving my funds to vanguard immediately, they provide a much more reasonable fee structure. I feel sorry for all the users of spaceship who will not read the single email sent regarding the new change and won't realise their interest is about to be eaten with these new fees."

    • +12

      I got a big splash screen when opening up the app explaining the changes so I don’t think they’re hiding it.

      • +1

        I wrote the review after the email I recieved and went straight to their website which hadn't even been updated yet, that is probably not the case now though.

    • +1

      That is a fair point.

      I don't know why they made it no fee under $100. For users with amounts just over this, it does indeed seem that over time their accounts would slowly drain to $100 based off the fees. And then once it gets to $100, it will perpetually stay there. ie. if you eventually get to $102.50 in gains (based off capital growth of your $100), it will just drain it back to $100 again perpetually.

      They should have given several months notice for this change. People like me don't even get their emails as I blocked them as spam, so I would never have known about this. Let alone find out within a month.

      • Yep, it's pretty bad. The other thing I noticed when withdrawing my funds is that they do not cash out the immediate value, which is fine. But as it takes a few days to clear the withdrawal they inform you that if the value of your account drops between now and then, you will not receive all the funds. The issue I have is that there is no mention of whether you will receive extra if the fund goes up in that time, I would assume not which is dodgy.

        • +1

          Thanks, I was wondering about how this worked and whether it would take the current price or a random price in the future. It's not a great system at all and is not well communicated at all.

        • -3

          It does go up and thats how managed funds work.

          • -1

            @fiveferrari: Obviously yes, but if the fund goes down between you clicking "withdraw all funds" and the 2-4 days it takes to go through, they will debit the difference from the payout. Which is fine. However, if it goes up in that time it appears they will not credit you with the increase, which is shady in my opinion.

            • @Aoejunkie: From their additional information document :

              Exit price (the unit price paid when you withdraw your investment)
              Where we receive your request to withdraw your investment from the Fund:

              • before 5.00pm (Sydney time) on a Business Day, you’ll generally receive a unit price calculated as at the close of markets on that day;

              • after 5.00pm (Sydney time) on a Business Day, you’ll generally receive a unit price calculated as at the close of markets on the next Business Day.

              The Fund invests in companies listed on overseas stock markets. Because those markets typically close the following morning (Sydney time), the unit price for a Business Day is calculated after 11.00am (Sydney time) on the next Business Day. We do this to ensure that the unit price captures the market value of shares listed on overseas stock markets, as at the close of those markets.

              Its pretty clear that the account holder will receive the withdrawal based on unit price on processing day.

              Edit: add link to pdf

              • @nahkk: I think he means that the problem is because you choose to withdraw a certain amount and there's no "all" option. so if you have $1k and you withdraw $1k but by the time the withdrawal happens if your account has gone up to 1.1k, then you'll get $1k in your bank and $100 will remain in the app.

                • +1

                  @Aequitas: Oh right.

                  Yeah they should allow to input number of units to be sold.

  • Performance has been average lately too

    • +4

      Global equity markets have taken a hit lately.

      Expect VDHG to drop today too (ex-dividend date).

    • -1

      Stock market performance has been average

    • Yup the last year has been good in terms of performance because prices dropped due to COVID. I don't expect to see 20% plus yearly gains

  • -1

    Ive had a universe account with these guys for about 3 months now and its performance has been woeful. Granted there is a lot of uncertainty in the stock market right now but with the new fee structure, I'm unimpressed

    • +1

      since 26th march 2020 when I deposited 90% of my total deposits, I've made 92% extra. So I think it's done pretty good. Obviously it was a good time to invest, but they did relatively well. It's hard to do well if the market isn't going up. You have to look at the long term, but now in the long term they are taking so much in fees, it's not going to be worth it.

      Obviously I'll be taking all that out now because of the crazy new fees.
      30%pa fees are absolutely insane and I can't see any use for this app anymore. It used to be a good way to deposit small amounts of money for investing.

      • +1

        Likewise! I have been with them for a while now and I think it is time to exit

      • Can i ask where you are moving to?

        I just started with them recently and not sure what to do now with low balance

        • Not sure atm, I started with Raiz and then moved to spaceship when they introduced their fees, hopefully another micro investing app pops up but yeah my situation has changed now, so I can just put money into my offset account and then withdraw and put it into pocket once it reaches $1k

  • +11

    $2.5 a month is $30 p.a., so to stay on the existing management fee you'll need to have invested:

    • Universe & Earth: $30k and above ($30k*0.1%=$30)
    • Origin: $60k and above ($60k*0.05%=$30)

    Based on their historical returns, your minimum investment to cover the fees will have to be:

    • Universe @ 30.1% p.a.: >$100 (100/30.1*30=$100)
    • Earth @ 23.3% YTD: >$129
    • Origin @ 12.9% p.a.: >$233

    Also worth noting that you'll have to pay fees even if the portfolio made a loss in the month (e.g. Earth's return last month was -3.95%), which IMO is criminal.

    • The calculation/breakdown of the fees are helpful but there are always costs involved when investing in equities.

    • +2

      It's worth noting that the fees are tax-deductible, so for the vast majority of people ($40k-$120k income) the fees will actually only be $30 - ($30*0.352) = $20.25 a year.

      • +1

        You are flogging a dead horse…

      • That would be a complicated calculation though. My understanding is that you cannot explicitly claim any (investment/administration/brokerage) fees individually. You have to include it in your cost base.

        • Isn't the net effect still the same though?

          • @samyall: Depends on the individual circumstances (e.g. withdrawing in retirement). But for majority of people, you are correct.

        • +2

          My understanding is you can claim direct fees. These are direct fees - they show up on the spaceship annual tax statement as a fee. There is a place in your tax for deductions against managed fund income.
          https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Investments-and-assets/Ma…

          You can't claim indirect fees as they are accounted for already - and show up on annual tax statements as an adjustment to the cost base.
          You should of course get tax advice from an accountant not a random person on the internet.

          • +1

            @toniyellow: Thank you. I learned something new from your comment.

    • +2

      I don’t think there are any equity funds that don’t charge fees if the portfolio doesn’t achieve a positive return, so not sure if it’s fair holding that against it.

    • +3

      Also worth noting that you'll have to pay fees even if the portfolio made a loss in the month (e.g. Earth's return last month was -3.95%), which IMO is criminal.

      This is how equity markets work, mate. If you had bought any of index funds (VDHG, VAS) directly using a broker, you will still pay the fund management fees regardless of the performance. Same goes for your Super.

      • True - funds generally charge a management fee regardless of performance. I'm not holding it against Spaceship specifically, but the fund management industry standard of charging fees for poor perfomance.

  • +1

    Fees are still really low, but I understand where people are coming from taking money out where they have a small balance. I think their initial fee structure was in the too good to be true category, they couldn't possibly maintain that forever (same as all investment platforms).
    That said, while they probably like having a large user base, if a thousand people with a balance under $100 cash out they probably don't care that much, unless customers are consistently pumping more money through they aren't much value.

    • +1

      I'm annoyed and am going to withdraw the majority of my funds and leave $20 in SS out of spite.

    • 30% annual fees are insane, so their new fee structure is in the too bad to be believeable category

      • where are you seeing 30% annual fees?

        you mis-read something somewhere. It's $2.50 a month = $30 a year. Very different to 30% annual fees.

        • -3

          $30 a year on $100 balances = 30%

          • +9

            @Aequitas: That's not how you calculate the value of a fee.

            $30 a year on a $1,000,000 deposit = 0.003% ??

            You can't state 30% annual fee because the percentage is based on your balance.

            • +4

              @hippo2s: it's not my balance, with my balance it's actually a relatively reasonable fee (but still more than the previous zero). But I'm saying their structure makes no sense, because if you have a low balance of $100 then the fee works out to be 30% which just makes no sense, the fact that they chose to do a flat fee causes this problem, if they did 2% for balances between $100 and $1000 it'd make more sense. As the new fee stands at 30% for around $100 I can't recommend spaceship at all, considering thats who they were marketing towards when they started. Theyre supposed to be a micro investing app but I can no longer recommend it for that purpose. The idea was to invest small amounts of a few dollars every day/week/whatever and when you get to like $1k you could take it out and put it into pocket or $5k and then invest it into shares. If you try that now, $100 is not enough (though still more worth it with only a single fee of $2 for pocket) and also you can easily accidentally go over and get charged way more than you would've earned.

              If you want to put a large sum of money in (10k-30k+) then it's probably an ok choice. But its not a micro investment app any more which is the main problem, it's the opposite in fact, it benefits really large investments. I'll be taking out my money and for a few dollars I can invest it in pocket or specific shares or an etf (which charges a percentage, so actually makes sense for smaller investments) instead.

              • +1

                @Aequitas: ahhh… i get you now. Yeah… if this is the case then everyone's definition of 'micro' is different.

                To me this is a good things tho, i was an early adopter of Spaceship - my super was with them (tech, international stock heavy) so i survived the COVID crash much better than other funds. But there was always a but of worry of 'how legit are they', being a boutique fund. This change shows that the business model is moving up, becoming more established, want fewer investers but with larger wallets etc.

                TBH i'd much rather my micro investment with a trustworthy establishment that isn't going to be running at a loss, and eventually bankruptcy and take everyone's investment with it. So $2.50 a month for my definition of micro investment isn't too bad.

                The only thing i would say is maybe balance of over $100 is probably too low. maybe charge the fee for users over $5000 would be better.

      • +1

        Well not compared to the industry. Raze is similar from memory, while buying and selling individual stocks through a brokerage (online, physical, whatever) ends up much more expensive than this.

  • +6

    Not worth it because of the fees…

  • +8

    Probably gonna get negged, but playing devil's advocate…

    Those with small deposits, how much earnings were you expecting? like out of $100 deposit. even if you DOUBLE that say end of 12 months it's $200 (which is an amazing return) - end of the day… it earned $100, then CGT on top = $50 in the pocket. It's still pocket change.

    The older fee structure the fees were there anyway. Fees are built into EVERY investment products, most of them you might not even see as it's baked in. How else are you going to earn investment income without costs involved? Everyone wants a cut of the margin. I like that they're upfront and honest about this.

    Personally i love Spaceship, it's minimal paperwork, i invested $8000 7 months ago and recently withdrew (not bc of the fees) and it was $9100. that's pretty good returns.

    • Upvoted for your bravery
      Also, what paperwork? They pre-filled my tax return.

      • Thanks. By paperwork i mean opening an account. For most 'traditional' institutions there'd be pages and pages of paperwork to fill before they'll open you an account.

        And yeah, it was all automatic, data sharing to ATO. They also sent me a pile of statements of investment transactions when i moved my Super out. Timing feels right to move back in i think…now that bitcoin bubble is bursting…

    • +1

      I wouldn't see it as anything upfront or honest here though. That baked in cost u said will still be there. They just add this on top. Did u just assume they'd remove their "hidden" fee and replace it with this? I don't think so. They charge more because they can. Most people probably would just leave it there (some might not even realized about the changes).

    • Did you withdraw to time the market drop and hold cahs or just moved to other investments?

  • Raiz shares to go up given how many people are leaving?

    • raiz keeps bumping up their fees. spaceship is cheaper than raiz still

    • Raiz has been worse than Spaceship in terms of performance and Raiz also has a fixed fee per month so don't think we will see many people switching to Raiz.

  • +2

    Not a deal

    • Alot of the discussion here are about their new fee structure, not about the deal itself. I think ppl are voting it down based on their fee structure too.

      This has been an on-going deal, the bonus had started when they started…does that make this a deal? donno.

  • +3

    Bad timing on the announcement, my portfolio is down around 5% and I was already thinking I'd have more fun losing my own money…

  • +1

    Surprised they aren't giving higher referral bonus. Can imagine they'd desperately need new customers as the older ones are leaving in droves now.
    Or maybe they're hoping people wouldn't catch on to $2.5 fee per month because it0 costs less than a coffee?

  • +3

    Op, voting up for the link to https://newwwie.net/ - i had asked them to build something like this a couple of years ago! i guess they're not too keen to actually show their performance.

  • +7

    I'd prefer they dropped the marketing budget and referral bonus and put the extra $$$ into lowering the new fees!

    Anyway I would think the incentive to join/refer is much lower now than a week ago….

    Keep slamming them on social media/review sites/email and you never know they might have a rethink.

    • Unlikely, this could be their way of weeding out accounts with low balance that make no sense to them commercially.

  • yeah nahhh

  • +6

    People shouldn't get angry and just realized that the original Spaceship fee was too good to be true vs everything else out there and enjoyed it while it lasted. It might not suit you anymore, but I won't begrudge them for this.

    If you actually compared it to other thematic ETFs like NDQ then your break even point on fees is $7000 invested. If you compared it to other non index managed funds, which it was and not an ETF, the breakeven point is lower. And since Spaceship is now a flat fee, your values becomes better and better the more you invest.

    I imagine if the fees were this way from the start, we'll be praising it is the best deal from $7k up.

    • +4

      Is a $10 bonus a great deal for a $7k investment?
      Spaceship has gotten a lot of past praise, and deservedly so, for an excellent product.
      The current sentiment reflects the change in the low-level accessible value of this product.

  • +2

    $2.5 monthly fee isn't too bad but for me it's a good warning for how they move the goal posts. I'm leaving so I'm out before the next time they increase their fees. By that time the CGT would be even higher.

  • My small investment has lost about 4% since I signed up a few days ago. Not sure if I should pull out or stay in the fund now.

  • The upcoming fee change will make what was an excellent small investment fund into one that these investors should avoid.

  • I want to withdraw my investment, I was waiting for 12 months for the CGT discount but might cut my losses

    Do we just pay CGT on the return (profit?)

    • +3

      Yeah but don't forget to minus the fees.

      This is not financial advice, and I'm not an accountant

  • +1

    They should have introduced a very low fee for people below $5k and kep the 0.1 percent for people above $5k.

    Damn unwell researched approach.

    Who in their right mind would recommend a friend to this now with $2.50 fee unless they want to deposit $10k. 0.025 in fees which is more than double their original.

    This new fee structure favors the deeper pockets.

    Might just pull the pin as well.

    • Unfortunately, I don't think any investment product favours the little guys. It must be very cost in-effective to have accounts with small balances so I imagine all similar products will end up with similar fees once they need to start making a profit.

      • +1

        Win some and lose some.

        I've stopped my weekly deposits and will withdraw all money.

        Then consolidate all the money under my wifes account they can collect the one fee for managing twice the money.

  • So, I think I've left it too late to close my account.. I think they might charge the fee from Monday because it takes like 4 business days to withdraw the money! 😭

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