Dear imutual members,
It is with great pleasure that I can announce the Cashback Investment Club is now formed and ready to accept new members! This post outlines the initial information you need to find out a little more about the Club and how to join.
What are investment clubs?
Generally speaking, investment clubs comprise a group of friends, neighbours or work colleagues who meet together on a regular basis, pooling their spare cash to buy and sell shares on the stock market.
What is the Cashback Investment Club (CIC)?
The CIC is a gathering of eligible imutual members (please see the Club's Rules for details) who would collectively like to do "something more interesting" with the cashback they earn via the imutual website. Too often this cashback is merely transferred to personal bank accounts and spent on the mundane day-to-day costs of living. The Club opens a new door to invest a minimum of £10 per quarter towards the Club's investments, on the stock market or otherwise, which will hopefully give a positive return over time.
How does the CIC work?
Traditional investment clubs involve members regularly meeting in person and generally knowing each other quite well. The CIC is an exciting new approach that takes the core idea of an investment club and applies it to the social networks concept. More specifically - it connects like-minded members of imutual who have a collective interest in making their cashback go a bit further and gives them the opportunity to pool their cashback as Club contributions to buy and sell shares on the stock market and a number of other potential investment options. As CIC members are dispersed throughout the UK the Club's discussions are held on imutual's forums. These discussions may be about potential investment opportunities, such as learning about investments in general, reporting financial research, formal voting on an investment decision or a number of other matters. All members will have the opportunity to learn and be part of the Club's decision making process, whether they be a seasoned investor or a total investment novice. Investment clubs are the breeding ground of future individual investors and are a great place to have fun, learn and hopefully make some money in the process.
How do I join the CIC?
If you would like to become a CIC member please use the new Cashback Investment Club option in the imutual redemption system to initiate your membership, subject to eligibility criteria (see the Club's Rules for more details). As a first step, we invite all new members to agree to the Club's
Rules and
Constitution and submit their first Club contribution. Secondly, we require all new members to download, print, complete and send a membership application form for Interactive Investor (ii). ii is the share trading platform we have selected for the Club. All CIC members need to become members of ii and be linked to the CIC account in order finalise legal obligations. ii requires each new member of its platform to prove their identity in order to meet obligations to the UK government in safeguarding against financial crimes, such as money laundering. As such, you are asked provide your:
- UK National Insurance Number
- Country of tax residence
- Tax Identification Number (Unique Taxpayer Reference or UTR - if UK resident)
If you do not have a UTR yet you may enter N/A on the form. However, any gains received from share Club membership should be reported as dividends on a Self-Assessment Tax Return, and as such you should register for this and obtain your UTR as part of that process.
New members must complete all but part 1 of the form and send the Club Chairman a message to complete the membership process. You will need to send the paper copy to the Chairman, including a first or second class letter post stamp in order for part 1 can be completed and sent on to ii.
The membership form can be found
here.
Once you have completed the form and have your stamps, please send a private message to me.
Once all the steps, above, are complete your membership can begin according to the terms set out in the Club Rules.
What if I have a question about the CIC?
We have just started a new forum thread for this - and your question can be about anything! We'll try and answer it as quickly as we can and as informatively as possible. We'll also begin building a sticky post CIC FAQ using the questions asked on this thread as a starting point. You can find the thread here:
Question and answer forum thread
On behalf of the Cashback Investment Club I look forward to you joining!
Andrew Kitchen
Chairman: Cashback Investment Club