Abundance Investment Reviews

Last April I decided to invest in the Southwark Council Green Investment - I read the information, paid the money into Abundance and as far as I could see, ticked the right boxes. I was under the impression it had been put in the Southwark investment - then 6 months later I got an email telling me that my money was sitting in a 0% interest account with Abundance. I have now moved it into a similar investment and cannot see how it sat unused for so long. Not happy.

Very confusing application process. Went through many screens to start with, then had to be approved, of which there was no warning. Eventually transferred my cash but no receipt or confirmation email was received. On reentering the website I found it was deposited, but there no instructions as to what to do next. Eventually I worked it out, and I think I've completed the investment correctly. But the confirmation email doesn't have any details in it!

Abundance continues to offer an excellent, efficient online customer experience that enables me to invest in the causes that I care about.

I love how Abundance makes it easy and transparent for me to invest my savings into green projects that my local community is going to benefit from.

This is a very thorough process to make sure you understand the investment risks.

Simple to use platform for green investments. Never had any issues with it. Would recommend

Very professional and always happy to go through in detail how the investments are performing. Great way to invest and making the future greener.

I am generally a risk averse investor but have made a number of investments through Abundance over the last two years. The information that Abundance provides is straightforward, with a strong emphasis on making sure that investment risks are explained. I feel I am able to balance my wish to support sustainable projects against the risks associated with investing in this sector and outside conventional bank/building society savings.

It is pretty easy to invest in councils via the platform... choose an amount, from your ISA or general investment account and go. I like that the money is going into green projects. Some very reassuring questions to validate you understand the risks. I haven't had a bad experience (yet) with a council investment, and personally consider them safer than company investment. Obviously the returns are less flattering.

Every company on their platform is in default. Investments are restructured into worthless equity or warrants. If this had happened with one or two projects, it could be considered normal. But no. It's the majority. They are now offering council investment with a 4% return. But why, when the bank pays the same with our the massive risk that everything on their platform.

Have been with Abundance for years, as a mechanism for impact investing, rather than solely in pension funds. There have been a mix of investments, some of which are high risk, but potentially high impact. Some have failed, but others have paid out handsomely. Unfortunately the new platform seems to be much more clunky and unintuitive. Hopefully they will eventually sort it out. The tests that now seem to be required are more tedious when they seem to lose the result and send you back to square 1 (and you end up trying a different browser in hope of finding one that sticks).

Helping local councils deliver value through green energy solutions is an investment that gives me a warm feeling, like a hot morning shower straight from the sun.

Abundance, nowadays, categorises the types of loans you can make through its platform as being to companies or councils. This wasn’t always the case. Most of my investments were made before councils were added. In fact, there were disappointingly few offerings at the time - certainly not enough to diversify risk away from individual loans. Of those I selected, few have been satisfactory, many have defaulted and I’m likely to make an overall loss. For balance, I’d say some but not all of my loans might have been rated as high risk and the economic environment of recent years has likely had an adverse effect. But to have so many failures is still, I feel, unacceptable. Abundance might further reasonably point out that they are up front in highlighting risks (the FCA presumably requires them to be). But they’re less vocal about the significant brokerage fees they command and, unless you’re directly affected, you’ll struggle to find details of their failures. The cuddly looking website continues to attract investors hoping to profit in a socially responsible manner and, given their poor track record with companies, it may be that Abundance are quietly pivoting to councils. Trouble is the returns on council loans are bettered by many bank accounts, which also tend to have FSCS protection. Having noted the awful state of Birmingham City Council’s finances for example, I personally don’t trust Abundance council loans to be entirely trouble-free. In future, regardless of the type of loan, I’ll be avoiding Abundance Investment. I’ll also get any remaining invested funds out as soon as I can, if they ever become liquid.

Abundance have made the whole process very simple to invest in this important area for local government.

Tired concept used for green investments - I was excited about the green factor until seeing the rate of defaults and companies just taking abundance for a ride for free cash. Have lost about 30% of what I've put in due to defaults. Whatever I get back is now withdrawn to put to better use elsewhere.

Clear, challenging questions

Great way to invest, for returns and for helping manage the climate crisis through council investments

clear investment platform A great way to invest in councils and help communities deliver on their climate change targets whilst at the same time receiving a low risk return. Abundance Investment is a great platform for socially responsible investments and they help bring together great projects with a like-minded investment community.

I enjoy putting my money to work to help my community a nice simple way to feel like I am helping out. Thank you!