Has anyone here used or knows if Money Box is reliable?

I love the idea of saving money every time you pay with contactless by Moneybox rounding up to the next pound and then saving the difference.

For example, if a coffee is £2.49, you pay with your phone and it'll take £3 from your account, putting the 51p difference into a savings pot. I think this part is brilliant.

What I'm uncomfortable with is what they do with that savings pot: invest it into 3 off-the-shelf tracker funds.

They don't explain upfront what those funds are nor who manages them. Their fees are 1.28% which is 50% more than if you did it yourself through Hargreaves Lansdowne (just set up a direct debit to Vanguard LifeStrategy) and more than Nutmeg, which is also a friendly to use (web-based) platform.

That the company hasn't been around for long is also high-risk. While I'm sure Moneybox is good, and that the team is great, it is still high-risk for an individual to invest their money into a company without administrative track record.

In my book Money's Big Secret, I explain how to automate your finances so that you can achieve something similar: a direct debit into diversified index funds. It works just in the same way as a gym membership: sign-up, put £50 a month in (or more), and let it grow.

I love the first part of Moneybox: save as you spend, I'm uncomfortable with them managing the second part. A better solution maybe would be if they allowed you to sync that money to a savings account (from which you can invest automatically) or partnered with a more long-standing investment company. Apologies in advance if I have not spotted you can do this already.