What is Pearler Micro?
Pearler Micro is a
micro-investing
platform. It lets you invest small amounts at regular intervals, with the goal of growing your wealth over time.
Pearler Micro has been popular with first-time investors because it gives them a taste of share investing without a lot of the time and effort that goes into it. It operates as a managed fund that tracks popular ETFs on your behalf.
When investing, Pearler Micro investors have three options. They can
automatically invest
specified amounts at regular intervals; round up their purchases to put into their investments; or nominate an amount of their choosing.
The advantage of using Pearler Micro is that you can get started with as little as $5. This is considerably lower than most traditional shares investing brokers, where the minimum investment is usually $500.
How does it differ from Pearler Shares?
In contrast, Pearler Shares lets users invest in shares directly. With micro-investing, you don’t actually own the shares – you own units in a
managed fund
. When you invest in shares yourself, you retain ownership of them.
There’s also a broader choice of investment options on Pearler Shares, including individual shares, ETFs, and
US stock
.
In a nutshell, it’s much like other traditional brokerage platforms, such as
CommSec
and ANZ Share Investing.
You can check out our side-by-side comparison of Pearler Micro and Pearler Shares , and learn the differences between CHESS-sponsored investing and micro-investing .
Why would someone switch?
Many of our investors – particularly first-timers – use Pearler Micro as a means of testing the waters of investing.
After some time, though, they may feel confident enough to make the transition to fully-fledged shares and ETFs. At this point, they might decide to head over to Pearler Shares.
Investors with larger
investing amounts
may also opt to invest in shares due to the higher minimum requirement and larger option of shares and ETFs to invest in. Plus, it may be more lucrative to pay a one-off brokerage fee per transaction.
It’s worth noting here that you can actually retain your Pearler Micro account, even if you open a Pearler Shares one. For whatever reason, you might find that having both makes sense for your financial goals.
What to know about Pearler Shares investing
Before making the switch, there are a few things to know about investing via Pearler Shares. Here are some of the main considerations:
- The investing minimum is higher. As we mentioned earlier, there’s a minimum amount of $500 for every trade
- You’ll use a HIN. HIN stands for ‘Holder Identification Number’. It’s a unique number issued by the ASX when you become a client of a particular broker (i.e. us!). Your HIN is used to label the shares you own. Because it acts as a central register of sorts, it allows you to change brokers fairly easily
- There are brokerage fees. Every time you buy or sell your shares, you’ll be charged a brokerage fee. At Pearler, we charge a flat fee of $6.50 per trade if you’re buying or selling Australian or US shares, along with a currency conversion fee between AUD and USD. There are other pricing options too (such as $5.50 if you prepay), which you can find on Pearler’s pricing page
- There may be more paperwork involved. This is because traditional share investing is a little more complicated and typically has certain regulatory requirements, along with the need to document how you’d like to receive any dividend payments.
How can I switch from Pearler Micro to Pearler Shares?
Ready to get going? You can move from Pearler Micro to Pearler Shares in three easy steps.
-
Start with Pearler Shares.
Your first step is to set up a Pearler Shares account. You can do that by visiting
this page
. We’ll ask you a few questions and then get to work opening your account
-
Sell your Pearler Micro holdings.
You simply need to head to Pearler Micro, sell your holdings and wait for the funds to appear in your Primary AU Cash account. Keep in mind that this will trigger a
capital gains tax
. In this case, it may be wise to talk to a tax accountant to understand any implications of this sale.
- Start investing. Once your funds have cleared, you can use them to invest via Pearler Shares. Learn more about making your first trade . You’ll be able to access Pearler Shares
Remember, though, that you don’t necessarily have to choose between the two platforms. In fact, Pearler Micro and Pearler Shares can quite happily coexist within your broader portfolio.
Whichever you choose, best of luck on your investing journey!
All figures and data in this article were accurate at the time it was published. That said, financial markets, economic conditions and government policies can change quickly, so it's a good idea to double-check the latest info before making any decisions.
