Time moves fast when you’re a startup and we're always working to improve your experience with new products and features. This blog article discusses some changes we’re about to make.

Remember how we ran a bunch of surveys and interviews in 2021? We found that many of you were requesting “cheaper CHESS fees” and “smaller minimum parcels”.

Well, you asked and we listened.

I'm writing to outline our product and pricing roadmap for the next few weeks, with improvements that meet your top two requests. As an independent startup, we start with the best investor outcomes (for you), then balance those with building a sustainable business. That way, we can become a long-term force for good.

In the image above, we cover the headline stuff. Now, I'll move on to the detail.

TL;DR: The rest of this blog article uses more words than we’d normally throw at you, as we want to make sure you’re well informed of our product changes. It also gives you an idea of how much thought and work we've put into addressing your requests (as a start). There are a few links that will get you to the guts, so click ahead if you're not into the details.

As always, we need your feedback to improve, so let us know what you think of what we’ve outlined below.

Step 1: Prepay and save 33% from CHESS investments (from now)

Before we get to lowering prices overall (see step 2), we wanted to have a crack at solving the trading dilemma.

From a tech perspective, buying and selling are the same action, so artificially playing with buy vs sell pricing is like charging you more to sell when it takes no more effort on our part. But, if we are true to our mission of promoting long-term wealth building, then buying should be less of a burden than selling (emotionally and financially).

So, how do we achieve that?

Here's our first go: You can now prepay for your investments to lock in discounted brokerage prices with Pearler Credit.

As an introductory offer, if you buy $100 of Pearler Credit you get an additional $50 for your buys - free. That’s a 33% discount on current brokerage fees, reducing the cost from $9.50 to $6.33 per buy.

The kicker: this means when we drop our prices (wink) you'll get that same discount, but on the lower price! For example (double wink), if we dropped our standard pricing to $5.50 (just an example…) then your $100 in Pearler Credit would lock in your future buys at $3.67.

Pre-purchase and save 33%

If in a year's time we drop prices again, guess what? You get that same 33% discount on the Pearler Credit you have left. This means the price you pay will be even lower! You also won't have to worry about expiries as you have 10 years to use them…yep, that’s right.

That's years of simple and “cheap” investing; removing more hurdles so you can focus on earning, saving and achieving goals.

Just some not so fine print: This offer exists until we make good on Step 2; more on this below.

"Why prepay now and not just wait?"

Prepaying with Pearler Credit later down the track will typically give you a 20% discount whenever you buy. This offer is available to all future investors. For you - our original investors who've helped us get where we are today - we want to give you more.

So if you prepay between now and when prices drop, you lock in a 33% discount regardless of the future price, and get to pay the cheapest prices possible.

Pre-pay now and get that discount

Step 2: Lower prices for all (from early Feb)

We know this is a big one for you. There's lots happening in the investing & trading app space and we want to make sure that Pearler is good value for money. We also know that prepaying to get discounted buys for $6.33 isn't doing enough.

So it’s simple - we are dropping our prices. We’re currently figuring out the finer details, but sometime in early February you’ll be the first to know where we land. And we have a fairly good idea that we’ll land somewhere between $5.00 and $6.50.

Step 3: $100 minimum parcels (from mid Feb)

We’ve been working on some new tech with our friends and broker OpenMarkets and have figured out a way for you to buy and hold smaller share parcels for the long term. If you already buy more than $500 at a time then this one isn't so much for you, but maybe for someone you know who is just starting out on their investing journey.

We’ll soon share more details on how this will work.. For now though, we’re excited to confirm that you will be able to hold $100 parcels of an asset if you choose. This means your initial buy of any particular shares can be as small as $100.

Step 4: Invest micro amounts

More familiar with products like Raiz and Spaceship? We’ve got you covered with Pearler Micro. Invest in any combination of 8 simple funds that track popular ETFs. Start investing with as little as $5.

At prices of $1.70 per month to invest in one fundand $2.30 per month for multiple funds, we think it is Australia’s cheapest micro investing platform.

Why is Pearler launching a Micro fund?

We want everyone to become a confident long-term investor. Over time, that means having your own HIN and investing in sensible parcels in your own name. We also understand you need to start somewhere.

Pearler Micro gives a proper share investing experience, within the Pearler platform, so you can graduate from micro investing to buying your own shares sooner. We’ve started with a selection of 8 options based on the Pearler community's most-invested CHESS shares and will add more based on feedback and data.

And if you’re already investing in shares, Pearler Micro can be a place to squirrel away those leftovers, maybe for that holiday fund…

Step 5: Roundup your spare change

You won’t miss those few cents each time you buy coffee, bubble tea or even groceries, so why not round up your spare change to save as effortlessly as possible? More on this soon.

We’re also working on other fun ways to make saving a part of your everyday habits. Stay tuned!

Happy investing,

Hayden

At Pearler, we pride ourselves on the quality of the general financial advice we give. Please note though, that this advice has not been tailored for you. You have unique financial goals, circumstances and needs which may make this advice inappropriate, and it is important that you know whether it applies to you. If you are unsure we urge you to speak to someone you trust who is competent with money and understands your individual needs, whether they be a trusted friend or accredited professional.