How and why I closed my Spaceship account

Spaceship was a great way for me to start investing, but my understanding of the market outgrew what Spaceship could provide. As a result, I decided last week to withdraw my funds and close my account. Below are a few points which might be of interest.

Setup my account with Spaceship

When setting up my account, I had to enter my banking details which to be honest I didn’t really like, but I went with the flow and assumed it was OK. I’ve now decided to reset my banking usernames and passwords just in case.

Changing my linked bank accounts

The app makes it really easy to change your banking accounts, however they do not really simply tell you that if you then want to withdraw funds you have to have your old and new bank accounts verified. So make sure you keep copies of your old banking statements if you close an account.

Withdrawing funds

So I had originally decided to withdraw half of the funds in my account, however as mentioned above, as I had recently changed my linked accounts, the withdrawal was rejected. A support person emailed me saying that it was rejected because they require photo ID, a copy of my old bank statement and a copy of my new bank statement. To me this information is quite personal and sensitive, as a result I asked the support person for a way to submit this information securely…. they told me that I had to send it via email. This was a bit of a red flag to me. As a result I decided to hold off on the withdrawal and think about things further.

Making a decision

After thinking further about how Spaceship Voyager decides their unit prices and publishes their information, I came to the conclusion that there really wasn’t much in the way of transparency (i.e. not listed on the ASX). It was for this reason and the fact that they asked me to submit sensitive information via email, that I decided to part ways with Spaceship.

Closing my account

The process for closing my account was quite simplistic in the end. I emailed their support email account from my personal email with a request to withdraw and close my account. I provided a copy of my photo ID, previous bank account and current bank account statements (luckily I had copies of these as the previous account had actually been closed). I wasn’t overly happy in sending a copy of my photo ID. I then received an email within a few hours acknowledging my request. Almost immediately, when attempting to logon to the app, it shutdown and reverted back to the ‘account setup’ screen. After a couple of days the withdrawal amount was transferred to my preferred bank account.

Final thoughts

I did ultimately make money with Spaceship Voyager whilst my funds were under management with them, however ultimately, for me I have decided to move some of my investments to ETFs. I believe these are more transparent, secure and have a more universal appeal. I do agree that microinvesting apps probably have a place at the start of a person’s investment journey, and for me it was a great learning experience which made me look further into the investing options available to me. Overall a positive one, however it’s likely I won’t return to Spaceship, and will start investing in ETFs much similar to the rest of the FIRE community.