WhiskyInvestDirect Reviews 

282
TrustScore 3 out of 5

3.0

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Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Very deceptive, valuations are often 2 or 3 times what any buyers are offering. Substantial fees accrue while one waits for an upturn in prices which may never come.

Company replied

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

I have been using the platform for a number of years now. In the beginning it worked well. I could buy and also sell my Whisky. But as of late the liquidity on the platform has dried up and I have bee... See more

Company replied

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Do not invest through this platform - highly misleading and you are highly likely to lose a lot of money. ‘Valuations’ that are provided by whiskey direct in no way reflect even the midpoint... See more

Company replied

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Within minutes you can invest in 1 litre of spirit, or 1000 litres of aged single malt. This is a trustworthy, well thought out company, with a well executed website and efficient, helpful staff. Inve... See more

Company details

  1. Investment Service
  2. Alternative Financial Service
  3. Asset Manager Service
  4. Investment Company
  5. Non-Bank Financial Service

About WhiskyInvestDirect

Written by the company

See live buy & sell prices of all our maturing Scotch whiskies - no personal details required.

Everyone can review all historical prices for each of the 220+ maturing Scotch whiskies available to buy and sell on WhiskyInvestDirect.

We also publish all the prices paid and returns made when Whisky industry bidders purchase large volumes of maturing Scotch via our Bulk Trade Bid process.

WhiskyInvestDirect is the only whisky business that publishes an Audit online. It proves that your whisky and currency are where they should be in full every time the audit is published.

WhiskyInvestDirect is supplied by many of the top Scotch distilling companies including Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Distell, Beam Suntory and Whyte & Mackay.

WhiskyInvestDirect

Written by the company

Enabling private investors to access the good returns from whisky maturation since 2015.
Private investors can now access the maturing Scotch whisky market. You can buy & sell single malt & grain whisky stored in the distiller's bonded warehouse. Our users buy and sell 24/7 using our live order board and once they have sold their funds are available to withdrawal instantly.

Contact info

3.0

Average

TrustScore 3 out of 5

282 reviews

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3.0

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(282)

28 reviews in the last 12 months

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Rated 5 out of 5 stars

We cannot recommend them highly enough!

The website is very user-friendly and the whole concept of the whisky investment platform is a sound one. We like investing in tangible assets that are fully insured and completely safe. We can buy or sell as much or as little whisky as we want, at any time, on their live order board. There is great clarity in the way one can see one's balance/orders etc. We have done very well with them over the years and cannot recommend them highly enough.

September 10, 2024
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

the trading platform is easy to use

the trading platform is easy to use ( good help functions ) , I like that for pre-orders the price is fixed even if demand is higher than available LPA's. The email notificatons and communication is very professional and convenient

August 15, 2024
Rated 3 out of 5 stars

Does the job but awful user experience and support

Platform as an investment tool does the job, hence the 2 stars.

The platform itself is very old school and not user friendly. Customer support is slow and not very useful. I have been trying to make some important changes in my account for more than a month now and they stopped responding after a while.

June 28, 2024
Unprompted review
WhiskyInvestDirect logo

Reply from WhiskyInvestDirect

Dear A. Nikolov

We appreciate your feedback on the platform's usability.

When dealing with account changes, we must follow specific processes that comply with the Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering Regulations. Depending on the client's specific circumstances, these can be complicated and time consuming.

It is vital that we follow exacting procedures to protect the safety of our clients and their investments whilst also adhering to our legal obligations.

We are sorry that you feel that we had stopped responding to you, we were simply waiting for the compliance team to complete the due diligence on your account.

We will update you as soon as this process has been completed, but we expect this to be completed in the next few days.

If you require further help or any clarification or requirements, please contact us via the channels listed below.

Kind regards,

The WhiskyInvestDirect Team

Email: support@whiskyinvestdirect.com

Phone: UK and International: +44 (0)20 8600 0135

Opening Hours: 9am to 5:30pm (UK), Monday to Friday

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Update 240526

Sold some whisky for a profit.
Easy execution and transfer of money to bank account. No fuss.
With regards to CGT consideration the bookcost table csv file for history is extremely helpful.

Generally very happy!

May 26, 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

5 Stars all the way

5 Stars all the way ! I just wish They also offer Wine Trading. No one is better than them from my experience. Also, customer service is incredible, fast, and responsive.

January 31, 2024
Rated 3 out of 5 stars

Not for small investments

This platform is definitely not for small investments but a good opportunity for investing med to high budget in whisky. Minimum withdrawal amount is £60 and for less you should contact customer support. Late validation penalty fee is £20 although is refundable when validated. Cost of storage of £0.208 per LPA per annum. Quite good for the market but a bit hard for low budget newbies. Bulk Trade Bids and pre-ordering are available when your lines are elected for a bulk trade bid. Scarse available whisky for trading so better make a good research. Not all pages are mobile friendly but quite good on desktop. Costs and transactions are transparent but you should read the docs.

January 31, 2024
Unprompted review
WhiskyInvestDirect logo

Reply from WhiskyInvestDirect

Dear Carlos Uribe
Regarding your previous points:

There is no minimum withdrawal, but automated withdrawals require a minimum of £60. If you need to withdraw less than £60, please contact our team directly to arrange the withdrawal.

Late validation: Our website clearly states that validation is required within two weeks of funding your account. We require validation for two reasons: legal and practical.

Legally, WhiskyInvestDirect must establish the identity of its customers. Practically, both WhiskyInvestDirect and you are safer when we agree on the repayment destination of your funds in advance. This is important for when you eventually sell your whisky and withdraw your money.

In order to encourage clients to complete the validation process, we may charge a late validation fee. However, we will typically refund this fee upon validation.

www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/help/verify-identity.html


Custody Fees:

Your monthly storage fees cover the cost of storing and insuring your maturing whisky. We've seen an increase in storage costs charged by our warehouse partners due to the high demand for warehousing space. As a result, we've decided to increase our custody fees to align with these costs.

The cost per LPA per annum is £0.208, which monthly equates to £0.0173 per LPA and is subject to a minimum storage charge of £3.00 per month when your total holdings are below 173 LPA. Whisky can be easily purchased through the order board, where there is ample stock. We believe our fees for storage and custody remain excellent value. As always, we intend to be fully transparent, and we have provided some analysis on how this may affect your investment going forward.

www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/about-whisky/whisky-investment-previous-years

BTB's and pre-orders:

In 2023 our clients accepted 128 Bulk Trade Bids from the Scotch whisky Industry accounting for 2.9m LPA (Litres of Prue Alcohol)

www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/about-whisky/bulk-trade-bids

If you haven't received any information on bulk trade bids, it could be due to the email being filtered to your junk mail folder, you not being subscribed to emails, or your lines not being elected for a bulk trade bid yet.

Regarding pre-orders, there have been multiple pre-orders over the last 6 months and in 2023 alone 1.96m LPA were launched onto the platform . . If you haven't received any notification about them, it is for the same reasons mentioned above.

However, if you miss a pre-order, you can still trade on the live order board, available through the link below. You will see that there is an abundance of availability. Please be aware that when you see lines displayed under the "sold out stock line" on the order board, it simply means that we 'WID' have sold out all of our holdings, and any whisky you buy will be from clients who are trading their own stock. However, this does not necessarily mean that there is no stock available for purchase.

www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/secure/market-order
If you have any questions, please contact us via the channels listed below.

Kind regards,

The WhiskyInvestDirect Team

Email: support@whiskyinvestdirect.com
Phone: UK and International: +44 (0)20 8600 0135
Opening Hours: 9am to 5:30pm (UK), Monday to Friday

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Too many investors for too little whisky

In contrast to about three or four years ago it is now not possible anymore to make significant investments, and with „significant“ I don‘t mean 5k or more. In any pre-order investment of the last two years I wasn‘t allocated more than 50LPA, which is ridiculous. There are just too many investors for too little whisky. WID should think about a solution to this problem.

December 12, 2023
WhiskyInvestDirect logo

Reply from WhiskyInvestDirect

Dear Bodo D,

We share and feel your frustration. We are well aware that we could sell 10x the quantity of new make spirit via our pre-orders than we are currently able to offer. We also understand that because of the returns seen by our users that it is disappointing when they cannot purchase all that they would like to, particularly to replenish their spirit sold back to the industry via bulk trade bids.

This two-way trading proves the value of our platform by enabling users to sell and profit from their maturing whisky and demonstrates to the Scotch industry that we are an excellent and reliable source of wholesale-priced maturing spirit.

We have covered in recent whisky news articles (https://www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/whisky-news/latest-whisky-news) that the wholesale Scotch whisky market has tightened, and distillers are unable to quickly increase their production to meet potential future demand. This means that although we have purchased approximately 1.5m LPA this year, we are unlikely to be able to source additional new fillings as quickly as we would like. However, whilst pre-order allocations are lower than we would like, we can see a rise in clients trading on the live order board, meaning that the opportunities to purchase more spirit have improved.

As you would expect, we are doing all that we can to secure additional maturing whisky for this year whilst working with distillers to increase our supply for subsequent years.

We would advise all users to update their communication preferences and opt-in to receive notifications of new stock lines, offers & news via email, as this is the best way to learn of the availability of new whiskies on the platform.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Excellent website, great resources

I have extensive investment experience in buy to let, shares and whisky invest direct. The whisky has been the most fun and most profitable. Its sometimes hard to find whisky to buy but so what persevere and spread your money around. I recently got the chance to buy a limited addition bottle offered to investors. I did and i drank the lot, it was lovely. Its not covered by FSA rules like cash at the bank but ive invested for years and am happy so far.

August 26, 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

The only platform to consider for investing in Scottish whisky

I have invested in whisky using this platform now for over a year and in my experience it beats hands down any of its competitors in this market. Anyone expecting the same level of price transparency and liquidity as more mainstream financial products is going to be sorely disappointed but whiskyinvestdirect is the best in this segment that's on offer by a country mile. Highly recommended for anyone who understands the unique characteristics of Scottish Whisky and wishes to invest in the process.

August 24, 2023
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Maybe a good trading platform but tools from the last century

The process of creating an account and transferring money feels like processing in the 1980s. You have to upload documents, they claim they don’t have the right screenshots, etc. Transfer of money from outside the UK is really painful as well.
The idea is great in general but the tools they have in place is just painful and very time consuming. It’s much easier to file your annual tax declaration in Germany…

August 5, 2023
Unprompted review
WhiskyInvestDirect logo

Reply from WhiskyInvestDirect

Dear Michael Völker,

Thank you for taking the time to review our service and we are sorry for any inconvenience you may have experienced whilst validating your account.

WhiskyInvestDirect abide to strict UK Anti-Money Laundering laws and our compliance team must follow these procedures. For clients using currency converters, like yourself, we have specific validation procedures due to them not being conventional bank accounts.

We endeavor to make these procedures as easy as possible for customers, by creating help pages like the ones below; however there are no shortcuts to these checks. These checks are not only to follow regulations but also to ensure the safety of your money.

www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/info/sending-funds-transferwise
www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/info/sending-funds-revolut
www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/info/currencyfair
www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/info/moneycorp
www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/info/moneycorp-japan
www.whiskyinvestdirect.com/info/paysera

If you have any questions, please contact us via the channels listed below.

Kind regards,

The WhiskyInvestDirect Team

Email: support@whiskyinvestdirect.com
Phone: UK and International: +44 (0)20 8600 0135
Opening Hours: 9am to 5:30pm (UK), Monday to Friday

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

A fun, and profitable, investment

I invested back in 2016 as a bit of fun and it has been one of my best performing investments over the years. It's easy and quick to withdraw funds and to sell on the live boards if you can't wait for a bulk bid to come in. All the bulk bids have been above the valuation which comes as a nice surprise.

It's obviously a shame that there isn't more whisky to invest in now, but I don't think that industry dynamics can be pinned on Whiskyinvestdirect.

All in all, very impressed.

May 1, 2023
Unprompted review

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