Mmm, yeah. Iāve been thinking this recently. When I started investing I tried to find a product similar to M1 Finance: auto investing, pies, etc. I couldnāt find it and went with Freetrade (and invested into Freetrade during two rounds). Itās a great app, customer service has been great too, and Iām able to do everything I want manually with a tracking spreadsheet.
Itās just that we now still donāt have those features, and even though I do understand my tracking spreadsheet () and can do everything manually, I find it takes some effort and yeah, Iād like to automate it.
Couple that with some other things that Trading212 offers making the switch is starting to look like a no-brainer: Free ISA and USA REITS like O and STOR most notably for me.
Iād prefer to stay with Freetrade, as Iād rather avoid the hassle of making the switch. However, I think itās more important to find the platform that fits with my approach to investing. At the moment Freetrade doesnāt tick those boxes anymore, while competition does, and ever since Freetrade has gone silent on US REITS and the long-term roadmap has been replaced with a really basic webpage I just donāt see why I should stay.
I havenāt decided yet, but I have started an account with Trading212 for the free ISA and the REITS. Iāll be starting my ISA there with just the REITS, and if Iām happy with their experience move everything over at some point.
I could live with Trading 212 UI/UX. What I canāt live with is Freetrade thinking that basic functions like limit orders should be a premium and severely restricting the stocks available not just to free users but ISA subscribers.
If I could have UK stocks as well as US and an ISA under Revolut Trading, I would dump Freetrade without a thought.
I do completely appreciate what youāre saying, if this was it from freetrade, the full product, I think theyād lose most of us from the lukewarm reaction. Give it a few weeks, wait til there are these āhundreds moreā stocks and ETFs, and lets hope to God SiPPs, pies etc, then compare.
This is like a lot of tech now, release half a product, avoid announcing specifics to help the competition, and hope to build hype over time. Personally I think they went too early and shouldāve allowed legacy holders to keep access to their plus stocks but whatever. Theyāre banking on the other broker forums being full of āwhy donāt you have these stocks which are all on FT,ā building word of mouth etc. Cautiously optimistic over here, no need to abandon ship quite yet.
Sadly, if it was only a few weeks you would think Freetrade would wait until they launch Plus.
I suspect youāre going to be in for a much longer wait and in the meantime potential customers will consider Freetrade and discount them in favour of their competitors.
They also need to get basics done like tax statements. Neither are SIPPs the magic bullet some here seem to think - they are still a relatively niche product.
Also, none of this is transferable to other markets.
Since the pension freedoms in 2015, allowing people to access their money from age 55, SIPPs have become popular for people investing for their retirement.
Itās likely that the bulk of AUM of the likes of HL and AJ Bell will be the millions (billions?) held in SIPPs, many from transferred company DC pension schemes or just investors taking advantage of tax relief to invest for their retirement.
Fees for SIPPs are generally higher than those for ISAs so Iām sure Freetrade will price accordingly (but hopefully competitively)
I pay Ā£12.99 but itās my main bank account. I was paying Ā£17 with Halifax before for their packaged account.
Donāt get me wrong, I like Freetrade. I just donāt think the functionality is there to justify the price. A long term beta test trial may entice users more, ie like Stake Black.
Another thing that bothers me is the 1D graphics delay.
Can I make a suggestion that you guys wave the first year Plus fees for anyone transferring in an ISA over Ā£5K? This is similar to what Wealthsimple are doing
I donāt think Freetrade wants to facilitate short selling, nor anything that implies the use of margin. Different companies, different DNAs, different approaches
Theyāre not all under plus. iShares, Vanguard, and Investec are all under the regular account. This seems to represent the large proportion of EFTs that most casual investors use.
How is 212 supposed to survive in the long term if not charging any fees and constantly adding new features? Iām happy as an investor that FT isnāt copying them
Simple question to make Freetrade think. How many of the investors in the last round would have invested if the Plus plans had been known?
I would certainly have thought twice myself - unfortunately, like Monzo I donāt believe the Plus plan and content is well enough thought out, there is little differentiator while adding cost and complexity to the offering. I wish Freetrade the best but as an investor in them, I have doubts and concerns about the Plus approach.
They seem to be doing fine off their CFD base currently, and are now loaning holdings out. I donāt like CFDs personally, but I believe their two pronged approach here is serving them well. Not putting choice functionality behind a paywall will also win them customers over Freetrade
I am completely disappointed by the Ā£10 monthly fee for Freetrade Plus! Talk about irony
I invested in Freetrade in the last round of funding, but am starting to wish I hadnāt as I would not done if Iād know about the Plus account and itās Ā£10 fee.
I use both Freetrade and Trading212, after starting investing using Freetrade I was a big fan of its ease of use. I then discovered Trading212 and like the fast interface, instant orders, live prices, price alerts, limit orders, FX impact, multiple watchlist, percentage returns and now Pies and AutoInvest.
I am a beta user of Trading212 and love that they are adding new features and are almost completely free, except for the spreads.
I sold all my holdings in Freetrade and moved to my Trading212 ISA, canāt see me coming back unless Freetrade makes significant improvements to its offering, sorry to say
I expected FreeTrade to implement Pieās similar to M1 finance with an auto-invest approach. Being able to create your own allocations and make single payments into percentage allocations. This feature actually puts Nutmeg and all the others out of business. AND, itās the single most essential feature for todayās investors.
Using FreeTrade takes up ALL my time right now. Not being able to pay into multiple ETFās and stocks in percentage formats makes the whole process too complicated and often impossible, due to different ETF prices and not being able to split Ā£200 into them.
Hopefully, they understand the value of this feature.
So Iāve finally made a decision, following a conversation with T212 theyāre in the process of adding the ITās I need (all of which were uploaded into Plus here), allowing me to transfer my ISA from HL to T212. Itās a no brainer now. Part of me is disappointed as like the FT product.
ā This feature actually puts Nutmeg and all the others out of businessā a bit an exaggeration. People using nutmeg just want to hand someone money and they make money for them, nothing wrong with that. Their core customers wonāt come to freetrade.
Investors are flocking to the lowest fee platform. T212 now mimics Nutmeg but you can do the same allocation for 4 times less the fees. That pretty much eliminates the use of Nutmeg.
) and can do everything manually, I find it takes some effort and yeah, Iād like to automate it.
