Apple Pay top ups šŸ

Freetrade Chat šŸ”„
21

Yes it does, once youā€™ve used up your Ā£1k allowance for Apple Pay, youā€™ll still be able to top up by bank transfer though :slight_smile:

1 Like
22

I donā€™t mean to look a gift horse in the mouth butā€¦is that a limitation youā€™re working towards eliminating? I could see a lot of people hitting that quite fastā€¦

4 Likes
23

Yes, I donā€™t really understand the point of all the development effort involved if thereā€™s a hard-cap of only Ā£1000, ever.
Was this feature intended just for new account openers to get some of their cash in the app straight away?
(And yet the cash still doesnā€™t appear instantly?)

3 Likes
24

Thanks.
Why is this capped at Ā£1,000?!
Is it some sort of Apple rule?!
Is that limit likely to change in the future?!

I never had an iPhone so I wouldnā€™t know.

Iā€™ve always been Android. But Iā€™ve never used Google Pay. If FT were to implement the possibility of topping up with Google Pay in the future, would a limitation like this also apply?!

1 Like
25

Itā€™s not an Apple limit. There isnā€™t a particular limit per transaction (thatā€™s up to the retailer). Certainly not a lifetime limit. A payment system that limited how much you could spend in your lifetime would be a bit useless :sweat_smile:

1 Like
26

I imagine itā€™s cost. Accepting card payments isnā€™t cheap

3 Likes
27

From what Iā€™ve gathered Apple Pay & Credit Card top-ups are to provide a great on-boarding journey.

Longer term itā€™s probably better to use Scheduled Payments, or Direct Debits ( when they available ), and for ad-hoc top-ups use Bank Transfers.

Iā€™d like to see some form of Open Banking Payment Initiation, I know TrueLayer has a 3rd-party Service to make this easier, itā€™s competitively priced with quick transfer, taking about 15 minutes.

1 Like
28

Weā€™ve decided to limit this to Ā£1,000 while we trial the feature.

The idea is that this will make it as easy as possible for people to get started & then once the initial sense of urgency to top up & start investing is over, slightly slower bank transfers / standing orders etc. will work fine.

But we may change the limits depending on how this is used :woman_scientist:

6 Likes
29

Weā€™ll be adding Google Pay in the future too :robot:

8 Likes
30

I see. People can start immediately with Apple Pay and then set regular bank transfers.
Iā€™ve set a regular monthly transfer from my bank account last week. All done.

3 Likes
31

A bit odd and confusing though to present people with a way to pay which is limited to Ā£1000 and is not linked to the way freetrade really want them to pay. If it has significant advantages perhaps it is worth it? Does this method mean the money appears immediately? If not whatā€™s the advantage over bank transfers (which you want everyone to use long term)?

Problems with the current system:

  • It takes days sometimes for payments to appear (weekends) and is totally opaque but presumably involves humans. Customers are used to faster payments or direct debits.
  • It doesnā€™t make it easy to set up recurring payments from your bank account
  • Long term setup canā€™t be done in app
  • You canā€™t choose what to invest in till you wait for money to appear

The payment system with awkward references and long unpredictable delays till business hours is the only big thing I really donā€™t like so far. Iā€™ve now set up a bank transfer so probably will notice it less, but it was the one really clunky bit of setup for me, and I wouldnā€™t want to be presented with a method on setup which isnā€™t the actual method used and will stop working at some point.

Sorry to be negative about a new feature but it doesnā€™t feel to me like it solves a problem I had or have, given the limits on use.

1 Like
32

Thereā€™s a couple more benefits that I havenā€™t mentioned:

  • payments will be processed over the weekend & in the evening
  • theyā€™ll be processed within 2 hours but potentially sooner

People who are already used to topping up their Freetrade accounts might not find this very beneficial, this is mainly intended to help newcomers get started as easily as possible.

5 Likes
33

Oh good thanks, if payments are at least faster (if not immediate) I can see the appeal for initial on boarding, then people can try out investing quickly.

1 Like
34

Just curious, how do you top up your other UK brokersā€™ accounts? Is that with faster payments?

35

Why is this problematic? Setting up a standing order is quick

1 Like
36

HL I did with card payment (immediate) and direct debit (can be edited online).

The faster payments mention was more to point out expectations around bank transfers - I expect money to arrive pretty much immediately when transferring to savings, and find the unpredictable delay and no weekends a little frustrating, esp. as I have to manually select investments.

37

Unless you are with HSBC and alike with their little calculators and 3000 pseudo-security questions :wink:

3 Likes
38

Donā€™t bank with HSBC then. Simples

:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

2 Likes
39

I can only guess that the difference is the trade off for not being exposed to higher fees which would have covered the costs of card payments. Maybe once Freetradeā€™s cash flow is positive, they will take quicker and more sustainable top up options into consideration in excess of Ā£1,000 via Apple Pay :slight_smile:

1 Like
40

I found it a bit fiddly with the ref and dislike the delays. Have you used go cardless? Iā€™d like to see something in one screen of the app more like:

  1. Choose your investment / hold on account
  2. Sort Code
  3. Account number

[ Invest Monthly ]

Then let you change that amount in the app.

I was waiting for the new tax year/isa to set up a monthly transfer so have been manually topping up, probably wonā€™t notice transfers much now. I do remember it felt clunky on first setup though compared to all the other steps.

2 Likes