@olivug For a such a nice email in such conditions - I am sure the Financial Ombudsman would have something nice to say too.
Financial ombudsman would just see that you agreed to terms and conditions, which say there is a 5% carry fee, and say fair enough you owe CC 5%
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The wording is vague
Crowdcube’s success fee only applies to profits made on investments in businesses that opened to investment on or after the 1st of April 2021.
If it’s businesses then FT has been crowdfunding since 2016, if it’s campaigns, or rounds then it would be different. Or even investments made after 1st April 2021. CC picking April Fools day to roll out the 5% success fee hopefully suggests someone at CC has a sense of humour. Anyway, FOS might side with you…
The communication around is all dire though.
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Yeah I agree the wording is bad, and if it came down to a court case I don’t know who would win based on that wording
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Why is the in businesses part essential to that sentence?
Why not just say
Crowdcube’s success fee only applies to profits made on investments on or after the 1st of April 2021.
?
Why is the founder of FT saying something different to CC?
If it’s all clear then why are we having a huge discourse over this?
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This is the only issue to me, that FT and CC say different things. All the talk about what is fair etc is irrelevant. I am happy to pay 5% as I thought it was that but it really should be clear to all and that is pretty poor. 
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I think the intent is is to says the 5% applies to all investments after 1/04/21. But due to the ambiguous wording I think you’d have a decent case if you contested it.
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I have indicated my opinion before about the wording. And the therefore I see no special reason why the Financial Ombudsman would act in the way you suggest. Indeed the whole point of the going to the Financial Ombudsman is so that these things are sorted out.
The 5% success fee really disincentivises me from hoping that Freetrade do well before the IPO. Crowdcube would pick my pocket less if Freetrade grows as little as possible before the IPO and then does the majority of their growth once public.
That’s a bit twisted.
I’m going to sulk and not refer any more people. I’ll show them. Err… I think I’ve referred 3 people
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As I and many others have said above, several times, Freetrade opened to investment before 1 April.
Moreover read the message somewhere above in this thread from the CEO of FreeTrade. It is absolutely clear that there is a clarification being sought by him.
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Hi,
I have a few questions:
- I think I saw somewhere that this round is the first one open to EU
investors, so how was I able to invest last year (I am from Poland)? - I have bought 4 shares last August (2020), how much of this year’s shares is this equivalent of?
- When do you plan to do IPO?
- When do you plan to launch Freetrade in Poland
? - How long do I have to wait (after clicking request access on crowdcube) to be granted access to the restricted documents?
I think it meant EU based investors and not people from the EU as they mentioned the rules are different.
I think 4 shares is still the same as 4 shares.
IPO, your guess is as good as any-ones.
Same with launching in Poland.
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Picture the scenario where you want to hold onto your shares through IPO to potentially catch more upside and don’t have the funds to pay Crowdcube the 5% - not an unrealistic scenario at all.
Does Crowcube just keep sending you annoying reminders to pay or can they force you to liquidate like Elon and his Tax bill?
What a ridiculous thing to have to worry about at a happy moment when Freetrade is taking over the world. It needs to be clarified how it will be put into practice.
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Completely agree. We need clarification asap.
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Since FT does not use CC’s nominee structure.
Why not do all future rounds on Freetrade’s own app/web platform just like what BrewDog did in their previous round?
It’s an amazing achievement given that BrewDog is not a tech company per se.
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In my opinion, Poland should be one of the countries Freetrade targets sooner rather than later in their EU rollout.
Hopefully it happens in 2022 
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The irony of a bunch of guys investing in Stonks being upset about a company trying to make a profit 
I imagine if you dig into the CC T&C’s you will find it’s pretty watertight legally. Also, has anyone looked at what the alternative offer is? Seeders have charged a 5% for a long time now. It’s pretty much standard industry practice. Get upset about it if you like. Personally I would prefer not to hand over 5% but that’s the charge. If those are the terms then those are the terms. As I already said, there is a cancel button if you prefer to take a principled stance against a potential 95% RoI because of 5%
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Really a nonsensical comment that does not add to what is being discussed on this thread.
The discussion is not about whether or not a 5% success fee (plus 1.5% investment fee) is correct or whether competitors charge more or less.
The matter that is being discussed and on which clarification is requested (since Freetrade and Crowdcube are giving contrary information), is another one but it seems that you do not want to understand it on purpose.
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Agreed 
It has been said many times we just need clarification and TBF even Adam said “We’re checking this with Crowdcube” so there really is far too much confusion and that is pretty bad PR for all concerned.
Regarding the 5%, again I think is OK as that was expected from me but it is a pretty important thing to actually know and shouldn’t be so unclear. Not only do both companies contradict each other the wording of CC could be interpreted in different ways. 
All in all not the best comms for what should be a great raise as it puts doubts in peoples minds that would/should never have been there. CC should have said “investments” from 1/4/21 and FT should have not said different unless it is.
The way it is someone needs to say they were wrong/unclear or the gossip will continue as both companies can’t be telling the truth/accurate version of what the shares are actually now worth. 
It may be OK for the 5% charge to happen but everybody should want to know if there shares are worth X or X+5%.
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Why would I not want to understand on purpose? I would like to understand it as much as anyone here. Adam has said he is clearing it up so we await it. I’m happy to be patient. CrowdCube has been consistent on the 5% being charged, Adam seems to disagree. Believe me, I would love to keep the 5% as much as anyone. I’m just trying to keep perspective. Anyway, I’ve said way to much on this. Many of us were lucky enough to invest in earlier rounds with EIS protection and no carry - these earlier rounds will have the biggest increase anyway. Let’s focus on the positives - see you all on the moon 
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