Delays in withdrawals and settlements

Help 👋
41

You cannot withdraw this money as it is not yours just yet. There’s is a chance that the transaction could not be completed

42

But if the transaction will not be completed and in the meantime we invested on some other companies (we can always invest unsettled cash) how can Freetrade get money back?

43

The transaction will be completed. When you buy a share with ‘unsettled cash’ Freetrade will receive the payment from the sale of shares before being obliged to make the payment on the new shares. That is why they can allow you to trade on unsettled cash but prohibit you from withdrawing it.

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44

Understood. Thank you.

45

I had a balance in my withdrawable cash and its now 0. Has this happened to anyone?

I’ve contacted free trade on several occasions and they keep giving me the standard spiel about settlement time which means they’re not actually even reading my question.
@FreeTradeSal please let me know if the above doesn’t make sense.

I’d like to know where my money has gone please.

Note: I am Not talking about unsettled cash or settlement periods!

46

Hey @ukinvest,

Do you mind popping us an in-app message or an email to hello@freetrade.io with some further details and we’ll get this looked into further for you!

47

Hi,

I did this already twice and as I’ve mentioned above you keep giving me a generic reply about how settlements work, which doesn’t answer my question

48

Hello?

Can someone get back to me please. I’ve raised 2 requests via your app.
@FreeTradeSal @robjackson

49

I’m nothing to do with Freetrade (just a user). Hope you’ve got this sorted. I’ve found their customer service to be really good when I’ve used it.

1 Like
50

Sorry for the delay here.

Would it be possible to pop us an email at reviews@freetrade.io for a member of the team to review this further for you?

1 Like
51

Can I have ts and Cs for cash left jn account please and what’s protected and by whom

52

They’ve just replied to me again with the same spiel about settlement period.

@robjackson I am not asking about settlement, I repeat NOT asking about settlement. Why do you keep sending the same message.

I am asking for an audit of what happened to my balance.

I had money in the withdrawable cash, money already settled or not invested. Where has this gone? Why can you not provide me with an audit?

53

Also your “November statement” is not a November statement. It just tells me my balance as it was on November 30th. What about the transactions for th months and call costs and fees associated.?

What about my money that has disappeared??

54

I’m curious about the “call costs”. Do you mean telephoning FreeTrade? Or something related to margin?

55

You tried checking your activity feed?

56

Hi! I wanted to provide some more details on what could cause a change to your withdrawable balance.

When you sell a US stock, we deduct the FX fee from your account on the day your order executes, ahead of settlement.

When the cash from the order has settled, it will move into your ‘Withdrawable cash’, offsetting the deficit caused by the FX fee having been deducted at the point of execution. While your ‘Withdrawable cash’ may reduce between order execution and settlement, your ‘Total cash’ does not change, and you can continue to trade with this.

For example: If you sold a US stock for £100.00 and had £1.00 cash available in your account:

Day 0 - Order execution:

  • Your ‘Unsettled cash’ will show as £100.00
  • If the FX fee is £0.45, the £0.45 would be deducted from your ‘Withdrawable cash’ balance and your ‘Withdrawable cash’ would then be £0.55.
  • Your ‘Total cash’ balance would be £100.55

If you had £0.00 in your withdrawable balance, the FX fee would show as deducted from your ‘Unsettled cash’ balance.

Day 3 - Settlement (typically)

  • The £100 would move from ‘Unsettled cash’ to ‘Withdrawable cash’.
  • Your ‘Withdrawable cash’ would be £100.55
  • Your ‘Total cash’ balance would remain as £100.55

Please do DM me directly if you still have questions with regards to your account and I’d be happy to look into this.

4 Likes
57

I really think Freetrade need to speed up this withdrawal funds part on the app. I was in need of cash so had to sell lot of my shares. Funds shows in account, so I can use this funds to buy more shares but I cant withdraw?

Is its liquidity issue within the business? Or Freetrade doesn’t want us to withdraw money out. If I can buy new shares I shud also be able to withdraw it.

1 Like
58

Is it in unsettled cash? not sure if any brokers let you withdraw unsettled cash.

2 Likes
59

This is because it takes time for the clearing house to settle the funds, this happens with every broker and it takes three days to clear.

I don’t think they can speed this up as they won’t allow you to take out unsettled cash.

3 Likes
60

Thankyou @DavidM and @Dave

Yes, I believe this is still unsettled cash from sales, but my question remains same, if I’m allowed to purchase new shares from this “unsettled cash” then I sould be allowed to withdraw to my account.

As far as other brokers are concern, it’s all about liquidity issue in brokerage system, it they sufficient cash they will authorize a quick withdrawal. Unsettled cash is guaranteed it’s just the process is slow.