Reading from the forum it seems they are all very busy behind the scenes, and they mentioned previously that they read every single comment and take on board everyoneās thoughts, itās more productive this way, rather than trying to justify their reasoning everytime someone comments.
4 Likes
That is a practical solution but I still feel cheated. This sets a precedent: FT can paywall stocks whenever it likes. I know other brokers can change their rules as well but this is a fundamental thing. I would not mind a price hike to Ā£4 a month for the ISA if that means all the free stocks that are free now stay free. I totally accept new stocks being paywalled but would rather see all stcosk available free and advanced features to the Plus plan.
FT is not for daytraders but for people who would not have a lot of money to invest. I doubt many people have over 50k invested already. There was an advice to not diversify that much, like only having 2 companies in your portfolio when you have less than 20k invested and gradually build those two positions. So imagine you are investing gradually letās say Ā£100/month in one of the 84 stocks and suddenly it is paywalled, you loose the opportunity to invest unless you cough up Ā£10 a month. That is a lot of money for a small investor.
6 Likes
I actually thought they might implement this small fee on the new order types but I actually would prefer it being implemented on the Plus stocks. It might actually be beneficial for Plus sign ups
1 Like
Just to throw my two cents onto the pile of coins that is this thread:
Plus obviously and hopefully isnāt the finished product with what has been announced so far. For me itās definitely not worth the price tag. Ā£10p/m is just too steep for whatās on offer.
The splitting of the stocks behind a paywall does make sense to me and how theyāve chosen to divide it seems to be one of the best ways they could have done it. 
One of the things that concerns me is the āpriority customer serviceā for Plus. A newbie investor really is not likely to be paying for plus at the start, and when I was starting if things didnāt quite work, or deposits when missing I was nervous about losing my money. Thankfully the Freetrade team are usually pretty quick to respond and look into things. However, if I see āpriority customer serviceā is for the plus members, then as a new investor starting with Freetrade I would be even more nervous. Unless of course Iām still guaranteed help and quick responses etc. In which case, how much better is the Plus priority customer service that makes it worth mentioning as a sign-up incentive?
The features of plus are a bit lacking regardless. Adding some order features is not even close to being worthwhile to me. The potential inclusion of SIPPs would be enough to swing some people and thatās great, but as an investor in Freetrade I am puzzled how they plan to make Plus enticing enough for customers outside the UK if/when they rollout across Europe to make money from the product in other countries with no such features available. The Plus only features would have to be enough to make someone sign up as there would be no ISA or SIPP.
Note on SIPPs: I see on the āBuilding Freetradeā they are no longer āworking onā SIPPs, they are āExploringā them. So there are those users waiting for the release of SIPPs as a trigger for signing up to Plus, who may have to wait longer than previously thought. Which is another thing Freetrade need to be careful of: As much as I love them, they would have to admit they are pretty horrendous at meeting delivery dates they state. I remember from the AMAs they held that they hate using the word āsoonā, but Iāve seen so many features said to be being release āin a few monthsā or āover the summerā etc. that take far longer to come, or indeed some that we are still waiting on. My worry is that while thatās really not a massive issue when Freetrade is young and growing, once they start asking people to cough up Ā£10p/m then they need to be absolutely certain they can deliver on time with features they say they will. Otherwise they will start turning people off and driving them away from paying for the service, or indeed away from Freetrade altogether.
For me personally, Iām an investor in Freetrade and love what they have created. I love now being able to control my investments in shares without having to pay commission for a flat Ā£3p/m ISA fee. The Plus product for me would have would be enticing at a slightly lower price tag. When Freetrade have UK fractionals rolled out across all their products, if they added auto invest/pies etc. to Plus and had a price tag of Ā£5p/m I honestly probably would sign up. (I also note now even Non-US fractionals has moved from āworking onā to āExploringā on the building Freetrade page.)
Apologies, this post kind of dragged on a bit 
7 Likes
You can get access to Superhero in the UK?
1 Like
Yeah itās a bit tricky to see what FT wants to be.
For passive ISAs you are paying Ā£36/year which is fantastic value for a Ā£100k+ ISA (4bps) but for a Ā£10k ISA itās 36bps which isnāt so great (although I guess you only really need an ISA for larger accounts anyway)
When you start trading however the opposite is true, you are now spending 45bps for any non-UK trade. This is great for a small account but for a large account it means your trades are costing Ā£10 each anyway (which is comparable to a lot of premium products and well beyond something like 212)
| Value | Small | Large |
|---|---|---|
| Trading | Good | Bad |
| Trading (UK) | Good | Good |
| Passive | Mixed | Good |
Now you add FT+ into the mix and it doesnāt do anything for small accounts (because the relative cost is too high) and it doesnāt really solve problems for large accounts (because you are still spending 45bps).
So from my perspective Freetrade+ is basically the Canada Square Bets account for penny stocks.
4 Likes
This would be a low friction path to new subscribers too. If someone spends Ā£5+ on one time purchases for paywalled stocks then Plus might start looking like better value.
5 Likes
This is a great point - FT will need have a crystal clear and transparent process to manage routine changes to index composition
1 Like
I can but it wasnāt especially easy. I also have Robinhood but that was a real nightmare.
I like this idea but there needs to be more of an incentive to move to Plus - Ā£5 per trade (buy & sell) for restricted stocks and I think it works.
I understand the frustration of those who hold AIM stocks that may now be paywalled - but, Iād rather Freetrade cater to those who want to pay rather than those who want to use the service for free.
2 Likes
Ā£5 is too much, you are getting close to legacy broker prices there. the Ā£1 would be fine. it would mean getting some income off people who donāt want to subscribe to Plus without necessarily being expensive enough to make them go elsewhere
9 Likes
This may not work though when others in the same marketplace are offering things for āfreeā or better value. As an investor that concerns me - where is FT trying to pitch itself? The name and ethos purports to be at the free end.
When I say free I mean the seen cost to the customer - there are income streams eg FX/interest from customer deposits/share lending are some possibilities where income could be derived.
2 Likes
I see where youāre coming from as an investor in FT (me too), but if you only expect FT to make money on FX/interest then your investment will never be worth anything.
Plus is needed and paywalling stocks is a logical feature (personally Iād leave the current stocks on the free version and not paywall existing ones).
I donāt think Freetrade has to be the absolute cheapest on the market in every individual scenario to be a great business. Iād rather have 100,000 customers who want to pay than 1,000,000 who will switch between cheapest broker.
Just my thoughts.
11 Likes
Thatās fine but then at least provide a product of adequate value before trying to charge your new, existing and future users 10 quid a month rather than threadbare features and seemingly a paywall. So far itās some extra stocks many of which were available already feels like theyāre trying to pad out as a feature, stop losses and automatic purchases, nearly all other platforms offer this as standard, oh and faster customer service and the isa rolled in. That doesnāt seem like its worth 120 quid a year.
Surely to grow they need to keep the interest of all those coming in and get them investing long enough to stay, hence the outlay on free shares to draw them in, why then lose people on the basis of some of the above in this thread thats clearly concerned people including investors?
Surely they need to focus on so many of the features that competitors are moving ahead with? Iām not saying in a years time with sipp and whatever else it wonāt then be good value but some of the comments Iāve seen across the Internet recently donāt necessarily like the direction things appear to be heading.
1 Like
I agree that the stocks which were free going behind a paywall is not a good thing, but Iāve yet to see any comparable offering thatās better value. You either miss a product, like the ISA or you have an even more restricted offering of shares. Happy to be convinced otherwise though.
Whatās key for me is knowing where the SIPP lands, is it inside Plus or is there an additional fee for that?
Absolutely!
11 Likes
Yes, weāll review them on a quarterly basis.
6 Likes
Iāll give FT the benefit of the doubt that they know more on what to deliver than what is being portrayed. Maybe they have an array of features ready waiting and then all of a sudden they release a market campaign and title it āOh so you thought we werenāt listeningā¦ 
1 Like
HI - I have signed up to plus via the App today as wanted to take a position in ALBA, really didāt want to commit to the Ā£10pm for limited benefits aside from being able to access more AIM shares; however having signed up to 212 at the weekend as could buy ALBA there at no cost, I have to say that FT seems a much slicker and intuitive platform despite the limited functionality in comparison to 212 (perhaps this is a case of less is more), also discovered that seemed impossible to get a trade to place on 212 without long delay whereas made a number of buys of ALBA on FT which went through immediately - and price was .0035 on FT compared to 0.0040 on 212 despite order going through at very similar times - so thumbs up to FT on the above.
I must however say that having signed up to Plus I can see no additional features other than the increased shares available, no limit orders etc -so seems I am paying Ā£10 just to buy one share and feel that Plus has been misrepresented.
On the topic of futures that I may think Ā£10 a month is worth, having an increase Apple Pay limit (as have been temp offered today) and fx fee free US trades would probably swing it.
On balance though the pros of free freetrade compared to 212 and Degiro (where I have acc to buy ASX stocks) seem to outweigh the cons for me.
4 Likes
This solves the entire problem
1 Like