Ugh Iām only an ISA member and have to sit waiting for them to read my email. Opening the bot to everyone wouldnāt be a problem would it?
Weāre making assumptions hereā¦ perhaps Plus users are the guinea pigs to check it works ok before rolling out to everyone.
I think it would be odd to paywall a basic service that is arguably much cheaper for them to run compared to the costs of CS agents doing these tasks.
Iāve just had a reply from someone from todayās experiment with the automated option. Still no response to my in app chat request from two weeks ago.
I donāt know when the automated option was rolled out and I havenāt seen any comms in the app about it. I really hope folk stumble across it though as it does appear to be much faster.
Iāve had the bot before and Iām not a plus member.
I finally received a response today, two weeks and two days after my original query. Apparently though my query had somehow also just been closed and no-one bothered informing me.
When you are waiting to move money that is disgraceful.
When you are up in investment and met your target then sell out , and email to have that money moved over . You can do this as many times as you want.
Iām fairly new and so far my investment, although significant to me, is small.
I currently have a GIA but considering changing to an ISA. Would I be able to move the shares I have in a GIA to the ISA or would I have to sell and buy again?
I know there is a fee involved but it seems small compared to other ISAās.
Am I correct in thinking that Freetradeās new policy of lending out investors shares doesnāt apply to ISAās? It seems this new policy risks my money without any reward.
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Welcome to the community 
Government rules state that only cash can be paid into an ISA so youād have to sell down and transfer the cash in. A sale takes a few days to āsettleā and once done the 
team can move the money for you.
Re the securities lending - This is being blown up in to a much bigger issue that it needs to be. As a new investor if you focus on investing regulatory & ignoring the mad tin foil hatters youāll be better off. There is the tiny list of risk but there is risk in all walks of life, trading for free enable wealth building most were previously gate kept for accessing
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Iām also considering opening an ISA in the new tax year. I knew about the Bed&ISA process, but I have a related question.
E.g. Lloyds shares (I hold some) go ex-dividend on 07 April, with payment date 19th May. I assume that if I Bed&ISA the shares after the ex-dividend date (from 8th April onwards), the dividend will still be paid to my GIA account?
(Probably an obvious question, but just crossing tās etc.)
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Thatās right, yes. The dividend would still be paid into the GIA account.
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Thanks
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The team can move it over to your ISA for you but that is a good point for anyone considering the an ISA move in April. Watch your ex dividend dates and donāt get caught out.
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It is currently possible to transfer cash from your Freetrade GIA to your ISA (by contacting support, and in the future this will be a function in the app).
Other platforms implement effective transfer of shares with āBed & ISAā. You call them up, and then they sell the shares in your GIA and immediately buy them back in your ISA. The idea is you wonāt lose much if the share price is fluctuating.
If they charge for trades, they typically only charge you once, eg. for the sell.
Would be great if Freetrade implemented something similar, but without the requirement to call them (or use in-app support), and by charging the instant trade fee only once, so Ā£1 for the whole operation.
Not sure if this is the right category to post, but maybe itās a good idea as recent comments have suggested. Move if appropriate.
ISA rules enforce cash GBP upon entry into ISA wrapper.
Some brokers offer ābed & ISAā where they charge same or reduce fees to sell shares, and repurchase them inside ISA. But ultimately one is still realising capital gains/losses, getting taxed on that, then moving cash into ISA.
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Didnāt realise this. What a pain.
I have just opened a Freetrade ISA and in doing this found that I couldnāt transfer the shares I have in my basic account into my ISA account without selling and re-buying them, Iām really pleased with my shares as they are in the greenā¦
Can we start voting to get the Freetrade team to look into enabling this?
If this thread has already been made let me know?!
This is more a regulatory question.
But selling everything and buying it again has almost zero effects except that itās no longer green if youāre below the 12000Ā£ capital gains threshold and markets donāt move too much.
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Has one quite important difference - you lose the spread between buying & selling which can be quite a lot in the variable market. With the way the buys and sells work within Ft its also impossible to see the spread up front until after selling & buying again so you have no idea how much you will lose until it happens.
Its a legitimate request - competitors are also adding it to roadmap, I see no reason Ft shouldnt as well.
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Yeah, that is valid. But covered under my āalmostā for liquid stocks. But since the broker has to buy and sell, it would just be shifting these costs from the user to the broker.