Freetrade Competitors

Vanguard and buy something cheap and simple like VWRL / V3AM. Itā€™s not as slick bit the fees are 0.15% + 0.22% (fund dependant) then transfer it straight over to FT when they launch.

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Thanks - will take a look! :slight_smile:

Proves the low to no cost brokerage market is starting to oversaturate.

Those that donā€™t have a unique selling point will struggle long term.

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Iā€™ve said this for ages!! Too many people have had a period where they couldnā€™t spend and sports stopped so they couldnā€™t gamble on it so played stocks and shares instead. Parallel to that loads of new platforms started and now life is returning to normal there just wonā€™t be enough investors :grimacing:

I think Freetrade got in at the perfect time but others may just fail pretty quickly.

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I guess that is one of the challenges for these businesses.

Also there are country related cultural attitudes towards share ownership. It is very easy to see this difference (especially) on the continental mainland.

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I think this tweet sums it up nicely! Itā€™s clear which product is the winner.

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I bet thereā€™s a name for this but I wonder if all these minor fund based offerings will come back to bite the legacies like HSBC, as they will encourage new users to get involved in trading, read more about it and end up funneling into FT etc once they get a bit more confident. Maybe this is what AJ Bell is hoping for.

On the flip side this is why I hope FT are preparing more pro side features like graphs and order types to keep people from moving on when they get bored or more educated.

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Totally agree but I wouldnā€™t underestimate the power of a ā€œsimpleā€ platform. These forums are full of people more into the markets than the vast majority of people who wouldnā€™t be interested to visit here and they will be the majority of FT customers.

Definitely need a few new features like graphs, sort by, LISA and some other things but also keeping the app clean and easy to use. It is a very hard balancing act for the FT team to manage but sure they will get there. :+1:

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The nature of the market is changing in quite a lot of ways.

What is clear is that a strong focused proposition is necessary. And I would argue that Freetrade already has that. I am sure product management is wrestling with the age old problems of proposition creep and dilution of USP.

I obviously donā€™t know where Freetrade will land in this space. But I do know the competition is changing and will get more fierce. Itā€™s not just about David and Goliath.

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So now there is no cheaper S&S ISA on the market right? While LISA is still not available on FT

From what Iā€™ve read, Lydia is the French equivalent to freetrade

No cheaper than what?
Freetrade?

Yes is there cheaper alternative now on the market?

This turns out to be not so an easy question to answer. What is cheapest depends on your needs. Company X provides a service with a headline rate that is ā€œcheapā€ ā€¦ you bite ā€¦ you then discover that you canā€™t do A, B and C?

Hypothetical? Not really. I suggested to a friend recently that he consider FT. But when he did his sums he realised that Barclays Bank gave him a better deal on a S&S ISA for his needs. He pointed out several other providers that might be notionally more expensive than FT but most of the time it was comparing apples with oranges. By the way if you want to transfer your ISA away from FT you canā€™t do a stock transfer ā€¦ you have the sell the whole lot. The latter might change in the future but by the time it changes I am sure that there will other competitive offers in the market.

How Barclays can be cheaper? In case you are not plus member you have only Ā£36 fee. Or this portfolio was too small to cover this fee?

Also I donā€™t think you are right about fact that selling is required for transfer, at least transfer into FT can be done without selling stocks
As long as we have the stocks in our universe, you can transfer the stocks to us without selling.

Trading 212 is free although not accepting new users at the moment. How long that will last is anyoneā€™s guess.

Platforms that are entirely based on percentage fees can be cheaper than Freetrade ISA - it depends on the portfolio value. For example Vanguard Investor (0.15% fee) is cheaper than Freetrade ISA for portfolios less than Ā£24K in value (Ā£36/0.0015 = Ā£24K). The downside with Vanguard Investor is you canā€™t pick individual company stocks and can only use Vanguardā€™s own funds.

Even Hargreaves Lansdown (generally considered expensive with a 0.45% platform fee) can be cheaper than Freetrade ISA in certain circumstances. For example if you have a portfolio less than Ā£8K and are happy using OEIC funds (which have no trading fees on Hargreaves Lansdown) your platform fees will be lower than Freetrade ISA (Ā£36/0.0045 = Ā£8K). But if you start trading individual stocks or investment trusts on Hargreaves Lansdown you will be charged trading fees which will eclipse Ā£36/year.

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@o99 I donā€™t know the answer to this - does that Ā£36 get you all the plus shares?

No if you want the Plus shares you need to pay for Plus.
The Plus fee (Ā£120/year) includes ISA so there is no extra Ā£36 for the ISA in this case.

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@o99 Thanks. This makes the point very clear that trying to compare the Ā£36 ISA can be very misleading.
As you said in your previous and I said in mine one needs to look at oneā€™s own needs to figure out what is actually ā€œcheaperā€ or right for us.

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