Freetrade is Out đŸ”„ Share your first thoughts once you get access!

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Transferring portfolios from other Brokers

Well done Freetrade. Frustrating to have execution failures today, but onward! Some testing thoughts:

Onboarding and top-up

  • it works solidly, which is the important thing.

  • passcode, name, dob, postcode, nationality, NI number all work great. (Not sure if you’ re using NI for KYC but I think the DWP frowns on that.)

  • the moment where you have to drop out of the app to do a bank transfer is awkward - it may be a barrier for users who aren’t early fans/shareholders/fintech nutters.

  • It would be good to check the bank account before onboarding completes - prevent me completing if I have tried to set up with a company bank account (I did that and Toby then had to do a bunch of work to sort it out). Or at least tell me that it needs to be a personal account.

  • Similarly having to put a unique id into the bank transfer feels like a barrier. Assuming that the job of that unique id is identifying a Freetrade user and later tying user to the bank transfer - it might be less work for the user to either make the unique id simpler (a shorter but one-time and time-limited code?) or use the bank details you’ve just asked for in the app to identify the payment? (which admittedly won’t work so well if multiple FT accounts hang off one bank account).

  • It’s a bit unnerving that transfers aren’t Monzo-speed. I know this is because FT is avoiding FP and card payment fees at the moment, but would be good to see speed in the future. Or instant top-up just for alpha users?

Obviously a user will only onboard once, but it is the first journey they’ll take with FT so removing friction will help, esp as you get to increasing numbers of novice investors. Another approach might be to let the user become more “invested” (as it were) before they onboard. Let them see the discover tab, play around, get a sense of how good the app is going to be, add stocks to a watchlist or whatever before they do the onboarding.

Login

  • it feels like if the app is foregrounded when the phone locks, you require PIN input to resume, and maybe you allow touchid in all other situations - eg phone was locked while app wasn’t foregrounded. This felt a bit inconsistent (iOS 11.4.1 on 5S).

Using app

  • everything looks great

  • these old eyes cannot read at all the grey labels for the buttons at the bottom in their non-active state - consider increasing size and/or contrast

  • I forgot where to find the live chat the first few times

Choosing a trade

  • search is good

  • might be nice to have a filter to show only funds/bonds/shares/etc

  • I think there might be a few things in the app that aren’t in the spreadsheet, eg IDUS, STHY

Executing

  • obviously instant orders weren’t executing today, but the app behaved better with basic orders - it told me that they were successfully queued. Instant ones just hung.

Seeing portfolio

  • not tested

Support

  • the live chat support was excellent, salute Toby and everyone
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Awesome feedback! Thanks Rod, I’ll pass this onto the team :memo:

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For me today’s trade failure was perfect. With only a small number of users who knew what they were getting into, to get a failure at this stage is better than if we had 50,000 users placing orders.

This will give Freetrade the chance to learn in a safe environment and plan for the next one, because there will be a next one 
 architect for failure after all.

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Thanks for the onboarding feedback! We did get plenty of trades executed, but as you say, early in the afternoon we lost access to the markets and the Basics didn’t go through. We’re working hard to get that right for tomorrow :pray:

We’re not, only for the regulator’s benefit :blush:

We’ve had a lot of feedback on this and the obvious wins are things like copy and paste improvement and ensuring fields stay filled even when you leave the app and return. Unfortunately bank transfers are here to stay for now, but the experience will be iterated. Open banking is the longer term target :sunglasses:

Again, this was identified by a few and we’re looking at improving awareness via the copy. It’s worth noting for those yet to onboard that you should aim to deposit from the account (personal) you want to use long-term. Swapping bank accounts linked to Freetrade is designed to be this rigid for AML purposes. (But there is a process for switching if you really need to.)

We can do more to emphasise the importance of the reference - but when depositing it’s worth taking your time on this!

–

Can’t wait for tomorrow :confetti_ball:

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@rod, this is an absolutely great piece of feedback!

Few minor things I would like to comment on:

It would also be nice if FT remembered, say, the sort code you entered before leaving the app to find your bank account number. Avery minor thing though.

Edit: Calum has touched upon this already.

Your profile tab (with live chat) currently sits in the Portfolio tab. It may be the case that it will be duplicated across all tabs in the future - who knows. But certainly would make it more convenient (if @Freetrade_Team_Design will have some time, maybe we could get the insider feedback!).

This is what my current broker does (excuse the translation), which works out quite well:

It seemed to be a problem (with IDUS at least) but after the Adam’s post, it went fine. I got an instant IDUS and I am already 0.25% up!

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I’d consider this a successful first day.

Other than the BT one I posted above. Other descriptions that tickled me.

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I liked this casual dismissal

image

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Reading all the great feedback. Keep it coming :slight_smile: very interesting while waiting for on boarding.

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Are yesterday’s problems resolved?

Edit: order failed so looks like no

Well I have placed my orders again, so let’s see if it is working by end of day.

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Our system is up and running this morning, and trades have been being placed successfully. If you can share a bit more detail, perhaps via the live chat, we’ll try and work out what happened for your order.

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Instant order just worked for me :white_check_mark:

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That one from earlier is being looked at but tried a different one and went through :tada::tada::tada:

I now own an entire share :star_struck:

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I’m pleased to announce that we’ve made £5 in revenue already today :fire: :chart_with_upwards_trend: :partying_face: :joy:

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We’re going to be rich rich rich!!

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Alex, that’s what I call a profit!!! :joy: :ok_hand:

I hope you all have a great day today! Let the investing begin! :bell:

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I assume that’s excluding the interest on cash sitting in users’ accounts :wink:

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Requested a test withdrawal yesterday, and today Monzo told me it is coming tomorrow. And there is that lovely logo in place already :star_struck:

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Excellent. This time next year Rodney


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