The frustration: I finally decide to invest, define my strategy, find a low cost provider with the funds I need and ISA wrapper. Invest all year - everything going well, then Freetrade remove one of the funds from the basic account and demand an upgrade to Plus for an extra £7 per month for no additional benefit to me personally.
Anyone else in the same boat?
How do I transfer?
Hey Marc, sorry to hear. I sent you a DM here to chat more.
Hi Viktor, thanks for the offer of a free 3 month period. Here are my thoughts.
Whilst I appreciate a reply from the man in charge, your business is called Free-trade, but it’s a service that will now cost me £9.99 (after any free period). All the other benefits that come with the Plus account type aren’t things I need and aren’t things I’ll use. My goal is to ramp up investments and achieve financial freedom. This won’t happen if I dont pay attention to my spends also, frugality plays a role and £10 per month isn’t worth it for me personally.
Can you please explain the transfer process. I have already found a cheaper alternative that has the funds I need.
Thanks.
Gosh, you state plus is no extra benefit to you, so whats the problem?
If it is a benefit to you, you need to weigh up whether you think it is worth £7 a month or not.
It’s quite simple really.
Sorry I don’t understand that comment. I’m asking how to transfer as Plus is no benefit to me.
You follow your new Broker’s ISA Transfer Process. They will contact FT who will sell all your holdings and transfer the cash to your new broker under the ISA wrapper.
Thanks for that. Appreciated.
To give you my perspective on how I eventually came to my decision.
Initially I wasn’t using plus, for the most part there are ETFs available via iShares and vanguard that there no real reason for it for most people.
Once I considered some other investments in plus, On the value aspect I ultimately came across a very good perspective put across by another user. In essence per trade it’s actually very cheap when you consider the platform fee.
As an example. Taking just 4 trades a month let’s say and ignoring the cost of the ISA it comes out to an average of £2.50 a trade. In reality I make more trades than this per month so it’s more like £1.50 per trade for me. Cheaper if you consider the £3/m for the ISA separately.
There isn’t really another broker that matches this if you include the stock access, at least not in a number of scenarios. It’s a bit different for every person as everyone invests a little differently.
(FYI trades are free, you don’t pay for them)
When you consider the actual cost like this against competitors it’s actually pretty good.
(Worth noting 212 isn’t really viable for long term investing if that’s what your alternative is)
As for a transfer you just follow the transfer process from your new broker they will contact freetrade. I’d be curious to know who you’ve found that are cheaper?
Bewildered that your investment strategy must have a particular stock?. If it is big enough plus is a bargain, if not I’m puzzled why it is so material to need a particular fund or stock.
All the best though. You must do what is best for you.
Well my investment strategy is based on lots of research and there is no alternative for one of the index’s I wish to follow.
In reality I make more trades than this per month so it’s more like £1.50 per trade for me.
Ye, except, if you are trading US equities and your trade is say $10’000 you will also pay $50 in FX fees.
So if you are maxing your ISA you will pay at least £100 in FX fees per year if you buy stuff and never sell it. If you sell and re-buy at least a couple of times per year on a portfolio of 50-100k your FX fees will quickly be in the realm of £1000.
That being said, I hope that FT is getting those money and not some 3rd party.
That’s true, but it’s also one of the lowest Fx fees around. Do I want it to be lower… yes 
but I’m also not planning to buy and resell US stocks multiple times a year
It’s a shame that you believe this goal is not possible with the huge range of investments available for free with Freetrade.(it is because these are my goals too), but as you say, you have done your own research so all the best with that.
What is the fund, just out of interest?
I’m going to recycle one of my most popular comments…
The trading at Freetrade is free. You might need the Plus account to trade in some shares, but the trades themselves are free.
For comparison. the trades at AJ Bell are £9.99 every single time you buy or sell any amount of shares. The trading is not free there.
I understand the friction Plus is causing and I think maybe the Freetrade team need some sort of graphic explaining this which we can all just copy and paste into these topics when the pop up.
Freetrade is still massively cheap if you compare it to the likes of AJ Bell and other established names where just 12 trades will set you back near enough £120.
If you’ve never traded shares before, as I hadn’t before Freetrade appeared on the market, then going from ‘omg it’s all free’ to ‘wut it’s £9.99 a month’ can see so expensive. It’s only when you compare it to the established competitors that you realise it’s still insanely cheap. If AJ Bell offered unlimited trades for £9.99 a month for my LISA I’d have their hand off.
In the same spirit, I’ll recycle one of my most popular comments;
The word free is taken often only in the sense of being without cost. It’s often a confusion for Open Source software too. Free can be freedom to trade, free from hassle, free to get started…
Sorry to be a newb, but why aren’t they viable for long term?
I made the move as I wanted auto-invest and pies now, but keep Freetrade for some fun. I am not against paying for Plus but I want pies and auto-invest for now. 
if they came along, I would make the switch back.
I’d point you to @Eden’s detailed post made in November on the below thread where he talks about how T212 hold their client’s money: An Honest Critique of FreeTrade - #90 by Mike7
Thank you @weenie - I will take a read. I know enough about segregation of funds in my current work to know how important it is.
I am ashamed to admit I didn’t research where my funds were held before taking up T212.
I hope @Eden article mentions where Freetrade hold funds.
Hi all there are still a lot of options available on freetrade not sure why alternatives cannot be found. I would like to see a reduced dealing fee for shares or funds on Plus. Or a once a month offer to purchase options from the Freetrade Plus.