I would assume no-one is switching at the moment as they don’t want to realise losses. Plus they’ll be getting strong sign-ups at the moment.
Also whilst the competitors line-ups remain so limited they really have nothing to fear.
I’d assume its not like legacy banks old tech vs neo-banks new tech.
Freetrade’s users have jumped 100% in 6 months to 100k with almost no advertising. We could be at 250k by next summer. Then its like compound interest. Getting the first 500k users is the challenge. Once you are underway it sells itself.
I would say referral is a form of paid marketing.
Revolut started this “We got to 5M customers with zero marketing” which I found quite disingenuous. Giving away cards, giving people 5 quid for referring friends are all a form of marketing, just not the traditional marketing like billboards or TV, or social media.
Peter Hargreaves is eating his own dog food:
Hargreaves says he directs his investments through the online investment platform that made him a billionaire.
He still owns 25% of HL:
About 66% of his net worth remains tied up in the shares of his company. … He still owns about a quarter of the firm
He and his son are debating what to sink his £550m cash (although he will invest less than that, after paying capital gains tax):
“Myself and my son are quite keen to put this money in the market,” he said on Friday. “I think it’s not far off the bottom now. We’re watching the ticker tape.”
What should the father and son duo invest in?? 
They are looking for UK and US investments.
Must see that the business faces very serious competition from FT and other disruptors …
(Bloomberg) –
Stephen Lansdown is paring his stake in Hargreaves Lansdown Plc, the financial firm he co-founded with fellow British billionaire Peter Hargreaves, to support other investments and give him the flexibility to pursue new ones.
“Markets are defying a little bit of gravity at the moment, so I thought if I could see the opportunity to take some off it the table I would – to spread the risk,” Lansdown, 67, said in a phone interview, referring to the sharp rebound in equities from their March lows. “We’re not out of the woods yet and won’t be for a long time, and you need to keep your powder dry to support what you’ve got and to take advantage of opportunities. It’s all about positioning.”
A Guernsey-based company that Lansdown controls sold 160 million pounds ($202 million) of shares of Hargreaves Lansdown in an accelerated offering through Barclays Plc, according to terms seen by Bloomberg. He has sold more than $550 million of stock over the past five years, leaving him with a 7% stake worth about $600 million.
“It’s good financial planning,” said Lansdown, who also holds investments in sports, leisure and private equity. “You don’t want to have all your eggs in one basket.”
Hargreaves Lansdown spokesman Danny Cox declined to comment.
Hargreaves, 73, also has cut his holding in the Bristol-based company they founded in 1981. Earlier this year, he sold a 7% stake worth 550 million pounds.
See also: Frugal Billionaire Sells Stake in Wealth Firm He Founded
Shares of Hargreaves Lansdown have returned about 1,400%, including reinvested dividends, since the company’s initial public offering in 2007. The stock has slumped more than 25% in the past year.
This is quite possible. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that in the long run (10, 20, 30 years time), rather than replacing or taking a piece of the incumbents’ slice of the pie, Freetrade and other disruptors will actually make a positive contribution to increasing the size of the pie. Just think of the millions of individuals across the UK and continental Europe for whom it makes no financial sense to invest when they would have to pay £10+ trading fees. With time, we will want to be using different brokers in order to safeguard investments by optimizing the use of the £85K FCA protection.
That makes sense to me.
I agree with this, but more players might also mean that HL’s previously unrivalled growth will slow. The industry will have more customers, but different customers will gravitate toward HL, with different characteristics, while challengers would pick up the younger customers with a longer investing lifetime ahead of them. HL has also suffered by the Woodford scandal and lack of transparency - something that Freetrade is well positioned to capitalise on.
Some of that was already showing pre-covid.
At the end of 2019, total assets under administration (AUA) grew a seemingly impressive 22% for the year.
But for second half of 2019, the assets rose by only 6%, and net new busines was down 9% vs the same period in 2018.
New user numbers were consistent with the year prior, but that AUA growth slowing down might be a canary in the coalmine.
I have no idea how HL did during covid, but there were no media reports on their success, while we saw articles on Freetrade and others (IG comes to mind).
That’s something for HL to worry about.
I have no disagreement with what I’ve read in your post. I didn’t check the numbers for I’m not an HL investor nor I intend to at this point. I hope they continue alive and kicking for decades to come. I wish no arm to any of the incumbents.
In my eyes Freetrade’s job is to facilitate access to the markets to people who would be blocked in practice due to their low available investable funds. £100 p/m with a £11.95 trade fee make it financially irresponsible to invest I think (unless if done once a year).
You may have spoted a turning point for HL. For the worse. I wouldn’t be surprised if adding new costumers would become increasingly harder for them. But for the sake of healthy competition I hope they stick around, even if they have to ditch those fees
The price dropped 12% yesterday due to Lansdown selling those £160m pounds worth of shares.
Freetrade do have a bit of catching up to do but keep chipping away… 
HL does some things very well.
I can set up a monthly direct debit for ISA, SIPP, and LISA and HL can invest on an automated basis in all these accounts without me doing anything - Freetrade needs to get to a similar solution of automated fund/ETF investing at some point in order to really move money away from the larger platforms.
Also on HL it’s easy to manage accounts for family members. Which is likely more important for older users, and not FT’s target right now.
Strangely what HL doesn’t let you do is fee payment by Direct Debit. It’s no problem for Vanguard so no idea why they don’t offer it.
An interesting article relating to ‘hidden’ fees which HL charge. Exactly the reason why I use Freetrade
I never really understood why people use HL that charges 0.45% for the platform instead of AJBell which charges about 0.25% for the exact same thing.
Maybe its simply because people dont know about it, or is there anything else?
HL once sent me an investment report that i never asked for and charged me 30£ for it!! (they did refund it after I called them)
Sure, their app is well made and looks nice but not sure if its worth the extra money?
Why do you guys pay more for HL, am i missing something?
edit: @Coolsmp i just read your article now, thats pretty much what happened to me…
For me, laziness. Plus it’s £100 / year difference on a £50k portfolio - a sum you could gain / lose on the markets in a second.
