I opened ISA’s for myself and my wife with FT in may and funded them with the whole years allowance.
Additionally I set up a GIA and funded it with a very large 6 figure sum.
I am now trying to bring over ISA’s from another provider to FT (also a reasonable sum). My ISA transferred in full but a mess was made with my wife’s transfer over 3 weeks ago. I requested this to be sorted and was assured that it was in hand. 3 weeks later, no update. No response to messages sent to customer service.
This is out of order. If a client with a 7 figure sum invested though FT cannot be provided acceptable standard of professional and efficient customer service then it’s time to take my business elsewhere.
I was almost prepared to invest in the crowdfunding round but decided against it for only one reason. If this company cannot treat it customers fairly, it’s not going to provide its investors a good returns.
So before you place any more money through FT, please think long and hard.
Sorry but my time with FT is up. I am off to somewhere a bit dearer but where my custom is valued.
How well of you are is not relevant.
They don’t make anymore money from someone putting in a 2 figure sum than 7 figure sum.
So no you shouldn’t expect a better service than anyone else. Which you have clearly implied you are entitled to.
Everyone should get good service. Are you telling me everyone should accept rubbish service from Freetrade?
In don’t know details of Freetrades business model, but common sense tells me that assets held feed into revenue so I imagine 10 customers with £10k each with me far more profitable than 1000 customers with £100 each.
Maths isn’t your strong point.
The 1,000 customers with £100 each are the more profitable. Obviously. There is no charge for buying shares. Just a standard charge for running an account. So the 1,000 £100 each customer each pay the same as the 10k customer. I think you already knew that.
I was thinking the same, usually we hear on the forum that the problem is on the other side. Transferring again in a short space of time will be a pain whoever the problem lies with, it’s manual industry wide…
A plus user will get premium customer support, I doubt that would make a difference with transfers though.
I think you’re forgetting that FT makes money from FX and interest as well (as well as from account fees for ISAs) so I doubt the assessment is as clear cut as you’re making it seem.
I know the problem is not on the other side as I have been in touch with them and they have not had contact. The ‘other’ side is actually well known for brilliant customer service, albeit at a price.
@Mike7 - I don’t know or care what the business model is. All I care about is that I get acceptable service and this has not happened. Freetrade had sadly earned a reputation for being bad at service and I was aware of this problem but foolishly thought perhaps that I will be alright. Alas.
I am almost 90% sure I will take this as a lesson along my investing journey and accept that slightly higher fees are a worthwhile price to pay, for good service.
@Beenthere being rude gets you nowhere but since your sound like you wish to be educated, here is a free lesson - most subscription models use the annual fee simply to defray membership costs. They did not earn the company any profit. You will note that these costs are tied to ISA and SIPP only, which is probably a good indicator that the costs of compliance and reporting to HMRC is what that cost covers, and little else. GIA are free.
This is incidentally true of most providers in the industry.
What ever hapoend to everyone makes mistakes though. I feel In this new age life we live everyone wants everything now not then and everyone demands so much now, people also seem to give up on people at the slightest mistake they do.
That’s some life lessons I learned from so called “friends”
They can make mistakes but when it’s my turn ooooooo may it rain hell apon thee.
Just saying have a think about it and or have patience, I’m sure they will apologise, maybe a free share for your troubles? Who knows maybe nothing.
We understand though if you do want need the ASAP service etc and if other providers can provide you with these needs at said cost then you do what’s best for you.
@Kiava appreciate your sentiment. But FT is not my friend. They are a service provider.
The only way to connect to them is to send a message and wait expectantly, hoping they reply.
If FT are so overwhelmed by new signups they should freeze new intake until such a time that they are able to beef up their systems, rather than take in new clients and let both old and new clients down.
I have run businesses with retail interface and learnt that you are only as good as your last client experience
personally I think you are taking this out of proportion.
The delay may be nothing to do with freetrade it could well be with the other provider.
And at the end of the day mistakes happen, personally I would just wait for it to be resolved and then ask for what happened to cause the delay.
And remember once it is resolved if you don’t have the answers you can make a formal complaint and as a regulated company you would get a full breakdown of what happened and when.
I am not saying freetrade are perfect but no company is perfect and we don’t live in a perfect world, sometimes things do happen and on this occasion it has happened to you, and at the end of the day what would you prefer freetrade do spend time resolving this or answering questions when they don’t have answers at the end of the day I would rather they sort the issue out than reply saying there is a delay and they have no further info each time.
Transfer initiated 6 June
Acknowledged 12 June
Partial transfer completed 19 June
problem with transfer raised 22 June
Acknowledged and revised transfer raised 22 June
Absolute silence till 5th july and then acknowledgment of transfer received.
I still don’t have a date to complete transfer.
I can only go by my past experience of transfer from 3 different providers to the existing provider before transferring to Freetrade. All past transfers were completed inside a week so I am struggling to see why FT should take so much longer.
What makes it worse is the inability to pick up the phone to call or correspond with what I can only describe as a black hole.
I appreciate everyone’s expectations are different. Mine are what I have set then out to be (and incidentally supported by numerous reviews supporting this experience). Unless I am provided with a reasonable response explaining why this has occurred and prompt remedy, I remain unconvinced.
I understand what your saying and your previous experience of providers but as i said in my reply you are just unlucky one where it hasn’t gone well for on this occasion and that can happen with any provider and does with all providers at times.
As you said the others were done quick apart from one transfer in.
And you say with the other companies everything was quick and easy but you can guarantee with every provider there are always ones that don’t go very well it won’t be unique to freetrade.
And like i said once it’s all sorted out make a complaint and I am sure you will get a detailed response and if it was down to freetrade I am sure they will make it right.
