Introducing annual subscriptions and pricing changes

Freetrade Chat šŸ”„
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Hey everyone,

Over the next few months, weā€™re making some changes to our pricing plans and introducing annual subscriptions.

Hop over to our blog post for a bit more information or ask your questions below and one of the team will be able to help out.

You can see our new prices, as well as when they come into effect, below:

price
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*Applies to US and European-traded stocks. The FX fee is charged on top of the exchange rate.

For comparison, you can see our current pricing here.

Can I pay annually?

For the Standard plan, this means you can pay Ā£59.88 for the whole year. This works out to Ā£4.99 per month, a saving of 17% on the new monthly price of Ā£5.99.

Similarly, for the Plus plan, you can pay Ā£119.88 for the year. This works out to Ā£9.99 per month, also a saving of 17% on the new monthly price of Ā£11.99.

Stay tuned for further details.

How does this compare to other providers?

The table below shows different examples of your monthly fees with Freetrade compared to other providers.

It assumes you make two US or European trades a month, and shows your monthly fees based on the total value of those trades, depending on your subscription plan. For instance, if you buy two US stocks, each worth Ā£50 (for a total of Ā£100 for the month) - this would cost you Ā£6.58 with the Freetrade Standard plan vs Ā£18.47 with Interactive Investor.

compare
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**Comparison will change based on the value and number of trades.

Compare our plans to see which is best for you here.

**Comparisons to other providers are based on their published costs on their websites as of 8 March 2023 for trading shares within a share dealing account. They are shown for illustrative purposes only. For confirmation of their up-to-date charges and product information, you should visit their websites.

Hargreaves Lansdown: Based on trades in the previous month, the fee per trade is Ā£11.95 per trade for 0 - 9 trades, Ā£8.95 per trade for 10 -19 trades, and Ā£5.95 for 20 or more trades. FX fee is 1.0% for the first Ā£5,000, 0.75% for the next Ā£5,000, 0.5% for the next 0.5% for the next Ā£10,000 and 0.25% for over Ā£20,000.

Interactive Investor: Ā£4.99 account fee. Ā£5.99 per trade. FX fee is 1.5% for trades between Ā£0 - Ā£24,999.99, 1.25% for Ā£25,000 - Ā£49,999.99, 1% for Ā£50,000 - Ā£99,999.99, 0.5% for Ā£100,000 - Ā£599,999.99, and 0.25% for Ā£600,000 - Ā£999,999.99.

When you invest, your capital is at risk. The value of your portfolio can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest. Eligibility to invest into an ISA or a SIPP and the value of tax savings depends on personal circumstances and all tax rules may change. ā€SIPPs are a pension product designed for people who want to make their own investment decisions. You can normally only access the money from age 55 (set to rise to 57 from April 2028).

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I didnā€™t notice where/how to switch to paying yearly.
Will some of the increase fix the bugs in the app ?

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How does compare with Trading212?

As far as I can see, theyā€™re actually your main competitor. I run an investing forum which is mainly millennial aged people and younger based in the UK and the two main brokers seem to be Trading212 and Freetrade. Here are their fees from their website:

Screenshot_20230308-145058
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https://www.trading212.com/terms/invest

Edit: Apparently people flagged this post as spam for advertising, lmao.

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No comparison,freetrade are behind t212 by a mile now,as you say they are quoting comparison to HL and ii,as if we dont know that theyre main competitor is clearly T212,who will be rubbing theyre hands together as freetrade continue to throw investors theyre way.

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Is it not misleading to ignore that IIā€™s account comes with free regular investing as part of that Ā£4.99 monthly fee, and HL with discounted regular investing for UK stocks?

If youā€™re investing in the same two shares/ETFs every month, you wonā€™t be paying that Ā£5.99 x 2 fee at II.

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It looks like theyā€™re not in the comparison for that very reason. With this, the Basic account just isnā€™t competitive now.

I see it as being like Tesco comparing their prices to Waitrose and Morrisons, and forgetting to mention Lidl or Aldi.

I think Freetradeā€™s product team are really pushing their luck now in terms of not p***ing off their core customer base.

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Oof, thatā€™s not a saving, itā€™s a price increase if I want to stay on monthly plan.

Sadly in my mind when I was hoping that Freetrade would bring in annual subscriptions, I was thinking along the lines of monthly staying at Ā£9.99 and annual fee something cheaper, like Ā£110 for example.

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I donā€™t like the comparison with companies who have more fees. Compare to InvestEngine, Trading212, InteractiveBrokersā€¦

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Just waiting for Lightyear to release an ISA then Iā€™m done from Freetrade - They way too slow &expensive

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I have to say for non UK stocks i use Lightyear as the services are better,

You get opportunity to vote on all AGMā€™s
You get news attached to each company you hold shares in
The FX fee is cheaper
The share price data is much better and close to true live data
When you sell shares the cash is available instantly to invest or withdraw
When you withdraw cash its in my bank usually within minutes but never longer than 1 hour
And they are constantly improving.
To me it seems like freetrade have given up implementing features and improving

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I might be missing something, but why are the annual subscriptions starting in May and not April to align with the tax year? Surely we will always be loosing one month if we decide to open a new ISA with a new provider after the 12 months?

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I strongly disagree.

Freetradeā€™s core customer base is no longer users with a few hundred Ā£ in their account, who will jump to whoever is offering the ā€˜cheapestā€™ platform (the days are long gone where these users are valuable customers).

Itā€™s users who have pay a subscription fee and invest substantial sums that are the core customer base now - and for those users this is a positive change.

Even if a few users go to T212, this makes a lot of sense.

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A comment which i puts elsewhere and feel is relevant -

ā€œAnd does T212 still have the same app for cfd and shares? Honestly - itā€™s like going to vegas and staying at a cheap 5* hotel and knowing you are subsidised by the losses of everyone at the roulette or poker table. Hopefully, their customers can comfortably walk past those tables as they enter and leave their rooms.

Freetrade wins on moral and ethical grounds for me.ā€

as much as there is a comparison of apple to pears in some instances - you have to appreciate T212 steals from some to give to others - hopefully the customers that consider moving to T212 are comfortable within themselves to avoid the flashing lights and not become the 90% of CFD users who lose money. Has anyone got the stat on how many customers end up on the dark side? Iā€™m guessing itā€™s not a healthy number.

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I had no problem with the last sub change. But this ā€¦ I was on the fence whether to go for another ISA provider or stay with FT for coming ISA year, lets say Iā€™m not on the fence anymore.

Why??? Just why? Is inflation eating into FT profit :thinking: ? May I suggest inflation linked bonds :wink:

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Yes, I thought so too, but FT is stepping into the big players territory while being a startup whoā€™s future is still unclear.
Would you trust a million to FT vs HL/VG/IBKR etc? I doubt so.

Also, all the other platform have miles better functionality and tons of additional features.

Like T212 is just destroying FT in any possible way, however you look at it.
But even if we forget T212 existance, all the big players are waaaaaaaaaaaaay better for similar (if not cheaper) price.

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Problem with what you ask here is that I was on Trading 212 before and not once did they try promote the CFD Trading to me.

Only reason why I change was Ethic but with this ISA increase with the cost of everything going up they taking the mic

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The reality is T212 is offering cheaper pricing while subsidizing the business from profits they make on CFDs
(Where 80% lose money)

If T212 is left alone in business and no pure neobrokers are left they will be nothing stopping them to hike prices as they wish (as they already did by introducing FX fees). If you think the company that is making most buck on 80% of clients losing money wont do this you are kidding yourself

Lightyear, Invest Engine and similar have no business model and are even less comparable

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They canā€™t because regulators will crucify them - but you know itā€™s there. Stay safe

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Can anyone tell me how HL are compared to Freetrade? A big stable boy, are the prices really that bad at HL?

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