You are taking that sentence out of context. I can see users without fast communication with the FT team pulling their hair out with worry. I do not, so it is worth it for me. I value what I get. Gratitude is probably the single most undervalued trait in unhappy people.
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A lot of fluff there with no real substance.
Do you care to elaborate on the āweird assumptionā I have made and the āwrong conclusionā I have drawn?
Iām not actually that bothered about the money, I was paying Ā£17.99 before. My issue, like you, has been the lack of communication. I also feel the community has really suffered with Neil going, it was madness on Freetradeās part to let him go and also it came across as arrogant on managementās end, thinking the forum didnāt need him. Itās a ghost town now, mainly consisting of complaints for progress on things. Paying him a small fee, was peanuts for a large company and it welcomed any new investor and made them feel part of something amazing, thatās gone now.
I also feel time and effort is being put in the wrong areas, recently we had all the wisdom tree complex investments added. Hardly anyone will use them, however fractional UK shares was asked for years ago and would benefit everyone. At the last CEO Q&A, Adam promised to look into it and we never got an answer back, multiple requests since and nothing.
The SIPP is also brilliant, and if Freetrade could get employers contributions it would attract a lot of users and therefore increase revenue. Time and effort is being put in the wrong places and the little things that make a huge difference (like a community moderator) are being ignored and itās these things that make a huge difference to the user.
Happy to pay more but I expect more for the money. I also have concerns about who is making these decisions, as anyone could have told you this was bad timing to increase prices. A major piece of work should have been done and a well thought out comms written to communicate this and then mention the price increase and what it will help the company achieve. Majority would have been supportive.
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Sadly, Iāve started the process of transferring out and cancelling my Plus subscription. Itās a shame as Iāve been with FT since the beginning more or less.
But, for me, this rings alarm bells about Freetradeās financial footing. The last I heard it was burning a million a month, and itās clearly in need of a cash injection to extend its runway.
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They should have released a new feature to soften the blow for people who are concerned about the price increase
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I donāt understand your logic at all. They are giving you the chance to probably save money on the Plus plan vs what you paid beforeā¦and rather than take itā¦you are being stubborn because the free plan is no longer as good.
Whatever floats your boat.
Iām not sure whatās so hard to understand here. Quotes from your posts:
This doesnāt mean FT should/can make every single service free of charge.
As if anyone was expecting them to make everything free of chargeā¦ You just ignored what people are really complaining about, and bluntly implied that they are expecting for everything to be free of charge.
You are asking it to be subsidised then. Maybe not free, but you are expecting FT to lose money to provide a service to you.
And here you are talking what they are asking for and what they are expecting, as if you knew better. You donāt, and all you have to do is to proof read what people actually say.
The irony of it is that any reasonable person out there understands that FT is a profit-oriented company first and foremost. Yet for some reason people like you are surprised that here- on the stock market investing platform forum- people are concerned about having their investment costs increased, thus directly affecting their profits. If there is one place in this world when one should expect people to be super protective of their money, it is indeed an investing-related forum.
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I would say the same. Iām not sure what is hard for you to understand.
FT lose money. They are not profitable.
The new fees alone will not make them profitable.
Yet here you are, complaining that they are putting the fees up.
If you are complaining that fees are being put upā¦yet know the company is losing money providing you with a serviceā¦how is that not expecting them to subsidise you?
The Basic account is FREE for trading UK shares. There is a totally free option for people who want to invest but donāt want to pay for premium services.
Except that Iām not. Or to make it clearer- Iām complaining about their chosen pricing model, that hurts those with smallest assets the most. Rather than just going with a blind price increase, the FT team could work out a more clever pricing model. For example- total portfolio value threshold for the basic plan, and rolling to a paid plan when that threshold is reached. Many people in this thread with seemingly higher portfolio values kept saying how the paid plans are low relative to their portfolio, then having a hard ceiling on the free plan sounds like a fair option. To be clear- this is just speculating about one of potential plans improvements. Iām not saying that this is a proposal for the final solution.
But Iām mostly opposed to any suggestions that folks with low amount of cash should stay away from investing.
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Agreed! It is far easier to swallow price changes with better roll-out. My ISP has increased prices, gas and electric (the latter probably being one of the factors for a company dependent on servers kept cool using air conditioning raising itās prices) and many more. All of them have provided something similar to your suggestion @Agnasa and it allows time and space to digest the changes.
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Itās still totally free to buy UK shares in a GIA.
The people with the smallest assets donāt need an ISA or SIPP.
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Apart from UK trades no one is getting anything for free - even Basic members pay the fx fee. Given that was a major part of FTās business model they must have known the costs of doing so.
That aside many companies in many sectors have a cheap/subsidised product as part of a coherent business model (eg many pubs have higher margins on food or soft drinks than alcoholic drinks etc etc).
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Not at all saying that.
Iām saying Freetrade isnāt going to tailor their service to those who wonāt bring them in any revenue. For the majority of revenue generating users, this is a good change!
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Ha, the extra money from this hike could pay them both a decent salary!
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The point is if you donāt want to pay - just make UK trades. The UK stock market is one of the biggest in the world. Itās incredible we are able to trade this for free.
If you are new to investing or just startingā¦or donāt have much moneyā¦there is a totally free option that is not really restricted at all.
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% based platform fees if I remember right was something Freetrade were looking to avoid when figuring out fees.
Thereās basically two models, fixed fee or percentage fee.
Your right in that fixed fee isnāt always beneficial for people with small portfolios, which is counteracted a bit with the free account. And on the other hand % fees are usually less beneficial for people with larger portfolios.
The answer is usually to pick a platform they best suits your needs.
Vanguard is percentage based and one I usually recommend for someone starting out investing. But once you hit a certain level places like Freetrade make much more sense (not counting the free basic account)
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Iāve not disagreed with that unfortunately there are alternatives that offer the same free route to trading on a much wider choice of shares/etfs with greater functionality.
Not really that amazing when that was FTās mission (and also offered by t212). FT saw a route to market that presumably they thought was sustainable.
If conversion of basic customers to subscribers was crucial then the execution has been pretty poor on many fronts (slow to develop features that competitors offer already for free; poor choices on how to split stock universe / implement fees and communicate them; etc).
I understand why people donāt like comparisons with t212 but if ethical stance on CFDs is the best argument against them I think it is pretty weak (FT have said theyāre happy with leveraged shares and crypto). Edenās view on the lack of clarity of holdings on t212 is one I share (though it bothers me less than Eden). All that aside it has become increasingly difficult to watch t212 develop new features (some fairly basic) that FT still seems to be a long way from delivering. If you pitch yourself at the cheapest end of a market, no matter how noble the intentions youāre always a hostage to someone being a little bit cheaper and if you canāt compete on service then things are a struggle.
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PLATFORM STRATEGY
Lots of users should understand ways of building positions utilising platforms.
AJBELL
ā¢ Ā£9.99 / Ā£45 capped per year - ETF SHARE TRUST
ā¢ Ā£1.50 / 0.25% uncapped - MUTUAL FUNDS
- Regular investing @ Ā£1.50 per monthly trade but Ā£9.99 to sell/rebalance.
- Build 2/3 positions to Ā£20,000, Ā£10,000, Ā£5,000.
- Do not rebalance whilst building during initial 4 years.
- Targets reached? Either stick with ETF/TRUST investing or now include satellite positions.
- This example will cost Ā£70 per year + Ā£1.50 monthly buys + fund fee.
- The portfolio grows, fees not much as ETFs, SHARES & TRUSTS capped @ Ā£45 per year.
- Expect to be down at least once during the initial 4 year build up of positions.
INVEST ENGINE is not relevant, monetisation model seemsā¦ unchartered and buying appears not live with wait times around funds causing people issues. (The owners are the same from Gumtree).
T212 is great but the lack of Mutual Funds, specific ETFs, a SIPP or a LISA make it not ideal to build a solid portfolio. Still my current choice to build up a Ā£30,000 - Ā£50,000 portfolio.
INTERACTIVE BROKER / INTERACTIVE INVESTOR I have not figured out a strategy to utilise these platforms when building portfolio positions, maybe somebody could highlight a low cost strategy to do this.
FREETRADE capped ISA & SIPP fees are great and Ā£60 per year on ISA fees is low considering the strategy option available to build a Ā£100,000+ individual stock portfolio (this would cost extortionate amounts on many, many other platforms). Not introducing a pie feature of their own right like M1 Finance or T212 has made the platform tough to navigate. If investors could create separated investment views like pies then they could simply build up investments into sectors that appear cheap, making it easy to immediately pile into say the mining sector part of your portfolio or the dividend sector of your portfolio. Regular investing options also much required. If you want to professionally build up an individual stock portfolio with sways to etfās & trusts, the appās navigation has been quite a let down. Im guessing most keep track of things outside of the app.
There is a serious lack of insights from experienced investors on how to build your first Ā£50,000 or how to scale your Ā£50,000 up to Ā£150,000 whilst paying low fees. YouTube & those (clowns) stay silent and typically focus on how to get YOU to give THEM more money & views. With what i consider ZERO value unless you get access to actual financial advise. (Of which I see Pensioncraft and Bankeronwheels highly reputable if you were to actually pay and seek financial advise from them).
THE WAY I DONE IT
- Saved initial Ā£10,000 into easy access by any means possible (to learn how hard it is).
- Bought a Gold & Silver ETF with Ā£3000 in December 2019 the day Boris Johnson spoke and bought Ā£1,000 in Gold / Silver bars, coins.
- Invested into equities after a big selloff, initial Ā£2000 then Ā£1000 pm.
- Sold 100% of Gold & Silver ETFs into April 2020.
- Sold all equity positions at exuberant peak (market was unrealistically hot July 2021).
- Worked & built up cash throughout market correction (2022).
- Placed Ā£20,000 back into two equity funds (Nov 2022)
- Placed Ā£35,000 locked for 1 year @ 4.15% (Jan 2023).
- Placing Ā£20,000 into ISA before end of March 2023.
- Paying Ā£1000 monthly into ISA & SIPP throughout 2023 / 2024.
- Grown to a six figure overall position.
- Keeping it simple and buying more of funds which have proven longterm records though I am tilting things to dividend growth and gbp hedged positions to stay relevant in the environment & valuations out there.
THE WAY I WOULD HAVE DONE IT IN HINDSIGHT
- Save Ā£10,000 easy access.
- Use Freetrade / T212 and invest Ā£200 / Ā£500 or Ā£1000 pm into three Etf funds.
- Ignore everything apart from John Thomas Mad Hedge insights.
- Get to initial target investment figure after 4 years then rebalance, reevaluate strategy and investment platform.
The only mistake I am making is like many others, platform strategy is rly annoying when building your investments. Example strategies are the real gold.
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I think youāre right here. Look at cmc, an ISA is Ā£10/m their SIPP/ premium account will be more.
And the reality is Ā£10/m is actually not expensive. But when your initial market is to scrape the bottom of the barrel for people who canāt afford or simply want products for free then youāre stuck. 212 works because they convert some of those people into CFD customers hoping to make a quick buck. That doesnāt work with Freetrade.
CMC wonāt have the same issue I expect since they jumped right into a more sensible price point
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I agree with most of what you said. And indeed, I did choose alternative platforms. I have majority of my money invested in index funds via HL ISA, and recently I moved to T212 for direct stock investments that make up only a small portion of my overall portfolio.
Nevertheless, āpick a platform that best suits ones needsā is not an argument to stop any discussions and seek improvements. Otherwise, the same argument could be applied to any other area of life:
- Donāt like the current state of the democratic system? Move to another country rather than debate
- Donāt like the current state of the economy? Move to another country with a different economical system rather than expect the government and the industry to get better
- Donāt like current family disagreements? Abandon wife and kids rather than trying to work out a solution together
- Donāt like some ongoing problem in your workplace? Quit your job rather than report the problem
- You name itā¦
What Iām trying to say is that anyone who wishes FT well and hopes that the platform will achieve success should participate in discussion, suggest improvements, point out flaws, etc. Thatās one of the basic and most wonderful principles of any liberal system- constructive criticism. Otherwise things would never change, and no change means no improvement. No improvement in many cases means stagnation and later deterioration.
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