More like FT blocking a troll who has a T212 link in his bio.
5 Likes
Kinda has a point - But gonna stay for now
not really. the tweet has been deliberately made to make it sound like it costs Ā£72.78 to buy Ā£100 of a US stock.
It doesnāt, Its misleading. it cost 59p
it costs Ā£71.88 a year for the platform fee, or Ā£59.88 if paying a year ahead. That isnāt linked to the stock buy. buying another stock doesnāt cost another Ā£71
Now if it was a case that you wanted to but Ā£100 of a US stock and never buy more stocks. then you wouldnāt use an ISA at all. and itāll cost 99p.
14 Likes
Adam really needs to take a long hard look at what his company has become.
Honestly, it must be enough to make him weep to see all his dreams turn into this.
I remember the early days, Adam constantly talked about his ideas and where he wanted to go. Now he just watches money drain out of the company paying thousands of employees to make very minor changes and piss off whats left of the community.
4 Likes
It wasnāt long ago people thought they would need an ISA security for the small amounts they had which was 100%, definitely, without a doubt and guaranteed going to the moon!!! 
Maybe they would have only bought Ā£100? and this twitter person is being genuine, obviously not he is a troll and not using realistic context.
1 Like
No, that would not make sense, but people might use an ISA to buy Ā£100 worth of a particular share each month, every month and do that for multiple shares (for diversification). In which case (if you were buying mostly/all non UK shares, the FX charges would soon add up).
(Personally, apart from a handful of US & European shares, which I think may be good long term compounders or are special situation/ deep value, I prefer just using ETFs and investment trusts for international shares/markets, rather than trying to do something even most professional full time fund managers fail to do - ie: outperform the indexes long term). Find it hard enough to keep up with newsflow and research on the UK stocks I am interested in buying or already hold, without going international as well. 
But I realise that everyone has different needs/ wants and looking at the āmost bought/soldā lists on here each week, itās obvious that international (well almost exclusively US) stocks are popular with Freetrade usersā¦
I guess the beautiful thing here is
a) people see value in paying nothing, so long term - freetrade has a future when their portfolios become large enough where the fees start to matter - they are very price sensitive - so at some point theyāll come back to freetrade. they are not averse to risky assets - so wonāt be scared off when/if crypto arrives (not saying theyāll invest, as they are likely to be able to avoid the cfd pitfalls)
b) people are willing to pay for service and features - HL and others a like can be very expensive overall and honestly Iāve waited more than 48 hours from a response from them. so once freetrade catches up in the perceived lack of features or basic necessities, theyāll likely return too.
c) for some itās already the perfect balance, so they will likely be content and prosper over time.
Overall Lisa will be a major pull. Employer contributions will be huge. Autopilot will arrive and that will be a boon, and a necessity with fractional investing (something HL/II/interactive broker do not have). With more overseas markets will come a greater stock selection.
I think there are many reasons to stick around - but ultimately the door never closes.
7 Likes
Making it 59p in Fx for each Ā£100 trade. Not Ā£72 per Ā£100 as the tweet is written to suggest
3 Likes
Yes whatever the intention is the math still adds up.
Itās a shame āfreeātrade have hiked prices for what exactly??? Salary cover ?
How about the need to become profitable lmao? All companies need to become profitable and make money to survive. Otherwise what is actually a somewhat decent service that Freetrade provides will eventually run its course and become non-existent
2 Likes
Wow i read all of this.
So standard plan is 1gbp a month more expensive and the fx is doubled?. I trade alot of usa, china, south american stocks, would i benefit more in plus?.
I dont like the idea of being stuck in a subscription. What if halfway through the year you decide you want to leave?.
Also ive heard good things about ibkr on monevator. Not sure though, seems to be hidden costs.
1 Like
Standard plan increases from 0.45 to 0.59 - so for $1000 trade it will cost you $1.40 more. Only you know how much you trade to appreciate whether the plus is more beneficial.
Regarding ibkr - itās primarily US based and a bit convoluted - but feel free to open and share a review and comparison. I only opened it because I needed to move a position from a custodian and it could only done via US broker. They charged me $50 because I filled a form in incorrectly and I had to maintain a certain balance before they would even consider my transfer. But please form your own opinions.
2 Likes
If you choose to pay monthly you wonāt be stuck in a subscription.
You have the option of paying for 12 months upfront for a lower fee, but this isnāt compulsory.
4 Likes
People saying FT increased it prices are kinda wrong as it has only got cheaper for many, the people who will make FT viable, and has just made the FREE option a bit more expensive. Although this option is still better than most and all in some metrics.
If the issue is purely cost then these people should be going with CMC and getting the free Ā£50 as that would cover the costs for a long time on very small portfolios.
At the end of the day FT is like Ryanair or Easyjet, budget, and needs to make money somehow. Whatever they do will upset X, Y and Z but A through to W will still use it and be happy when comparing to other options out there.
FT are frustrating and seem to be going out of their way to implement the lesser wanted things and Introducing annual subscriptions and pricing changes - #281 by mig nailed it but are still the best option although that may not be the same long term unless they get back into comms and improve some things.
8 Likes
Do we know how this will be taken. Will there be an option to pay up front via the app or will this be via direct debit?
If the new subscriptions donāt start til May then will the yearly price be paid over 11 months?? Seems strange not to align with the tax year!
2 Likes
Iām a bit late to the party here, although in some ways deliberately so as Iāve had to consider my response. I donāt want to repeat already excellent points made by people here and the topic causes me considerable difficulty.
I feel a bit betrayed by this price increase, if Iām honest. It comes so soon after the last one which I defended to the hilt even at the cost of making enemies on this forum and this announcement makes me feel Iāve been taken for an absolute fool! And before anyone argues with me that it isnāt a price increase, it is when you donāt want to pay upfront. Paying upfront is an opportunity cost, because instead of paying more into your investments earlier and paying the monthly fee, you are having to pay Ā£55 upfront that you otherwise hadnāt intended.
As anyone who has read my posts will know, I have no objection to paying increased fees as Iām fully aware of the need for FreeTrade to be solvent. I also was one of those who said that I would like to see an annual payment, but I had imagined that would be a discounted offer, such as Ā£99 for one year of Plus or Ā£50-55 for Standard and not, as has happened here that they set the annual payments to the current rate and jack up both the monthly costs and the FX fees.
Six months ago when the prices went up, I said that the service you received even for Ā£5 per month was excellent value. At the time I would even have said Ā£6 per month was great value. Unfortunately Iām not sure how true that is anymore. Even as a standard user, Iāve noticed a marked decline in customer service. Iāve become a bit disillusioned at their seeming unwillingness to address issues that are obviously losing them money, tax certificates and SIPP employer contributions are two that come up on the forum continually. The one that impacted me was the unacceptable 3-5 day delay in money withdrawal, had it not been for that, I would have become a Plus user 6 months ago. I do object to them raising prices to plug financial holes before they fix issues that are clearly deterring customers from transferring products to them.
However, not even any of the above would have mattered had this not given me the feeling that I might not be able to trust FreeTrade anymore. As others have mentioned, they have implemented this without explanation and so soon after the last increase. Whatās more, they are selling it as an option to pay annually, when actually it is to bounce you into a different course of action by worsening the conditions of the monthly payment and Standard accounts. As well as it being what I find a dishonest sales pitch, I now have serious doubts about their solvency going forward, which obviously makes paying the annual fee a risk.
While I still think the FreeTrade product is great and I wish things were different, I feel it is time to go but struggle to think of any alternatives. Lightyear would have been my first choice but sadly no ISA and not enough of a stock universe. I am not at all keen on T212 but they looking like my best option both from an equivalence, price and solvency point of view. What I might do is open a GIA and test buy and sell small value shares, test money deposit, withdrawal, etc and see if they would be worth switching the ISA to in the new ISA year. While I know the solvency question may arise in the future, I think thatās potentially further off than it will be for FreeTrade.
If anyone wishes to respond to me here by suggesting that FreeTrade are better off without me and not to let the door hit my backside on the way out, you are of course entitled to your opinion, but youād be very wrong to suppose that Iāve not been a supportive and fully paying customer of FreeTrade. I have happily paid the fees and supported them on this forum the last time they raised them. I have been very patient with their short-comings and have always made sure to be painfully aware that they are a start-up and that leniency is necessary. But there comes a point at which you have to consider whether a product and company is still the right one for you and, although Iām going to consider very carefully over the weekend, I sadly think Iāve had to face the conclusion that they arenāt.
14 Likes
This is my main worry, and I am surprised that not many people seem to be thinking about it.
Freetrade is losing significant amounts of money. The year ending September 30 2021, was Ā£18.2m.
There were rumours about talks about the potential sale, and itās no secret that last Crowdcube raise, Freetrade raised less than they hoped.
4 Likes
2 price rises in 6 months and they let 15% of the staff go. It does not look good. My question is if you pay the yearly subscribtion up front and they do go bust what happens to that money?
3 Likes
I wouldnāt mind the increase if the customer service would get better, they take ages to get back and when they do all they ever seem to do is say oh this need to go to a different team and then you have to wait for them to get back.
They ask the questions in the app so it should automatically send it to the correct team rather than having to wait around all the time.
1 Like
Waiting to read the comments appearing on this article:
I must admit that as a new investor (I joined Freetrade in September last year) it would be much more reassuring if these types of messages were delivered in a way that didnāt leave doubts in our minds about the future stability of the business. As a standard subscriber I am now starting to research my options, not due to the changes themselves, but due to the way it has been communicated.
2 Likes