Iāve seen a few comments along this line. It did raise Ā£35m in May 2022 from all existing as well as new investors (I.e. less than a year ago). If it was able to raise last year when the picture was a lot worse and the downturn didnāt look like ending soon, then itāll be good to raise this year (albeit with taking a haircut on valuation/terms).
Theyāre optimising for profitability more than growth right now. These price changes will increase revenues and you can imagine other rationalisations happening on costs.
We can see theyāve setup a new office in Budapest and are hiring for 17 new roles across countries. So not to pick on your individual comment, but I donāt think this general kind of fear is justified as a customer. At worst itāll be Freetrade āby Monzo/JPM/anotherā. The Freetrade brand itself is strong and worth keeping, like Nutmeg after the JPM acquisition.
Agree with most except the confidence in the company as the last raise was a major flop. Comms were terrible and it seems the only time FT talk now is when they want money or votes.
Agree the changes are probably good and more sustainable actions but people were shouting this a long time ago. It just looks confused/lost to change pricing so quick. Hopefully FT are bought by someone who has the money to improve the package and come out of endless beta/half hearted tools.
The brand is fantastic and very good for this era but what made it so good was the fact it was cool/relatable/in touch with customers. They could do with hiring someone like Paddy Powers PR team and get their mojo back. Am sure a buyer would acknowledge this but still know they can steal the company for a cheap price.
Also, the worrying thing about the staffing in another country is if they intend to eventually move there and only keep a place in UK for legal reasons to cut costs. I want to support UK start ups not out sourcing companies.
Not that anyone really cares about one small investorās opinion, but Iāll be staying with Freetrade. If paid in a single lump, once a year, the fees arenāt going up. Itās like paying for your car insurance monthly, you incur admin fees and interest and over a year of monthly instalments it costs a bit more.
For me, it probably means for one month I pay the fees rather than topping up my ISA. Iām still reinvesting dividends, and I still manage to save and hope my little portfolio grows.
I like the interface on the app, I like the way it works. Of course, Iād rather pay less, or nothing, who wouldnāt? But this is a business, FT has to make money somehow.
Waiting for a web based version that worksā¦
Dry cleaning a shirt now costs me Ā£2 instead of Ā£1.5. My local falafel shop recently increased the price of the wrapp from Ā£6 to Ā£6.50, I could mention hundreds of examples, and the change is always in the same direction.
The situation for growth companies isnāt easy. In order to secure fresh funding, they need to show VCs their business makes sense and they need to show profitability. Unfortunately, this means FT cannot continue to be as cheap as it was when rates were 0% and any company could easily raise millions in minutes.
I still think the simplicity of FT and particularly, the FT SIPP are great, so even if it is now a bit more expensive it still works for me. Obviously if you are a day-trader it might be a different story, everyone needs to do their own numbers on this one.
Now now.
I have never said there costs havenāt risen.
I said it hasnāt risen as much as CPI.
āWhere exactly did you obtain your economics degree?ā
I assume you mean a degree in finance/business not economics.
Economics is a social science. A degree in predictive inaccuracies.
āThe only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.ā
It appears that the"I love freetrade and the rest of you have no right to find fault "
Are still blocking people having alternative views.
Surprised not
3-5 days for withdrawals to be in your bank account.
Very small choice of shares.
Very high costs relative to 212
But freetrade compare themselves with Hargreaves Lansdowne?
Who offer all of market.
They will supply an up-to-date price.
The price you see is the price you get (was that an advertising slogan?)
If you set a limit order, if it reaches that price you will get it.
They have a contact phone number which they answer.
Joined the community 3 days agoā¦
Be careful who you listen to on here. Bad actors are as loud as they were way back when the Freetrade community was set up.
Just a reminder please do keep our Community Rules in mind when posting. I understand price changes can be an emotive topic and thereās certainly lots of opportunity for constructive debate, but we wonāt tolerate any deliberately combative posting.
I sent the following questions to Freetrade support (where I mention āemail belowā Iām referring to the email containing notification of upcoming changes to pricing):
With regard to the email below, is it possible to opt into the new price structure early?
I would like to switch to an annual subscription but I would like to do this at the beginning of April so that my annual subscription payment aligns with the tax year.
If this isnāt possible, is it possible to pay a pro-rata subscription for May to April (based on the annual subscription cost) so that my 2024 annual subscription payment would be due in April 2024 instead of May 2024?
This is the response I got back:
Thanks for your interest in our annual subscription option! Unfortunately, you wonāt be able to opt-in to or set up an annual subscription just yet.
Annual subscriptions are coming in May 2023, so any annual subscriptions would start from May.
We will be providing more communications nearer the time - make sure to keep an eye out in the app!
In the meantime, Iāll register your interest in this to make sure we contact you!
We donāt have a pro-rata option, Iām afraid. Youād continue to be charged Ā£4.99 for April, and then if you donāt switch to the annual plan in May, youāll be charged Ā£5.99 on whichever date your subscription payment is taken in May.
Sounds like they donāt have the infrastructure setup to align this with the April tax year and also implies that it will run from May 23 to April 24. Which then pushes into the following tax year after that.
Have Freetrade considered the yearly payment being 11 months? They donāt really answer this that the above reply.
I think it is answered. The sentence starting āYouād continue to be charged Ā£4.99 for Aprilā¦ā is a bit confusing as Iām not sure if its referring to 2023 or 2024, but by saying there is no pro-rata option I take that to mean there is no possibility to make an 11 month payment.
Iām probably just going to pay monthly this year and then switch to annual from April 2024. It will only be Ā£11 more.
In case people are interested, FreeTrade replied regarding the sanctioned stock in my ISA portfolio in the event of me transferring my ISA, to give FreeTrade their due, a very reasonable response:
Extract that I wrote on the forum on Friday I think:
