Introducing our pricing model

@Vlad I see your point, but Iā€™ve always read that Freetrade wants to help millennials start investing, and thatā€™s what I hope the focus will be on. I donā€™t know about you, but I donā€™t know many millennials people have Ā£10-15k or more ready to invest? Also, even if Iā€™m under the 10k CGT allowance, Iā€™d rather have it in an ISA so I donā€™t have to worry about any self assessment tax stuff.

Right now Iā€™m nearly 100% certain that Iā€™ll have a free account and pay Ā£36 a year for an ISA, plus maybe Ā£12 for 1 investment per month.

Now, if there was something that would cost maybe Ā£50-60 per year that included a few extra free trades or features, Iā€™d be all over it.

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@Gaz92 certainly it makes it a peace of mind knowing that you have no need to associate yourself with HMRC when using ISA, but again, you only need one if you gains exceed Ā£10,700 or you sell annual allowance x 4 (even not making any gains) - which is at least 43k.

Hence if I was a starter myself, I would have gone for Basic until I realise I am getting close to 20k, and then transfer all into ISA before the 5th of April.

But anyway, I am only saying all of it because I work in a finance related field so this Ā£36 saving is just more efficient than Ā£0 :grin:

I guess if I was not acquainted to the HMRC regs, maybe would have gone for an ISA straight from the start!

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Well put, this. :+1:

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Excuse my ignorance on the matter - Iā€™ve only just started to look into this kind of thing properly.

When it comes to ISAā€™s, having just signed up to Wealthify (it became available on the Starling Marketplace, so I thought Iā€™d give it a go) - Can you only have 1 per year?

Does signing up to Wealthify impact my use of FreeTrade?

Thanks

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The Dividend Allowance is now Ā£2000 for the 2018 tax year. Of course if your pay is already partly dividends (company directors for example), youā€™ve probably used that allowance so an ISA makes sense even if it costs you a little money. I think for most people an ISA is the simplest route, and the one they should be encouraged into.

Itā€™s a shame freetrade couldnā€™t find a way to make the ISA free - that would be an incredibly attractive offer and clearly differentiate them from other services. Looks like the ISAs will be ready for next tax year though, which is good news, even if they do have a small charge.

Iā€™ll probably try out the Alpha service when it comes along as it looks interesting and once you have saved a decent amount the cost is negligible and not comparable to percentage fees charged elsewhere. Again, would be nice if the first x trades were free in a month perhaps for UK too, just to make it really simple.

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If you signed up to Wealthify this current tax year, post April 5, then you canā€™t open an another Stocks&Shares ISA till next tax year.
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Thanks mate,

Is the another way to trade with FreeTrade without having an ISA?

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No worries and yes, just by using the Freetrade Basicā€¦ I believe it comes with a standard general investment account & is likely what most users will begin on.

Edit: Btw briefly @Nick how you finding Wealthify? My brother was due to sign up, but theyā€™ve now requested a countersigned ID doc for verification, so itā€™s causing a bit of a delay.

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I signed up today after seeing it in the Starling Marketplace - I got to the end, and they are doing some extra checks.

I spoke to them, and they said itā€™s standard stuff, and may need a bank statement (ironic, considering itā€™s linked through my Starling account!).

I canā€™t comment aside from that!

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Correct, you can only pay into one Stocks and Shares ISA per tax year. If youā€™ve already done so with another broker you cannot open another with Freetrade until 6th April 2019 (start of the new tax year) - but ISAs are transferrable between managers, meaning that if you were willing to effectively close the ISA youā€™ve already opened, you can move it to another broker and it becomes your one for that tax year. This is complicated enough for a blog post, I feel.

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Thanks Cal.

I only signed up to Wealthify today, so nothing has been confirmed yet (Iā€™ve just spoken with them, and theyā€™ve said itā€™s not been fully processed).

My question was, can I still trade with FreeTrade, despite not being able to open a new ISA?

It seems the answer is ā€œYesā€, with a GIA and basic trading?

Is that right?

Re: ā€˜outside of ISAā€™ trading, yes, you will be able to trade in a GIA regardless of your ISA situation elsewhere. The only material effect of this is that capital gains and income tax rules apply to gains and income respectively.

Without commenting on your specific situation with your current S&S ISA, it may be interesting to note that an ISA is only officially opened if money is paid into it. Therefore, you can make an application to have an ISA and have it accepted by the provider, but nothing is set in stone until you actually put money into it. Also, many financial products have ā€˜cooling-offā€™ periods in the contract whereby you can change your mind within a certain number of days and in HMRC-terms an ISA was not officially opened.

Usual caveats apply - informational purposes only and everyoneā€™s tax circumstances are different!

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Out of interest, do you know what rate DG bases that fee on? Is it the Interbank rate as well?

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Am I right that the 3/month ISA idea that FT talked about some months ago has since been replaced by the Alpha account?

I wouldnā€™t add a price segment between Basic and Alpha unless/until you have a load of data pointing at it being a need - simpler proposition with just basic and alpha.

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Either Alpha with all of its benefits fro Ā£10 pm or just ISA for Ā£3 pm with free end of the day trades

yep interbank rate +0.1% for DG.

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Thatā€™s less options than currently proposed. What you said @Vlad suggests doing away with the free General Investment Account.

@rod adding a mid-tier would be in name only because essentially right now there are 3 options under the guise of 2:

Option 1: Basic General Investment Account for free with EOD trades + discretionary instant trades

Option 2: Basic ISA for Ā£3/month with EOD trades + discretionary instant trades

Option 3: Alpha for Ā£10/month

Arguably, it would be simpler to carve a mid-tier out of option 2. It could bridge the gap between Basic & Alpha in a clear manner.

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DG is cheap but it is clunky as itā€™s not mobile first, the app is just an add on to the website i.e. you canā€™t sign up via the app or even through a mobile browser, you need to go through a desktop/laptop to complete! Itā€™s not exactly a Monzo!

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Oh - because ISAs were only mentioned (at Freetrade Invest Hub ) in rel to the Alpha account I had the sense that, that option 2 was no longer happening.

Also it would be helpful if this community had a way of visually labelling employees of FT.

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Indeed, let them have a pink background on every post with a white logo in the bottom left-hand corner!

Or (simple solutions), give them all Moderator shields next to the names.

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