I hope you guys can help with my queries. I am looking at ISA options for sharedealing this coming April 2021. I already have the GIA account with Freetrade.
If I open a ISA account:
TIA for your replies
would I also need the Freetrade Plus membership to get access to more stocks, or is this already included in with the £3 per month ISA?
Yes. With £3 per month ISA you are getting only ISA. With £10 Plus you are getting ISA, plus more features and expanded stock universe. I mean, I don’t know if you NEED it, but it’s there if you want it.
Do you earn interest on the cash portion in your ISA (I know there is one with the Plus membership)
yes
A point i was going to make, lots of people dont need plus, the stocks and funds arnt necissary for you’re average investor, but it just depends on what you’re wanting to do with your investing.
Only if you have plus. You’ll earn interest in your ISA and GIA account. Just to clarify a bit
And interest with Plus is capped at £4,000 of cash, even if you had a cash balance of £10,000, so all it really does is pay for the Plus membership.
And give your money some work to do while it’s uninvested
Wow! Extremely quick replies, thanks all for the info.
Hi, I want a stocks & shares ISA, and I am considering freetrade. I have just seen that FT plus (currently) offers 3% interest on cash upto £4K.
My intention was to put £6K into my chosen ISA this financial year - if I instead put in £10K, but leave £4K of that sum uninvested for the foreseeable future, the monthly interest payment would seem to cover the cost of a freetrade plus account.
Is there any downside to this (other than the obvious one thst the £4K is not in fact earning net interest, which I’m OK with).
Do freetrade actively try to stop you leaving £4K of funds in the ISA uninvested long term?
If I leave the £4K cash in the ISA, does the interest get paid into the ISA (thereby increasing the total cash within) or is it paid back to my registered bank account?
If the 3% interest arises from cash left within the ISA, is that interest then declarable for tax purposes (as part of interest exceeding the £1K HMRC allowance), or is it classed as excempt due to sitting within the ISA wrapper?
TIA for any feedback, I am swithering between freetrade and Barclays, the above questions will inform my decision.
Hi Graeme,
FT will be fine with you leaving a balance in cash. The interest will be paid into your GIA, I think this is due to some people may have already put in the full £20k allowance into their ISA.
The Plus fee will be taken from your bank account, though they were looking into taking it from an investment account, I think.
Question to ask yourself, do you really need Plus for the £10 a month? I find myself collecting these things then not using them as much as I thought and they turn out to be £10 paper cuts each month.
Full interest on £4k for a year is only £120, so well within the interest allowance.
If you’re doing a comparison to Barclays, also consider the dealing charges rather than just a wrapper or platform fee.
Hi Euan,
Thanks for the feedback. I probably don’t really need the plus, but I’d like to have the £3/month ISA fee covered without me having to pay for it, and I have £4K sitting earning precisely zip in a current account anyway, so I see it as getting “free” access to the wider selection of funds, and also the ability to place stop loss etc. trades.
Ok, follow up question: I took the plunge and downloaded the app. I was only offered a choice of ISA or GIA. As my desire is for a plus account and an ISA, I chose ISA, and I have sent some funds to open it. So, how do I get the plus account - do I now have to open a separate GIA, and them upgrade that (somehow) to plus?
Did you open an ISA (£3 a month) or did you purchase Plus (£9.99 a month)?
If you only opened an ISA, you can upgrade to plus by clicking the avatar like icon in the top right of your portoflio and there should be an option to upgrade to plus and also manage you ISA under the Account section.
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any additional questions 
hi, many thanks for the quick reply. I just opened an ISA, transferred some money to it, and then (while the transfer was still pending) looked sround in my new account for an upgrade option - which wasn’t visible. However, my transfer has now gone through, and I now have the upgrade to plus option available on my account, so all good. Thanks again for putting up with my newbie teething problems 
Glad to hear it’s all sorted! No worries, welcome to the Freetrade Community 
Another benefit is that you get a discount on a SIPP which is the reason I am going for the whole package. I was just trying it out for a bit first to see if I like the app etc.
I have 1 question for anyone regarding this though. If I cash in some shares to my GIA can I transfer that money to ISA or SIPP? Or do I need to withdraw to bank then re-invest? and if you can, how quick and easy is it in real terms?
Thanks in advance.
If it’s anything like an ISA, you can drop a message to customer support (or email money@freetrade.io) and they will schedule the cash to be moved between the accounts.
It’s worth noting, the money from the sale of the stock will have to be settled before the money can be moved. This can take 3/5 days.
Cool , I was hoping it would be similar to selling then buying as it was all internal and delays were only when it went external 
FYI, my interest has always been paid in to the isa rather than the gia.
This topic was automatically closed 416 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.