ISA annoyance (not yet available on Android)

Slightly annoying that I can’t open an ISA in Android. I held off adding to my HL ISA in the hope I’d have the app before April 5th. Now I have the app and I’m in a position where I could stick the whole £20K in without using next years allowance, except I can’t do it

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That is annoying. I hope they get to ISAs soon on Android - I just assumed they’d have them on launch. Freetrade, you’re missing out on a valuable customer here!

Maybe it’s because they want to build switching properly on Android so you can have both ISA and GIA - I wouldn’t have thought there’s much to the ISA other than the switching, as the backend stuff is all in place for ios. I’m sure they have their reasons though. The flip side of Freetrade not gouging us with percentage fees is that AUM doesn’t really matter to them - what matters is ongoing paying customers, rather than getting money in before the April deadline.

I’m impatiently awaiting the 5th April so I can switch over to an ISA on iOS, as I’ve already used HL this year so can’t open another ISA. Will be nice to start building savings in Freetrade too.

Are you going to leave your existing pot in HL or try to migrate it over? I’m planning to leave mine in HL to spread investments around a bit.

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Can you borrow ios device and use your isa allowance?

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The Designing Freetrade for Android blog said

If you have opened an ISA on iOS then you’ll be able to access this. The functionality to open a new ISA on Android will be coming in May.

It sounds like if you can borrow a iOS device, setup ISA, then you’ll be able switch back to Android?

I did think of that, I don’t know off the top of my head anyone who has one. Everyone is Android at work I think

I don’t fancy going round asking people if they have an iphone I can borrow to do a large financial transaction on :smiley:

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Fair point, could get awkward asking someone to borrow their phone so you can install something :sweat_smile:

Haven’t decided yet. I do have a couple of things in HL that aren’t in Freetrade universe yet so I’m keeping it open for a while. I think there’s a £25 fee to close it, but it also costs about £45 a year to keep it open. As I should be getting Alpha membership as a founding member it makes sense to transfer it when I can

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This. It’d even be worth buying a cheap iPhone?

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I’m just leaving mine where it is - £45 a year isn’t so bad and I want to spread my investments across different platforms.

Agreed it’s not so bad, but it’s not as good as £0 that I should get with my free Alpha as a Founding Member

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Sorry that you’re disappointed :pensive:

We chose to launch the Android app as soon as we could, rather than waiting until ISAs were ready. But we will be adding them for Android users by the end of May.

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It’s not a massive deal, I’ve been playing with the basic account today and I’m liking that so far. It is however the first time in my life I’ve been able to afford to put the max ISA allowance in :smiley:

I’m probably better off putting it in a basic account with no fees than adding it to my HL account with loads of fees

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I see your point.

Was it in some FT post it was said that iOS is around half in market share, by that stat, you should find Apple device with someone you are close to :wink:

Anyway its alright, you have still got 3 days to top up ISA.

Will we be able to transfer our investment from GIA to the ISA?

Sort of, we’ve shared some details about how that works here -

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If you have 20k to invest, and would be losing out on tax savings, buy a £70 preowned iPhone and a free pay as you go simcard. Setup your ISA on freetrade. Two days later once it’s all done take the phone back, for refund or trade in. Cost you a few quid and you haven’t lost out on the £20,000 immediate isa deposit.

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I like your thinking outside the box :clap:

And even better if you can try the phone at store to see if it works by installing the FT app etc!

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On the plus side I’m 9 quid up already :smiley:

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Thanks @saf - this is correct, if you use another device you can set it up then switch back to Android!

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:eyes: