Freetrade, like most growth stage companies, are loosing money - thatās by design.
A path to profitability is something that needs to be put in place but this whole subject started because of one survey that someone posted. They do this regularly as good companies should to find out what their users want / like / would pay extra for. An Amazon survey 10/12 years ago might have found people would pay decent money for free next day delivery and boom PRIME was devised.
Hi Neil
I get the point you are trying to make. Iām just concerned that if more and more extrapolations for fees get introduced, freetrade will either be as expensive as the legacies or not much cheaper at the very least
Thatās my main point of concern.
It is a tricky needle to thread but I happen to believe the team that built the app (with 1.2m users) from nothing and who have attracted a wealth of talented executives (with fantastic pedigrees) can be those tailors.
Thereās always space in the market for other companies to set up operations. Perhaps a few called FreeLISA, FreeJISA and FreeSIPP will start to pop up for the people who have worries about Freetradeās business model.
Iām with Freetrade for the free trading aspect of service. I donāt mind paying for an ISA or a LISA etc etc. The more relevant products they can have that can benefit from free trading, the better.
Personally I wouldnāt mind paying a few extra pounds (on top of the ISA) for full access to all the stocks available, I do think the Ā£9.99 is off putting for full access and if they were to lower this or combine it with another product, I think it would get more sign ups.
You are right: over the year, if you are not making more than Ā£9.99 a month then you shouldnāt consider the Plus package. If one is not making well over Ā£9.99 a month I am not sure why one would subscribe to an ISA let alone the present ISA package.
I have it for the pension really
Having an ISA for a pension is fine. But if you are putting a tiny amount of money into the ISA and not making anywhere near the CGT threshold then there is 0 value in having your assets in an ISA. If you go down the Plus route you benefit regardless - for a variety of reasons. To be very clear I am not a Freetrade employee or product sales person.
If it is a pension you are after - consider putting your money into a SIPP you will get the automatic government top-up.
In short: I feel all tax wrappers in one basket might be worth like ISA, LISA, JISA, and SIPP along with interest on uninvested cash.
as other fellow mates mentioned no proper reporting is available, order execution is like an instant. at the moment orders are taken and reserved for execution, this method is not useful even if we have limit/stop order options.
Charting is not great, third party software can be integrated with less or no cost like tradingview.
What is suspicious, do you think they would actually run away with your money?
I use T212, as far as I understand they offer a free service to get users and they make money selling other financial instruments.
Never said that. What I did say is I doing know where my asserts would be, 212 wonāt tell me, and their practice is well outside of the norm with no details as to why
Where wonāt they tell you? Looks like itās Interactive Brokers: Do I own the shares that I purchase? ā Trading 212.
I have some shares with T212 and trying to understand this.
Iāve long thought Freetradeās pricing model is out of kilter with its aim of making investing accessible. I would much rather see a percentage-based fee because the current flat one means those with the least pay the most as a proportion. The prevailing wisdom is that most people are best off buying the market but it can be drastically more expensive to do so with FT than many of the incumbents if you have a relatively small amount to invest. As an example, say you have Ā£1,000 you want to invest in an index tracker within an Isaāwith FT, youāre effectively paying 3.6% in fees. If you instead buy an equivalent OEIC with Vanguard or Hargreaves Lansdown, youāre paying 0.15% or 0.45% respectively.
This feels like a bit of an edge case though, because the ISA is of pretty limited value at that point anyway. As a result of the Ā£12k capital gains allowance realistically by the time the ISA wrapper starts to offer much benefit the FT flat fee is ~15bps already and from then on itās just getting cheaper.
In this example I think most users would likely use a GIA (and basically pay Ā£0 to Freetrade) until they had accumulated enough to warrant an ISA (or reached the year when theyād exceed the Ā£20k contribution limit).
That is a fair point. I donāt think itās that much of an edge case thoughāmany will want an Isa because thatās whatās generally advised. Perhaps a Sipp would have been a better comparisonāFT effectively charges the best part of 12% on the first Ā£1,000, or Ā£120 versus Ā£1.50 or Ā£4.50 with VG or HL.
Weāre getting off topic, but Iāll suggest you have a think about that one a little deeper. You think interactive brokers UK limited holds their shares? Considering IB donāt even hold their own shares that seems doubtful. (IB have a nominee company who hold shares Interactive Brokers (UK) Nominee Limited)
Iāve asked them this already when they gave me the interactive brokers response I asked for clarification since for one āinteractive brokersā doesnāt exists in the UK as a company, and two last I checked they wonāt hold shares directly just like almost all brokers in the UK wonāt. (They never replied btw)
And if it is IB, then why are their terms and conditions not matching up to what they say reality is? Why do they give themselves permission to hold your shares directly with 212 if this never happens? And why is their nominee not specifically stated anywhere? They have updated their terms several times but each time have kept the wording that allows them to ship your shares to basically anyone at any time including themselves.
Itās just inconsistent, and people just need to ensure they are aware of the actual terms of service and are happy with them
I have no idea, but that would mean that T212 are lying on their website. I have no way of proving that, unless you do.
I think itās pretty clear that Freetrade work on a freemium business model so itās not surprising theyād be looking to expand their range of chargeable services. Would these services and associated costs suit the personal circumstances of every single customer? I guess not.
More patience. Dont think I have much more to give tbh
If Freetrade offered a LISA and JISA for an extra Ā£2 a month that would be an absolute bargain.
Btw it was a questionnaire to gauge what people want, not what is actually happening.
Out of interest you state you have been investing for a year, what is the value of your portfolio, is the ISA a necessity?