£3 is a good deal for ISA, I have a plus account now for over a year and need the limit price but I cant afford to keep 4k in cash now to get the 3% interest back. Im hanging on by the skin of my teeth.
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I had a GIA and ISA at ii. I moved here a few months ago, mainly because for 9.99 a month at ii I got 1 free trade a month, after that it was 7.99 commission on each purchase/ sale. Here for 9.99 I have the same accounts and no commission fees, so now in a few months I will be getting commission free trades, an ISA and investment account for 4.99 a month, whats not to like?
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So change to the standard account at 4.99 a month. If you already pay for the plus account now, you’ll get the current plus account perks in the standard account for £5 less a month That will give you £60 more a year to invest. FT aren’t saying you have to keep 4k in your ISA, they’re just saying if you do, the interest covers your fee. You DO NOT have to put £4000 cash in your ISA.
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Please add web browser to Standard. It’s not difficult or costly to do so and the user experience would be exponentially improved.
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My guess would be for Freetrade to launch a lite version in basic with enhanced data and insight for higher tiers. It’s still in beta at the moment and the new plans don’t start until October.
wow that looks like a good deal for me, will i get the limit pricing for 4.99 a month and ISA. I did know about the 3% cash interest, but i did not know about this new pricing structure. Does anybody have a link to the new pricing? Thankyou
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Click on your profile button in the app, then manage my plan, then change my plan, it lists all 3 options
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I’m trying to get my head around what will be left in the free universe as I’ll be adding to my GIA and I’d like to avoid one of my stocks going behind a paywall if possible.
As far as I can tell, it’s only US stocks being removed, leaving the following in the basic plan:
- FTSE 350
- FTSE AIM 100
- Freetrade US 500
- iShares, Vanguard, and Invesco ETFs
Is that correct? Anyone able to confirm please?
From https://freetrade.io/basic-plan:
(so you are missing the Europe 150)
If you want more clarity than that please ping hello@freetrade.io
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Thank you, missed that. As much as I’m not a fan of paywalls, that remains a reasonable free offering.
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I can’t really understand why FT want to limit availability to US stocks on basic. They would earn 0.45% commission in each direction for trades. It’s a differentiator for the standard and plus, sure, but I think there’s better ways.
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Its probably to help encourage people to upgrade to paid subscription and then buy US stocks and earn the FX fee aswell.
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True, I can see House point though. If a basic user buys a US stock, FT get a cut in the FX fee. By blocking them, they don’t! It does seem a little counter-intuitive to me, with a little more thought FT could probably have included some US stocks that people want to buy and still made more income from those who are absolutely determined they won’t become standard users.
uninformed guess incoming.
but you need to look at the scale of the problem. 0.45% on trades is likely tiny in terms of freetrades current scale.
With a million users, let assume generously that half of them are making a £100 US trade per month (ive no idea on the actual numbers). that’s around £225,000 per month generated. £2.7 million a year. its nothing. You then need to account for costs, wages, infrastructure, processing fees, trading fees, legal fees, currency fees, compliance fees, and so on and so on.
The best comparison I have is card processing. where it’s largely based on a per transaction fee structure for the most part. the % is small, but its small because the number of transactions isn’t calculated in the low millions per year, its calculated on the billions of transactions per year, and hundreds of billions in USD per year.
the scale is completely different.
personally I think its just a communication issues on freetrades part (though im guessing on their goals a bit). but to speculate, I expect the change in what’s available is to keep the US share universe in line with the structure of all the other shares. UK and European shares both have a structure, and now the US does as well. it keeps the product consistent.
and while cheaper is always better… honestly £5 a month for access to major European and US stock markets with no other fees other than a relatively competitive Fx is frankly really cheap.
Now saying that, Freetrades actual platform still has a lot of maturing to do compared to others. but if you told me 10 years ago I could pay just £5 a month to access to stock market id have asked you if you’re sure it wasn’t a scam because you just can’t get access that cheap.
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You make valid points. It comes down to volumes, to your point, and psychology. The £5 is an upfront cost, the FX is sort of hidden.
Unfortunately there is no way to do an A,B test to find out they just have to run with it.
On the costs and maintenance front, why would you want to maintain two universes though?
I’ll reserve judgement until it’s out of beta, but for me it’s the same thing with the website, why would you want to limit access for people to make trades? Free trade want to brag about AUM and being the biggest broker in the London stock exchange.
I’m largely passive these days, so I can’t see why people need much more than VWRP, but this is a trading app.
If the the figures around the last raise are still valid, then the average account is around £1000. I guess this is massively skewed so that there are a lot of users with nothing but free shares and have cashed out, so the median account value is higher. Still, I can’t really see the ISA being really necessary at typical account figures. Also, you can only fund one account type each year. If you get people into trading on basic then the gateway to ISAs and SIPPs is clear.
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With all the options i.e. GIA and plus, ISA and plus, GIA and Plus and SIPP, ISA and plus and SIPP etc. There was quite a lot of permutations. It’s gone from many to three.
They already had a market leading SIPP, throwing in ISA is great, great value!
The only counter I have regarding larger pots is the limit of FSCS coverage.
I’m currently paying a modest premium for ‘nuclear-proof’ Vanguard vs cash burning, loss making start up which I consider a checklist risk.
I’m not in the slightest tribal about my brokerage service providers and would happily transfer my free ISA from T212.
(That however would take me further over FSCS coverage.)
Let me mull it over at my leisure 
.
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