National Grid has announced a major rights issue with discounted shares being offered to existing shareholders. I understand Freetrade is unable to facilitate the purchase of theses shares, which leaves FT users taking the 20%+ devaluation of their shares without the offset of being able to purchase the discounted shares to which they are entitled.
Can anyone shed any light on why FT is unable to offer this service? Is it something that can be addressed or is it just an inherent limitation of the platform?
Freetrade really works for me in a lot of ways, but this is a big risk with using the platform that I admittedly had not properly understood until now.
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I would also like a bit more info on exactly why they can’t offer this. A few years ago I thought the excuse “we’re new and we can’t facilitate these corporate actions yet” was reasonable… But I feel like it’s way past the time that excuse still flys. They’ve had years. What have they been doing with that time? Doesn’t feel like much of anything?!
I’ve missed out on a few rights offerings etc in the years I’ve used freetrade but have mostly let it go as a little annoying but NBD. However this is such a big offering at such a steep discount that for the first time I am also starting to see this as a bigger risk that I had anticipated previously.
I’ve never thought about moving before but I just cancelled my plus sub. I just have a GIA here so I’m probably not going to switch that out but I’m also hesitant to put any more money in.
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This topic is covered quite a lot in the National Grid thread. I’ll just mention here as well that T212 are facilitating this.
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If anyone can shed any light or find out it would be @acamp
Whether it can be shared publicly on the forum is another thing
Edit: I’d be interested to know if it’s a technical limitation or something else
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This is quite disappointing, as I calculated in the other thread, I’m probably going to miss out on around £300 discount.
Freetrade have made a big thing about having their own platform and the advantages that brings, but If it can’t do these corporate actions that’s a huge piece missing. If they want to be considered the best stockbroker they need to ba able to facilitate all of the potential actions that come with it.
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It is disappointing. I still have a few quid in T212 account which I was going to close, but may think again. I don’t need all the flash crap from a broker (like T212 credit card etc) but I do want a broker who does all the basics competently and reliably. Not good.
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This is disappointing in a company who preaches they want to get people investing but still can’t offer instant transfer between accounts, this national grid is nothing new I’m loosing out buying more lol, this is the way beginners invest they lose at first.
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T212 offer this and the process to sign up to NG rights issue was so easy. This is going to cost a lot of Freetraders dearly. Me personally, 58 shares at the discounted price!!!
People are going to look elsewhere going forward, me included! So come on Freetrade forget about investing money in the web version and other unnecessary things. This is costing us REAL money!!! Get this sorted first!!!
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Dont thing the web version is a waste of money and this shouldnt be prioritised over it. This should be a basic feature
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I’m sorry but FT should absolutely prioritise a rights issue! People are losing money hand over fist because of this. it is the ultimate betrayal for a broker not to facilitate this. I seriously don’t understand why people still stay with FT and I hope this finally prompts people to leave and find a professional broker to deal with!
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Think the way ive said it is wrong tbf. I mean its a badic feature more of a need than a want
That’s not how it works,That’s not legal in this country. They can’t make profit by adjusting the share price or spread.
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I don’t think you’ve worded it wrong @Lee.will2023
Each of you see/have different needs and feature requirements of a broker.
I can entirely understand @1anrs and others frustration/annoyance at the monetary losses/missed opportunity here
But it doesn’t take away from the fact the web version potentially has more chance of generating revenue long term, if you put a Freetrade hat on.
Because we all have different priorities/feature requirements etc 
This issue alone isn’t going to make a lot of people leave as it doesn’t affect them, that’s the reality.
Though the thought for a number of other reasons (along with the research/keeping an eye on other brokers) to move my assets elsewhere has crossed my mind.
Thankfully I have no dog in the fight, I left FT over a year ago Thank God! However, I feel for people whose misplaced loyalty caused them to remain and I really feel that actions (or inactions) such as this which cause real financial harm to their users should be criminalised. It certainly should show people beyond doubt what I saw over a year ago, that FT have zero interest in the financial wellbeing of their customers!
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Yes, im loyal to FT and have defended them to the hill, but this one has hurt. Id buy around ÂŁ1,000 worth of shares in NG if i could. My current holding is down 20% because of the recent announcement
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Same - and the fact that we are discussing this among ourselves without any formal announcement from FT is pure amateur hour
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I doubt Freetrade even look at these posts, so wasn’t really expecting much of a reply from them, was just trying to get more information as to why they can’t deal with a rights issue and whether there is even the potential for it to be fixed.
I don’t like to make knee jerk reactions, but it is hard to see that this isn’t a major flaw with Freetrade and clearly doesn’t just effect National Grid shareholders - every shareholder is vulnerable to these kinds of corporate actions.
Looks as if it will be pretty expensive to transfer also as fractional shares would have to be sold plus FT apparently charge £17 per US security - another thing I hadn’t appreciated! Bit of thinking required!
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where did you move to?
Bonkers the amount NG have paid the banks to facilitate this rights issue, I can understand why users are frustrated about this issue but I dont see it as the deal of the century people are making it out to be.
T212