Freetrades fee is cheaper than most once you have a large amount. for example HL change 0.45% I think which is cheaper than freetrade till you get up around Ā£8K
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Same boat. Not having it all in an ISA would only further complicate my tax.
I would also argue that having an ISA is a long term thing that continues to accumulate over time. If people are starting to invest now and donāt hope to have more then the allowances in there in 20-25 years time then stick to basic, but I suspect Iāve just made the minority a majority.
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And you also get unlimited commission free trades at 4pm, or roughly 10 instant trades to one of the incumbents trade commission.
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I wish I could max out my ISA but Iāve investing in one because Iād rather avoid any potential tax shenanigans if I can in the long run.
Peace of mind knowing that any dividends I get and any profit I make from selling wonāt be taxable or subject to any caps (right now).
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But I mean if you want a Shares ISA are they not a good option in comparison to the others?
In line with some of your points above @PigeonStrangler Good article I read over the week
āAmericans younger than 50 held just 16% of all investable assets in 2016, down from 31% in 1989, according to the Fedās triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, leaving the rest to households 50 and older.ā
As per Adamās interview back in 2018: https://startups.co.uk/freetrade-adam-dodds/
āFreetradeās main target demographic is millennials, but the app is really for anyone who wants to invest with less expense, hassle and friction.ā
So aside from cash-poor milennials, thatās older people who may have already accumulated sizeable ISAs over the years (which can now be transferred over to 
) and those who want to diversify across investing platforms.
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I reached out to RH UK to ask some Qās about the likes of their offerings and more importantly the lack of the shares ISA. They donāt have the ISA option you get with FT for a start which is what is still making me want to stick with FT in the new year. They also donāt have all the options the US version of RH does like the Crypto or options to invest in gold (although they say that will be coming soon for the UK version).
All in all, I think new year I will still probably go with FT still (although my pet peeve is they are very slow to adopt new companies, even ones with lots of votes over ones nobody is interested in!?) and also RH you can just use direct debit to add more funds, which baffles me why FT wont do this?
The ISA is what keeps me as i want to avoid being taxed out the backside as much as possible, even if it does cost me Ā£3 a month!
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I just moved all my funds from the basic account to the FT ISA, I only have 4K - thinking 
perhaps I shouldnāt have bothered now. I just didnāt want to get down the line say 10 years from now and have to sell off a larger portfolio to move to an isa to avoid tax implications. Should I have stuck with the basic account ?
I think what youāve done is pretty bright and shows foresight. If I were you Iād keep adding to it now until you meet your goals.
If you were investing 4k and no more a basic account would be fine, if youāre planning on adding more over the years youāll soon hit the limits.
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Appreciate the reassurance, Iām only adding about Ā£150 a month but am looking to add more over the long term. 
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Just for personal knowledge, what would be the issue with selling off stock and buying it the next day in the ISA account? Obviously the market may change in the day, but am I missing anything else?
No issue. Just a lot of messing around.
My portfolio is pretty vast, as it would be when you near the limits, rebuying everything would take some figuring out/jotting down!
Whilst itās interesting to see the Robinhood app gear up to launch in the UK iām personally a dead cert to stick with Freetrade.
I think if you want tomargin trade, tackle cryptos and all that uber risky jazz, itās probably the broker for you, but thatās not for me.
They also have:
- to Execute all trades in USD
- No ISA
- No ETFs
The latter two especially are deal breakers for me.
Freetrade is, in my view, the only neobroker with an offering suited to long term investors.
Iām surprised no one seems to share this sentiment but: Life is too short for me to risk investing with a broker trying to cross sell me something, whether itās CFDs (Bux, EToro, Trading212), a premium bank account (Revolut) or Credit (Robinhood). I remember chatting to someone on here who used Trading212 and was constantly terrified heād be dark patterned into buying a CFD, Iāve no interest in parking my capital anywhere like that tbh.
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Robinhood will have none though.
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No FX fees though
They will route them to the US so they can still do the market flow flow stuff according to this Quartz article? Iāve heard many people mention on here thats illegal in the UK so is it illegal for them to move them offshore and this article is wrong or are they just saying theyāll make up for it in the US and still offer the user here the price they paid in the UK? Very confused how this will work in the UK.
ā¦from selling clientsā stock orders to the market makers who handle the trades, a process called payment for order flow. This means their UK customersā orders will be bought and sold in the US, and those trades will be filled by a trading firm there.
You would end up paying stamp duty again when re-purchasing stocksā¦ so even if the price remains the same its not cost free ā¦
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Having read the Robinhood features, I think it looks like a great product but probably more suited towards trading, rather than investing.
Lack of ETFs and ISAs is a big one for me. Also the limited exposure to the U.K., which I think has some great dividend stocks.
Another drawback for me is that your portfolio is automatically converted in USD - thatās fine if you buy US stocks, but if you want to buy GBP or EUR denominated stocks you expose your portfolio to unnecessary currency risk.
Overall I am actually quite optimistic , I think there is a place for both Robinhood and Freetrade in the U.K. Freetrade definetely will have some great improvements coming up in the next few months and I think that the noise that RH is generating at the moment will get people to want to invest in ISAs and U.K. market in Freetrade.
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Iāll use all platforms,
- FT for ISA - no fees or low fees but FX 0.45, no web version
- Trading212 (considering ISA) - low fees, no FX charge, web version
- Definitely RH, just to checkout - No ISA, No ETF, no fees, no FX, app + web (Iām not planning to use infinite leverage)
- IB (now they have lite version with 0 fees I think) this is best platform but sadly no ISA, no FX charge
Correct me Iām wrong with details.
Keeping some of your money in USD is not bad (diversification etc), wish I did that before Brexit vote. I tried but made some mistake.
I donāt see maxing out my CGT so, personally I donāt have to use ISA.
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