Stated as zero-fee investing but actually £8 more expensive on £1000 then my current Broker!

#1

I am quite angry on how Freetrade is lying about zero-fee investing but actually charges me x times more then my current Brooker.

I trade mostly US stock.
Freetrade investing £1000 in US stock:

  • I pay 1£ fee to buy (my choice I get this)
  • I pay 0.45% for FX exchange
  • I pay 1£ to sell
  • I pay another 0.45% for FX exchange
    Total: 1+4.50+1+4.50 = £11 for buy + sell

Platform I am using now (I can post name at any time if anyone is interested but do not want to advertise here as this post is not about promoting different platform)

  • I pay 0.50£ fee to buy
  • I pay 0.1% for FX exchange
  • I pay 0.50£ to sell
  • I pay another 0.1% for FX exchange
    Total: 0.50+1+0.50+1 = £3 for buy + sell

This makes a difference of £8 pounds lost on Freetrade compared to my current Brooker. I think if Freetrade cases about their users and want best for their community they should at least think about doing things better then other companies which they compete with.

Another pretty bad example is that I was buying 2 Amazon stocks and set price limit and Freetrade App confirmed in summary that I will buy 2 for my set price. At the end it it bought just one and so I had to spent another £1 on another transaction because it did not buy 2 at the first place. Can they at least fail whole transaction if they are not able to buy as manny as confirmation screen displays!!!

I started moving my whole portfolio from my current broker to Freetrade but at this point it does not make sense because I would just loose lots of money on hidden freetrade fees.

(ashik) #2

whats the other platform ?

#3

Other platform is Degiro UK, I wanted to move my whole portfolio to freetrade and made a good start until I found out this is costing me much more money then their fees. I am quite disappointed that I can not move it as I was so looking forward to it.

(Alex Sherwood) #4

The Instant orders which you are paying £1 for are optional. If you choose a Basic order then you won’t be charged the £1 fee per order.

#5

I understand that. I am not complaining about instant orders as that is my choice. I am trying to point to FX fee which seems way to high.

Stop paying up to £12 for every trade. Get your invite now.
This is from your website!
I actually paid £13.50 in fees on Freetrade Today for 2 shares of Amazon!

(Emma) #6

But that’s not for every trade. That’s a very expensive stock so the foreign exchange cost is going to be very high

#7

It does not really mater as you will always pay same percentage. you will just see a difference when you try to calculate this over the time.

I think Freeetrade can do so much better given that Monzo and Revolut has such a good rate. I do not see the point not to try to lover it down at least to their competitors level.

(Vladislav Kozub) #8

Your statement is utterly incorrect because you have the option to pay £0 for the rest of your life by simply buying UK ETFs and using basic transactions. You will not even have to pay stamp duty. If you choose to pursue the US stocks - Freetrade has been transparent with you about all the applicable fees.

If DeGiro is more appealing to you as a consumer, it is absolutely fine since we are in a perfectly competitive market, but it is just not nice to make such baseless accusations against Freetrade.

(Andrew Clark) #9

I just read through Degiro’s 6 pages of fees. The highlight was the 100€ fee to register for the shareholder meeting (sic). Overviews by email 5€ per statement. Transfer to Degiro is 10€ per position.

(Alex Sherwood) #10

Degiro’s fees vary a lot based on how you use their service. You can check their fees here & use their price calculator here.

#11

So you are trying to say that FX fee is not a fee? As zero-fee investing means for me that I pay zero pounds per transaction! I already mentioned that I understand £1 fee is my choice but trying to make a point on FX fee which is in my opinion quite high

(Emma) #12

Putting things in bold doesn’t make it truer

You can invest for free if you wish but if you wish to buy US stocks there are costs involved. It’s not a fee, it’s the rate

#13

I understand that someone who is buying £50 worth of stock each month does not really care as fee won’t be much. I try to invest more money thought this service is going to be right one for me as that is also reason why I invested in Freetrade.

#14

It still comes out of your pocket, fee, rate it is all the same as you need to pay for it. All I think is that Freetrade can do better and if Degiro managed to offer 0.1% rate I think Freetrade can also revisit their rate as 0.45% seems hight to me.

(Alex Sherwood) #15

Edited - to add the text that’s highlighted in green.

We have to make money somehow & this is one of the ways that we’ve chosen to do so. We’re not making money from it yet. As Emma pointed out, this is our conversion rate not our fee but we do plan to make some revenue from fx in the future. That means that we don’t need to charge you other fees. You can see our pricing here.

Exactly we won’t be the perfect solution for everyone & that’s ok. We have other benefits & they have other fees. Hopefully you’ll find the best solution for your needs.

(Emma) #16

2 different animals. They do CFDs and all that so they have other revenue streams that can cover a loss they’re making on their low exchange rate

#17

Haha do not get me wrong, I am happy as a Freetrade investor because of this but not so happy as a user.

#18

Alex, would you ever consider to decrease this fee for people who wants to move their portfolio to Freetrade or give them an allowance on x pounds with 0% FX and free Instant orders until they move everything? This could be very costly if someone needs to sell all their holdings and repurchase them again in Freetrade.

(Georgi) #19

I think it would be clever for you to lower that FX % for people with larger accounts. The bigger your portfolio is the lower the FX% is. That way you can attract more people and people with sizeable portfolios are more incentivised to stay with Freetrade.

(Vladislav Kozub) #20

Don’t you think it would be unfair towards every other customer who did not get the same treatment?

One fair way I see for this is specific subscription (similar to Alpha) with a larger flat fee and low (or lack of) FX fees. But again, I am just speculating and suppose this could be a longer-term option rather than an immediate solution :slight_smile: