Why is there such a big discrepancy between purchase price and total cost once the stock is purchased?
The price shown is delayed by about 15 minutes, since FT is for long term investments and not day trading. Always check with other sources to get a more definitive price.
You can also set limit orders and choose what price you pay with the FT plus membership.
So if i want to invest Ā£5 worth of shares, then FT takes Ā£5 from me but iām only buying significantly less than Ā£5?
How is that fair?
Itās fair because before you press buy there are multiple parts of the process that tell you the price is estimated, and that there could be a delay of up to 15 mins.
If youāre getting āsignificantly lessā than Ā£5 on a Ā£5 investment, then you may be putting your money into a volatile share, in which case you should always be checking elsewhere for live prices to make sure youāre happy with it.
It works both ways tooā¦ the price could obviously have significantly dropped before you press ābuyā, putting you in a better position than you expected.
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I suggest you read to T&Cs very carefully as they are quite clear of all costs involved. Once you have done that I think you will find that although nothing in life is free this app is pretty close to free trading.
And about it being fair, well I am yet to find something more fair than here when investing smaller amounts like Ā£5 at a time.
Maybe with big bucks it can be cheaper but Freetrade is certainly fair.
So just so iām clearā¦Only the actual estimated price is what is deducted from my FT account? ā¦Not the actual price i enter?
If they were that clear to me then i wouldnāt be in here asking for clarity would i.
If you put in Ā£5 for 2 shares and the live price is now Ā£5.01 you will only get 1 share but spend about Ā£2.50 so not the whole Ā£5 you entered. Consider it as up to Ā£5 worth of shares.
On penny stocks of say 3p each and spending Ā£100 the total amount of shares can be very different by the time it is processed but it clearly states this when buying.
They donāt take extra % making it not free but your allowance may suddenly not cover the max shares of previous price 15 mins ago. Sometimes it is more sometimes less but best to watch a live site when hitting the buy button if concerned.
If you enter Ā£4 but the review page says Ā£3.40 without ever saying whether youāre being charged Ā£4 or being charged Ā£3.40 then youāre bound to get people asking for more clarity for what is going on.
Knowing that itās to do with share price fluctuation averaging doesnāt help with knowing what youāre paying āāIn Situāā. ā¦I guess thatās my pointā¦People still need to know what theyāre being charged even when they know the reason behind it.
My point was in answer to you saying that FT take more and not being fair 
Understand your view but now you can be assured they are not taking extra money off you. FT has some issues but value for money is not one of them.
I understandā¦Thank you.
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A possible solution to this.
Before hitting āāConfirmāā on any stock purchase, first check which stock lets you invest to the most accurate amount you want and then do that one last.
That way you donāt have an annoying amount under Ā£2 left in your FT account doing nothing until you can afford to top up again.
Buying shares will never be an exact process, due to the fluctuations in the market.
By putting Ā£4 in, youāre essentially saying youāre happy to pay up to Ā£4 for the shares. You know you might pay less (if the market drops, if youāve put in a large amount of headroom), but youāre not going to pay more.
Depending on what you buy, not all the money may be going on shares as stamp duty may apply.
If you want to put in Ā£4 and spend Ā£4, thereās always US shares, as you can buy fractional US shares (though there will be an FX fee off the top).
tl;dr, DYOR before buying so you know what to expect. Be especially careful when buying and selling volatile shares.
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