I invested in some of the crowfunding rounds and will make a small loss. A bit disappointing but I don’t feel the need to change brokers. I also think it’s clear that many people invested WAY too much. Private companies are a black box. You don’t know if you’ll ever get your money back, you shouldn’t expect to, you can’t review the finances or listen to earnings calls or have any real insight. Crowdfunding is more akin to donating to a cause you like and perhaps you’ll see a return - if you’re lucky.
Let’s look at Monzo as an example that went right. Why did it go right? They booted out the founder and brought in some exec from Visa who knew how to grow a company. Did Monzo early investors know that would happen? No. In our case the founder stayed too long and dropped the ball and here we are. In another universe we got the Visa exec and are expanding into the US next year. It didn’t happen and we have no power to influence anything, unlike in a public company where you vote every year.
I would say as a rule of thumb have no more than 2% of the value of your (public) stock portfolio in private companies.
Freetrade dumped a loss on me - why am I staying with them?
The app remains very pleasant to use
New features like 1m bills, PM trading, leveraged instruments, are all great
Fixed fee is the ideal model for people building a big ISA. Fees are reasonable.
Customer service is excellent. I texted an obscure question (a bot couldn’t answer it) on a Sunday the other day and got a reply within minutes
They will improve more rapidly now they have some cash behind them. Looking forward to seeing more progress in the transformation into a big boy platform
I’m not moving either. I think rather that rage quitting to another company because because you don’t like this decision you have to consider what other competitors offer, and the time/costs in transferring. T212 and others may offer a good product but to me it’s not worth the hassle and costs of transferring my ISA. I’m still happy enough with the Freetrade app for my needs. I realise it’s a bit lacking in some areas, but as a mainly buy and hold investor it’s fine.
Regarding the decision to sell. I suspect it was driven by founders and VCs wanting their money out rather than the current management, so quitting as a response to that seems to be directed at the wrong people
Freetrade raised more cash than competitors like Lightyear. Yet Lightyear seem to have done more with what they raised. This is fact.
Having said that, in terms of moving, I’ll wait and see what IG does after their acquisition is complete. I think I’ll deploy new cash elsewhere for now at least. Freetrade have consistently said they want customer profiles like mine yet here we are…
Yep it was an issue of substandard management/execution. Cash was wasted e.g. Sweden so we fell behind. At the same time, I give myself credit back in 2017/2018 for backing something real. All investors even those of us making a loss, we backed a quality, innovative product which now has sufficient funding to scale.
I have opened a t212 account but am not going to rush any decision to jump ship as others have said new ownership here may prompt improvement and change. I did have issues with a trade on t212 not going through for an extended amount of time (an aim company) I have always bought here without issues.
Everyone just needs to review and make the best decision for them, for me based on your comments.
Point 1 - I don’t care, I’m a long term ETF investor, whether it takes me 20 seconds or 1 minute to place my trade it has no impact on my platform experience.
Point 2 - See above, don’t need those features.
Point 3 - 212 is free for ISA.
Point 4 - Agreed I had no issues whenever I contacted FT CS, not worth £60 a year though.
On Dave’s comment around cost/ time. It took me 30 seconds to submit the transfer paperwork, no fees and as it is an in spec transfer no time out of the market. I dont care if it takes a week or 3 months, no impact on me.
Isn’t there a fee to transfer US stocks? if so I’d either have to eat that fee or the costs associated with selling and buying again (there is spread even if there is no commission)
Depending on your circumstances, and size of holdings selling and rebuying in the new ISA is an option. Alternatively, sell and buy an ETF then once at the new provider sell the ETF and rebuy the shares.
That’s what I was saying all long they have a engineer problem, yes Sweden was a waste of our money not there’s for an expensive market, they was focused on selling trust me that’s why the vc came in but a lot of people seems to forget vc wants there money back asap that’s why features was non existent Lightyear is in more countries and doing very well in few Europe countries I have research it’s all to do with management
This is appealing! But I’m not looking to move everything, just researching whether T212 (or someone else) might be a better fit for me right now. Maybe as a second ISA if that’s possible - I think it is?
Yeah the £60 fee is starting to grate a bit. CS have always been responsive and quick, no issues there.
I won’t be moving to T212 or anywhere else new (already had accounts with HL and AJB before Freetrade).
The app has for a long time allowed me to do everything I wanted it to do (at a price I’m happy to pay) so I’ll be a customer as long as that continues.
What it doesn’t currently have is a SIPP drawdown option offered by other brokers - when the time comes and if that’s still not available, I would transfer my SIPP back to HL.
Although I am sad to leave Freetrade after nearly 6 years, loyalty to a business isn’t worth anything anymore. I haven’t stuck with the same utility company or the same broadband provider so why stick with the same broker if theres better deals elsewhere.
Moving over to T121 where there’s no ISA fee and also received a instant free share, plus 4.9% interest on cash balance.