What would make you pay for Freetrade?

[elliottm]

Nothing would make me pay for Freetrade.

In fact, it was because of Fee-trade I opted for Trading212 for their free ISA, substantially cheaper ccy conversion, more substantial stock universe, long term Andriod app and more verifiable track record.

[Rat_au_van (Emma)]

Hope you have much success with your long term investing with them

[Antidev]

@elliottm I came from the other direction. I was only on trading212 for a few months, but I really do not trust them.
Things I dislike about t212:

The minimum trade order size can vary. Sometimes it’s £10 sometimes it’s £50.

If you look at their comments on android, any time they are criticised they hyper defensively raise their FCA registration like its some sort of bullet proof shield without addressing any issues.

They have now started bombarding me with notification to try to tempt me into using CFDs (no thanks!)

And lastly the free share promotion they ran a few months ago. If you don’t log in every 3 months they reclaim the share or it’s current value. So anyone who had lots of referrals and then sold down their promo shares may have a nasty surprise in waiting in the future…

It was a shame, because other than those issues, I quite liked the platform.

[Gaz92]

I know they said they won’t do it, but I’d pay to be able to use Options. Other than that, there isn’t really any feature I want bad enough to pay for - ISAs are just a necessity so it’s a shame they’re behind a paywall but I get they need to make money.

[Chapuys (Kevyn)]

@Tom88

[…]

• Basic users could get access to a list of very liquid, household names which are perfect for building a beginners portfolio (much as the “universe is at present”.
• Premium users get access to all stocks on the LSE/NYSE; otherwise investors will not be willing to commit to a monthly subscription and will just use a competitor if they want to buy shares in a smaller company that isn’t listed on the app (everything listed at present has a market cap well in excess of £1billion if I’m not mistaken).

[…]

Could Freetrade do that within a market like the LSE? It could be possibly claimed they are recommending certain stocks to the free users, which is a big no-no.

I could see them fencing off markets e.g. the Premium members can invest in the USA or Europe etc.

[sircris (Chris L)]

I can currently purchase Fractional shares with my Halifax share account. But its limited to UK shares.

Which basically works I buy £20 of Company A shares, and after their fee which is £2, I get £18 of Company A shares, which could be 7.3765 or 0.675. Whatever fraction or multiple £18 of the actual share price.

I use this as an example because £20 is the minimum purchase.

[SpyrosL]

Advanced portfolio analytics (Simply wall st style), enhanced notifications on corporate events & upcoming dividends, news on portfolio companies, ability to hold multi currency accounts

[littlefinger (GT 😷)]

Fixed cost or max charge that would allow me to get 0 FX fees. Like £10/20 per month capped.

[vayaa]

A mystery share for a subscription, benefits for being a premium member over time, discounts on purchases, other nifty membership perks

[fryry]

I’d pay a reasonable flat rate for these features (some of which are probably already mentioned)

1. Access to world exchanges like Taiwan, Japan, Australia etc.
2. Nutmeg style automatic portfolio management
3. ‘Advanced’ order types, limit order, stop loss etc.
4. real time pricing feed
5. In depth research and analytics
6. Possibly the upcoming SIPP

[Jamie1088 (The Scottish Investor)]

Have to agree with the full dividend breakdown, I’d happily boost my payment per month for that information.

Ex Dividend date, future payments, yield of portfolio, dividend income since inception, dividend income per year.

[piyushsg]

You can get some of these from other places. Thanks for @Marsares I started to use a combo of simply wall street, genuine impact and motley fool recently.

I had a look at Robinhood US and they have lots of free features like portfolio analysis and news. Don’t know when they launch what features they will have

[Marsares]

Atom seems interesting as well, especially now they’ll be launching a premium version soon which can be trialed free of charge initially. I made another post about it elsewhere:

Atom Finance app

They’ll be releasing a test version of the Atom+ offering, initially free of charge: Here are some feature highlights: Price Changes Explained: Real-time commentary on the underlying cause of significant stock price movements Earnings Commentary: Concise pre- and post-earnings notes and key excerpts from conference calls Corporate Actions: In-depth analysis of corporate actions and strategic announcements such as M&A, new product launches, and supply chain updates Equity Research Commentary: …

[piyushsg]

Yes I started using it as well. A little bit overwhelmed because I think their features are more for professional investors who like to research things themselves. Sometimes I am lost of the data and news and don’t really know what to do then.

I am more “tell me what to do” “tell me what it means” type of person so the ones I mentioned are quite fitting to me so far

[Marsares]

Agree, it can be a bit rabbit caught in the headlight if you’re new to this.

One interesting feature of their new Atom+ offering would help though, it looks like they’ll link news to significant movements in share price - which will help to understand why share prices move, and help you understand the mechanics of companies.

I’ll probably use my own research and other tools to filter a short-list for companies, do a deep-dive with Atom and more desk research, but then keep tabs on companies by creating a watch list and a portfolio in Atom.

[Jbmlaird (Josh)]

I think all this basic dividend info should be provided for everybody as it’s basic information about a security, I would not (and should not) pay a fee to gain access to what I can get from a basic Google search.

[Antidev]

I think @vayaa is on the right track. A lot of info is already available for free and charging for services and data that rivals provide cheaper is a risky business for a startup.

But a membership perks model would do nicely. It brings to mind playstation plus, where even though the service was paid for people were happy to receive “free” games monthly.

Freetrade should have a membership that includes lottery style winnings. Maybe merch, free shares, free entry into the next months membership. Members could have access to a leaderboard that ranks member investment performance etc.

A membership that is community spirited, especially as the community is one of FTs strongest points.

[James101]

Microcap RSP stocks which are thinly traded are still expensive to buy and sell (even ignoring the spread). £5-8 brokers offer these stocks but none of the discount disruptors do.

[anon810895]

This used to get brought up on the Monzo forums as a potential thing for Monzo+ to have. It was never very popular for whatever reason.

Think Dozens does something like it.

[Marsares]

Yeah, not a fan of paying for random stuff that you may never get. I’d rather pay for useful functionality that’s on 24/7.