Good idea, I’m way down the queue but might have an ask around when I move up
Freetrade doesn’t allow direct share transfer yet.
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No ISA for me.
Are those who are using Freetrade maxing out their £20k ISA allowance elsewhere?
They may be investing via Freetrade without an ISA wrapper. CGT does not apply for crystallised profits of less than £11,700 nor does dividend tax before £2,000.
No way you can hit either of those in one year by investing ~£20,000 unless you are lucky with crypto (but that’s gambling, not investing).
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Woop woop, got my invite.
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Not within a year, but if investing for the long term I’m not sure why anyone would opt to do it outside an ISA wrapper unless they’ve already maxed out their subscription limit.
I use Hargreaves Lansdown for Shares ISA and SIPP, it works fine, though the trade fees are high (not so bad if you don’t trade much). Fees for holding stocks are not bad, it looks like they do support transfers from equitini.
The ISA should be ready really soon (in the next few months), so in time for ISA season next year. It’s the top priority with both users and Freetrade I believe. I think at present people are just trying out the app a bit using a normal investment account, and if it is small amounts you’re v. unlikely to have to worry about tax given new rules. I know I’m waiting for the ISA product to start investing seriously with it next year, but no reason not to try it out just now if you have an invite.
The app is looking really nice and I’m excited to see what they do with it - prefer it to HL already because of the simpler design and very low fees. For anyone else who likes the idea you can see what users have requested and add ideas over on their forum.
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Thsnks. Any idea where the fees are listed? I can’t see them on the FAQs. Its only one company I need to simply hold shares for. I won’t be using it to invest; I’m doing that through Freetrade.
I think it is here, 0.45% per year (capped at £45) - they calculate per year and charge it monthly from cash in the account, for small amounts (if just one share) it shouldn’t be much, but you’d want a small amount of cash to cover fees in there too:
This page suggests no charge for UK shares? Which is what I have in Funding Circle shares… I’ll admit to being completely confused.
No charge for holding shares in Fund and Share account (non-ISA account). 0.45% fee (capped at £45) for holding shares in an ISA. Holding funds attracts a fee in both account types.
HL’s full set of fee information is annoyingly spread over multiple FAQ pages making it pretty difficult to locate. It used to be all on a single page like everyone else.
I think that’s their GIA account. Might be fine if you don’t have lots of shares, but it is liable for tax on dividends/profit.
Has anyone used Dabbl?
This is a big put-off for me. It’s 2018 - startups should be launching on both platforms. Freetrade said at least January to me for an Android app.
Also my queue’s been sitting at this for the last 3 days… which just annoys me 
Means you’ll get access next Tuesday (if you have a non android device you can use)
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Totally understand your frustration, It is a very difficult decision as it’s a lot of work to support two very different platforms (development, support, issue triage), and the Android one is harder as it has so many varied devices. They did have very limited resources till recently but I think are very keen on Android and have some team members who prefer it, so hopefully v. soon we’ll see an Android version. Jan is only a couple of months away now. I’m glad they got something out to start gathering user feedback.
The other big missing piece is ISAs, almost everyone will want those. Exciting to see it launch though.
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Finally in! No idea how to decide what to invest in now though…
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Check out https://yourpia.com/ Matt, I think early access is a formality rather than marketing spin. They offer up primers and explanations on investing generally.
My advice, and this is advice, is start with companies or sectors you know or are interested in, and do a ton of reasearch. Consider a company’s prospects, where are revenues and profits heading? How does the share price compare to its peers?
Google, the FT and Bloomberg are good places to start on the research. And definitely read news articles around the company, and relate this to movements in shareprice, very helpful to look at charts.
Freetrade as it stands is literally execution only, in the most stripped back sense. Even the charting is of very limited use. But fees are super competitive so definitely take advantage of those low trading costs.
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For shares I initially went with ones I knew and thought would have a good chance of at least maintaining the current value. Learning as I go so doing more research.
Have a look at ETFs. They track an index so it’s easier than researching all the companies on the index. Also can help give a good variety of different types of company in your portfolio
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