Freetrade: Free Share Trading

I suspect I’ll be waiting forever :laughing:

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Fun fact, Viktor the CMO once made fun of my name and asked me if my parents hated me at Freetrade’s investment event so since then I have flat out refused to use Freetrade :sweat_smile: This was about ~30 seconds after one of their managers tried to get me to apply for a job lol.

I use trading212 for individual stocks and Vanguard for ETFs :slight_smile:

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Not such a fun fact :cry:. What a nasty thing to say.

Your name is great! Don’t blame you for not using them really.

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Snap. I’ve emailed them about this too.

Couple that are less than £2 that I can’t sell and I sure as hell won’t be spending anymore of my money with them.

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What a bastard, I’m sorry they did that – and in public, too.

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First - the stock universe is very limited (no ETFs for God’s sake!). Second - they increased fees several times - now include a custody fee and limit the number of trades you can make. Third - their interface is just too basic.
Why pay high fees for inferior services? Even Freetrade, with their latest offering, are better.

You are missing the bigger picture mate - they do that because the company is running out of cash. I wouldn’t park my money on a sinking ship.

I thought their mission was “to get everyone investing”? I admired that. But no more. :frowning:

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My money is not anywhere that I need to worry, I own the shares, the small amount of ready cash doesn’t exceed £100. If they go under the shares move to another broker. Where’s the problem?

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They are FCA regulated and FSCS protected - all good, but I would still avoid the process of recovering my assets after they go under at any cost.
Not judging you btw. :crossed_fingers:

So I get this in theory, but I’m not sure how it would work.

For bank accounts there’s FSCS. That doesn’t apply to investment accounts.

For emoney accounts, my understanding is that the Administrator would eventually return the ring-fenced money. But might be entitled to take a slice to cover their costs.

So, I suppose my question is do we know what the process is and that it won’t involve a haircut?

And then there’s the (presumably extended) time between going into administration and being able to trade again, during which time customers won’t be able to sell their holdings. Which could be a pain in the market is doing “interesting” things.

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Per their website, it is:

Our mission is to get everyone investing by making it simpler and more affordable.

I don’t think they’ve abandoned this mission; Freetrade is still a compelling service for anyone who wants to start a long-term investing journey.

Let’s be real here: you can still start out on Freetrade with a GIA and invest for free in U.K. stocks as an on ramp, then progress onto a paid plan for the price of a Spotify subscription, give or take, without commissions per trade. That is affordable and also sustainable for Freetrade.

I’ve re-read the lastest pitch deck and while it’s easy to shit on Freetrade in this moment, zooming out they have a pathway to success if they execute on their pitch deck plans. Bare in mind the average Freetrade customer does not choose them for price alone, but for value add (it’s okay if this doesn’t suit some as in business you can’t please everyone all the time).

The race to the bottom on price isn’t a space Freetrade is going to compete in and that’s okay.

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Affordable but not competitive IMO. But I got the point. :+1:

On a side (sarcastic) note, some people are like

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Those people don’t know about deposit insurance (equivalent to FSCS protection) but yes, the joke is funny:

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Does FDIC insure up to $13m?!

It’s up to $250k in the USA. Enough for 99% of people.

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Oh totally. I misinterpreted your reply which was to a post about a chap who left $13m in there. Painful.

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I suspect he’ll be ringing this phone number constantly this weekend. Nightmare scenario

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You shouldn’t need a paid account to buy a share on Ft - the free account lets you do it

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Sadly I can’t, the buy button has now been replaced by an upgrade button.

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It might be a share that’s only available on standard and plus plans (but at some point in the past may have been available on the free account). Not everything’s available on the free account.

@Stompy I imagine if you decided to close your account they’d just give you the cash value of the share as part of the account closure process.

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Fingers crossed. I’ve requested account closure so let’s see how that goes!