I’ve come from using things like Vanguard, HL and AJ Bell and being charged an arm and a leg so the difference is huge. 
I actually joined Freetrade before discovering T212 at the start of last year and it was like a breath of fresh air. Haven’t looked back.
The trouble is, once you’ve got a bunch of assets under Freetrade or T212 they’re going to start to realise that their model isn’t sustainable and start piling on the fees. With Freetrade you can’t transfer out your assets without cashing them first, even if it is a really bad time to sell.
Vanguard aren’t flashy, but the fees are low and transparent and they’re likely to be around a while. I’m not so sure Freetrade or T212 will be. If you just want to dabble in small-time stock-picking they’re probably fine, but if they disappeared tomorrow I wouldn’t be all that surprised.
I can’t see either disappearing tbh, both businesses are very solid. As a business T212 is about 15 years old now and just hit 1,000,000 accounts. It’s sitting on top of Interactive Brokers too which is one of the biggest brokers in the World. Their recent post was about becoming sustainable, I see no indication that they would introduce any fees with the Invest/ISA.
The only potential paid option on either would be L2 and T&S access. But again that would be passing on the cost, I wouldn’t expect any business to completely take that hit. > ADVFN - ADVFN Subscriptions
T212 claim to be (already? soon?) self-sustaining. Freetrade is more precarious, and they’re trying to come up with paid-for features to earn money.
But yes, I’d stick with an established broker that offers all types of investments.
T212 are self-sustaining, lend shares in Invest and have CFD as an income. They use an ominous account with IB so their internal costs are low.
Freetrade don’t have CFD as an income source, and they have built their own platform directly with the exchanges.
Sticking with one broker that offers all types of investments is silly as sticking with Monzo and using ISA inside the app rather than going directly to the ISA provider. Or taking a mortgage with your bank for convenience, rather than looking elsewhere for a better deal.
Have as many brokers as you need, same with banking. Don’t just stick with the one provides it all, get the best tools for the job.
Perhaps I wasn’t clear, but I meant stick with brokers that offer funds and bonds as well as the exchange traded stuff, to not limit yourself. At least for your ISA.
Since you can only actively use 1 ISA account and 1 LISA account, you do have to stick with just one broker for those. But of course you can pick different brokers for each account type, and have multiple GIAs depending on your needs.
Personally I use Freetrade, AJBell, Vanguard and iWeb because that’s what was right for my needs. But you do need to work it out and not limit yourself to just one of the free platforms.
You can open a cash ISA, LISA, S&SISA, IFISA at any broker it would be rare to have one that does them all tbh.
Are you saying the lISA and S&SISA need to be at the same or maybe I’m not reading that right. They don’t need to be the same provider.
I personally would avoid T212. App is awful and do you want to use a company who sustains itself via CFD trading?
Go for FreeTrade but if you’re buying funds for the long term then HL is excellent platform but once you go over say 100k then HL is quite expensive.
In the post literally posted above the business is sustainable without CFD. It brings in extra income.
There’s nothing scary or evil about CFD. It’s just that you are playing with leverage so the stakes are higher. The average retail trader lose out because they jump in and chuck in cash without experience and expect to walk away with lots of profit.
You need to gain experience with charts and trading otherwise the odds are heavily stacked.
When you go short you have an infinite loss, which is why it’s so easy for new traders to nuke their account when they get a margin call and they are forced to close a losing position. Whilst you have negative balance protection as a retail customer it’s worth anyone nuking a practice account a few times before playing with real money.
For CFD or spread betting CMC is far better with much tighter spreads.
To be clear this is trading rather than long term investments.
We’re saying the same thing and talking at cross-purposes.
I’m saying if OP is interested in taking out an S&S ISA, they can only contribute to one (per year). They can’t play around with multiple ISA accounts at different brokers. Therefore they might be better off thinking about it and sticking with an established broker that isn’t going to limit what they can invest in.
Understood for a moment I had read you were saying the lISA and S&S ISA had to be under the same broker.
Yes it’s a case of once you contribute to an ISA for a particular tax year you cant open and fund another of the same type in that tax year. Yep so it’s worth researching that the stocks or ETFs are available at your provider before diving in.
Its rare to find something that’s on my AJ Bell or HL account that’s not on Interactive Brokers.
To be fair for long term investing in an ISA I would probably go with some low-cost highly diversified ETF. Something like FTSE all-world index which should be available with probably every provider. If I am going to gamble in some individual stock picking or something similar it will be just with money I am ready to lose.
Also it feels like opening an ISA now is pretty good timing with the tax year end approaching and being able to open a new one soon if I don’t like this one.
After reading this discussion I am leaning towards Trading 212 ISA. No fees, free ISA, larger selection(even though I doubt that is necessary for me) and automated trading are very good benefits over Freetrade or other providers.
Just in case anyone thinks they have only 2884 stocks to pick from that’s just those that are in a specific folder. The total is nearer 10,000 using the search input. 
Also thank you for these resources. I went through the flowchart and was pleased I am pretty much following it already. A lot thanks to How to money podcast which I listen to. Ideally I think the plan is to hold mainly higly diversified ETFs and maybe some small amounts of individual stocks or less diversified funds for the fun of it. As you said you can get lucky as well but I understand it is fairly similar to pretty much gambling.
Yeah kinda reminds me of Mario Brothers
Most of my investments are in a Vanguard S&S ISA (directly through https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk). Platform fees are super low and it’s a flexible ISA, which is reassuring. Personally I’m a fan of the FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund Accumulation (it’s like VWRL but contains small cap companies as well, and isn’t available through platforms like T212).
For investing in individual stocks and non-Vanguard ETFs, I use a T212 invest account (I don’t keep enough in there to warrant an ISA). As someone who has used both Freetrade and Trading 212, and who is themself a shareholder in Freetrade, I honestly think T212 is far superior, from its functionality, fees, interface (FT graphs look pretty but are functionally garbage) and of course selection. Also worth noting that T212 has been profitable for around 15 years, while I believe FT is still loss making - so in terms of where would be a more stable platform for your funds, I think the winner is clear.
(Also worth bearing in mind that a fair number of users on here are quite likely crowndfunding investors in Freetrade as well, so take recommendations with a pinch of salt, and see what works for you!)
I would say Freetrade looks so much better as an app
Freetrade for me!
I just don’t see how anyone can say the T212 app has a good interface.
100%. I NEVER take a recommendation on YouTube or a forum like this seriously if it’s immediately followed by “And if you sign up using my link…!”.
Well different people have different tastes I guess! For me, a good interface for a trading app = a highly functional one, not one that just looks pretty.
As an aside, I forgot to mention Pies and the new Pie Library in T212 @Odvarkad. Take a look, they’re pretty neat for setting up a regular investment plan and trying out other users’ strategies: Pies & AutoInvest - Introduction – Trading 212
