Freetrade: Trading & Investing

I love this app, so way to use and I have had none of the problems reported by others. Although not necessary I would suggest that you at least understand the basics of investing before using and sign up to the community. Pay attention to costs and fees that there are surrounding ETF’s, do your own company research and consider other ISA investment platforms if you are a low level user but other than that I was up and running in no time at all. My only issue is no quick link to the community which is a great source of information and a place to while away the time waiting for a result. Certainly not for the gamers, gamblers and Warren Buffets of this world if you want the stress of sweating on a share price, but then if you haven’t assessed your risk levels you shouldn’t really be investing in the first place.

On Freetrade’s platform and pricing: The app is targeted towards amateur investors, welcoming them into investing in the most seamless way possible. The app itself is very easy to use, albeit almost “gamifies” investing which may be quite dangerous, and I’m not sure if I agree with. This is shown through various examples such as a limited amount of information being provided for each stock, making it incredibly easy to buy/sell stocks, and getting free stocks for getting someone to sign up and top up as if it were a game. I am not saying I think every investing platform should have an overly complicated UI, but perhaps there is a reason not everyone should get into investing. The charges are reasonable for the amateur investor, but only for someone in a very small investing bracket: for a person who wants to try day trading, 1£ per instant order makes no sense, and is absolutely a steal; for a longer term investor who is an average person with no extreme wealth background, 36£ per year (3£/mo) for an ISA is also a bit of a steal. Nonetheless the basic feature of the app provides an ideal introduction for someone starting out in investing. The only concern I have is in terms of the app functionality, where at times features may not work, such as Apple Pay top ups, which seriously limits my capacity to trust the platform. This is our money we’re dealing with after all.

I understand this is a relatively new platform, so teething problems are expected and that’s how systems get better. This has been a good app for me as I’ve been able to dive straight into the stock market and experience the excitement and devastation of earning and losing money. This platform isn’t great if you’re looking to day trade as the charts are very much delayed and inaccurate, however it is possible to use other charts and just purchase the stock through the app. This app stands out as the fees to date are free and you can execute a trade at no charge, other than small amounts of tax for each trade. Other platforms charge anywhere from £7-14 for one trade which is extortionate for someone having a dabble with a couple of hundred pounds. I would definitely recommend this app to experience the high and lows of buying stocks, but it’s very difficult to judge the market especially when you’re up against advanced AI systems that execute trades automatically. Be mindful and be careful and only invest what you can afford.

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Yes this app is free, and makes trading easy, particularly for a newbie, but you get what you pay for. Their spread (the price that is shown vs. The price you actually pay) can be incredibly inaccurate, which has on multiple occasions led to me buying at a higher price than intended, or selling at loss when I thought I was making a marginal gain. When you highlight this issue, their support team simply respond saying that the quoted price is “an estimate”. Well that is great, but this is real money on real stocks, so I don’t expect “estimates”! I have also found on many occasions that an order gets rejected. When highlighted to the support team they again provide a generic response saying that there were now sellers to match your buy (or vice versa) - well how come I’m able to sell the same stocks on a different platform then?? There are other bugs on the app, which they have tried to iron out over time but still remain. I’ve also had one concerning incident when money I had credited to my account did not reflect properly, and then only appeared after I raised a support ticket about it (what would have happened if I hadn’t said anything?!). All in all, the app serves a purpose if you want to by the occasional stock or etf at an “estimated” price, but if you are any more serious than that I would advise to use a better platform and pay the extra in fees.

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I have been using this app for a while now and if you want to trade during volatile market conditions then Freetrade is not the app for you. The app is extremely slow to react to changes in share prices, trade attempts get rejected between 10-50 times each time you want to quickly buy or sell. And in the end you are not getting their suggested price for the shares you are buying but a price their “trading partners” give to them. Funny is that you never know what price you are really getting the moment you submit your orders but most of the times you are disadvantaged. Every time I raise these issues I get referrals to their terms and conditions but in reality there is no real transparency and clarity in regards to the disadvantages the app comes with. If you are happy to leave money at rest and are not bothered about market volatility then maybe this up is for you. If you want to benefit from market jumps and drops then this up is awful to use.