Advice on trading platform

Koloto

As,savings rates are low,and I’m looking at a ten year view I have decided to invest in the markets. Longer term, even if there is a dip, I should be okay.

so I am going vanguard for,the stocks and shares isa but I am struggling for,a trader for,shares. Freetrade I’ve looked at but they have a shocking reputation at the moment on the likes of trust pilot. That’s put me off.

Brokerchoose.com recommends degiro or fineco. Do people have any views or experiences on either.

I am really only looking to build a small portfolio of,a few thousand over a couple of years.

maxsteam

I use Degiro and am satisfied with their service. x-o.co.uk are also worth investigating. I am, however, not a fan of any platform that falsely pretends to be free. IMHO it's not acceptable to mislead people when investment-sized sums are involved.

wmb194

You don't have to pick just one. I've been using it since January last year and so far Freetrade's been fine for me. Trustpilot has a tendency to accrue negative comments so I'd take it with a pinch of salt. You could head over to the referrers board and find a free share code and try it out with a small amount of money.
One problem with De Giro and Fineco is that they're foreign and covered by schemes other than the FSCS.

adindas

wmb194 said:

You don't have to pick just one. I've been using it since January last year and so far Freetrade's been fine for me. Trustpilot has a tendency to accrue negative comments so I'd take it with a pinch of salt. You could head over to the referrers board and find a free share code and try it out with a small amount of money.
One problem with De Giro and Fineco is that they're foreign and covered by schemes other than the FSCS.

Also AFAIK De Giro and Fineco do not offer S&S and SIIP account, so you will not be able to trade within a tax wrapper to protect your gain. 

I have had a look at Free Trade. I wonder why they are not included by MSE as one of the low cost SIIP providers in the UK?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/cheap-sipps/

If you want to trade many times a month within SIIP wrap, it seems Free Trade offer the best value for money.

https://freetrade.io/sipp

There is a news that Trading 212 plan to offer SIIP platform later in this year, but I doubt if they could effort to provide a fee free platform for a SIIP with unlimited trading.

I am aware that cheap does not mean good but you also do not want to pay around £8-11 per trade. If you are doing 100+ trades a month then you want to minimise the trading cost. Free trade seems the most viable option for this purpose as they offer free buying/selling shares. A flat admin fee of £9.99/montht o maintain your SIIP, or £7/month if you are a Freetrade Plus. You also still pay this SIIP admin fee from HL, ii, AJ Bell on the top of share dealing fees. Have I missed something here?? Thanks

wmb194

Freetrade's Sipp offering hasn't launched yet so I'd guess this would be why.

maxsteam

Degiro is covered by EU or UK compensation schemes for cash balances and they operate within professional standards. It's not possible to describe Freetrade, who claim their platform lets you "Invest for Free, Forever", as working within professional standards. I know that some investors can forgive this statement as acceptable hype or a little white lie but a platform that clearly tries to mislead investors even before they sign up is not going to get a recommendation from me. imho, there is no comparison.

wmb194

maxsteam said:

Degiro is covered by EU or UK compensation schemes for cash balances and they operate within professional standards. It's not possible to describe Freetrade, who claim their platform lets you "Invest for Free, Forever", as working within professional standards. I know that some investors can forgive this statement as acceptable hype or a little white lie but a platform that clearly tries to mislead investors even before they sign up is not going to get a recommendation from me. imho, there is no comparison.

You're still being disingenuous. It's very clear that it's, "commission free."
There isn't an, "EU compensation scheme." De Giro is covered by the Netherlands' scheme(s). It's the coverage levels that are set by the EU, the minimum levels at any rate.

maxsteam

The phrase "Invest for free, forever" is in bold, in the bottom left corner of your screenshot, wmb194. Is this acceptable hype or a little white lie? It's certainly not an accurate description of the Freetrade.io service and it's certainly not something that is corrected on the page you copied.

wmb194

maxsteam said:

The phrase "Invest for free, forever" is in bold, in the bottom left corner of your screenshot, wmb194. Is this acceptable hype or a little white lie? It's certainly not an accurate description of the Freetrade.io service and it's certainly not something that is corrected on the page you copied.

And, including directly below it as an explanation, everywhere else it states, "commission free." This is what it's referring to and is an accurate explanation. 

maxsteam

wmb194 said:

maxsteam said:

The phrase "Invest for free, forever" is in bold, in the bottom left corner of your screenshot, wmb194. Is this acceptable hype or a little white lie? It's certainly not an accurate description of the Freetrade.io service and it's certainly not something that is corrected on the page you copied.

And, including directly below it as an explanation, everywhere else it states, "commission free." This is what it's referring to and is an accurate explanation. 

It is correct to describe their service as commission free. It is not correct to describe the service as investing for free. There are costs involved with investing other than commission which can include stamp duty, spread and currency conversion costs and these are costs which the investor pays. These costs are not mentioned until you go deep into the Freetrade.io website. They are also costs that can be significant on some products.

underground99

maxsteam said:
It is correct to describe their service as commission free. It is not correct to describe the service as investing for free. There are costs involved with investing other than commission which can include stamp duty, spread and currency conversion costs and these are costs which the investor pays. These costs are not mentioned until you go deep into the Freetrade.io website. They are also costs that can be significant on some products.

You've made the same point on other threads. But they do explain - prominently wherever they say you can invest for free - they are providing you the service of investing your money into stock exchange traded instruments, free of commission for placing the trades. Instead of doing what most other brokers do, which is change you a commission for placing the trades.

The fact that an investor's market purchases made via freetrade are not free of UK taxes payable to HMRC (income taxes on income, capital gains taxes on disposals, and stamp duties that apply to certain qualifying instruments) should not preclude them from saying they are offering their brokerage service for 'free' or that you can 'invest for free'. You can indeed invest for free without any charge from them (if you don't want the premium version of the account or to pay a monthly fee to have them administer an ISA). They don't pocket the SDRT if what you chose to buy was something on which the government levies stamp duty. No broker does. It's a government levy.

Your contention that they're being disingenuous to advertise 'free' when some stock exchange transactions will attract duty from HMRC or perhaps a PTM levy is a bit silly - it would be like reading an advertisement for free car parking and then saying, "how shocking that you imply it is free - I understand that you will not send me a bill for use of your facility but I have to pay for my car to be registered with a government agency before I can drive it on the public road to even get to your car park, therefore it can't be considered 'free' for me to make full use of your car park facility, so I don't think you are being very honest by saying I can park for free..."

Likewise there will be a spread between buy and sell prices because that's how the stock market works - a system of bids and offers where the maximum amount you might be required to bid to obtain a certain quantity of shares will generally exceed the minimum amount you may need to accept to dispose of the same quantity of shares at a given moment. If there is a spread, it doesn't mean the broker is pocketing it. You simply have to pay the going rate set by the other market participants.  And for the money you pay, you receive assets.

Are you suggesting that the advertising of 'invest for free' is dishonest "because I have to pay money to get the assets, and once I've bought the assets I couldn't necessarily immediately sell them and get the exact same money back, so I feel I'm being lied to, when the broker says I have invested for free"?  That would seem to be a strange concern, as we all know shares and ETFs have a bid offer spread as an integral feature of the stock markets.

The broker is not hiding this away deep within their website to pull the wool over your eyes. If anyone Googles 'buy or sell prices stock market' they will see a bunch of links saying there's a difference between buying and selling prices on a market.