Im sure all of us can agree this is not the first fee surprise and wont be the last.
Waiting on SOFI or hell even Robinhood to offer their services here.
Disappointed.
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I thought Trading 212 was about crushing the competition but here i find them comparing themselves to dinosaur services???
Keep this going and other fintech companies will enter the UK/Europe marjet and eat your lunch.
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The “Leader” title can be misleading. I am just a client and don’t work for Trading 212, so it is not “them comparing themselves to dinosaurs”.
Here is another way to look at it. These are the fees I pay as a percent of assets under management.
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Managed funds (Lindell Train and Fundsmith): 0.65%-0.95%
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ETFs (VUSA … VWRL … INRG, etc): 0.07% - 0.22% - 0.65%
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Broker platform and trading fees (Degrio, Interactive Investor, AJ Bell, Trading 212*, Interactive Brokers): 0.005% … 0.12%),
** my projection of fx costs next year for Trading 212 are 0.11%
Taken all together, I figure my investments incur costs of about 0.18%.
The point is that broker fees are small compared to other fees. The above is skewed by the fact that I am a buy and hold investor. But even if I traded a lot more, I think broker fees would remain the smallest contributor to my overall investment costs. I would also have to look at the cost due to paying spread.
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Can’t wait for M1 Finance to come to Europe 
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Here’s a tip T212 rather than applying these mandatory fees why dont you make tools and features you charge for? Small memebership fee??
That way we as customers have a choice and you have will have the initiative to bring out more innovative features!!
Its a win win
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I have contacted customer support and the conversion of an account in euros to usd will not be offered/proposes to customers(something about legal constraiments).
One will need to close the euro account to open a new one in USD. So basically sell all your positions and start over
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Yea i agree, looking forward to SOFI, M1, ROBINHOOD and i got a feeling Cashapp will level up too.
@Richard.W look i understand its low fees relative to the competition. But im sure the competition doesnt get the lack of features, transparency and response to queries.
We the customers cannot come to grips with these fees coming one after another but at the same time not getting much in return.
I prob speak for many when i say tgat i was content with the platform being basic so long as there are no fees.
Now all i get told is fees for this and that whilst no upgrade in customer exp.
You have really lost the long term investors with that 0.15 or 0.30 or even 0.45 fx fee.
You really need to reconsider.
Just as quicky T212 become popular it can just like that go down.
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Have to agree, the more competition, the better it is for us as the consumer.
I review my accounts once annually before a new tax year and decide to stick or switch. I was close to opening up my 2021/2022 ISA with 212, due to the nil platform fee for ETFs, but I’ve put that on hold for the moment. Similarly the lack of ability to transfer assets in or out, without liquidating to cash has helped put pause on that.
It is a tricky one. We don’t know the terms of the contract that 212 have with IB, but for myself in all fairness, having no platform fee and really low trading fees to date has been excellent and I was surprised at how low it was. The service we have all received to date, for the cost has been excellent. People sometimes forget or get used to what they have and take it for granted.
I am not sure what deal they have with IB in terms of FX execution, perhaps they have a margin account, so have stumped up some of their own cash to help pre fund currencies allowing us to execute at the current market rate. It has certainly not been nothing to provide that functionality at nil cost.
My own personal thoughts, and this is biased towards my own trading activity - is that there be a premium charge with premium services to people placing larger volumes of trades - the users that use more of the architecture setup by 212, to help fund the system maintenance and development.
We have to trust 212 have done their own research, and are proceeding the best way forward for the business and their customers, if not then the answer will be users leave as you say.
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Im in a similar spot as you i have about £30k invested and i’m putting a hold on transfering anymore money in.
It really is the lack of good competition out there in the UK/Europe market hence you find T212 comparing to AJ Bell or HL when it could be flatforms like SOFI, M1, Robinhood.
This Fx fee has really made me lose my trust as tgey could have gone a different route. All the long US stock dividend investors are going to be even lower.
As you say lets see how the next few months unfold.
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There’s a post by Richard W that’s done some extreme scenarios including dividend turnovers that you might find useful if you’ve not seen it.
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And here we witness Trading212’s fall from grace.
Once considered the only free broker, but no more.
Funny considering T212 announced recently their ISA platform is actually profitable, but I guess they want even more profits.
Are they also going to go back on the plans for holding multiple currencies?
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None of which are coming.
Robinhood cancelled. M1 director says no plans and SoFi would struggle in these regulatory conditions as it needs to sell order flow as part of its business model.
It says that on this post, not sure if you’ve read it or not. They want to use the fee to generate more profits to be spent doubling down on the platform development and improving services.
Is anyone using Degiro? I heard now user can also hold dollar account (without currency conversion fee then).
Is it a stable platform for daytrader? And can you get the money immediately once selling and make the next order?
These are all things you can Google.
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QUESTION: WHERE WILL THE FX CONVERSION FEE BE DEDUCTED FROM? FROM THE FREE FUNDS BALANCE OR SOLELY FROM THE BUY/SELL ORDER FUNDS?
Context: On T212, you can have two options for how you can buy and sell shares. Option 1: Number of Shares, Option 2: Value.
Let’s say, for example, that my total account value has £1000. This £1000 is all held in my Free Funds balance, meaning I haven’t got any active positions. I then wish to buy a US stock and submit a Buy Order to buy £1000 worth (the total value of my Free Funds balance) buy using the Value option for the Buy Order.
Because I’ve emptied my account balance on the Buy Order, this will mean I have no Free Funds remaining, unless I deposit more funds into my account.
Where is this FX conversion fee going to be deducted from? Does it get deducted from the Free Funds Balance, or does it get deducted solely on the funds used for the Buy/Sell Order?
I know Hargreaves has the following options for both Buy & Sell Orders:
Hargreaves state: "If there’s not enough cash in your account, we’ll sell some of your investments to cover charges. To sell shares, we’ll charge £1.50 per deal. There is no charge to sell funds."That said, I’m unsure if it’s even possible to buy shares with them if you can’t cover the dealing charges, so perhaps this is only applicable to their annual charge.
Anyway, would be great to know exactly where T212’s Fx conversion fee gets deducted from.
Whilst I respect and understand the need to make the Invest/ISA accounts viable I must say this is slightly disappointing. The 0.15% FX Fee should only apply to new positions and not apply to positions that were opened before this announcement. For instance, if I were to sell some USD shares I bought last year in September 2020 and sell them in September 2021 I should not be forced to pay the 0.15% FX Fee.
I am concerned this is an attempt to profit from the recent boom in retail investing such as the GameStop craze. I absolutely condemn such moves. Whilst I agree with introducing the FX Fee to future positions I do not agree it should be introduced at all for current positions and it should only apply to buying stocks not selling stocks otherwise the fee is, in reality, 0.30% FX Fee. Furthermore, options need to be made for investors to have the ability to store multiple currencies in their non-ISA accounts. At the very least this would allow investors to avoid having to pay 0.15% fees on their dividends. Remember, UK taxpayers already have to pay a US witholding tax on dividends. This is essentially a tax on a tax.
Re-think this otherwise I and many others will move away from this brokerage.
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I would, but there is nothing cheaper out there yet. They’ve lost my trust so even equal price i would move. Hopefully in the future some other broker comes along and disrupt them.
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Not sure if you can do an order with your entire free funds but anyway what happens is…
You make an order to buy £1000 worth you will be able to buy slightly less shares than without the FX fee because your currency conversion between £ and $ will not be at the spot rate as it is now, it will have the 0.15% fee applied
So there is no further deduction on top of the £1000, your £1000 just buys you slightly less value of $$$ shares than if there was not a fee
Check the article on the help centre for more info
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