UK broker
Fees guide
Lightyear Fees Explained (2026)
Fees verified August 2026 against official pricing pages — see our methodology
Lightyear operates three genuinely different pricing schedules — Lightyear Europe AS (EU/EEA), Lightyear UK Ltd personal (Stocks & Shares ISA and GIA), and Lightyear UK Ltd business — and quoting a single “Lightyear fee” is wrong for two of the three. ETFs are commission- and custody-free on all three (fund manager fees still apply). What differs is stock trading fees, the FX markup (0.35% on EU and UK business vs 0.10% on UK personal), and how cash interest actually works. This guide breaks down every block separately so you know exactly what applies to your account.
Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you if you sign up through them. This does not affect our reviews or recommendations — we only feature products we genuinely believe are useful for investors. This site provides educational content only, not personalized investment advice. Investments can lose value and past performance does not guarantee future results. You are responsible for your own financial decisions and for confirming the tax and legal rules that apply in your country.
Lightyear fee summary — three pricing blocks, not one
All figures sourced from Lightyear’s official pricing pages for each entity. Always verify current rates before funding your account.
| Fee type | EU (Lightyear Europe AS) | UK personal (ISA / GIA) | UK business |
|---|---|---|---|
| ETF trades | €0.00 | £0.00 | €0.00 |
| US stock trades | 0.10% (min $0.10, max $1) | £0.00 | 0.10% (min $0.10, max $1) |
| UK stock trades | £1 flat | £0.00 | £1 flat |
| EUR-denominated stocks | €1 flat | €0.00 | €1 flat |
| Bonds, ETNs and ETCs | €1 flat | Not offered | Not offered |
| FX conversion | 0.35% | 0.10% | 0.35% |
| Uninvested cash interest | Not offered (no EUR row) | 1.00% APY (GBP) | See UK personal |
| Custody / platform fee | €0.00 | £0.00 | €0.00 |
| Inactivity fee | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
| LEI fee | €48 + VAT / year (business accounts) | N/A | £42.50 + VAT / year |
ETF trades carry no execution or custody fee on any of the three blocks; fund manager fees still apply. “Not listed” means Lightyear’s fee pages carry no line for that item — we don’t publish a zero where none is stated. All rates in this table accurate as of 05-August-2026.
Three legal entities, three pricing tables
Lightyear has no subscription tiers — there’s no FREE/PRIME split. What changes your pricing is your entity: Lightyear Europe AS for EU/EEA clients, Lightyear UK Ltd for UK personal accounts, and the same UK entity again for business accounts, priced almost identically to the EU schedule.
Personal Account — the GIA and ISA labels are UK-only. ETFs free, with fund manager fees still applying; per-order fees on stocks; FX 0.35%. Regulated by the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority, activity licence 4.1-1/31. EISF protection up to EUR 20,000.
Stocks and Shares ISA and GIA. Free trading on US, UK and EU stocks and ETFs — no per-order commission at all. FX 0.10%, the cheapest of the three blocks. Regulated by the FCA, FRN 987226. FSCS cash protection up to GBP 85,000.
Same trading and FX schedule as the EU block, not the UK personal one. A personal account must exist first. The one additive cost against a personal account is an LEI fee for regulatory compliance, and it differs by entity: GBP 42.50 + VAT/year on Lightyear UK Ltd, EUR 48 + VAT/year on Lightyear Europe AS. Money market funds are available for business cash management at the same rates as the personal Savings product, at a total annual fee of 0.20%–0.25%.
ETFs always free; six European markets have no fee cap at all
ETFs carry no execution or custody fee on any of the three blocks; fund manager fees still apply. Only the US-shares line on the EU schedule carries a maximum. The six other minimum-fee markets — Hungary, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland — are priced at 0.10% with no ceiling. A large order in one of these markets pays proportionally more than the same order in US shares, which caps at $1.
| Asset class | Fee | Minimum | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|
| ETFs (all) | EUR 0.00 | — | — |
| US shares | 0.10% | $0.10 | $1.00 |
| UK shares | GBP 1.00 flat | GBP 1.00 | GBP 1.00 |
| EUR stocks / bonds / ETNs / ETCs | EUR 1.00 flat | EUR 1.00 | EUR 1.00 |
| Hungarian shares | 0.10% | 200 HUF | No maximum |
| Swiss shares | 0.10% | CHF 1.50 | No maximum |
| Danish shares | 0.10% | DKK 10 | No maximum |
| Swedish shares | 0.10% | SEK 10 | No maximum |
| Norwegian shares | 0.10% | NOK 10 | No maximum |
| Polish shares | 0.10% | PLN 5 | No maximum |
| Crypto assets | 0.45% | $1–$6 (varies by asset) | — |
EU account rates accurate as of 05-August-2026. ETFs carry no execution or custody fee; fund manager fees still apply. Crypto is offered on EU accounts only, at 0.45% per order.
ISA and GIA holders pay nothing per trade on US, UK or EU stocks and ETFs — no percentage, no flat fee. FX at 0.10% is the main cost to manage. Crypto is not offered on UK accounts.
US shares 0.10% (min $0.10, max $1), UK shares GBP 1 flat, EU shares EUR 1 flat — close to the EU personal table, not the UK personal one.
Options, futures, CFDs, short-selling, and pre-market or after-hours trading in EU and UK instruments. On EU accounts, EUR-denominated bonds (Baltic government and corporate) fall under the EUR 1 flat line; the price shown in-app is the dirty price, including accrued interest. Bonds, ETNs and ETCs are not offered on Lightyear UK Ltd accounts at all, personal or business.
If an order’s fees would come to 5% or more of its total value, the app shows a confirmation pop-up before letting you execute — a useful guardrail on very small orders in the uncapped European markets above.
Plans, Ready-made Plans and Repeat Orders — and the constraint that limits all of them
Auto-invest inside a Plan works only on fractional instruments. Non-fractional holdings added to a Plan appear grouped under “Auto investing unavailable” and must be bought separately, outside the recurring contribution. Money market funds cannot be added to Plans at all, and recurring orders for them aren’t supported. Any description of Lightyear as a general-purpose ETF savings plan without this caveat is misleading. Repeat Orders are a separate product from Plans — see below.
Cost: EUR 0 per execution
Three risk-based portfolios built on BlackRock and Vanguard funds. Weights are fixed — can’t be customised.
Cost: standard trade fee per asset
Build a mini-portfolio and auto-invest on a schedule. ETFs: EUR 0 on all blocks (fund manager fees still apply). Stocks: free on UK personal, standard per-order fee on EU and UK business. Allocations must total exactly 100%.
Cost: standard trade fee per execution
A separate product from Plans: a recurring buy on one individual instrument, daily, weekly or monthly. Funded from your Lightyear cash balance or by standing order from your bank. Executed as market orders. If funds are short at the scheduled time the order is skipped silently. You can opt out at any point.
| Feature | Scheduling options | Supported assets |
|---|---|---|
| Ready-made Plans | Weekly, fortnightly, monthly | Fixed ETF selection only |
| Custom Plans | Weekly, fortnightly, monthly | Fractional stocks and ETFs |
| Repeat Orders | Daily, weekly, monthly | Individual instruments |
0.35% EU and UK business, 0.10% UK personal — one rate, no separate manual fee
Lightyear applies its FX markup on top of the live interbank rate, and the same percentage covers both automatic conversion (buying an asset in a currency you don’t hold) and manual conversion — there’s no separate line for the two.
FX rates accurate as of 05-August-2026.
Lightyear supports holding EUR, GBP and USD simultaneously (plus HUF deposit numbers in the EU app). EU clients hold it on the standard Personal Account. On the UK side, this multi-currency account is available on the GIA — not inside the ISA. If you deposit the trade currency directly by bank transfer, you buy that currency’s assets with zero Lightyear FX conversion; the conversion cost simply moves to your bank instead.
Portuguese stamp duty is 4% of the fees you pay Lightyear — in practice, calculated from the conversion fee and remitted by Lightyear to the Portuguese Tax Authorities. It grosses up the FX rate rather than adding a separate charge: 0.35% × 1.04 = 0.364% effective on EU accounts, 0.10% × 1.04 = 0.104% effective on UK personal accounts. Written loosely as “4% stamp duty” it reads as a tax on trade value — it isn’t. It also triggers based on the client’s tax residency, unlike some countries’ stamp duties which trigger based on where the company is incorporated.
Two different products — don’t let anyone merge them
This is the single most misreported thing about Lightyear. Interest on uninvested cash is a passive rate on money simply sitting in your account. Savings (marketed as Vaults in the UK) is a separate, opt-in money market fund product you actively choose to move cash into. The higher figures widely quoted for Lightyear belong to Savings — not to holding euros in your account.
| Residency | Currency | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| UK residents | GBP | 1.00% APY |
| Hungarian residents | HUF | 2.00% APY |
| Every other market | EUR and all others | 0% — not offered |
There is no EUR row on this table. Uninvested EUR earns nothing in every country Lightyear serves, including its home market of Estonia. Both rates above accurate as of 05-August-2026.
| Product | Currency | Advertised rate | Lightyear’s own fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU Savings (BlackRock fund) | EUR | Variable — check the app | 0.10%/yr |
| EU Savings (J.P. Morgan fund) | EUR | Variable — check the app | 0.10%/yr |
| UK Vaults | GBP | Variable — check the app | 0.10%/yr |
| UK Cash ISA | GBP | Variable — check the app | Tracks Bank of England base rate |
Savings and Cash ISA rates are variable — they move with central bank policy, and Lightyear publishes different figures across its regional sites. We don’t hard-code them here. Check the Lightyear app for the current rate before relying on it. Lightyear’s own fee figures in the right-hand column accurate as of 05-August-2026.
Two different figures circulate and both are correct. Lightyear’s fee pages state its own charge as 0.10%/year on EUR and GBP funds and 0.15%/year on USD. Its fund pages show 0.20%. The difference is the fund manager: BlackRock or J.P. Morgan charges a further 0.10% on top of Lightyear’s cut, and 0.20% is the combined total. That total is already deducted from the yield shown in the app — there is no additional charge beyond the rate you see. All figures in this paragraph accurate as of 05-August-2026.
EU and UK routes differ on four material points
EUR SWIFT deposits are not supported on EU accounts at all. GBP and EUR SWIFT both cost GBP 8.50 on UK accounts and are free or unavailable on EU accounts. USD only moves via SWIFT on UK accounts, where the EU side gets free ACH and FedWire routes. The UK deposit table also has no instant-SEPA or HUF row.
| Currency | Method | Timing | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR | Instant SEPA | 0–2 hours | Free |
| EUR | Regular SEPA | 0–2 business days | Free |
| EUR | Card / Apple / Google Pay | Instant | 0.6% |
| EUR | SWIFT | — | Not supported |
| GBP | FPS | 0–2 hours | Free |
| GBP | CHAPS | 1 business day | Free |
| GBP | BACS | 3 business days | Free |
| GBP | SWIFT* | 3–5 business days | Free |
| USD | ACH | 1–2 business days | Free |
| USD | FedWire | 1 business day | $6.11 |
| USD | SWIFT* | 3–5 business days | $6.11 |
| HUF | Within Hungary | 1 business day | Free |
| Currency | Method | Timing | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| GBP | FPS | 0–2 hours | Free |
| GBP | CHAPS | 1 business day | Free |
| GBP | BACS | 3 business days | Free |
| GBP | SWIFT* | 3–5 business days | GBP 8.50 |
| GBP | Card / Apple / Google Pay | Instant | 0.6% |
| EUR | Regular SEPA | 0–2 business days | Free |
| EUR | SWIFT* | 3–5 business days | GBP 8.50 |
| USD | SWIFT* | 3–5 business days | Up to $8.50 |
*Sending and intermediary institutions may charge additional fees on top of the figures above.
No Lightyear fee on local withdrawals in any currency. EUR: local withdrawal only — international SWIFT withdrawal is not available for EUR. GBP and USD can also withdraw via SWIFT after sending a bank statement; Lightyear charges nothing for it, though intermediary banks along the route often do.
No fee is stated anywhere on Lightyear UK’s withdrawal page. It carries no fee table and does not say “free” either — we record this as “no Lightyear withdrawal fee stated,” not as confirmed-free.
Free from Lightyear’s side — whole shares only, and the instrument must already exist on the platform
No fee on Lightyear’s side. The instrument must already be tradeable on Lightyear, on the same exchange and in the same currency — if it isn’t on the platform, the transfer can’t be accepted. Non-qualified stock options aren’t accepted; only exercised, regular stock. Personal-to-personal and business-to-business only.
Minimum per position: EUR/GBP/USD 1,000, or 400,000 HUF, 10,000 SEK, 10,000 NOK, 7,000 DKK, 4,000 PLN, or 1,000 CHF. Bonds: minimum 1 bond.
No fee on Lightyear’s side. Same per-position minimums as transfers in. Fractional positions and crypto assets cannot be transferred and must be sold first. Your receiving broker may charge its own incoming-transfer fee.
Initiated by emailing transfers@lightyear.com from your verified address with the instruments, quantities and receiving institution — not done in-app.
In-specie or cash transfers into a Lightyear ISA are free. Your existing provider may charge an exit fee. Transferring in does not consume your GBP 20,000 annual ISA allowance.
No inactivity, opening or closing fee is listed on either fee page
Neither Lightyear’s EU nor UK fee page carries a line for inactivity, account opening, or account closing. We report that as “not listed” rather than publishing a zero — Lightyear itself never states one.
EUR 48 + VAT per year on Lightyear Europe AS, GBP 42.50 + VAT per year on Lightyear UK Ltd. Required for business accounts investing under a Legal Entity Identifier, and not present on either personal pricing page.
Fractional stocks and ETFs: EUR/GBP/USD 2 minimum per order. No general minimum commission beyond the per-market figures in the trading section above.
No fee line on either page. Baltic exchanges (Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius) and Budapest run on a 15-minute delay; every other exchange is live.
Not stated on any Lightyear page we’ve read. There is no published minimum to open or fund an account.
FCA and EFSA regulated, assets segregated, no banking licence
| Entity | Regulator | Registration | Client cash protection |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lightyear UK Ltd | FCA (UK) | FRN 987226 | FSCS up to GBP 85,000 |
| Lightyear Europe AS | EFSA (Estonia) | Activity licence 4.1-1/31 | EISF up to EUR 20,000 |
| US custody (Alpaca Securities) | FINRA / SIPC (US) | SIPC member | SIPC up to USD 500,000 total |
Money market fund holdings — Savings, Vaults, and the fund component of the Cash ISA — are investments, not deposits, and are not covered by the FSCS. Crypto assets are excluded from the Estonian Investor Protection Sectoral Fund and from any EU investor compensation scheme. Accurate as of 05-August-2026.
On Lightyear UK, UK-listed instruments (including LSE-listed shares) are routed through Infront, a Retail Service Provider hub, where four market makers — Optiver, Jane Street, Peel Hunt and Winterflood — quote firm prices and the best one is selected at execution time. These trades are bilateral and off-exchange rather than on the LSE order book. This carries no separate fee, but it’s a different execution model from trading directly on an exchange.
Payment for order flow has been prohibited EU-wide since 30 June 2026 under MiFIR Article 39a, and has been banned by the FCA since 2012. This is a market-wide regulatory rule that applies across brokers operating in the EU and UK — not a Lightyear-specific policy.
How Lightyear’s EU personal pricing compares to the main alternatives
EU personal account comparison only. Rates are approximate — verify before opening. See individual fees pages for full breakdowns.
| Broker | ETF trade | Savings plan | FX markup | Uninvested EUR interest & cash products |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightyear | EUR 0 | EUR 0 (Ready-made) | 0.35% | 0% uninvested; Savings opt-in (variable, capital at risk) |
| Trading 212 | EUR 0 | EUR 0 | 0.15% | Variable (MMF-based) |
| Trade Republic | EUR 1 per execution | EUR 0 — savings plans are exempt from the EUR 1 settlement flat rate | Built into spread (not a separate fee) | Variable — verify on Trade Republic |
| DEGIRO | EUR 1 (Core Selection). Currency or external product and spread costs may apply. | No native savings plan | 0.25% (explicit) | Not stated on DEGIRO’s fee schedules |
| Scalable Capital (FREE) | EUR 0.99 (gettex, to 31 Aug 2026); EUR 1.99 from 1 Sep 2026 | EUR 0 on EIX; up to EUR 1.99 on gettex from 1 Sep 2026 | Unpublished | 0% on broker cash; 2.50% on the separate Overnight account (variable, accurate as of 05-August-2026) |
Competitor figures verified August 2026 against each broker’s own published fee schedule, accurate as of 05-August-2026. Free ETF trading on Lightyear means no execution and no custody fee; fund manager fees still apply, as they do on every broker in this table. Where a broker does not publish a figure we record that rather than inferring a zero. This table compares EU personal accounts only. Lightyear’s UK personal pricing — free stock trading, 0.10% FX — is materially cheaper than any option above; see the fee summary near the top of this page for the full three-block breakdown.
Free ETF trading with no execution or custody fee — fund manager fees still apply. No minimum deposit. EU, UK personal and UK business accounts available. Verify current fee terms on Lightyear’s official site before opening.
Go deeper
Lightyear fees: common questions
Are ETFs really free on Lightyear?
Yes, on all three pricing blocks. Lightyear Europe AS, Lightyear UK Ltd personal (ISA and GIA), and Lightyear UK Ltd business all charge zero commission and zero custody fee on ETFs. The underlying fund’s TER (e.g. 0.20% for IWDA) is still deducted from the fund’s NAV — that’s a fund cost, not a Lightyear fee.
What is Lightyear’s FX conversion fee?
It depends which of the three pricing blocks your account sits in. Lightyear Europe AS charges 0.35% on the live interbank rate. Lightyear UK Ltd personal accounts (ISA and GIA) charge 0.10% — the cheapest of the three. Lightyear UK Ltd business accounts charge 0.35%, the same as the EU schedule. There is no separate manual conversion fee; one rate covers both automatic and manual conversions.
Does Lightyear pay interest on uninvested cash?
Only for UK and Hungarian residents, and the rates are modest: UK residents earn 1.00% APY on uninvested GBP, Hungarian residents earn 2.00% APY on uninvested HUF, both accurate as of 05-August-2026. Uninvested EUR earns 0% in every country — there is no EUR row on Lightyear’s interest table. The higher rates people associate with Lightyear (Savings, marketed as Vaults in the UK) belong to a separate, opt-in money market fund product — that money is invested in a money market fund, not held as uninvested cash. Savings rates are variable — check the app for current figures.
What is the difference between Lightyear’s interest and Lightyear’s Savings product?
Interest on uninvested cash is a passive rate paid on money sitting in your account, limited to UK and Hungarian residents. Savings — marketed as Vaults in the UK — is a separate opt-in product that invests your cash into money market funds managed by BlackRock or J.P. Morgan. Money moved into Savings is invested, not uninvested cash. It pays materially more but capital is at risk and it is not a bank deposit — standard deposit protection doesn’t apply, and money market fund holdings are not covered by the FSCS. Lightyear’s own charge on Savings is 0.10% a year on EUR and GBP funds and 0.15% on USD, accurate as of 05-August-2026, with the fund manager’s own fee on top. Savings is unavailable to Belgian residents.
Does Lightyear charge an inactivity fee?
No inactivity fee is listed on Lightyear’s published fee schedule, for either entity. The same is true for account opening and account closing — neither fee page carries a line for them.
Can I transfer my portfolio in or out of Lightyear for free?
Lightyear charges nothing on its side for transfers in or out. The conditions: only whole (non-fractional) share positions can move, each position must meet a minimum value (EUR/GBP/USD 1,000, or the equivalent in HUF, SEK, NOK, DKK or CHF), and the instrument must already be tradeable on Lightyear on the same exchange and in the same currency. Crypto and fractional positions can’t be transferred and must be sold first. Your receiving broker may charge its own incoming-transfer fee. UK Stocks & Shares ISA transfers, in-specie or in cash, are free and don’t count against your annual ISA allowance.
Is Lightyear regulated and how are my assets protected?
Lightyear UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the FCA (FRN 987226); UK client cash is covered by the FSCS up to GBP 85,000. Lightyear Europe AS is authorised and regulated by the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority under activity licence 4.1-1/31; EU client assets are covered by the Estonian Investor Protection Sectoral Fund up to EUR 20,000. Money market fund holdings and crypto assets are excluded from both schemes. US-listed securities are held via Alpaca Securities, a SIPC member. Payment for order flow is banned EU-wide since 30 June 2026 and has been banned by the FCA since 2012 — that’s a market-wide rule, not something specific to Lightyear.
What’s the difference between Lightyear EU, UK personal and UK business pricing?
Lightyear UK Ltd personal accounts (ISA and GIA) are the cheapest: free trading on US, UK and EU stocks and ETFs, plus the lowest FX markup at 0.10%. Lightyear Europe AS charges per-order fees on stocks (0.10% on US shares capped at USD 1, flat GBP 1 or EUR 1 on UK and EUR-denominated shares, uncapped 0.10% on six other European markets) and a 0.35% FX markup. Lightyear UK Ltd business pricing mirrors the EU schedule almost exactly, plus an annual LEI fee charged to business accounts only, at GBP 42.50 + VAT on Lightyear UK Ltd and EUR 48 + VAT on Lightyear Europe AS, and to neither personal account type. ETFs are free across all three — no execution and no custody fee, though fund manager fees still apply. Rates accurate as of 05-August-2026.
Get the free toolkit sample
A working broker cost calculator — IBKR vs DEGIRO vs Trading 212, with verified September 2026 fees. You’ll also get 4 short emails on cutting your investing costs. Unsubscribe anytime.
Investing involves risks. Returns are not guaranteed. ISA rules and promotional T&Cs as well as general terms of use apply. With Vaults, your money is invested into money market funds, where the value of investments can go up or down. With Cash ISA, money is held in UK banks and Qualifying Money Market Funds. Lightyear UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 987226).
QuantRoutine provides educational content only. Nothing on this page is an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell any security or to open an account with any specific broker. Investments can lose value, and past performance does not guarantee future results. You are responsible for your own investment, tax, and legal decisions. Always review each broker’s current terms, fees, and eligibility on their official website before opening or funding an account.