Lightyear review

How we rated Lightyear's investment features

Lightyear is a relatively new investing platform. With lots of established competition already out there, it’s tough to stand out. But in our Lightyear investing desktop and mobile app review, we found it has plenty of features to entice new customers.

Extremely low fees, a free multi-currency account and high interest (up to 4.89% as of December 2024) on idle cash will attract both beginners and more experienced investors. But like anything, Lightyear isn’t without its flaws.

Hands-on test: I tried out Lightyear's investing app

"Lightyear has created an excellent investing app that I found super easy to navigate, with a few simple clicks you can start investing. It’s definitely up there with one of the best-looking platforms, thoughtfully designed and really straightforward to use.

If you want to find out more about an investment – whether that’s financials, analyst ratings and price targets or simply the latest news about a stock – it’s all there clear as day and not buried deep in complex charts and statements."

George Sweeney, DipFA

Deputy editor

Lightyear fees

Lightyear burst onto the scene with 0% commission but has since introduced small trading commissions to make sure the business remains sustainable. Low fees are one of its main selling points and even though it’s not commission-free, the fees are still lower than most competitors. There are hardly any fees for holding an account or investing with its mobile or desktop app.

It only costs £1 to buy and sell UK shares. For international stocks, it’s 0.1% for US shares (min $0.1 to max $1) and for EU shares it’s a flat €1 fee. This also includes trading fractional shares. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) cost you nothing to buy or sell. You only need £1 to get started, so it’s incredibly affordable for anyone who wants to invest, even with a small budget.

There are no inactivity fees or withdrawal fees. It’s also free to make a deposit (unless you choose the speedy option). This means you can open an account and try out the app for yourself with nothing to lose regarding fees. The lack of cost for opening and holding an account means you’re free to explore the Lightyear investing app without fear of being stung with hidden costs or charges.

The fact that it’s so cheap to buy or sell investments is a huge selling point and makes this platform stand out from most of the competition. You only have to pay the 0.35% FX fee if you change currency to buy stocks. But, this fee is low compared to most other platforms. Also, Lightyear’s ability to let you open free multi-currency accounts (in pounds, dollars, and euros) means you can minimise the impact of currency fluctuations.

Lightyear investment choice and stocks

Lightyear may not be for you if you want complete access to whole international markets. But, if you wish to access the most popular and largest stocks across exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq or London Stock Exchange (LSE) – Lightyear will likely have investments to interest you.

Lightyear is a DIY investing platform. So, it’s different to a robo-advisor that picks and manages an investment portfolio for you. With Lightyear, you get complete control over the investments held in your portfolio. This means it’s up to you to research and create your own diversified portfolio.

The stock discovery page on the app is nicely laid out. You can search ETFs by country, sector, ESG compatibility, dividend-paying, or bond-focused. For individual stocks, you can search by region, popularity, or specific niches such as “female led”, “daily movers”, “big employers” and plenty of other categories.

Currently, the platform has over 3,500 stocks, shares, ETFs and money market funds (MMF). These investments are from the UK, the US, Europe and other countries (like China). The Lightyear stock list is continuously expanding, so don’t be surprised to see more investments available as time passes.

The minimum deposit for the Lightyear app is £1, and the minimum investment you can make is £1 with fractional shares.

Is Lightyear safe?

Lightyear is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an appointed representative (AR) of RiskSave Technologies. One major downside with Lightyear is that it doesn’t come with Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection.

It does offer additional insurance in place of FSCS protection. All customers have assets of up to €20,000 protected by the Estonian Investor Protection Sectoral Fund.

And for US investments, they are held with a partner, Alpaca, who is FINRA regulated and a registered member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). This means your US securities are protected up to the value of $500,000 should Alpaca fail.

Although as always when you invest, your capital is at risk.

Lightyear account types and products

As it stands, Lightyear only offers a general investment account (GIA) and a business account. However, the mobile app was only fully launched in September 2021 (and the desktop app came along in 2023).

There’s no stocks and shares ISA, but this could be added in future. Similarly, there’s no self-invested personal pension (SIPP) available. And you can’t save for a child with any junior accounts.

So, if you want an investing platform with plenty of different accounts right now, you might want to go for a different option.

However, some positives in this area is that Lightyear does offer free multi-currency accounts for US dollars and Euros, it also pays competitive rates of interest on idle cash that move in line with central bank rate changes. Current rates offered by Lightyear (as of August 2024) are:

• 5.01% GBP
• 5.36% USD
• 3.59% EUR

Lightyear ease of use

Lightyear scored fairly well in our ease of use assessment. Most reviewers on the App Store and Google Play speak positively about the platform and you can invest using either the mobile or desktop app.

On the App Store, Lightyear scores 4.7 out of 5, and on Google Play it scores an equally impressive 4.6 out of 5 (as of January 2024).

Our only major criticism is that the only way to get hold of customer support is via email.

Lightyear customer reviews

Trustpilot reviewers gave Lightyear a high 4.8 out of 5 “Excellent” rating from over 1,000 reviews (as of September 2024).

Lighyear tools, resources and features

For such a new investing platform, Lightyear does a great job providing some decent research and trading tools while keeping everything sleek and simple for interacting. Relatively recent additions include the “insights” feature that shows you which sectors, companies and countries you’ve invested in, and a portfolio profit and loss explainer.

It’s straightforward to select a stock, and as you scroll down, you’ll see:

• Current metrics
• Analyst ratings and price targets
• Company financials
• Upcoming events (where you can also see previous dividend payments)
• Company news and basic info
• Similar stocks

Considering so much info is available, it’s presented in a highly digestible format that’s easy to understand.

Lightyear also introduced limit orders on the platform. But that’s the only trading order type currently available (other than market or repeat orders). This is part of the reason why it doesn’t come with advanced charting tools, it would be too much information for the actions you can take.

A recent addition to the Lightyear platform was the introduction of social features with the option to share some of your portfolio details or keep things private, here’s how the new changes work:

• Follow your friends. You can now opt-in to view and follow your contacts on Lightyear (if they’ve opted in too). As part of this, you’ll be able to choose to have a private or public profile on the platform.
• Hide portfolio values. The privacy part of this equation means you can show off your portfolio without revealing all your finances. Tapping the “eye” icon next to your portfolio means you can show your investments and their performance without revealing sensitive information about your money.

How to sign up to Lightyear

It’s dead simple to sign up and open an account with Lightyear, just follow these steps:

1. Sign up to Lightyear. You can download the mobile investing app on the App Store or Google Play Store. Or, get started with the desktop platform on the Lightyear website.
2. Provide basic information. You’ll need to submit your mobile phone number (for a text verification) and your registered address.
3. Answer some more questions. Lightyear will ask for your living and tax residency. You’ll need your national insurance (NI) number if you select the UK.
4. Pass identification checks Once you’ve provided your basic details, Lightyear will request to take a photo of a current ID (e.g driving licence or passport). The app will then prompt you to take a selfie to complete the verification process.
5. Deposit into your account and start investing. You can kick things off by depositing just £1 into your account and then invest as you like.

In summary, you’ll likely need the following info to get set up:

• Name
• Date of birth
• NI number
• Citizenship declaration
• Phone number and email
• Current ID

Lightyear can verify and open your account almost instantly if you can provide all the required details.

Who might Lightyear suit?

Lightyear isn’t quite the complete package just yet, but this platform is going to be best-suited for those who want an excellently designed investing app with low fees and some useful analysis metrics. Lightyear is also one of the best options if you want to earn a decent level interest on any cash you’re holding.

If that’s not you, why not compare share trading platforms to find the right fit to match your style.

Frequently asked questions

• Is Lightyear investing legit?

  Yes! The company has been reviewed and approved by UK regulators.

• Is Lightyear FCA regulated?

  Yes, Lightyear is authorised and regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

• Is Lightyear on the stock market?

  No, it’s still a private company at this stage.

• How do you withdraw money from Lightyear?

  You can take money out directly from the app and it’s free to withdraw funds from your Lightyear account.