Lightyear are going to start charging 0.35% for currency conversion.
UK stocks, EU stocks & ETFs are also coming from 17th of October 2022.
The competitors are zooming along.
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Some changes coming to Lightyear.
- Access to UK stocks, European stocks & Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to be released.
- Access to global ETFs
- removing the free FX allowance from 15 September 2022 (is currently a Ā£3,000 monthly limit for free foreign exchange). Free FX will remain for existing customers until the end of the year. If charged, there will be a 0.35% flat foreign exchange fee.
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I hope Viktor is aware of this news
All these companies will have to start charging for their services in some way if they want to survive.
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True**. If the company has large pockets though it can survive through dark times longer. LY in particular has deep pocket backers plus is revenue generating. Now, this has a bearing on all the other companies because if I put money (assets) into company X I am not putting that money into company Y. Once LY has an ISA personally I expect its inflows to rapidly increase.
In summary: All these companies in this space means there is money to be made in this space. But many wonāt survive*** - it is the essence of competition.
** But while the proposition is attractive for customers, many customers would be silly not to use them.
*** some may disappear via liquidation but some will be attractive enough to be acquired by a larger group.
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I would like Freetrade to acquire Lightyear and also bring the best talent from Lightyear at the same time! If only Freetrade had the same drive and engineering talent that Lightyear have then we would easily be valued a unicorn by now of that I have no doubt.
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I think that too often non-techies go for the easy soft belly and and blame tech people. But having worked in many real tech companies I challenge this direction of finger pointing. BTW, what do I mean by a real tech company? One with a tech culture similar to the company (LY) that you are referring to.
I bet you that Freetrade has great tech people. If you think about the statements that the company has being making it tells you that the direction for the techies [until at least Feb this year] was all about the Europe expansion. I also think that this company at a senior management level began to think too early like a big company not a small start-up ā¦ you can see that reflected in numerous things if you know where to look. It is not the fault of the techies that the Europe expansion hasnāt gone according to plan.
The side effect of this is that acquisition of LY wonāt fix Freetradeās woes. If anything it would make things worse. M&A digestion is often a painful thing.
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Yep. Was happy to see LY finally announce ETFs. Couldnāt work out from the T&Cs who they are using for trading and custody in the UK. I know they use the AR services of RiskSave (like Revolut and a load of others). But who are they going to be using to execute trades? Who are providing custody? Has Alpaca expanded to provide these services rather than just US operations?
Would assume LY are going to break cover with a big bang. So quite a lot of ETFs, maybe underlying holdings of each ETF, maybe include the dividends in the newly announced dividend calendar function.
Should be nice.
Hopefully greater competition spurs people on
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Iāll be straight up here,I have invested a lot of my hard earned cash in Freetrade and even more so I am emotionally invested,if they donāt IPO in 2024/25 or thereabouts at a price of approximately Ā£20 unless they do a stock split then Iām afraid guys I wonāt be attending the IPO party 
This is starting to be a very crowded marketplace with soon to be very little to differentiate between these platforms other than overall cost. Its almost becoming commoditised.
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Could end up being a race to the bottom in terms of fees. Customers will always do whatās best for themselves and not the business.
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Allow me to chip in please; I donāt know much about the competition. However, the name:
āFREE TRADEā
Think about it. Who ever came up with that name is a genius. Catchy, easy to remember, easy to understand, clear and the website and app are all that and more. And that, my friends is where the competition will NEVER be able to catch up.
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It is without doubt a genius move calling it Freeetrade!!! Unfortunately, names do not carry companies on their own and will only get you so far.
With blind loyalty I am still investing in FT but do have concerns other companies seem to be far more efficient in getting products out that people actually want and to do it in complete ways and not incomplete projects like web or standing order etc.
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A catchy name may get people through the door but if the product falls behind the competition it wonāt stop people going back out through said door.
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Hi @Callum - $IIPR has now been added: Innovative Industrial Properties Inc - IIPR - Share chat
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I just saw this. I donāt know about the first part (but I suspect it is not true as nominee accounts are used). But the second part - I think is true for any broker. It will take time to sort out who owns what and for you to then get your assets. I have been wondering about this (how long it takes to get your hands on your stuff) recently - not because of this particular competitor but wondering about it generally. Even if the FCA rules protect up to Ā£X it will take you time for you to get your hands on it. I think that the issue is more horrible in the case of shares because it wold mean you canāt trade them - but again this is true for all companies.
In summary, I donāt think that in this regard T212 is better or worse than any other regulated company.