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CMC Invest ReviewLloyds Bank Review
Written by Elizabeth Anderson
Fact-checked by Steven Hatzakis
Edited by Carolyn Kimball
Your capital is at risk.
It's easy to open a Lloyds Bank Share Dealing investment account attached to your current Lloyds Bank account, should you have one. However, we can’t see a compelling reason to open a share dealing account with Lloyds if you are not already a Lloyds Bank customer. There are other platforms that are easier, more comprehensive and cheaper to use – including Halifax, which is also owned by Lloyds Banking Group.
-
Minimum Deposit:
£0.0 -
ISA:
Yes -
SIPP:
No
Lloyds Bank Share Dealing pros & cons
Pros
- Offers a wide range of investments, including bonds and mutual funds.
- Flat fee of £40 a year is good value for those with large portfolios.
Cons
- Difficult and time-consuming to open an account.
- One-off share transaction costs are high.
- Very limited tools and research.
Overall summary
| Feature |
Lloyds Bank
|
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
|
| Charges & Fees |
|
| Investment Choices |
|
| Mobile App |
|
| Website |
|
| Ease of Use |
|
| Education |
|
Charges and fees
Lloyds charges £11 for buying and selling U.K. shares, investment trusts, bonds and ETFs. This cost is reduced to £10 if you are a Premier or Private Banking customer, and to £8 if you make more than eight trades per quarter (around three a month).
These costs are among the highest in the industry, in line with a few other brokers including AJ Bell, Barclays and Fidelity. Other platforms including Interactive Investor (ii), XTB, Freetrade, eToro and Interactive Brokers are cheaper for share trades. Lloyds also charges £1.50 for mutual fund trades, which most other platforms offer for free if they offer mutual funds.
However, if you commit to regular dealing (where you invest in the same asset monthly) then there are no commission charges. It’s common for trading platforms to offer discounted trades for regular investing, but Lloyds is one of a small handful of brokers offering free regular dealing. AJ Bell and Fidelity, for example, charge £1.50 and Barclays charges £1.
Another good feature is that Lloyds does not charge anything on international share trades (although a 1% foreign exchange, or FX, fee applies). You can buy shares in companies listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ in the U.S., and those listed in Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Amsterdam and Brussels.
Lloyds also charges annual custody fees of £40 for holding your investments. This is very economical for investors with large holdings. For example, Hargreaves Lansdown charges a 0.45% custody charge for mutual fund investments below £250,000, which works out at £45 a year for those with investments worth £10,000. So investors with a portfolio worth more than £10,000 may be better with a flat fee charging structure such as Lloyds’.
However, Lloyds’ charges are higher than its sister company Halifax, which has the same owner and is very similar in design. Halifax charges £9.50 per trade and annual custody fees of £36.
Scenario pricing: When calculating annual share dealing costs, trading frequency and account balance are the two most important factors to consider. Assuming a £30,000 portfolio in a traditional, taxable share dealing account, here are four scenarios of how much Lloyds Bank would cost based on trade frequency:
- 5 trades per year = £40 - £95
- 12 trades per year = £40 - £172
- 36 trades per year = £40 - £412
- 120 trades per year = £40 - £1084
- 3 fund trades per year = £40 - £44.50
| Feature |
Lloyds Bank
|
|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | £0.0 |
| Share Trading: 0-9 Deals/ Month | £8, £10, £11 |
| Share Trading: 10-19 Deals/ Month | £8 |
| Share Trading: 20+ Deals/ Month | £8 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £0 - £250,000 | £40 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £250K-£500K | £40 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £500,000 - £1m | £40 |
| Annual Custody Fee: £1m and over | £40 |
| Bonds - Corporate - Fee | £8, £10, £11 |
| Bonds - Government (Gilts) - Fee | £8, £10, £11 |
| ETFs - Fee | £8, £10, £11 |
| Investment Trusts - Fee | £8, £10, £11 |
| Telephone Dealing Fee | £35 |
| Visit Site |
Mobile trading apps
The Lloyds trading app is very basic. When you log in to your Lloyds Bank investment account, the home screen is much like the banking homepage. Tap on your share dealing account to open your investments.
It’s not easy to search for funds or investment ideas. Ideally, you’ll already know what you want to invest in, likely by having done research elsewhere. There is a prominent link to Lloyds’ ETF Quicklist for ETF inspiration, but this takes you away from the mobile app and to the website.
The best thing I discovered when opening an account and testing the app was a small pension through an old employer I’d forgotten about, as Lloyds also offers pensions through its Scottish Widows brand.
Like with Halifax, you need to have registered for online banking before logging into the share dealing mobile app for the first time. Your investment account also needs to have money paid in before it will show through the app.
Tap for a demo of Lloyds Bank's U.K. trading app.
Are you new to investing?
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Website
The website overall feels quite old-fashioned and is similar to the banking home page. I found it difficult to open an account as the registration page crashed and would not accept the secret question it asked me to create. It would be good for Lloyds to explain exactly what new users need to put in when creating an account.
There are also limited charting options if you like to use charts to analyse historical trends and events. You cannot show corporate events on a stock chart such as dividends or earnings dates — a feature offered by many other online investment platforms.
There are also no drawing tools or indicators, and you cannot overlay charts over each other to compare different stocks or indices. You also cannot set basic stock alerts. It would be great if Lloyds could improve the customer experience by adding these features, which newer platforms all offer.
| Feature |
Lloyds Bank
|
|---|---|
| Web Platform | Yes |
| iPhone App | Yes |
| Android App | Yes |
| Stock Alerts | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies | 0 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools | 0 |
| Charting - Notes | No |
| Charting - Display Corporate Events | No |
| Charting - Stock Overlays | No |
| Charting - Index Overlays | No |
Investment choices
Lloyds offers a good range of investments across seven world markets, including U.K. bonds and gilts, ETFs, investment trusts and company shares. It’s good to have access to worldwide investments but other platforms such as eToro, Saxo and Interactive Brokers offer more extensive overseas investment options covering other parts of the world including Asia.
There are almost 3,000 funds to choose from. Lloyds offers a ready-made investment portfolio but you must pay in at least £50 a month. If you don’t like the idea of committing this amount, other platforms such as Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell offer ready-made portfolios for those looking to save £25 a month.
For ready-made investment ISAs and investment accounts, Lloyds charges a flat rate of £3 per month, plus ongoing charges of up to 0.25% and transaction costs up to 0.14%.
You can invest through an ISA, Junior ISA, SIPP or general dealing account. Lloyds does not offer Lifetime ISAs.
Lloyds does not offer financial advice, but it has partnered with Schroders Personal Wealth if you want to pay for advice and you earn at least £100,000 a year or have £100,000 in savings and pensions.
| Feature |
Lloyds Bank
|
|---|---|
| Share Trading | Yes |
| CFD Trading | No |
| Funds | Yes |
| Research - ETFs | Yes |
| Bonds - Corporate | Yes |
| Bonds - Government (Gilts) | Yes |
| Investment Trusts | Yes |
| Spread Betting | No |
| Crypto Trading | No |
| Advisor Services | No |
Education
Educational and research material is limited on the Lloyds website. There are a few guides on how to get started, such as investing for beginners and how to understand risk, but these do not go into extensive detail.
Lloyds’ Research Centre offers more, including news articles and insights on the economy or a particular company. The majority of news articles are provided by research firm FEfundinfo. There are no webinars for investors looking for further investment guidance and inspiration.
Lloyds does not offer real-time market data – prices are delayed by 15 minutes.
| Feature |
Lloyds Bank
|
|---|---|
| Education (Share Trading) | No |
| Education (Funds) | No |
| Education (Retirement) | No |
| Client Webinars | No |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | No |
What type of trader are you?
Our guides can help you choose the right broker for you and the way you trade: whether you consider yourself an investing beginner, a more experienced active trader, or a mobile-first trading enthusiast.
Final thoughts
Lloyds Bank Share Dealing may be worth using if you are already a Lloyds Bank customer and like the idea of seeing your current account, savings and investments in one place. If you are a new customer of Lloyds then there are better platform options out there that are easier to open, offer more features and may be cheaper.
About Lloyds Bank Share Dealing
Lloyds Share Dealing is operated by Lloyds Banking Group, which traces its roots back to 1765 when Taylors & Lloyds opened as a private bank in Birmingham. Lloyds Banking Group owns Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Scottish Widows.
Does Lloyds Bank have a share dealing service?
Yes, you can buy shares through Lloyds by opening a Share Dealing account.
Is Lloyds good to invest with?
The Lloyds Bank investment account is a safe option as it’s operated by a bank that has been around for centuries. But keep in mind that all investment platforms in the U.K. must be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), so in that respect Lloyds is no safer than any other regulated platform.
How much does Lloyds charge for selling shares?
Lloyds charges £11 for buying and selling U.K. shares, although it’s free to buy shares in companies listed overseas. Dealing costs are reduced to £8 per transaction if you make more than eight trades per quarter (around three a month).
How does a Lloyds share ISA work?
You can pay in up to £20,000 a year into ISAs. This £20,000 cap applies to any ISA you own — including cash, investment and lifetime ISAs. If you open a Lloyds stocks and shares ISA, you cannot open and pay into another investment ISA in the same tax year.
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Methodology
For the UK.StockBrokers.com Annual Review, we assessed, rated, and ranked 17 U.K. share dealing platforms over a 10-week time period. Each broker’s platforms and features were exhaustively tested by hand and graded on 53 different variables. In total, over 25,000 words of research were produced.
We thoroughly tested and compared features of prime interest to everyday investors, including but not limited to:
- Investment choices, such as whether the broker offers trading of shares, ETFs, funds, bonds, and CFDs; and offers SIPP and ISA accounts.
- The broker’s charges and fees for investing.
- Functionality and design of mobile apps and website platform, and a fluid experience moving between app and web.
- Usability of tools such as charting and watch lists.
- Market research, such as screening, news and analysis.
- Educational resources including tutorials, online courses, videos, webinars and articles.
Our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .001% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Our lead researcher and writer, Elizabeth Anderson, has more than a decade’s experience as a financial journalist and market researcher. Elizabeth’s expertise is backed by a team of veteran fellow traders, data auditors, editors and project managers who work to ensure that UK.StockBrokers.com reviews and guides are the most unbiased and complete in the industry. Read more about our team.
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Show allAbout the Editorial Team
Elizabeth Anderson, lead writer and researcher, has been a financial journalist for more than a decade. In addition to her work with UK.StockBrokers.com, she has written extensively for major publications including BBC, The Times and Bloomberg. A keen investor herself, she is passionate about helping people understand finance and investing.
Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.
Carolyn Kimball is managing editor for Reink Media and the lead editor for the StockBrokers.com Annual Review. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.