I’ve got a ltitle more than $30K that I’m looking to roll over from my previous employers 401K to an IRA so I can play around with my own portfolio construction and even invest in something other than our own awful brand of funs. I wouldn’t be actively trading, so the difference between $7 trades and $10 trades isn’t a big consideration to me. Curious who people use in the discount brokerage world and if there are any big time plusses or minuses to using one vs the other of Etrade, Scottrade, Schwab, Fidelity, etc.
I bank with Wells Fargo, and I use their accounts. Since I have checking and savings and brokerage there, it’s easy to transfer money in and out. To make an ETF or stock trade costs $8.95.
I also have my mortgage, homeowners insurance, car insurance, life insurance, etc. with USAA. They have similar charges for stock trades, and again, it’s easy to transfer money in and out.
The bad things about both of these–they probably don’t have as many funds available to buy through them as you can get through the Etrade or Schwab. (Come to think of it, I don’t know whether this is really that bad or not.)
I’ve never had an account with any of the ones you mentioned.
Why not Vanguard?
They are in the “etc.” I have no aversion to them at all.
I’ve never done a roll over or use Vanguard, but Vanguard seems to have a very good reputation for this sort of stuff. They have pretty low expenses and are a mutual if I understand the structure correctly.
I use TD Ameritrade. I trade very little. They have a good number of ETFs that are commission free. It was easy for me to rollover my IRA.
See my Schwab vs. Scottrade post in WC.
Even though the question wasn’t directed at me, I feel like I should share my hatred of Vanguard. I like the idea of low-cost, passive investing. And I think most financial/economic/fundamental/technical analysis has relatively little value to most investors (no offense to any analysts here).
But the problem with Vanguard is that it has got its people (employees, customers, owners) completely brainwashed. The cult of Jack Bogle is extremely vocal, and though there are some smart ones, most Bogleheads only know two responses to any question regarding investments. “What would Jack do?” and " 'Cuz Jack said so."
So you hate it because Jack is put on a pedestal. Makes sense.
These brainwashed people are being protected from themselves. Imagine if they actually actively invested their savings.
Why didn’t you consider Vanguard?
No big-time pluses or minuses given your requirements. All have several commission-free ETFs and artificial DRIPs, and no charges for trading no-load NTF mutual funds.
Fidelity or Schwab are your best bet. Their index funds are all the same price or cheaper than Vanguard. More importantly, they have the broadest range of services/investments while still offering walk-in offices if the need arises.
I’ve only used Fidelity and Scottrade, so I can’t comment on others. I think Vanguard would be a great way to go, just haven’t had experience with them yet.
I switched from Scottrade to Fidelity a few years ago and found the research tools to be better and they offer a lot of funds with the fees waved. Scottrade has better technical analysis tools. I’ve seen many funds at Fidelity with the upfront sales load waived and there are also a wide variety of funds that have no trading fees. I use funds like IEMG and IVE, which have no trading fees, to invest a small amount every month in my Roth IRA. Since there’s no trading fees I can buy a couple shares every month without transaction costs killing me.
Also, when I switched my account from Scottrade I talked via chat to a representative and told him I wanted to move the account but I’d have to pay a fee to transfer the money out of my Scottrade account. I forget if it was a $50 or $100 fee, but Fidelity paid it for me so definitely talk to someone at the company if you’ll be facing any fees or charges or whatever.