Reviews about Online Brokerages

kat9948 says "Always helpful and quick to respond" about Charles Schwab

kat9948 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:47:40 GMT

My aunt helped me set up my new IRA at Schwab several years ago. Being a new college student and part time employee I was unsure of everything and anything to do with retirement savings. I have never actually gone in to see anyone at Schwab, but every email I have written has come back within two or three days, usually within 24 hours. The responses I get are accurate and friendly and give me the information I was looking for. The phone operators are also as polite and friendly as the email people. I would definitely reccommend Schwab to people starting out, or having years of investing experience.

...

INVESTOR1 says "INCOMPETENT TRADING PLATFORM" about Scottrade

INVESTOR1 — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:47:32 GMT

STAY AWAY FORM SCOTRADE! THERE TRADING PLATFOME HAS CRASHED 3 TIME IN 2 MONTHS AND AT ALL TIME THEY DID NOT OFFER FAIR COMPENSATION OF ANYKIND. I HAVE HAD SLIPPAGE IN INVESTING STOCKS OF 935.00 AND THEY KNEW ABOUT IT ADTER CHECKING ON IT AND THE BRANCH MANAGER CHARLIE @ THE ANAHIEM ,CA BRANCH WAS COCKY AND IN DENIAL OF COMPENSATION AS WELL AS RUDE WHILE KNOWING IT WAS THEIR NEGLIGANCE. I WRITTEN TO THEIR COMPLIANCE DEPT AS WELL AS TO CEO ROGER RINEY TWICE AND HAVE NOT RECIEVED ANY RESPONSE. TODAY 6/1/09 WHILE TRYING TO BUY A STOCK AS WELL AS TRYING TO SELL ANOTHER AT THE OPENING OF THE MARKET I ENTERED TO REVIEW MY ORDER AS USUAL AND THIER TRADING WEBSITE PLATFORM AUTOMATICALLY EXECUTED MY TRADE WITHOUT ME CONFIRMING IT WITH THE CONFIRM BUTTON. I CALLED LINDA PHO BRANCH MANAGER AT LAS VEGAS AND WHILE GOING BACK AND FORTH AND RE QUESTIONING OVER AND OVER AS IF I WAS NOT BEING HONEST I ASKED HER, DO YOU THINK I AM LYING? SHE COULD NOT UNDERSTAND I WAS SERIOUS ABOUT THIER NEGLIGANCE...

...

Bryan-Carey says "Sharebuilder.com Will Help You Reach Your Financial Goals" about Sharebuilder

Bryan-Carey — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:34:42 GMT

Investment is important to a solid financial strategy, yet many people forgo investing due to lack of knowledge. If you would like to get started on building a portfolio but would like some assistance, there is one web site that can help you get going for relatively low cost. The site is Sharebuilder.com an on- line financial brokerage service.

Brokerage Commentary:

Sharebuilder.com offers investment accounts, online trading in real time, investment research, and most all of the other tools normally associated with an online brokerage company. In addition, it also offers credit reports, insurance, loans, and more. Recently, Sharebuilder.com combined forces with ING Bank, which helped to further expand its financial service offerings.

Sharebuilder.com is a good on- line investment company that can help anyone start an investment/savings program and many credit Sharebuilder.com for helping them to establish an investment account for the first time. I am not a beginner to the world...

...

Brendar1974 says "Charles Schwab has been a great bank to work with" about Charles Schwab

Brendar1974 — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:01:21 GMT

Charles Schwab has been a great bank and investment house to work with. I use all aspects of the website and have been very pleased. Their stock trading page is easy to use and tells you exactly the status of all orders. The brokerage account overview lets me know exactly how much I have gained or lost for the day and sends notices to my e mail about the companies that I am invested in. I can get all of my statements and notices through my e mail so I cut down on the use of trees and also the possibility of identity theft. The bill pay option has saved me a bundle in stamps. It also gives me the option of tracking my expenses and a way to prove payment if there are ever any issues. I have called the customer service center and they always treat me great and anwser my call in a timely manner. They are always polite and anwser all of my questions in a professional manner.

...

missann1 says "Cheap and Easy" about Scottrade

missann1 — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:54:31 GMT

If you want a no-nonsense online broker, Scottrade is your best bet. Trades are only $7 and there are no hidden fees. This may indeed represent the best value in online brokerage.

The account summary gives a short term growth history and shows the amount availble for trade. Daily gains and losses are also readily visible on the homepage. Statements are available online.

Trades are executed promptly with confirmation sent via email. Free trades are available by referring others to the service.

One complaint I had before was the inability to electronically fund the account. However, Scottrade recently launch this capability with two methods of account confirmation.

Ticker information is quick and accurate with stock charts and relevant news for review. Proxy materials are also delivered satisfactorily.

Users have the option to form a watchlist of stock tickers that will show on the homepage. The is quite useful.

...

Ejli says ".Poor customer service for disputes" about Bank of America

Ejli — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:45:27 GMT

Bank of America will not accept a written or email dispute. I was in the hospital and had 3 separate problems that occured while trying to do business through the internet. I sent two emails outlining the problems, I used the interactive chat to summarize the situation and the problems and then hand delivered a written outline and detailed summary of the problems that had caused improper fees and account problems. I was in the hospital in February, May, and December. I began the disputes in the summer of 2008 and have had no response. My wife and I are disabled and have had consistent problems with the internet and the Bank. It seems that they are incented to not solve the problem. We have waited hours on the phone when trying to settle problems and we have had several consistent incidents where our understandings and our discussions undocumented or incorrectly documented. Our income is limited and we cannot afford to keep very much money in our checking account; ...

...

zeusal1 says "Great way to invest" about Sharebuilder

zeusal1 — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:44:00 GMT

I bagan using Sharebuilder in January 2009. I have a 401K account through work that has been doing terrible over the last year like everyone else's is doing. My husband talked me into getting into the market with Sharebuilder on a small sacle now that the market is as close to zero as you can get. We started small with $100 a month and are now at $200 per month. I received a bonus at work and put it into the account and we decided to not try and guess individual stocks that would go up, so we picked some ETF's (Exchange Traded Fund). We feel like we almost know what we are doing, as the market has started to move in the right direction for us, and if it does this for another month or two, I can see us getting back everything that we lost in our 401K's this year, and getting ahead by next year. The forced savings of automatic investing makes it feel like we never received the money to start, and it doesn't hurt as much. We have hardly had to change how we live to allow for...

...

mschante1979 says "I love this bank!!!" about Bank of America

mschante1979 — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:14:17 GMT

I love Bank of America. I have a checking and savings account with them. They are super about returning money for unauthorized transactions. They don't ask a million questions. It doesn't take forever either!!! They do what they say when they say it!!!!

Someone stole my check book. I called Bank of America and they closed the account and set up another one for me with no problem.

I also love the fact that they have atm's all around. I have never had problems finding one. Keep up the good work BOA!!!

...

redirishphotogrl says "Bank of America sucks!" about Bank of America

redirishphotogrl — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 20:10:50 GMT

I've recently closed my account with Bank of America because of their very poor customer service. With the economy the way it is I completely understand that banks are going through a hard time, but even more important to keep the customers you have happy...right? Wrong...very wrong. I've had problems in the past with Bank of America, but never really that big, on going, but never really that big...until recently. I'll make it short and simple.

It all started when my husband went on a trip to another state and needed to rent a car from Enterprise (which is a whole other story). Anyway, Enterprise ended up taking out the incorrect amount from my bank account which severely overdrew my account. Now, I am a very strict "budget" kind of person. I budget everything. So when my husband went on this trip, I put a specific amount into my checking account to go along with his expenses. Enterprise ended up correcting the mistake, but by this point it was to late, Bank of America ended up charging...

...

FIAE says "Fidelity reviews cost nothing and are done by a computer. " about Fidelity Investments www.fidelity.com

FIAE — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 02:59:12 GMT

As one who has provided hundreds of portfolio reviews for customers at Fidelity Investments, my comment is that "You get what you pay for." Fidelity Investments portfolio reviews cost nothing and are computer generated. Though Fidelity representatives can waiver off of the computer generated recommendations, Fidelity compliance requirements and overall management fear of doing anything that could be construed running counter to the "inferred" Fidelity performance requirements, makes Fidelity reviews basically worthless. In recent months, Fidelity has gone on a ruthless campaign of laying off an disproportionate number of their long-tenured (read "higher paid") employees in the name of "saving jobs." Fidelity has basically proven that their shop portfolio reviews and retirement planning can be done by 1) low-paid, low-experience kids in their 20's 2) low-performing reps with 3-6 years of experience and 3) trained chimpanzees. If a Fidelity rep tries to veer away from the shop computer-generated...

...

turchene00 says "They did not want to work with me!" about Bank of America

turchene00 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:56:35 GMT

I have been customer of this bank since 2003 and I really loved them. Recently I have been dealing with financial difficulties and was trying to work with the bank to reduce my minimum payments and my high interest rates. The lady at the customer service was very mean and simply did not want to help me. I kept telling her that I am unable to pay them $650 in minimum payments and if there is anything they could do. She just kept telling me, that it is what it is and that is all about. It has become that much because I was late 1 day on the payment twice in a year, but it was only 1 day and they increased my interest to 28%. It really put me at the edge. The lady would not transfer me to her boss or credit department. I was so pissed. I ended up having to file for bankruptcy. Two months after I stopped paying my rep called me and tryed to work with me on reducing my payments. I had to tell her, that it was too late and I already in the process of filing for bankruptcy since they refused...

...

meg2000 says "happy customer" about Scottrade

meg2000 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:40:19 GMT

I've been using Scottrade for a while now and so far had no problems. And a like Money Direct that allow you to make transfers from your checking account to your Scottrade account very easy. The minimun to open an account is $500 no bad. If you decide to open an account they have a 3 free trades offer. On the Get Started page fill your info and when asked how you heard about Scottrade, select "Referred by a friend, relative, etc." Enter the following Referall code: NBNX0491 to get 3 free online trades....

avatar42 says "One thing after another with BOA" about Bank of America

avatar42 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:06:02 GMT

I am SO pissed I am vibrating right now. Seems that when I called Bank of America on March 19th about their debt consolidation loan mailer (and was of course turned down as you NEVER get the rate the offer is for with them) they took it upon themselves to close both of the cards I have with them. Of course they did not see fit to tell me or send back the overpayment of $91.90 still setting in my account. In fact they just sent me checks to use to transfer money at 3.99% onto a card and their website shows both cards as still active! After having the card declined I called customer support which told me the account I was calling about was closed and asked if I'd like a check sent with the money they owed me. I asked why they had not done that already and he said "we hang onto it till you ask for it". BTW per my quarterly report from Discover my credit score as of March 10th was 777. One card had a $20500 limit and the other $17000. One can only imagine how they treat people with average...

...

ba1 says "hidden market making commission" about Bank of America

ba1 — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:48:48 GMT

Incredibly bad fills on stock trades at Bank of America Investment Services. I estimate that my best trades are sandbagged $0.06 to 0.$075 per share, either a missed trade or not the best price for large volumes beyond my order. "Free trades" ? Mine have cost tens of thousands of dollars in missed trades and thousands in poor fill prices. I prefer Interactive Brokers and Thinkorswim among the dozen+ brokers that I have tried. e.g. Two standing GTC orders, IB filled my order for stock at $0.71 at 933 am while BoA filled it at $0.77+ between 935 and 948 am.

Also the trading hours are inferior, missing early morning and a crucial 4 pm to 410 pm aftermarket slot. The clunky trade interface is laborious and lacks some *same day* account information like liquidation balance. Their IRA is a cash only account rather than (limited) margin IRA. The BAIS IRA effectively allows only 1 round trip per 3 days+, a very dangerous limitation in markets like now. Adios MFs.

...

frankie156 says "Service at a great price" about Scottrade

frankie156 — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:01:38 GMT

Scottrade is a practical, easy to navigate website where trades are only $7.00. Plus it is backed up by real people in local offices in case you need them. The website also has a good research capablity. I use Scottrade for all my trades and find that the execution is timely and accurate. Ive also been told that in 2009 they will add the sought for dividend reinvestment program which will enhance our investment abilities. I have visited the local office to open a new account and found that the service was excellent. The manager and brokers were all courteous and helpful, particularly as my account involved trust business which was fairly complicated. Since dealing with Scottrade I have referred them to a number of friends that have all had good experiences with them.....

JimboW says "The CEO Must Wear White Socks With His Italian Shoes!" about Charles Schwab

JimboW — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:07:12 GMT

The one sentence title comes from our family experience with Schwab.

I have had only positive experiences with Schwab.

They are professional and courteous and always treat people right even if they don't have a lot of money. I think Schwab has a huge potential among lower income people who would not usually think of investing. My own encounters with them are proof of this.

There is a family story about Schwab that shows just how good our experience has been:

We are a blue collar family and my mother wanted to open an IRA. She expected to be treated poorly and was nervous about the whole process. Instead she was treated with respect and all questions were answered in recent months when the markets went down. She had only good things to say.

After she signed up for the account she told me that Schwab is not like the other "fancy" brokers and that she is sure the CEO must wear white socks. That is her approval for men who are "one of us" - that is, not upper class snobs and work hard...

...

chikof72 says "They are the worst ... They violent their own regulations!" about Scottrade

chikof72 — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:07:19 GMT

They are the worst ... They violent their own regulations!
I had the most trouble experience with them. Their rules are very unfair. First there was a problem with my social security number and then I sent the form to them and they called and confirmed that they received it. After a few days, they withhold some of my money because of Tax and as a result I received a margin call and at the time I was traveling and was not able to notice as quick and they sold my stock. Next problem was exactly like what you said. I lost almost $10,000 on my BAC stocks just to sell them in 1 day to give them their margin call. No 3 days notice or anything. Just had a phone call that if I don't take care of the call immediately they will sell my stocks. I am new with Stock world and they show no courtesy to educate you or anything like that and then push you to accept these unfair changes because I guess they think you are new and they can screw you up. I want to try another Broker. Do you guys have any better...

...

harriss67291 says "Bank of America - Frontline Workers Are Keeping Your Customers" about Bank of America

harriss67291 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:01:01 GMT

Bank of America - 20 Farrs Bridge Rd, Greenville, SC

I think so many times we forget in today's economy and current view on banks (especially the big heads) that it is the little persons who work on the front lines that make service so great.

Earlier this morning I went to my local Bank of America to deposit come coins that I have been saving each day when I come home I would drop these coins in a cookie jar instead of spending it.

Tammy the Teller I had this morning told me that my quarters seems to be too heavy in each of my role of coins and I may want to recount them. After I did I discovered that I had placed $5 too much in two roles and another one that I had handed to her without counted that had an additional $4.

Just wanted to say thanks Tammy and I am telling everyone what great customer service I received. Persons at your bank are great that's why I go out of my way to use your bank but this morning reenforced it.

...

Telsadelic says "TDAmeritrade is a good online stock brokerage!" about TDAmeritrade

Telsadelic — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:58:54 GMT

I've had TDAmeritrade as an online stock broker, on and off, for the last nine years. They are good at what they do. The trades are executed rapidly and correctly. The only thing that I would have them do different, is they should reduce their prices by $1 or $2 a trade. There are other online stock brokerages that charge less then TDAmeritrade. When I withdraw cash from my account, the checks always get to my mail box in two or three days.
Here's some free advice for stock investors. One of the best ways to invest, is to buy index mutual funds. They beat 90% of regular mutual funds. They charge the least, so pick the ones that charge the lowest out of them all. I think Vanguard is the one that charges the lowest. Adjust your risk according to how old you are at the time. If you are in your 20's and 30's you can invest in more risky index funds. If you have two or three bad years, you have decades to make up for your losses. If you are in your 50's and 60's, invest in lower risk index......

Lizibeth says "It they were the last bank on earth I would use my mattress!" about Bank of America

Lizibeth — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:13:48 GMT

Over one year ago I went over my credit limit with interest charges. This was immediatly paid but within a week I got a letter that my interest rate had jumped from a very low amount to 24%. I was told in this letter that if I paid my bills monthly on time and no over the limits they would lower the rate back down.

Well I paid my balance from $5600 down to $3400 in one year and was never late on any cards...nor have I even been late on any cards EVER!

I paid well over the minimum and my overall dept for the year was reduced by almost $10,000.

I called Bank of America and was led to believe I needed to try a credit monitoring/protection service that would currently cost me approx $33 a month just to get my interest lowered. It was pushed on me before I was transferred to someone elso who pulled my credit report, denied my request to lower my interest and ON TOP OF THAT! lowered my credit limit to my current balance.

I then told him to cancel the credit protect immediatly and he did not...

...