Scottrade or Vanguard: Trading Fees and Investments 2012
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- Stocks and ETFs: $7
- Stocks and ETFs broker assisted: $27
- Stocks and ETFs interactive voice response (IVR) telephone system: $17
- Options: $7 plus $1.25 per contract
- Mutual Funds: 2,800+ free mutual funds, $17 for others
- CDs, OTC Secondary Corporates, OTC Secondary Municipals, U.S. Treasury Bills, Notes, Bonds and STRIPS, New Corporate Offerings: subject to a markup or markdown
- Listed Corporate Bonds: $35 fee plus $3 per bond (minimum investment $1,000)
- Unit Investment Trusts (UIT): $50 liquidation fee
- Foreign Stocks Transferring In or Out: $60 per transaction
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, CDs, munis, U.S. Treasury, Canadian and foreign stocks, ETFs
- Minimum to open Scottrade account: $500 for a cash account, $2,000 for a margin account
- All Scottrade fees
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- Stocks and ETFs: $7 for the first 25 trades, $20 for subsequent trades for account with less than $50,000
- $7 for account with $50,000–$500,000 (Voyager Services®)
- $2 for account with $500,000–$1,000,000 (Voyager Select Services®)
- Free for first 25 trades, $2 for subsequent trades for account with $1 million (Flagship Services™)
- Options: $30 plus $1.50 per contract
- Options for accounts with over $1 million: $8 + $1.50 per contract
- Mutual funds: Vanguard mutual funds - free. All others - Standard: $35; Voyager® and Voyager Select®: $20; Flagship®, $8
- Certificates of deposit (CDs): Purchase: $5 per $1,000, Minimum: $50. Sale: $35 per transaction
- Commercial paper: $50 per transaction; minimum purchase: $100,000
- U.S. Treasury: $0.75 per $1,000 face amount, $40 min–$75 max
- Mortgage-backed securities: $50 per transaction; GNMA minimum purchase: $25,000
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, CDs, foreign securities, insurance,
commercial paper, ETFs
- Minimum to open Vanguard account: $3,000
- All Vanguard fees
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- No inactivity, account maintenance or hidden fees
- No-fee IRAs
- One of the highest customer satisfaction ratings according to JD Power and Associates
- 500+ local branches
- Great support for beginner investors with massive amount of educational resources
- Online user community
- Banking services: savings, CDs, money market and checking accounts (visa check card and first order of checks is free)
- No ACAT fee
- Only $500 minimum to open account
- Free real-time streaming quotes and charts
- Free dividend reinvestment for mutual funds (but not for stocks)
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- Low cost and good performance Vanguard mutual funds
- Free Vanguard ETFs
- Free dollar-cost-averaging transactions for no-fee mutual funds. $3 per transaction, minimum purchase $100, minimum two transactions, for transaction fee mutual funds.
- Free dividend reinvestment
- No ACAT fee
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- Additional 0.5% of the principal value commission for stocks under $1
- No electronic withdrawals (but can use debit card or checks)
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- High commissions in many cases
- $20 annual maintenance fee for regular accounts with balance less than $50,000
- $10 monthly Low Balance Fee for accounts with $2,500 or less
- Poor trading and research tools
- $3,000 minimum to open account is somewhat high
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Scottrade vs Vanguard: Comparison Summary
Scottrade (Scottrade Review) has much
lower commissions on stocks and ETFs than Vanguard (Vanguard Review):
$7 versus Vanguard's $20 ($7 for the first 25 trades). Vanguard offers customers its own well-known family of low cost mutual funds and $35
per transaction commission on all other mutual funds. With Scottrade investors are getting over 2,800 free mutual
funds and could buy all others for $17 per transaction.
Both companies don't have IRA setup fees and annual IRA fees.
Scottrade doesn't even have IRA termination and ACAT fees, which all other online brokers charge, and it is rated as one of the
Top Brokers for IRA Account. The firm is also in our list of
Best Brokerages for Beginner Investors,
offering tons of learning materials, easy to use trading tools and helpful online community.
Unlike Vanguard, Scottrade provides over 500 local branches where customers could step by and talk with someone face-to-face.
The company is rated at the top of the list in customer satisfaction according to JD Power and Associates.
Both brokerage firms don't have account inactivity fees and surcharges on large orders. However, Scottrade charges
additional commission on stocks under $1 (penny stocks) and Vanguard has $30 annual maintenance fee for regular accounts.
There are a lot of complaints about Vanguard's hard-to-reach customer service and badly designed trading tools.
Because of the drastically lower commissions, which could save thousands over the years, better customer service and trading
platform, we strongly recommend Scottrade to all investors.
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