Swab, Vanguard Or Fidelity

ORInvestor | Dec 3, 2023 | 44 posts since 2014

I am trying to decide on a brokerage to consolidate my accounts. At my age I am only interested in Cds.

Are there any recommendations/comments pro or con that will help me to select a brokerage?

Answers

HollyHolly | Dec 4, 2023 | 89 posts since 2015

I vote for Fidelity. Customer service is excellent. I have accounts at both F. and Schwab and find Fid.
far more responsive. Also you don't need to sell out of a money market fund at Fid if you are purchasing a stock or bond. They do it for you automatically. At Sch., unless you have a managed account, you need to sell the mm fund first in order to get funds to buy a stock or bond. Also, if you are buying bonds, you can buy as few as 5 bonds and only be charged $1 per bond. At Schwab, the lowest charge is $10 even if you only buy 5 bonds. Check t see if you will get rewarded for moving to Fidelity. Be aware that with the brokered CDs you only get your interest at maturity.

ocsteve | Dec 4, 2023 | 96 posts since 2010

At Fidelity the Brokered CDs interest can be paid by FI at maturity (for terms of 1 year or less), semi-annual, quarterly or monthly for more than 1 year term. The interest paid is simple interest, no compounding. Interest is paid to your Money Market mutual fund if desired, or goes to a bank cash sweep FDIC insured account.

Ltssharon | Dec 4, 2023 | 471 posts since 2020

I believe octsteve is more accurate than holly. So do not compare the apy at a bank or credit union to the apy at a brokerage. Aside from that, I prefer Fidelity.

GH1 | Dec 4, 2023 | 1,053 posts since 2017

Agreed Fidelity is the best

sams1985 | Dec 4, 2023 | 781 posts since 2022

Fidelity-customer service, getting a human on the phone within 2 minutes, free wires, instant external bank account linking, money starts earning interest immediately upon transfer, fixed income asset layout is easier to navigate and much more intuitive than Vanguard, you can auto build a 1-5 year ladder, brokered CD's don't settle immediately so you have time to cancel, good secondary market in case you need to unload brokered CD's (i've done it twice) and very simple to use the fill or kill feature. Integrated 2% Fidelity rewards CC, etc.

Dont even consider Schwab.

Ltssharon | Dec 4, 2023 | 471 posts since 2020

I do like the branch office in my town at Schwab. I can write a check to Schwab and run it to the branch and spend it on a cd at Schwab immediately.

111 | Dec 5, 2023 | 672 posts since 2019

Kudos and historical accolades to Vanguard and especially to Jack Bogle, for establishing the "passive income" revolution. Without them, we might even today be listening to active fund managers tell us how they "only under-performed by a few percentage points" the major indices with our money (yet still of course collected their fees, whether customers gained or lost).

However, Vanguard's insistence on low expense ratios also apparently means that their phone service can suck. Just today I called them to ask an IRA question. Their voice recognition system worked fine - but then came the harder part, when their AI (I'm guessing) attempted to route my call to the IRA "department". That was a joke.

As others have said, Fidelity seems better at that function. Vanguard fund expense ratios are cheaper overall, whereas Fidelity seems to route trades to where spreads are better for the customer.

txFish1 | Dec 4, 2023 | 476 posts since 2023

Fidelity gets my vote as well. Good customer service and can be a one stop shop pretty easily especially for CD's. There may be times where you do not get the absolute highest yields in the market but the rates are always competitive and you do not have to constantly be opening up new accounts and sending money all over the country.

John19 | Dec 4, 2023 | 394 posts since 2022

Fidelity is easily the best. You'll probably have both because of bonuses. If Schwab's MMF auto liquidated it would be a lot better. I like the Fidelity CMA account and debit card.

betaguy | Dec 4, 2023 | 180 posts since 2022

with ACH, you can't 'push' money into vanguard. only pull.
Vanguard is not Mac friendly.

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