Self Directed Broker Accounts

bobert456 | May 22, 2024 | 187 posts since 2022

I did have some sizable money at TOS (Think or Swim) that went over to TD Ameritrade. Got used to doing business there.

NOW all that is over at Schwab. Does not allow for automatic sweep of cash into a paying MMF... so have to do that manually to get interest on CASH balances.

I have had some broker accounts elsewhere ( ALLY, Bank of America Merrill, even Chase JP Morgan ) but all end up disappointing in terms of customer service and hold time to get a REAL person for some help.

Any suggestions for online brokers (self directed) where the customer service and products available are decent? Even Vanguard has poor CS.

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Answers

txFish1 | May 22, 2024 | 476 posts since 2023

bobert456 I had TD Ameritrade for years for our work accounts where we housed our company profits and really liked them but not so much now that Schwab has taken them over. My wife had a Merrill Edge account from her work and they were OK. My wife and I have had a joint account at Fidelity for 20 years and in my opinion they are by far the best as far as the whole package. They have great customer service and everything sweeps into an account paying around 5% right now. We have moved the majority of our funds to Fidelity over the last decade and have been very pleased. Our IRA's are there and we even have a cash management account that takes care of our basic banking needs. Oh and I also use their 2% cash back Visa card. Everyone's mileage varies with brokerages but we have been very happy with Fidelity.

bobert456 | May 23, 2024 | 187 posts since 2022

-thanks. I did not make it clear in my post. I already have FIDELITY (and agree with comments), and I have Schwab. But I need another self-service broker with some decent customer service. Hoping to get some good leads from others besides Fidelity and Schwab.

sams1985 | May 22, 2024 | 781 posts since 2022

Main reason i chose Fidelity over vanguard was the customer service. First time i called vanguard i was on hold for 45+ minutes.

Fidelity Premium services is 250k+ Phone is answered almost instantly.

Fidelity Private client is $1 million+ with it's own private client customer service number, personal service and always instant answer.

Fidelity allows automatic sweep in MMF. You can choose where to send cash. In fact, you can also make trades, withdrawals, wires, basically anything and the money in the MMF is treated like "available cash for withdrawal". When I buy CD's i dont need to sell off my MMF to make a purchase. It's automatic.

Sometimes when i make short day trades, Fidelity doesn't even sell off the MMF to make the trade. For example i bought gamestop last Monday and sold it Tuesday morning.My profit was deposited into the account Wednesday without fidelity even selling any MMF funds to cover the stock trade. So i basically used "house" money to make the trade while mine continued to earn interest.

Obviously on Tuesday, if i had not sold, Fidelity would have sold my MMF shares to cover the trade purchase.

With 1+ million plus you are are also eligible for some premium MMF's like FSIXX treasury only which has been paying about 5.2% consistently for almost a year (state tax free)

John19 | May 23, 2024 | 394 posts since 2022

Do the Wells Fargo Invest $3500 bonus if you can and then move it to Fidelity.

betaguy | May 23, 2024 | 180 posts since 2022

another negative for vanguard is that you can't push or pull funds using an outside source.
Only push/pull from vanguard.

chipcollector | May 28, 2024 | 111 posts since 2010

I am a former TDAmeritrade customer. Come December 15, 2024 I will become a former Charles Schwab customer. Schwab sucks compared to TDAmeritrade. Have Zero interest in staying.
I am stuck there till my one year is up, as they gave me a promotion bonus which requires a 12 month commitment.

HollyHolly | May 28, 2024 | 89 posts since 2015

I have accounts at Schwab, Etrade and Fidelity. Fidelity is far and away the best in terms of customer service and ease of use. One thing I especially like at Fid. is that your money moves seamlessly - without your doing anything -between the money market fund and your brokerage account. That is, when I buy something Fid. takes the money from my fund and when money comes into the account, Fid puts the money into the fund. Of course, this fund is a Fid. fund.
Customer service has been uniformly excellent at Fid.

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