Scottrade Broker Account Opening Review
Well, I ended up opening a Scottrade account. Here were my reasons:
» $7 limit trades. Not the best, but good enough for me.
» Local broker. It’s nice to have somewhere I can drive to in 10 minutes and be face-to-face with a human. Much easier to resolve things that way.
» No inactivity or maintenance fees.
» No transfer-out fee. If I am dissatisfied, I can just move all my holdings over to another broker with no charge.
» Good reviews both offline and from online comments.
» Just $500 to open, but if you have $5,000 in account equity, you get free checkwriting, which you can then link up with other accounts.
The only thing that really made me think twice is that they pull a hard credit check when you apply. I decided it was worth it for the chance at finding a nice long-term broker.
Here is my opening process review, it was a bit of a whirlwind.
1) I got a friend to refer me to get 3 free trades. Scottrade has a referral program that gives the referrer 3 free trades, and the referree also gets 3 free trades. If you’d like to get in on this, I would be happy to refer you. Please see details here: Scottrade Referral Program Details - 3 Free Trades.
2) I applied online, and they asked me the usual ID verification questions. But there was no way to fund online. You had to fund via check, account transfer, or wire transfer. They also asked you to fill out an optional signature form so they have your signature on file in case you do any requests by mail.
3) I figured, hmm, maybe it’s time to take my new WaMu Checking out for a spin and try the free wires. But I wanted to make sure the funds would post right way, so I gave the local branch a call.
They said, yes, if it is received by the end of the market close, it should post the same day, but otherwise it would be the next day. But, did I live near the branch? If I dropped off a personal check by the afternoon, the funds would also be available the next day. Since this would also give me a chance to hand in the signature form, I said sure.
4) The branch was only 10 minutes away, but it was also in downtown, which meant parking was horrible. I called him up again and asked if they had a specific lot (blind hope), but they said that if I parked in the City garage, they would validate me. Excellent!
5) I dropped off the check and the signature card without much issue. I also requested checkwriting while I was there. I think I get a Check Card too. They said that online ACH transfer availability was scheduled for summer.
All in all, not bad at all. I figured out where the branch was, and I can visit anytime and not worry about parking. The branch was pretty sparse, like 6 desks and 2 people, but since there are 4 branches in my city I’m not too concerned.
The website is simple and logical, which is what I like to see. When you click on the ‘Contact Us’ link, you get your local branch’s contact info which is nice. I’ve had no hold times at all yet, not even a phone tree.
April 12th, 2006 at 10:53 am
I just stopped by my Scottrade branch today to give them my Roth money. A few months ago they stopped accepting echecks because of a system hacking (at the echeck company, not at Scottrade!!!). They guy did tell me that the echeck system should be back up at some point this summer with a new company. So that’s cool- not having to stop by the branch (where they have always been helpful and friendly anyway) if you just want to fund an account.
April 12th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Yesterday I did a series of brokerage sweep account rate inquiries and postings for Ameritrade (3.72%), e*Trade (.5-.8% based on balance) and Fidelity (4.4%)—do you know what rate Scott’s sweep account pays? I didn’t find it on their site.
April 12th, 2006 at 11:34 am
visitor - Or you could just mail it in and avoid the trip, but yes it’s nice to have that option
Tessa - Good question. Here they are as of today 4/12/06:
FREE CREDIT BALANCE INTEREST RATE
$0.01 - 999.99………….1.25%
$1,000.00 - 9999.99……..1.75%
$10,000.00 - 24,999.99…..2.50%
$25,000.00 - 99,999.99…..2.75%
$100,000.00 - 249,999.99…3.00%
$250,000.00 - 499,999.99…3.25%
$500,000.00 - 999,999.99…3.50%
$1,000,000.00 and Greater..3.75%
Not bad for a brokerage account, but also not the best. I don’t plan on keeping that much extra cash in this account anyways, which is why I want to link it to my HSBC or Emigrant Direct account.
April 12th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
I linked my Scottrade account using the Bank to Bank transfer at HSBC. I was suprised to see HSBC supporting ACH transfers in and out of Scottrade. I havent seen anybody else being able to do that. You do not even need to use the checks that you got from Scottrade, even though they are not going to work for linking to anywhere since they are payable through another bank. So much for linking to ING for example. I did a couple of transfers out of my Scottrade account so far to my online saving account to HSBC to take advantage of the higher interest rate. I plan to do the opposite when I need to invest in Scottrade.
April 12th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Earth to everyone: brokers have many ways to make money off of you, not just with the commission. Ever heard of the “Spread between bid & ask”? That’s why I don’t use these discount brokers folks. Schwab will always give you a better spread.
April 12th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Jonathan, you’re the man!!!!
I wanted to tell you I opened a Sharebuilder acct. for the free $50 and free stock guide. (Like you did with your Berkshire Hathaway purchase.) It went off like clockwork!!:
4/5 - Opened Sharebuilder acct.
4/6 - Acct. funded w/ $50 from PNC checking here in Pittsburgh through ACH transfer
4/7 - Set up trade to buy $46 worth of JP Morgan
Chase & Co. (JPM) for the next Tuesday.
4/11- Bought 1.1026 shares JPM @ $41.72/sh.
Just wanted to tell anyone else who’s interested that you can get a $4 trade as long as you trade on any Tuesday within the month.
Also, choose the Basic plan if you don’t want to pay a fee.
I made sure I entered $50 as the trade amount instead of $46, per your advice.
They sent me an email stating I have qualified for the free $50 (to get in around 4 wks.) & the free guide. (Once you open, fund, & buy your stock you qualify).
Anyone who is interested should go through your link to get this deal, as it is only available through a link.
It worked out great!
Thanks, buddy.
April 12th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
clicclic - Although I believe now Schwab now owns a Nasdaq market maker, I don’t see any proof that they do better fills than any other discount broker these days. It just means they can keep the profits in-house instead of getting paid for order flow by other market makers. In fact, previously Schwab themselves have been the defendant in multiple lawsuits for receiving order flow payments.
If this is truly a concern for you, you should really be trading with a place like MB Trading or Interactive Brokers, which allows you to choose exactly how to route your trades.
April 12th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
You made the right choice with Scottrade. I have been using it for a Roth IRA and regular account for the last year with no problems.
I am not too impressed with Sharebuilder. Why only be able to buy on Tuesday of each week? You could lose money that way if you expect things to move up! Or down!
I think it is worth $7/trade to not have restrictions on when I can only buy or sell.
April 12th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Dem, can you share how you get the ACH done? Now that Scottrade stopped e-check, i just found it is very inconvenient that I have to mail in or drop in a check to move the money.
April 12th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
Hi. I’m a first time poster. I was wondering if any of you could inform me on what a “sweep” is? I’m very new to all of this and trying to get a better understanding (21 years old). Also, clicclic mentioned Schwab. How much does Schwab charge for trades? I’m unsure whether to go with Scottrade but have been leaning towards them for quite some time. I just want to learn the ropes.. Perhaps I should speak with a financial advisor? All of this is like learning a new language to me, yet it is exciting! =)
April 12th, 2006 at 6:13 pm
Cool deal. I’m going to sign up for Scottrade soon. When I do I’ll email ya for the referral.
April 12th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
Scottrade has been good for me too. The real-time streaming quotes in the java based Scottrader program are very useful. (You will want 2 screens.) I like to squeeze out every penny I can. In fact, yesterday I was able to buy INTC at $19.15.
I planned to sell it this morning if I could get another 10 cents. Everything went according to plan, except the trade would not execute. They would not answer the phone, and then the quote stream just stopped. Their entire trading platform simply collapsed. I was blind and paralyzed, and the price spike I stalked just melted away.
So I was pretty steamed for most of the day. Still, it’s a good deal. They seem to have an office everywhere I need one. The physical presence is a comfort. The trading tools work very well on my Apple comps. You also get access to S&P analysis, if you can find it.
With large trades, you may wait a minute for the order to complete in dribs and drabs. But with a market order for a very active stock such as GE, AAPL, or INTC; the execution is blindingly fast–maybe 2 or 3 seconds from click to confirm. After hundreds of trades, I don’t see any evidence of fudging the prices.
One time I wanted to sell 1000 XOM, but accidentally clicked the BUY button. Yikes. But in just a few seconds my head cleared and I sold 2000. You can do that just once a week, unless you sign up for a margin account. Then you can do it 5 times, I think. If you keep over $25,000 in the account, you can keep buying and selling the same stock as fast as you can pay the $7 commission. What a thrill to buy and sell WB 3 times in the same day. With Scottrade, it’s a cheap thrill.
April 13th, 2006 at 8:52 am
To link up HSBC and Scottrade, you just need to go to ‘Bank to Bank transfers’ and click on ‘Add investment account’. You’ll need your Scottrade account number and also the checking account number from your Scottrade checks, although you won’t need to physically mail on in. I’ll post more details once I finally get my checks.
Has anyone actually tried to link the checks to ING/Emigrant and not had it work? I don’t see why it wouldn’t, even if the clearing company isn’t named Scottrade.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:00 am
@Personal Finance:
Easy, when you sign up for a Scottrade Account, make sure you sign up for Check Writing. Then you will have all your information (routing number, account number) to setup transfer from the likes of HSBC, Paypal and/or other online banks that accept that information to setup the transfers. Key is to find a financial institution that lets you do it from their site and ideally all online as well
ING Direct is a pill because Scottrade uses UMB Bank (as it states on checks) to process your check writing, an action ING doesn’t allow. I have used Paypal to setup transfers to Scottrade. All initial deposits and subsequent transfers went seemlessly.
It’s not a ‘published’ method, per se, but it does work.
April 13th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Good deal. I am thinking about opening a scottrade account and I will send you an email for the referral.
For those who have linked up your HSBC account to scottrade, isn’t there a transfer out fee when you move money from HSBC to scottrade? I remember of having read it in the fine print when I opened my HSBC acct, but I could not locate it now.
April 13th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Christine: you can’t go wrong with Scottrade or Schwab as a first-time investor/account. Scottrade is cheap (commission-wise) and Schwab isn’t much more. The beauty of Schwab is they have lots of offices where you can walk in and sit down with a person. They cannot/will not impart financial advice however. To learn investing I highly highly recommend you sign up with an investment newsletter. Go here and learn more:
http://www.newsletters.forbes.com/
This site is a great starting point. There are hundreds (thousands?) of investor newsletters. Just choose one and join for a year or a month or whatever. I subscribe to Stephen Leeb’s Complete Investor - $99/year. Just choose one and subscribe. My $99 annual subscription taught me a ton and so far I’m up $8000.00 on my portfolio. In other words, you’ll learn quick what works…
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:49 am
“Has anyone actually tried to link the checks to ING/Emigrant and not had it work? I don’t see why it wouldn’t, even if the clearing company isn’t named Scottrade.”
Yes, even though ING Direct states it won’t let these type of transactions go through, it does and I have done it. Such rules & regulations are made to be liberally interepted I guess.
April 24th, 2006 at 2:39 am
I have an account with Scottrade though my money is just sitting there not doing anything. I guess I’m too scared to trade.. wa wa.
– I didnt know you could open a ROTH with Scottrade? I already opened an HSBC account =) Seems like everyone is going after these two. Who else is jumping on the bandwagon?
April 28th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
“The only thing that really made me think twice is that they pull a hard credit check when you apply.”
What’s the difference between a hard credit check and a regular one? What information are they looking for? Do other online brokers do a credit check as well?
July 11th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Scottrade posts check deposits received via mail or in the branch office to your trading account the next business day. You will be able to trade on the funds about 1-2 days before your bank even deducts the money from your checking account. This is one reason they do a credit check…they don’t want to do business with someone who has horrible credit (thus would typically be the type of person who bounces checks)
Also, credit checks are required by all brokerage firms for margin accounts (margin lets you borrow money from the broker).
All firms do at least a soft check (a verification of your SSN, required by law), but most do a ‘hard check’ because they want to know your credit score meets minimum criteria, usually at least 500.
In the end, a credit check isn’t going to really hurt your score…the people most worried are people with bad credit to begin with.
November 7th, 2007 at 11:19 am
I opened a scottrade IRA and I need some a referral CBD 11/8/07
December 10th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Scottrade’s pretty good. Usually a quick response time (can be slow in a particulary heavy market), $7 trades.
Some negatives: No shorts under $5, no shorts after hours at all (this is brutal when you see bad earnings and can’t take advantage), have had a good 8 or 9 occasions when I couldn’t short due to Scottrade having no shares available. No after hours charting! (drives a techinals guy like me crazy)
Recommended for anyone except daytraders, who will need more flexiblity.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I was also attracted by a local branch in my neighborhood. The $7 dollar trades wasn’t the most competitive but fair enough to take advantage of someone local. The Overland Park Kansas office off of 135th Street was very nice and the team of individuals were professional. My first trade that I placed did not go thru which was concerning because I purchased stock with a limit order and saw the stock go down to my assigned purchase price 3 times AFTER I put the trade in but the trade was never executed. I called the branch and the guy was courteous and was willing to transfer me to a broker to have explain to me what happened. I waited on hold for over 10 mins and finally hung up (not acceptable.) Not only did I have a horrible first impression with my transaction but they advertise a JD Powers award for Trade Execution? I had an ETrade account before and never had an execution problem they just charge for an inactive account which is another SCAM in itself.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
the scottrade checkwriting feature is a real spooky thing. Unlike etrade were it is well integrated into the system , this is very hidden on the site I have tried to set up bank to bank transfers with emmigrant direct, but it is real cryptic. There is no way to see the trial deposits or withdrawals and it still shows as pending. In my “conspiracy minded thinking”, I beleive that scottrade makes it simple as hell to deposit money into their insitution but they give you a lot of hurdles to jump over to withdraw. The only way I see that you can get money out is to wire or have internet unfriendly way of doing it. I like etrade’s transparency in this regard because you can set up accounts easily link them and transfer money seamlessly. Plus the interest rate is still pretty good. Other then on the brink of bankruptcy - a small problem- i hope it willnot have liquidity issues on my account.
April 6th, 2008 at 11:26 am
At Scottrade, the following limited sell order was placed when the bid
price was .0001 and the ask price was .0002:
An order to sell 2,000,000 shares at .0002 was placed the day before
the market opened with a good till cancelled. When the market opened, millions of shares were sold at .0002. My order was not filled.
I recognize that there are other orders out there. The order was
reentered. Throughout the day, the bid price stayed at .0001 and the
ask price at .0002. Once again millions of shares (50,000,000 at a
time) were being purchased at the asking price of .0002 but my order
was not filled.
I called the local Scottrade branch to complain and was told, in
essence, that regardless of whether there are buyers willing to pay
the asking price, Scottrade fills the order based on the bid price. In
other words, my order to sell will remain open until either I drop my
price to match that of the bidding price or the bidding price is
raised to that of my asking price.
I feel this practice has the effect of forcing traders to give someone
else the spread.
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May 22nd, 2008 at 6:58 pm
hmmm, seems adj has a good point. The delay can help with inhouse profit on the spread. good point.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:39 am
ScotTrade now allows ACH transfers. From their website:
Easily, quickly and securely transfer funds online into your Scottrade account(s). Money DirectTM (ACH) facilitates same-day online fund transfers from your bank into any of your individual, joint, IRA, ESA or SEP accounts.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Money into your account, yes, you are correct. But MoneyDirect does not allow ACH withdrawals back out into your bank account, which is inconvenient.
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