Vanguard Brokerage - Mutual Funds, ETFs, IRAs, 401k Plans - Built to Put Your Interests First
Vanguard brokerage-investment company can help you invest, keep your costs low, and focus on what matters most to your long-term financial success.
Vanguard Brokerage Brokerage Review
Equity Trades: | $7.00 |
Mutual Funds: | $35.00 |
Options Base Fee: | $30.00 |
Options Per Contract: | $1.50 |
Broker Assisted Trades: | $7.00 |
Minimum Deposit: | $3000.00 |
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Founded in 1975, Vanguard Brokerage Services has been providing 30 years of excellent service and is going strong. Vanguard offers an array of investment vehicles to its investors including exchange-traded funds, mutual funds, stocks, etc. Not only this, it also offers a lot of fixed income investments such as US Treasury and Agency Issues, bonds, CDs, mortgages-backed securities and many more. Vanguard has set a milestone for its competitors to match up to in the world of online trading and investments.
When it comes to trading and investments, Vanguard offers everything that you will ever need and it's trading and investment features are very useful. One can customize one's trading desktop with streaming news, graphs, charts, analyst research reports, alerts, etc. Vanguard is famous mainly because of its mutual funds and hence for those interested exclusively in mutual funds, Vanguard is a good choice. The brokerage services of Vanguard are not exactly that good but it is alright for an average investor.
In order to open an account with Vanguard Brokerage, you will need $3000 minimum. You can open any of the following account with Vanguard: IRA, SEP-IRA, brokerage non-retirement account, education savings account and Roth IRA. All you have to do is to fill an online application form complete with an e-signature. You can submit it online or you can download the form, fill it in and mail it to them, the choice is yours. The total time taken to complete an online application is about ten minutes only. It is very easy to open an account with Vanguard and there are no surprises.
Fees & Commissions
Whether you are trading by phone or online, you have to pay the same amount of commission on the investment products of Vanguard. As for the fees, Vanguard charges an annual amount of $20 as account service fee. As for Vanguard's ETFs there is no commission included. If you want to trade in stocks, CDs, options, bonds, mutual funds or even ETFs of other companies, then you will have to pay certain rates for it. The rates are very competitive. Mutual funds are offered at $35 each and options at $30 and an additional $1.50 for each contract.
Investments Offered
Vanguard offers various investment products such as foreign securities, commercial paper, ETFs, options, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, etc. They also offer US Treasury. There is something for all the registered investors of Vanguard. As an investor, you can enjoy a wide spread of investments that you can purchase, there are a lot of options to choose from so take your pick.
Trading Technology
Although the trading tools of Vanguard Brokerage are not exactly in tune with the industry, they are still very easy to use. Studies show that 4 out of 5 people have found Vanguard to be very easy to use and quite user-friendly. The quality of the tools may not be that good but it is very easy to understand it, even if you are a first timer.
The trading and investment tools of Vanguard are considered to be quite sloppy and not really that good. It offers an average collection of trading and investment features, nothing too impressive or too bad. Some of the features offered are streaming news, analyst research reports and alerts. You can also include charts or graphs in your trading desktop according to your convenience, preference and trading style.
Customer Service
The customer service of Vanguard Brokerage isn't exactly something that everyone is raving about. In fact it has been reported as being pretty bad at times. You can contact the customer support for any queries by email or over the phone. Vanguard has three offices nationwide. There is also a FAQs section which you can refer to before asking them a question, just in case your question has already been answered in that section. You can also consult the online documentation offered by Vanguard.
Although this online broker has the name 'Vanguard Brokerage Services', the brokerage services are very bad and it is not the factor that is drawing in the investors. The investors are drawn to Vanguard mainly because of its mutual funds which are very good but other than that, the features are just about average.
Advantages/Customers like
- Low cost trading of Vanguard funds.
- Free trading of Vanguard ETFs.
- Free dividend reinvestment.
- No ACAT fee.
Disadvantages/Customers don't like
- Higher commissions on non-Vanguard securities.
- Maintenance fee for lower value portfolios.
- Poor trading and research tools.
- High minimum fee for account opening.
Written by: Goran Dolenc
What Is Your Experience With Vanguard Brokerage?
How Others Rate Vanguard Brokerage?
Here is how the most trustworthy external sources rate this broker. Best rating is marked with 5 orange stars, worst rating is marked with 5 grey stars, and if any feature is not rated you will see white stars with grey border.
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