I have been using Scottrade online broker for purchasing individual stock for nearly a year now. What attracted me to open an account with Scottrade was the relatively low $7.00 flat fee for buying and selling trades. Also the only requirement for opening a margin account is a minimum deposit of $2000.00, which can be used on the first day of operation. This is great because many other brokerage firms have much higher standards. They offer checks and a debit card for your account where some discount brokerages do not.
One of the reasons why the cost per trade is so low is because Scottrade does not offer dividend re-investments. You have to use the money earned from the dividend payment to purchase more shares.
Uninvested cash in the account is not automatically swept into a money market fund. Brokerage firms such as Fidelity and TD Ameritrade offer this kind of option. And just like other stock trading companies, idle cash earns a extremely low rate of interest.
Accounts are funded by the Money Direct ACH online which is the same as many other discount brokers. Scottrade does not allow ACH withdrawals, only deposits, which is a huge hassle. I would like to see them implement this feature in the future, otherwise I will not be dealing with them anymore.
The website is very clean and simple to use, most everything is easy to find. The downside is that the website is down often, and online maintenance seems to be longer than other brokerage firms. Scottrade uses Gainskeeper to keep track of losses and profits on your positions. Gainskeeper is only compatible with Internet Explorer, when I use Firefox or Google Chrome it will not allow me to view the page which is very frustrating.
Scottrades online and over-the-phone customer service is very quick, knowledgeable, and helpful. Scottrade has many offices which is very convenient for doing business quickly.
Overall, Scottrade is a decent brokerage. I would like to see ACH withdrawals and dividend reinvestments. Those are my two major gripes that keeping from having Scottrade be my primary online brokerage.
No comments:
Post a Comment