New brokerage account!

[disneysteve]

We went over to the local Scottrade office today and opened a new account and filled out the paperwork to transfer everything from our H&R Block account. H&R had been charging us a $15 quarterly account fee, so we will save $60/year from the switch. Plus, H&R's stock trade commission ranged from $70 to over $200. Scottrade charges $7 for all trades (internet trades) and $27 for broker-assisted trades.

My apologies to whoever it was here who had asked me to contact them so I could list them as a referral. I wasn't planning to end up there today but it was on our way to somewhere else and we stopped in.

[kv968]

Steve, that was me who asked you to contact them. That's ok though, no problem. Good luck with your stock picking, I'm sure you'll be pleased with Scottrade. Especially since they won't charge you an account fee. I still haven't been able to pull the trigger on anything yet though.

[disneysteve]

Sorry kv. I should have contacted you so I had the info whenever I got there.

I actually haven't made a stock purchase for several years. A while ago, I wanted to dabble a little so I opened an Ameritrade account and bought and sold a few things and then got out and closed the account. I may play around a little more with this new account. I see nothing wrong with speculating with a little fun money though I certainly wouldn't do it with any significant portion of our portfolio.

[kv968]

Again, Steve, that's ok. I didn't even know they had a "referral" system until I went and opened my account. It's a good idea and I think they should make it a little more known.

I'm doing the same as you are with my account...a little speculating. It's not factored in my portfolio anywhere but just as some "mad money". I look at it as some jacked-up Atlantic City money. And I'll probably have just as much luck with the stock picking as I would down there

[disneysteve]

Considering how I've done on my last 3 Atlantic City trips, I can't do any worse in the stock market. Last Friday I got wiped out in about an hour at the blackjack table.

[sm808]

Any reason you chose Scottrade vs. another discount brokerage? Just curious. Good luck in the markets! hehe

[disneysteve]

Any reason you chose Scottrade vs. another discount brokerage? Just curious. Good luck in the markets! hehe

I've read good things about them here and elsewhere. I think the $7/trade commission is pretty cheap. And even though I'm comfortable doing everything online, I like the fact that they have an office near my home so I can go in and deal with a human if I need to. Transferring my old account, for example, couldn't actually be done online. I could get the forms online but they actually needed a hard copy to do it, so it needed to be done in person or by mail.

[braxton]

Scottrade is great... I moved all my investments from Charles Schwab awhile back.

[Scanner]

I had a Scottrade account but when I opened my banking with Schwab, I moved everything over to Schwab to just have everything at one website.

I don't trade that much so the $12.95 trade fee vs. the $7.00 fee wasn't much concern to me but definitely Scottrade is the cheapest.

[QueenOphelia]

Steve-

Did your H&R charge you a fee for transferring your stocks? When I moved my positions from Bank of America to Fidelity, BOA charged me $75.

-Karyn

[disneysteve]

Steve-

Did your H&R charge you a fee for transferring your stocks? When I moved my positions from Bank of America to Fidelity, BOA charged me $75.

-Karyn

I actually don't know but I'm assuming they will. I didn't really care since leaving them there was costing me $15 every 3 months.