Vanguard pioneered the low cost index fund and Schwab was one of the original "discount brokers". Their innovations were adopted by every other broker, driving down costs for the small trader. They remain allies of small investors.
Vanguard's got excellent funds and ETFs, but they're legendary in terms of having some of the worst customer support for their brokerage account.
Schwab/TD Ameritrade on the other hand, has kinda bad ETFs but have really good customer service. Besides, you can buy Vanguard ETFs / Mutual Funds in your Schwab account.
Go for customer service. There's some minor benefits in terms of how quickly you can enter / exit Vanguard positions if you get a Vanguard account, but overall its a better idea IMO to get a brokerage account with humans on the telephone whenever issues come up.
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I'm also in E-Trade and they've worked out so far for me.
The one I'm most interested in is probably Fidelity? Good overall reviews, apparently pretty good customer service, and the ETFs / Mutual Funds / Bonds they offer seem pretty good too.
I tried to set up an online account with Vanguard recently. At the end of the signup flow, I got an error saying I had to phone it. It was a weekend so I tried a couple days later during business hours just to be sure and because I loathe dealing with human beings for stuff that should be able to be handled by a website. Same result.
So I phoned in, spent a half-hour with a human being. He was audibly cursing as he tried to get me set up. At one point, after I had given him my name and other PII, he addressed by a different first name then quickly corrected himself.
At the end, he said, "Ok, now you'll get an email to finish setting up your account." Email arrived and it was addressed to someone with a different name. I recognized the first name as the same name the agent had mistakenly used with me.
Suffice to say, I did not finish setting up my account and decided to stick with Fidelity.
It's probably uncommon to deal with a human at Vanguard. I know I never have.
Plus, I have my own story about Robinhood - they couldn't or wouldn't change my email address. I think they expect users to upload pictures of ID and such.
That's crazy and completely disqualifies them for anything serious, for me.
If something is really important, then you do it in person, with a local representative or notary or something.
If it's not that important, then they don't need ID theft material in digital format. They already leaked the info they have!
It is not a feature to have the ability to make critical changes without friction from anywhere in the world over the internet, with the right bitstream. It's completely unacceptable.
My entire relationship with Robinhood involves a trivial amount of crypto that I don't trade, on the assumption they are the (one of the) most government compliant or least shady ways to hold that. That is based on my outlook being the complete opposite of the cliché "not your keys, not your coins".
Other than my "free stock" I don't own any non-crypto and never will.
Confirming my negative attitude was their recent data breach, which we will never know for sure the scope of, but I suddenly started getting investment scam spam from known scofflaws at the email address Robinhood has and probably leaked.
The SEC has a "catch and release" program for even small-timers; it sure is a disincentive to report criminal activity when you see in the public record someone already was caught and paid a fine and kept right on keeping on.
I've been a Fidelity customer for 15+ years. Amazing customer service - very easy to reach humans and they were all experts at solving whatever problem I called them with.
Fyi - Vanguard is only good for simple, long term holding. If you are interested in a little more day trading type activity, then Schwab, TD, and Fidelity are much better.
Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard in that order. All 3 offer ETFs at $0 fees, and all have comparable index funds. I've found Fidelity's website to be the most usable, followed by Schwab. Vanguard had a dated, but simple and functional interface that they've recently revamped to be more slick but less usable.
Interactive Brokers. If you are an occasional trader, go with the Lite option - it is commission-free but relies on pfof, just like RH. If you are more serious, go with Pro and you'll get routing to exchange in most cases.
TWS (their desktop app) has many options and target pros. However, I haven't used their web/phone apps.
> If Robinhood had to close shop
I doubt that will happen. Citadel will jump in and inject money, just like they did with Plotkin's Melvin Capital.
Fidelity. Very nice desktop and mobile apps. Trustworthy and established. Robinhood cant even be compared to it. While you are at it, get yourself some FNILX stocks and collect dividends on an index.
Let me say RH is fine, and you shouldn't be buying options unless you have a big margin of safety anyway. It depends on the exact order, but for me Fidelity has, in my typical use case, gotten better fills with price improvement than Robinhood has. It takes one penny of improvement to overcome the commission.
They have a big pile of cash, and at their current burn rate, they'll last for a long time. They have huge margins and their loss is from fixed cost R&D. They're receiving positive net deposits from a relatively young customer base and the total assets they have under management is growing.
To add some numbers: they're burning $175/quarter, which includes severance payouts from their recent layoff, on $6954 of assets, which includes a $6187 pile of cash. So that's 8.8 years of runway if they didn't cut costs or grow revenue further.
And their product also has a ton of room to improve -- once it gets IRAs, that would remove the main reason its more boring customers find other brokers.
I’d say it’s extremely unlikely that Robinhood would actually close shop. Worst case, they get bought for a pittance and customers get migrated over 12-24 months.
I transferred from Robinhood to Fidelity years ago and never looked back. Mobile app and website work great, had to call customer service twice and they were always helpful, good ETF screener tool. They have local branches in most major metro areas for in-person customer support as well. Commission-free trades just like Robinhood. Seamless integration with most tax software.
I just pile leftover savings into Small-Cap Value funds though, so my needs are rather minimal.
Schwab is great. One thing I like is you need to call their team on the phone and answer a few questions before you can even trade the most basic option types (i.e. secured short put, covered call). Robinhood instead grants margins and advanced option strategies to 18 years old willy nilly. And as others have mentioned, they have great customer service. I can contact them with live chat during trading hours very quickly.
They're merging, so it doesn't really matter a super lot which one you choose. I switched to TD Ameritrade because I like their UI better, but this time next year they'll both be the same thing.
If the goal is to have your portfolio on autopilot with index funds, Fidelity’s zero-cost FZROX, FZIPX, FBILX and FZILX are only available through Fidelity itself.
interactive brokers 100%. best rates you can get on margin, high quality tech. be aware they will sometimes move margin requirements and give you limited time to cover if something starts looking sketchy, sometimes a bit more aggressive than other retail brokerages. but not a problem if you manage right.
