ScotTrade Brokerage Account Review – Why I don’t use Scortrade

Scottrade is a private discount brokerage firm in US. They have head quarter in St. Louis, Missouri. They have nearly 504 branches all over US. They offer service to Asian- pacific customers also. This service is provided through there center in china. They offer many services like stoke broker, mutual funds, CDs, IRAs, fixed income etc. 2010 they had nearly 3,300 employees. Till year 2008 they had $838.10 million revenues. In year 2011 they launched Scottrade bank.

Some important things have to be considered before starting dealing with an online broker. The one which provides fewer prices is good but only this is not enough. One should do enough research of the service provider they are looking for, and should see pros and con of that service provider. Following are some main points for one of the leading online broker in US: –

Facility to open either individual or joint account: – they offer you two types of account. First one is individual account. And second one is joint account. In joint account you can add maximum 3 people. From your account you can trade stocks, mutual funds, many bonds, exchange trade funds, options etc. the charges for trading unlimited shares having value more than $1 is $7. Is you are trading options then you will have to pay 1.25$ extra than 7$.

Retirement account: – Scottrade offers much type of retirement accounts if you are working. The account includes Roth, traditional, simple IRAs, Rollover.

Business and trust account: -you can open a business or trust account at Scottrade. For trust account you can choose between regular, PSP, MPP etc. while for business account you can choose between corporate & LCC, partnership or investment.

No maintenance fee: – another main thing which makes Scottrade so special.  They take absolutely no fee for account maintenance. It is not just that, they even charge anything for deactivating your existing account. According to me this is very special thing they give.

Low price for stock trade: – when the things come to pricing of trading stocks, Scottrade are leading there also. They have one of the least pricing in American market. If you compare Scottrade to other discount giving traders, then also Scottrade are taking much less commission. In case of option trade they are taking much higher commission but in case of stock, they are the best.

Huge branch network: – they have over 500 branches all over US. This is largest network by any trading company in US.

Security on your account funds: – they provide you security investor Protection Corporation membership once you open an account at Scottrade. This security account is given at no cost. This security account provides you insurance up to $24.5 million per customer.  This insurance security is similar to FDIC security given to you with your deposits in bank. So there is absolutely no need to worry about financial stability of Scottrade.

Highly rated: – This broker company has earned very high ratings in many individual investors of US. It is not just that, they have won customer satisfaction, less interest rate awards in year 2007 and in 2008. J.D power and associates have ranked Scottrade as highest customer satisfaction providing Broker Company.

For getting started you will have to put $1000 in your account. Once you start account, you can transfer your IRAs to Scottrade for free. Also their website provides very easy to use online platform. With this platform you will get free access to real time streaming quotes, charts, market news, latest announcement etc.

Is Scottrade worth it?

There is one big disadvantage of Scottrade is that, you can invest online but you can’t withdraw money online.

There are other reasons I hate Scottrade,

• No dividend re investment option for the shares you own, if you want to re invest dividend it will be classified as another transaction worth $7
• Pricier than Zecco Trading and MB Trading brokerages I use. Both Zecco and MB Trading offer $4.95 per trade fees.
• There is a minimum fund requirement of $1000 to be able to trade

Do you use Scottrade? Tell us more about your experience, you good, bad or neutral opinions are most valuable for other readers.

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