F'*@#&'n with my money's like F'*@#&'n with my emotions.
Written: Sep 03 '01
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Pros: Excellent customer service. Easy to use website with excellent information.
Cons: Service is more expensive than others. There are better active-trading services.
The Bottom Line: This company has excellent customer service and is easy to contact. The website is easy to use. Meets all my needs - long and short-term.
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| secondmidnite's Full Review: Fidelity Investments |
Like the title says, I'm serious about my finances - I take them very personally. So when I put my money some place they better be just as serious. In this case, Fidelity fits the bill.
Lots of Options
Fidelity offers a number of options for investors. I have an individual account that I primarily use. But you can also open your own IRA, Roth IRA, Rollover IRAs, Insurance, Annuities, Trust funds, Online Brokerage and more. Although I'm only 22, there are a lot of big financial choices that are coming up for me in the next ten years: grad school, moving (maybe another 2 times), changing jobs, marriage (with God's help, that is), buying a house, buying another car.... These are some serious things I need to consider right now. Fidelity has a good array of services to help me reach those goals even though I'll be in different financial positions.
Great Website
I actually enjoy looking at my money. It makes me feel good - like walking on the beach. The Fidelity.com website is well-designed and easy to see where my money is (and where it's going). I can see all of my accounts, what I own (stocks, mutual funds, etc.) in each account. I can also track mutual fund and stock performances.
I think my favorite thing is their Mutual Fund Performance tracker. This function allows you to stipulate the type of performance you would like out of your mutual funds (annual returns, growth/value, loads & fees, etc.). It returns a list of funds that currently match your criteria. From there you can see a fund's specifications: loads & fees, Morning Star rating, annual returns, etc. You can even order a fund's prospectus from that website.
It's also easy to transfer money from another account. I had a little mix-up with my opening balance (I'll talk about that more in a moment). In any case, I needed to add money to my account quickly. Although I'd never done it before (and am a little leary of it) I was able to transfer the money online from my Washington Mutual Account to the Fidelity account. It only took a couple of minutes to set all that up and do the transaction. Now, it would only take me 2 minutes to do the same transaction (without the setup time). This is good in that it prevents other lapses in customer service.
You can also do some other research - learning about other types of financial accounts, etc. There are, however, better sites that do this for you (I think I prefer the Motley Fool - www.fool.com - to the Fidelity site, however). In any case, the website offers a great experience in seeing what your money's doing and what other things you can get into.
Great Customer Service...most of the time
So I've only had one issue with their customer service (alluded to above). I opened my account on August 2nd. I thought everything went okay - I had gotten some other literature and response letters from Fidelity so I guess I had gotten all set up. One day, however, I get this letter saying that my account didn't have any money in it. I checked my checking account and the check I had sent hadn't been deducted from my account. The letter I said I had to get my opening balance to Cincinnati in 36 hours. I couldn't even call about it until the next morning. When I did call, they said that my check wasn't in the letter I sent setting up my account - which I'm prone to doing (but in this case, it turned out that I had included my check).
When I did call (and I didn't even have to wait more than a moment to get a real person), they suggested that I transfer the money online (it was either that or FedEx it which is another hassel). So I set up everything online to manage financial transactions. This isnt' that difficult to do, but the website isn't as clear as it could be on how to do it (I'm pretty good with navigating websites so a less adept user might have a bit of a problem). So I set up the transaction feature, entered my Checking account info, and there it was. I called later to confirm (again without a wait to get a *real* person) and they showed that the transaction was noted and I was out of trouble. For something that could have been a real problem, it really turned out not to be. I was able to take care of it myself and didn't have any problems reaching them to ask questions. As for the first check I had written, I still hadn't heard anything about it and I was sure I had put it in the first letter.
The only other time I've had to contact customer service was to update my account information. Some how (I don't know how it all came about this way) another department had received the initial check I had sent, but didn't have the correct address for me. The checks I sent had an older address for me so I guess that confused them as well (I didn't want to get new checks when I moved - my fault). So the called to tell me that a) they would send back the check and b) they needed my apartment number. Simple phone call - no hassels. Everything is all-set and my old check is in the mail.
The bottom line is that I got great customer service and a number of issues were solved quickly without much issue. It does, however, raise the issue of how certain problems got started - why was there an issue with my check in the first place? How come they didn't just call me and ask me about the check from the get go instead of sending me a letter? All things being equal, things came out okay.
Just like a bank...sort of
What I like most about Fidelity is that it's more like a bank. Ameritrade, for some reason, feels more like an internet thing (it could be Yahoo!Money for all I know). It doesn't seem like a financial institution - with bank vaults and guards and such. But with Fidelity, I can have checks or a credit card just like at my 'normal' bank. It even has brick-and-mortar locations where, if I really needed to, I could go in and rag on a live person there. Even better, it's on the same corner as my personal bank and my small business bank. All my money on one corner.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
secondmidnite
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Location: Stanford, CA
Reviews written: 93
Trusted by: 18 members
About Me:
Grad student
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