Vanguard Brokerage Services

Pros: Lots of investment info, easy access to your account.
Cons: I haven't come across any yet.

I have always been a big proponent of socking money away in a 401(k) plan. It's important to save for your future retirement, and with most companies matching your contribution rather generously, a 401(k) account is a no-brainer. To add icing to the ...

Pros: Low yearly fees.
Cons: Inexperienced and under-educated employees handling YOUR money? I don't think so.

Ladies, I'm full of unrestrained enthusiasm as I announce my return to the Epinions.com forum! I've been blessed over the years as the few darlings who I initially met through Epinions have kept in contact with me and have finally persuaded me to try my ...

Pros: Service, Fund selection,
Cons: High initial balance required

Vanguard is doing it’s best to discourage active traders or small amount investors of using VBS for trading. They require high initial balances. Otherwise, their service is excellent. Fund selection capability is very nice.

The commission of...

Pros: Offers a very efficient, up to date website
Cons: Pricey initial deposit

While I'm still pretty much a newbie at the investment game, I'm open to exploring and learning more about different brokerage firms and investment strategies. With my dad's trusty research, I was led to Vanguard.
The thought of investing primarily...

Pros: Service, Safety
Cons: Higher Commissions

I shopped around for an online broker for about six months before choosing Vanguard. I have used a few others, and have since decided to close those accounts and stick with Vanguard. This company gives me a sense of confidence about where my investment...

Pros: fast, helpful, quick, secure
Cons: none

I am only 18 so you can see the inexperience I face when I try to find a location to place my money. I saw the company through the newspaper, and noticed that they had many options of which I could place my money.

The Best

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Pros: These guys have their act together
Cons: Don't buy penny stocks here.

I'm thinking that people reading this might very well be new to the investment game. I have some background with Vanguard and think I can help such folks understand some things about these guys.

First of all, in Mutual Funds there are good...

Pros: Best Money Funds make easier to keep idle funds working. Low cost mutual funds
Cons: Stock trading (thru 3rd party) an afterthought

Cash Balances-Money fund Most investors ignor the low earnings on uninvested cash in a brokerage account. These are either in a captive money fund with excessive fees wiping out most of the return or cash interest at a very low rate. For very high ...

Pros: People tell me it has great funds
Cons: read my story

I had heard good things about Vanguard (it probably has good funds) but I simply cannot overstress how extremely disappointed I am with their website and phone customer service. Here is my experience with Vanguard: first I tried opening a Roth IRA ...

Pros: Friendly personnel and very prompt
Cons: Waste of paper

About two years ago I had a boss who invested his money in mutual funds. I had NO clue as to what a mutual fund was. My boss kept telling me I should invest some money in a mutual fund. Every time he mentioned it I would think to myself,...

Pros: If your a "Forrest Gump" investor this is the place for you.
Cons: "You get What You Pay For" there are better super centers out there!

I'm not going to try to impress you with my writing skill's like some of the other posters to this site, But I will get right to the meat of this review. I have had brokerage services with 3 of the big Financial Super Sites for 20 years, Schwab, ...

Pros: reliable
Cons: few advanced capabilities

I have brokerage accounts at Charles Schwab, E-trade and Vanguard. Although Vanguard seems competent enough at the basics, they lack a lot of features that Schwab and E-trade have for more sophisticated investing. They don't allow trades in 32nds or...

Pros: Tax Avoidance
Cons: Need to watch investments

OK - this might not work for everyone, but I think that my IRA strategy (executed via Vanguard) is a good one which I'd like to share:

1) I keep about 50% of my IRA in index funds. A little of this in bond and REIT funds to get fixed income...

Pros: -Low fees on funds -Great website -Great customer service
Cons: -Fees on buying ETFs and stocks -Boring (which is a pro, if you ask me)

I just opened a taxable mutual fund account with Vanguard couple of months back. I chose the STAR fund because it has a $1,000 limit. The STAR fund is one of the best fund of funds available according to my research. My plan is to dollar cost average the STAR mutual fund until I have $3,000 and then I will switch into their mutual fund that tracks a specific index (haven't decided that yet).

Vanguard has excellent customer service and the account was really easy to set up. I really like the design of their website. It's simple and easy to navigate.

I still have my Roth IRA with Charles Schwab and I hate it more and more. I have to admit though- Charles Schwab has the best website I've ever seen for any business but I don't enjoy reading about stocks so most of it is lost on me. I will be switching my Schwab Roth IRA to Vanguard sometime in the next couple of years.

Lastly, I recommend reading the founder of Vanguards (John Bogle) blog: http://johncbogle.com/wordpress/

Pros: None that I could name
Cons: Highest cost, extra fees, inferior web site

Vanguard's reputation for low cost is not well founded.

I had $80,000 invested at Vanguard, yet they charged me $30 per year to maintain an IRA account.

When I sold shares in the only stock I owned there, they charged me $30 commission.

It took them 5 days after the trade date for them to cut a check to me for the sale proceeds.

Vanguard's web site is a joke compared to their competition.

Fidelity, Schwab, and many others are way below Vanguard in level of fees, and way above Vanguard in level of service.

Why bother with Vanguard when there are so many attractive alternatives?