Vanguard Brokerage Account Reviews

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They chose Vanguard and have no complaints; they note its app and website lag behind in updates but say they have had no trouble using it.

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Moved their whole portfolio to Schwab because Vanguard had several UIs, half-finished migrations and a site where finding anything took ten minutes.

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Left Vanguard for Fidelity after a similar rollover problem and found Fidelity's customer service much better.

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Found Vanguard extremely frustrating in six weeks, with a seven-day hold on transferred cash that could only buy Vanguard products and a block on withdrawals, so they moved to Merrill.

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Says Vanguard's performance data has been broken for margin accounts for about a year since a modernization change, with the only workaround being to remove margin by phone.

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Calls Vanguard nearly unusable compared with Fidelity, citing frequent logout timeouts, extra clicks for simple tasks and bank links taking 5-7 days.

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Left Vanguard because transferred bank funds took almost a week to use, the site is hard to navigate, and customer service was worse than Schwab's.

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Has accounts at all the big firms and good customer service from Vanguard, but moved most assets to Fidelity because Vanguard seems to be abandoning DIY investors.

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Finds Vanguard fine for self-sufficient investors with a well-paying sweep fund, but not if you need help with ownership changes, transfers or website errors.

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Finds Vanguard's UI not user friendly; investments are automated but changing anything or buying or selling is always a chore.

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Has kept personal IRAs and brokerage accounts at Vanguard and finds its online interface just OK, similar to Fidelity's.

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Retitled a joint taxable Vanguard account into a trust and found it a simple, logical process with no issues.

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Has several trusts at Vanguard and says it has been nothing but easy, including using a trust account as escrow for an estate.

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Left Vanguard after changing a trustee on a special-needs trust account meant hoop after hoop of shifting requirements and a rejected notarization.

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As trustee of trusts with Vanguard accounts reports no problems specific to the trust accounts.

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Finds Vanguard's service terrible now, especially for getting money out, with a 401k transfer taking two months as Vanguard kept changing things.

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Cannot recommend Vanguard after a SEP IRA transfer into a company 401k sat for over a month, calling the process ridiculous with terrible service and poor communication.

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Found moving trust assets through Vanguard's Change of Ownership department a difficult experience and recommends naming beneficiaries to avoid it.

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Settling a parent's estate, found the Vanguard accounts with named beneficiaries super easy, needing only a death certificate and beneficiary details, versus a harder trust.

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As executor twice, found Vanguard's transfer-on-death process painless and quick, with Vanguard walking beneficiaries through it.

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Uses Schwab, Vanguard and Fidelity and finds Vanguard easily the worst of the three.

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They have invested in fractional shares through automated purchases at Vanguard for a long time and file their own taxes without trouble, skipping contributions around holidays and vacations.

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Finds Vanguard's dashboard lackluster and confusing about yearly returns, using it mainly to move investments around because of free transactions.

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Asked to transfer half an account's cash to Vanguard but Vanguard took all of it, citing an abandoned earlier transaction, and keeps Vanguard as a rainy-day account.

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Trying to move money out of Vanguard and finds it taking forever to authenticate the bank account for the transfer.

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Found opening and funding an LLC account at Vanguard too complicated, needing a notarized form and a custom bank letter, unlike Fidelity.

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Finds Vanguard old-school and avoids trading there, but values its mutual funds as the ultimate set-it-and-forget-it.

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Finds Vanguard trading glitchy, with two holdings restricted from online trading and a phone representative they described as limited and rude.

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Vanguard accounts never showed rate-of-return percentages and customer service called it a site-wide issue; after several calls and tickets it was fixed for one account.

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Has held a large balance at Vanguard without seeing a need for an advisor or being pushed beyond occasional emails.

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Called Vanguard and reps could not find the account, and found they cannot cancel or see incoming auto payments.

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After 35 years at Vanguard says the website has gotten worse, with broken performance searches, and would no longer recommend it.

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After signing Vanguard's new brokerage agreement, selling shares errored out and required a phone call.

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Uses Vanguard for commission-free treasuries as cash savings and a few buy-and-hold stocks, but Interactive Brokers for everything else because its site is built for buying funds.

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Long-time Vanguard fund investor who finds the brokerage stuck in the early 2000s with declining customer service, and suggests buying Vanguard ETFs elsewhere.

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Finds Vanguard's account functionality terrible compared with Fidelity and Schwab, and plans to migrate.

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Says Vanguard closed off their options account on a volatile day, with an offshore call center that knew nothing and a poor platform.

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Has used Vanguard for five years without a single issue with deposits or trades, reaching an American representative within minutes every time.

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Found automating money market to ETF purchases takes several manual steps, cannot dollar-cost average into non-Vanguard ETFs, and finds offshore phone support useless.

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Set up automatic deposits and investments once and calls the platform perfectly suited to passive investing.

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Opened an account at another brokerage after Vanguard's poor redesign and has since sent all new money there.

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Has been with Vanguard for over 35 years and finds it enough for a non-trader.

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Says Vanguard's trading page keeps refreshing and wiping order details across browsers so trades take several attempts, and customer service remains very poor.

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Finds Vanguard's platform works perfectly for buy-and-hold, with an automatic monthly investment that rarely changes.

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Uses Vanguard successfully but finds the website a mish-mash with no cohesive design that has to be memorized.

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Found Vanguard's Portfolio Watch categorized outside assets as other and the link to add external accounts stopped working, with tech support saying it works sometimes.

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Finds the Vanguard desktop site worse after a minimalist redesign, with slow fund sort and filter tools.

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Found Vanguard traps same-day buy-and-sell orders in a loop of cost-basis warnings that never processes.

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Finds Vanguard's customer service lacking, close to an offshore call center.

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Likes the Vanguard platform and finds it very easy to use and to set up automatic investing.