I highly recommend Fidelity Investments simply because they are totally professional.
Written: Aug 17 '04 (Updated Aug 18 '04)
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| opalbabe's Full Review: Fidelity Investments |
Fidelity Investments is a discount brokerage, service which generally means the customer has full control over their accounts, trades and investments decisions. A full-service brokerage is different than Fidelity Investments as they will generally have a representative who handles your accounts for you & makes the decisions for you. But, they will also charge a much larger price to handle those accounts for you. Once you make the decision to use a discount brokerage than Fidelity Investments is an excellent choice.
TYPES OF ACCOUNTS AVAILABLE AT FIDELITY
~ The Fidelity Account - Invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other securities.
~ Retirement Investing such as:
~ IRA (Roth or Traditional)
~ Rollover IRA - Moves assets from a former employer’s savings plan.
~ Self-Employed Options (SEP-IRA, 401k, SIMPLE-IRA) - For small businesses.
~ Tax-Deferred Annuity
~ 529 College Savings Account
~ Custodial Account (UGMA/UTMA)
~ Business Account
~ Trust, Estate or Non-Trust Fiduciary Account
~ Charitable Gift Fund
~ Life Insurance
Commissions for Online Trading
Fidelity Investments has 3 tiers to fall in when making online trades:
~ Gold Level Pricing is $8.00 per trade for people who meet the following criteria:
~~ 120+ trades per year AND $30,000 in assets
Or
$1,000,000 in assets
~ Silver Level Pricing is $14.95 per trade for people who meet the following criteria:
~~ 36+ trades per year AND $30,000 in assets
Or
$100,000 in assets
~ Bronze Level Pricing is available to all customers and is subject to $29.95 per trade.
These prices are for online trading only. The prices rise significantly if you use their Automated Service Telephone (FAST) and go even higher for using a Fidelity Representative. For instance, at the Bronze Level one will pay $29.95 online, $45.00 using the FAST system and $55.00 having a Fidelity Rep do it for you.
You can expect to pay $5.00 per transaction for a Limit/Stop Order for the Bronze Level. The Silver Level waves the $5.00 beginning at the 73rd trade & up. The Gold Level is never charged the $5.00 fee.
Fidelity Perks
Fidelity Investments has a top notch website that is extremely easy to navigate. Once you type in your personal information to log in you have your choice of starting pages. Every household account is listed (provided all the coordinating paperwork is filled out & signed that allows all the accounts to be linked together). I use a 56K modem and the pages load respectfully quick, considering the amount of traffic on any given weekday.
Every type of form and deposit slip is available 24 hours per day to print out, provided you have Adobe Reader. Some forms can even be filled out & sent via internet to Fidelity for processing, although most forms need proper signatures so they need to be mailed in or brought directly to a Fidelity Investments Office.
Fidelity Investments offers paperless confirmations & statements which could save you a bit on commission fees at the end of the year. What they will do is send you an email whenever you make a trade instead of mailing them which I found to be a huge waste of paper because when mailing them to me I end up with a return envelope mailed also. If I make say, 10 trades per week on 3 accounts that’s a huge waste of paper, stamps & time in my opinion. Please note that some paper WILL come to you in the mail such as the yearly statements and some disclosures they need to mail out.
Fidelity Investments offers countless reading material on their website. Anything that you could ever need to learn more about is there for the taking. You can make fake trades to see the outcomes before investing, track your investments in all types of different ways such as charts.
Fidelity Investments does not charge trading fees for buying a Fidelity based mutual fund.
Fidelity Investments offers live quotes to account holders and delayed quotes for the general public.
A free checking account is available for non-retirement accounts with a minimum check written of $250.
Also available is various ways of adding money to your account such as direct deposit or wiring money. Please check how much it costs to used these types of service because I have noticed the price changes pretty frequently although I do not personally use these types of service.
Fidelity Investments Customer Service
I have dealt with the online customer support, live phone representatives and going directly to the office about 20 minutes from my house. Of course, speaking to a live rep will give you the quickest possible solution to whatever the question or problem is, yet all 3 ways I have had only positive experiences with. They are extremely professional people who are always willing to help. When I first began my Fidelity Investments experience I had very little knowledge of investing, so my questions to them must have been painstakingly obvious to them, yet I’d never have known. Only professional and friendly service from Fidelity Investments .
MY THOUGHTS
As I stated above, my experience with Fidelity have only been positive ones. I have been a customer of theirs for approximately 9 years now. I feel I have to give you a brief story of an experience I had with them because I feel it shows Fidelity Investments integrity…
I had needed to call Fidelity concerning an issue of some major paperwork needing to be submitted. It was an unusual situation that this one representative had never encountered before and he needed to put me on hold to speak with his supervisor. After about 5 minutes the supervisor got on the phone with me to discuss the situation and had apologized for keeping me on hold and deeply apologized that he too, had never come across my situation! He gave me the option of holding again or returning my call ASAP. Since I had small children to attend to, I opted for the return call. Approximately 15 minutes later I received that call with again, more apologizes for “holding me up” which they actually weren’t.
The supervisor had finally found out the new forms that needed to filled out & had even called my local office to make sure, in advance, that they would be ready for me when I got there. As soon as I arrived they had me sit down & explained in detail what I need to do & helped me every step of the way. All in all, it actually took only about 10 minutes in the office but it was unusual because it involved my deceased grandmother, my husband, my maiden name & married name. A very confusing situation was completely fixed in ½ a day.
The reason for this story is inform you that Fidelity Investments admits when they do not have information available and does not find a way to blame it on the customer as most companies will do these days. They admitted the hold up, addressed the situation & completely helped me within a half of a day. I consider that unusual these days.
I have tried to make this review as detailed as possible but there is just TOO much information for me to list in one review. If anyone feels a special detail is missing please feel free to contact me in the comment section & I will include it in this review. I want to give you enough information to make a decision about Fidelity Investments yet I do not want to confuse anyone with too much information about specific fees as there are literally dozens of different small fees in dozens of different funds.
Fidelity Investments
www.fidelity.com
800-FIDELITY ….. 800-343-3548
To speak to a representative ..... 800-544-5555
M-F, 8 a.m. - 10 p.m. | Sat, 8 a.m. - 8 p.m | Sun, 8 a.m. - 9 p.m. ET
Fidelity Investments
P.O. Box 770001
Cincinnati, OH 45277-0001
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
opalbabe
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Member: Barbara
Location: USA
Reviews written: 44
Trusted by: 84 members
About Me:
A teenager & twins on the verge on teen-dom. Need I say more?
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