re: ComputerShare v Vanguard Acct v Scotttrade

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ComputerShare v Vanguard Acct v Scotttrade

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i have no experience with Computershare, but I'll shed a little light on Vangaurd and Scottrade. I have an account with both.

Vanguard - They give you 25 trades at $7, then they jump to $20 per trade unless you have $50k invested in their funds and ETFs. Interface isn't great, but they do offer no-fee, no-commission dividend reinvestment program for many stocks.

Scottrade - Much better interface than Vanguard for the brokerage account which makes it easier to research. Trades are always around $7. They have their own breed of dividend reinvestment called 'FRIP' (Flexible Reinvestment Program). They basically pool your dividends into an account and you select up to 5 stocks they will purchase commission free. FRIP isn't nearly as nice as a DRIP. With FRIP, they only purchase whole shares. Plus you may have 30 dividend paying stocks, but you can only choose 5 for scottrade to purchase with frip. It is very clunky b/c you assign a % to each of your stocks. This has many too negatives to list.I guess it is better than nothing which is what they use to offer.

With all that said, I'd suggest scottrade based on my experience. They just updated the website and interface and it seems pretty slick so far. To me the only downside to scottrade is the FRIP. However, when I opened my account, they didn't even have that. I mainly use vanguard for some of their funds. I use their brokerage account only when I buy a long term hold that I want the dividends reinvested like MO, KO, etc