Today I received a notification in my Scottrade account of a new brokerage commissions and fees schedule. According to their message:

Effective Oct. 1, 2012, we are updating our Commissions and Fee Schedule.  Please note that no changes have been made to commissions for orders entered online.

Overall their statement is true. Price increases are seen for IVR phone system (almost doubling) and broker-assisted orders. Online stock and ETF orders remain at $7. Their mutual fund rates remain the same as well.

However if you look closely at their Service Fees, you’ll see an increase in many of their services plus one additional one: Account Transfer (Full Transfer) for $75.

New Scottrade Fees

Previous Scottrade Fees

Scottrade was not charging for account transfers till now. Don’t get me wrong, I still like Scottrade and they do have some of the lowest commissions out there. In addition, all the other major online brokerage firms were charging transfer fees already ranging from $60-$75:

  • Schwab: $70 fee
  • Ameritrade: $75 fee
  • eTrade: $60
  • Scottrade: $75 (used to be $0)

So it’s no surprise Scottrade decided to add a transfer fee. A transfer/closing fee would really only affect you if you were switching from one brokerage to another or closing out your account completely. I just found it interesting how there was no mention of the additional fee without digging into their fee schedule.

Overall I still enjoy Scottrade and won’t be switching. However I will be considering opening an account at Ameritrade given their extensive list of no-commission free ETF’s including Vanguard; I’m just not sure if I’ll be jumping into the ETF marketing any time soon. My portfolio has grown to the point where I feel I can diversify adequately and gain a better return than an ETF.

 

If you’re looking to getting started at Scottrade with some extra free trades, feel free to use my referral code:

Scottrade Referral Code: XRPR7077