[throwaway12245]

Schwab or Vanguard.

Vanguard pioneered the low cost index fund and Schwab was one of the original "discount brokers". Their innovations were adopted by every other broker, driving down costs for the small trader. They remain allies of small investors.

[dragontamer]

Vanguard's got excellent funds and ETFs, but they're legendary in terms of having some of the worst customer support for their brokerage account.

Schwab/TD Ameritrade on the other hand, has kinda bad ETFs but have really good customer service. Besides, you can buy Vanguard ETFs / Mutual Funds in your Schwab account.

Go for customer service. There's some minor benefits in terms of how quickly you can enter / exit Vanguard positions if you get a Vanguard account, but overall its a better idea IMO to get a brokerage account with humans on the telephone whenever issues come up.

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I'm also in E-Trade and they've worked out so far for me.

The one I'm most interested in is probably Fidelity? Good overall reviews, apparently pretty good customer service, and the ETFs / Mutual Funds / Bonds they offer seem pretty good too.

[klenwell]

I tried to set up an online account with Vanguard recently. At the end of the signup flow, I got an error saying I had to phone it. It was a weekend so I tried a couple days later during business hours just to be sure and because I loathe dealing with human beings for stuff that should be able to be handled by a website. Same result.

So I phoned in, spent a half-hour with a human being. He was audibly cursing as he tried to get me set up. At one point, after I had given him my name and other PII, he addressed by a different first name then quickly corrected himself.

At the end, he said, "Ok, now you'll get an email to finish setting up your account." Email arrived and it was addressed to someone with a different name. I recognized the first name as the same name the agent had mistakenly used with me.

Suffice to say, I did not finish setting up my account and decided to stick with Fidelity.

[vba616]

It's probably uncommon to deal with a human at Vanguard. I know I never have.

Plus, I have my own story about Robinhood - they couldn't or wouldn't change my email address. I think they expect users to upload pictures of ID and such.

That's crazy and completely disqualifies them for anything serious, for me.

If something is really important, then you do it in person, with a local representative or notary or something.

If it's not that important, then they don't need ID theft material in digital format. They already leaked the info they have!

It is not a feature to have the ability to make critical changes without friction from anywhere in the world over the internet, with the right bitstream. It's completely unacceptable.

My entire relationship with Robinhood involves a trivial amount of crypto that I don't trade, on the assumption they are the (one of the) most government compliant or least shady ways to hold that. That is based on my outlook being the complete opposite of the cliché "not your keys, not your coins".

Other than my "free stock" I don't own any non-crypto and never will.

Confirming my negative attitude was their recent data breach, which we will never know for sure the scope of, but I suddenly started getting investment scam spam from known scofflaws at the email address Robinhood has and probably leaked.

The SEC has a "catch and release" program for even small-timers; it sure is a disincentive to report criminal activity when you see in the public record someone already was caught and paid a fine and kept right on keeping on.

[extesy]

I've been a Fidelity customer for 15+ years. Amazing customer service - very easy to reach humans and they were all experts at solving whatever problem I called them with.

[mbesto]

Fyi - Vanguard is only good for simple, long term holding. If you are interested in a little more day trading type activity, then Schwab, TD, and Fidelity are much better.

[prasadjoglekar]

Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard in that order. All 3 offer ETFs at $0 fees, and all have comparable index funds. I've found Fidelity's website to be the most usable, followed by Schwab. Vanguard had a dated, but simple and functional interface that they've recently revamped to be more slick but less usable.

[whoopdeepoo]

Vanguard outsourced most of their IT department overseas a few years ago. They certainly aren't allies of American IT workers

[bergenty]

This is no good for middle class day traders

[marssaxman]

They've always got Vegas.