100 free stock trades/year for Wells Fargo PMA customers

100 Commission-Free Online Trades Per Year Unlike the BofA program which requires a minimum $25k in BofA bank deposits, the $25k minimum balance for a Wells Fargo PMA includes your brokerage accounts and loan balances as well as deposits.

This definitely heats up the brokerage commission price war!

Some related discussions:
WellsTrade switches money market sweep to very-low-yield "cash sweep" account
30 free stock trades/month @ Banc of America Investments
Zecco free stock trades

2 The PMA Package is free of the monthly service fees for each month the statement-ending balances in qualifying accounts total $25,000 or more; otherwise, a monthly service fee of $25 will apply. Wells Fargo accounts used for balance qualification include checking, savings, time accounts (CDs), retirement (IRAs), brokerage, trust (excluding irrevocable trusts), loans, outstanding credit cards and line of credit balances, and 10% of outstanding mortgage balance (certain mortgages not eligible).

any current 0% credit card offers for wells fargo? WF CB Platinum and Wells Fargo Visa Platinum are 0% for 6 months with $0 BT fee in the first 30 days of account opening

Seems much better than b of a, but only 100 trades (which is more than enough for most people)... those that want more can always use zecco.

SeattleNative said: 100 Commission-Free Online Trades Per Year Unlike the BofA program which requires a minimum $25k in BofA bank deposits, the $25k minimum balance for a Wells Fargo PMA includes your brokerage accounts and loan balances as well as deposits.

This definitely heats up the brokerage commission price war!
Not to mention that BoA program is only good for equity only. It charges a minimum of $45 for no-load mutual funds/bonds and for no load mutual funds up to 100K+ is $260+0.08% for amount over 100K which is pretty steeped. I may even consider consolidating my trading account into my PMA if not for the speed of execution and the lack of online trading tools. It's interesting to note that this was a pretty drastic change from the original program of 250K limit and 50 free trades annually which means that WF wants to attract a pretty big population of investors out there.

Wouldn't this be a great accont for those that occasionally trade ETF's? Without the trading fees, ETF's end up being very inexpensive (of course, you would have to limit the trades to <100/year).

Anyone currently using WF know if they offer trailing stops? Their "tour" doesn't describe types of trading tools.

I would be curious to know what their rates are on money market yields, and what they charge for things like options.

I think this is a warning shot to the discount brokers, but I *highly* doubt that people would move their assets from TDAmeritrade, Etrade, Scottrade, etc.

It's only for 100 trades a year. If you trade more than that (I personally don't) then you probably can call up and get a really good deal from your current broker.

psychtobe said: I saw this ad last night in this month's Money magazine. Good find OP. I am viscerally opposed to Wells Fargo because of my horrible banking experience as a college student (charged me fees and STILL charged me additional fees if I wanted to use a teller. Talk about feeling like a no-good pathetic low-life! I switched to my credit union and never looked back. anyway, maybe the joke's on them - I now have a more measurable net worth and get frankly nauseated when I hear the words "wells Fargo." Lost customer for life). but hopefully others will find this helpful.

Banks charge for talking to a teller?! hmm, maybe it's a location thing but I have never heard of this in Orange County, CA.

jm5chn said: psychtobe said: I saw this ad last night in this month's Money magazine. Good find OP. I am viscerally opposed to Wells Fargo because of my horrible banking experience as a college student (charged me fees and STILL charged me additional fees if I wanted to use a teller. Talk about feeling like a no-good pathetic low-life! I switched to my credit union and never looked back. anyway, maybe the joke's on them - I now have a more measurable net worth and get frankly nauseated when I hear the words "wells Fargo." Lost customer for life). but hopefully others will find this helpful.

Banks charge for talking to a teller?! hmm, maybe it's a location thing but I have never heard of this in Orange County, CA.

this was from the early-mid 90s. I was at Stanford and I still remember that feeling when I slinked up to the on-campus branch. Like I said - lost customer for life. It was just insulting but being a teenager at the time, I took it lying down.

Thanks, OP....Free is good....I think I'll open an account with them.

to qualify for this offer suppose i have stock holdings worth 25K will this count as balance or it must be only cash

srifat said: to qualify for this offer suppose i have stock holdings worth 25K will this count as balance or it must be only cashThis was answered above, in the very first response.

In the future, it'd be helpful if you read the other responses before you post one of your own.

BuddyHall said: Yes, PMA customers have several choices for money market sweep accounts. The taxable MMF I chose for my brokerage sweep has a 7-day yield currently of 4.61% -- I'd mention the ticker symbol for this fund but past posting experience has let me know this is against board rules and my post would be deleted.

Also, for the checking portion of relationship, which is generally PMA Prime Checking, the APY is currently 2.75% but you can choose a non-FDIC money market option called PMA Money Market Checking if you have a relationship of >$250K which again has several choices with the taxable MMF option 7-day yield being 4.6% (BTW, also at this relationship level, all foreign ATM fees are reimbursed to you, which I like, last month on vacation was like $30)

I've been a PMA brokerage customer for over a year now and I must say, I'm very happy with it. When I read the competition or others say that they don't think E*Trade, Schwab, Ameritrade customers would transfer, I say huh?? Are they asleep? I've been investing online since '96 and transferred accounts in from Schwab, Harrisdirect and Ameritrade. I've tried them all, BrownCo, E*Trade, Fidelity... and Wells Fargo has everything I need. Phone and email support have been great and without waiting in a queue. I mainly buy and hold ETF's but no-load mutual funds can also be purchased without commission, including those from Vanguard. Who else does that? I recently bought a tax-exempt money market fund with 7-day yield of 3.53%

There was a time when I was comfortable with strictly online brokerages (and when my account balances were a few hundred $K) but now I expect more for my money, and I appreciate the "Brick & Mortar" aspect to my Wells Fargo relationship. My private banker's office is 3 blocks away should I need them. Should I have an important issue or question, the last thing I want is to wait in a phone queue or be passed back and forth between phone support staff who don't "own" and feel responsible for my customer relationship.

Statements and W2 accounting are clear, detailed and well laid out and you have online access back several years at no charge.

I accept that different folks have different needs and YMMV but Wells Fargo definitely works for me.

Hope this helps,

Buddy
Thanks for your detailed report.

Can you elaborate on whether cost basis accounting is provided? And whether it is possible to specify the tax lot for a stock sale? Thanks.

scanchain said:
Thanks for your detailed report.

Can you elaborate on whether cost basis accounting is provided? And whether it is possible to specify the tax lot for a stock sale? Thanks.

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Yes, cost-basis accounting is provided both in online portfolio views and very well in the statements. Unfortunately, it is not possible to specify specific lots to sell on-line but if you phone in within same day of your sale, they will match your sale vs. purchase. Your realized gains report will then show gain correctly for each lot with purchase and sale date recorded. I really liked the way BrownCo use to do it, was easy and straight forward but I digress...

I should also report that transferring cost basis info from other brokers was straight forward, I just emailed info and it was input by the end of the next day (a consistent experience from multiple transfers).

-Buddy

Problem with Wells Fargo Private bank is 2 fold. I used to bank with them for years and years and was happy till my banker got a promotion and the new banker assigned to me was a D*** for a lack of better word. He decided my accounts were not profitable. He stoped waiving fees on my accounts. The fees I was argueing about were Quicken direct connect fee $9.99, safty depoist box, computer checks, ATM reimbursment fees, wires fees. He told if I would either leave some money in non interest bearing account or sign up for "Managed Money" services he could continue to waive the above fees otherwise he was very sorry as non of the above are standard fee waviers included with all private bank account and were subject to your bankers discrition based on how profitable of an account you have and in his option my account was not profitable enough for Wells Fargo even tho I had much more than $250K min required for this account.

Wells Fargo sell no institutal cash management instruments either. They dont sell VRDN or Discount notes as they dont underwrite either of them. They do sell some limited ARS which tend to pay as much as VRDN and Discounts notes with 28-35 day locks but nothing with shorter maturies.

While I understand Wells Fargo min for Private Banking is almost the same as BOA and Citibank "Baby Private" limits. There accounts offer little or nothing more over these accounts. BOA gives you an MRA account with much lower min which pays higher rate than PMA Money Market Checking and the standard benfits of both Citigold and Premire from BOA are basically the same as Wells Fargo Private bank if not better except for the free stock trades.

Now that Firstrade charges for mutual fund purchases, I assume this account would be a good way to dollar cost average Vanguard funds, as long as you meet the minimum requirements of the PAM account?

BuddyHall said: busterbaxter said: thank you very much BuddyHall.

Since you've tried so many online firms, can you let us know how Wells Fargo's trading interface compare with Fidelity? The brief online tour really doesn't show too much.

I guess since the free trade is for a daily balance valued at $25000, I will need to keep monitoring the value of my holdings very carefully.

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Fidelity's web site is really tops as is their customer support as well -- I put my Mom's accounts there largely for that but was before I moved to Wells Fargo. The downside to Fidelity is price of stock/ETF commissions including $75 purchase fees (although no cost to sell) on mutual funds outside of the Fidelity family and their NTF list (Vanguard and others).

For my purposes, while not being quite as pretty, I find Wells Fargo's trading interface meets my needs and is straight-forward with clear confirmation screens, and is easy to modify or cancel open orders.

Keep in mind that the $25K relationship can be met through combined total of checking, savings, CD, Brokerage deposits, and loans, including 10% of home mortgage if with Wells Fargo Mortgage.

-Buddy

Thanks again.

I see this deal as offering free IRA and free trade. I already have a Roth IRA with Fidelity but I want to buy some ETF for that. Couldn't find anywhere except this deal that allow me to do that for free. I will call Fidelity today to see how much it costs to transfer my account over.

If it's not for the IRA, I would go with Zecco due to lower min balance. But Zecco has a $30/year IRA fee.

edited: Called Fidelity. There is no fee for transfer non-retirement accounts. There is a $50 for transfer IRA accounts. Too bad I opened a Roth last month and still haven't had any transaction there yet.

scanchain said: Wells Trade does not list a fee for short term (typically 180 days) NTF fund redemptions. Does anyone know if there is one?

wouldn't the fund company determine it instead? Example, if you buy a NTF fund from FamilyA using WellsTrade, won't it abide with the rules listed in FamilyA's prospectus?

busterbaxter said: Called Fidelity. There is no fee for transfer non-retirement accounts. There is a $50 for transfer IRA accounts. Too bad I opened a Roth last month and still haven't had any transaction there yet.
You are saying you haven't funded the account yet? Why not tell them that you changed your mind and decided not to use it.

scanchain said: busterbaxter said: scanchain said: Wells Trade does not list a fee for short term (typically 180 days) NTF fund redemptions. Does anyone know if there is one?

wouldn't the fund company determine it instead? Example, if you buy a NTF fund from FamilyA using WellsTrade, won't it abide with the rules listed in FamilyA's prospectus?
When you buy a NTF fund, usually you have to abide to two rules; which in your example would be that of FamilyA and WellsTrade. I am asking about WellsTrade's rule only.

For example, if you use Vanguard's brokerage, Vanguard's rule is that you have to hold for 6 months or more. Otherwise there is a fee of 1% (min $50, max $250) on redemption. This is in addition to the fund family's rule (if any).
I found this, which states
"I could not find any info on short-term trading of mutual funds. So no 90 or 180 day holding period?

I called and ask. They said they don't have any holding period, but they will enforce any holding period required by the fund company. I've never seen that in any of my transactions."

Are you saying that you could purchase all Vanguard no load funds through this Wells account without a fee for up to 100 trades?

DubSlick said: Now that Firstrade charges for mutual fund purchases, I assume this account would be a good way to dollar cost average Vanguard funds, as long as you meet the minimum requirements of the PAM account?

Thanks, Craig. Very odd. I guess I'll just push the money or transfer from a brokerage account.