Usa Ira Retirement Accounts

[Swelters]

Pardon if this has been covered.

I am dissatisfied with my long time IRA bank, Wells Fargo, they just added a $100 per trade fee. So I am looking elsewhere. I am a Bangkok domicile. I've been told Firstrade is pretty good, but I see they charge $30 per wire which is not so good for regular draws. Also they don't allow beneficiary assignments from abroad (more Patriot Act paranoia, I assume). Has anyone taken a comparative look at the various US brokerage houses for this purpose?

Thanks much for any info or referrals.

swelters

[maxman71]

My IRA account is with Etrade; $9.99 per trade (19.98 round turn). I've been with them for about 16 years and I make over 30 trades a month which qualifies me for "Etrade Pro" which provides me with streaming charts at no extra charge that enables all sorts of studies, trend lines, moving averages, etc.

BTW, I am up 47% in my IRA this year so far. But Etrade had nothing to do with that; I do my own analysis using proprietary methods.

[gk10002000]

I have a few inputs here. I also use Etrade as my primary bank and brokerage. I have Traditional Brokerage account, a Traditional IRA account (I roll over my 401ks into this), and a ROTH IRA account. With an aggregate balance above $50,000 USD, there are NO yearly or maintenance fees of any type. Trading online is easy and quick. I also have a Checking account with direct deposit (debit card of course), a Savings account and a Money market account (debit card too). It is easy to transfer money between my brokerage account and my checking account. Checking account online bill payment works well.

Now for some down sides. Etrade does NOT accept Money orders for deposits. Etrade does NOT accept checks from non-USA banks. Etrade security about once a year bothers me more than I think they should when I log in from Thailand while on vacation. not a horrible security feature, but their security check consists of them asking you questions you never submitted or agreed to. They use some third party vendor that makes up these questions that they claim come from open publicly available information. Some examples are: Where does your sister Jennifer live? !@XX My siblings should not be any of their business.

I too have a Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) account. I just don't like Wells Fargo. Since my assets inside Etrade are getting sizable, when I leave my current contract job, I plan on rolling that 401-k into another institution. I am thinking Charles Schwaub. They don't have a lot of brick and mortar facilities, but if one were overseas, that would not be a problem.

GK

[Langsuan Man]

their security check consists of them asking you questions you never submitted or agreed to. They use some third party vendor that makes up these questions that they claim come from open publicly available information.

Those annoying questions that they ask are based upon information listed on your credit report and not from any security questions and answers you may have had to provide earlier. And they couldn't care less about your sister, but only you would know the answer, ergo the relevance

[Swelters]

Thanks for these helpful replies. Anyone have info on costs of IRA distributions from these accounts to other US banks?

[gk10002000]

their security check consists of them asking you questions you never submitted or agreed to. They use some third party vendor that makes up these questions that they claim come from open publicly available information.

Those annoying questions that they ask are based upon information listed on your credit report and not from any security questions and answers you may have had to provide earlier. And they couldn't care less about your sister, but only you would know the answer, ergo the relevance

You are 100% wrong. I have talked with Etrade at length about this. The questions they asked are NOT from my credit report. My sister or siblings information are not on my credit report. I only gave one example. There were other questions about other family members, work, income, address, phone numbers etc. I never provided that information. Heck, some of the information I didn't know. I don't remember the various apartments one of my not often spoken to family members has maintained in the past. Some of the data was more than 15 years old!

[serenitynow]

While I don't know if it will suit you needs, I suggest you take a look at Interactive Brtokers. Persons holding IRA's pay exactly the same fees as regular customers. That's about $5 per 1,000 shares bought or sold. I have an IRA there but I am 5 years or more from any distributions so I cannot tell you what their policy is with regards to that. I can tell you that wiring funds from normal brokerage accounts is $10 . That's if you don't make more than one wire transfer in any given 30 day period.

[gk10002000]

Thanks for these helpful replies. Anyone have info on costs of IRA distributions from these accounts to other US banks?

From the Etrade Internal Help Site: Seems a bit inconsitent on the IRA transfer/distribution fees. Not sure if the routine fee is $25 or $60. Would have to give them a call.

How long will it take to receive an IRA distribution?

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If you are depositing funds to a non-IRA E*TRADE account or an external bank account, the transaction will be completed within 2 business days. If you are requesting a check or wire, proceeds will be distributed to you within 2 - 3 business days.

A distribution request for a check via U.S. Mail usually takes between 7 - 10 business days from the time your request is received until the check arrives.

If Overnight Mail is chosen as your delivery method, it usually takes 2 business days from the time your request is received until the check arrives.

IRA Transfer (full account) $0 per transfer in

$60 per transfer out

Wire Transfers $0 incoming

$25 outgoing

How can I avoid the $25 fee for a premature distribution or excess contribution removal?

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Fees are waived if your combined E*TRADE Securities account balances total over $100,000 or you have placed 30 or more trades in the last quarter.

[Langsuan Man]

their security check consists of them asking you questions you never submitted or agreed to. They use some third party vendor that makes up these questions that they claim come from open publicly available information.

Those annoying questions that they ask are based upon information listed on your credit report and not from any security questions and answers you may have had to provide earlier. And they couldn't care less about your sister, but only you would know the answer, ergo the relevance

You are 100% wrong. I have talked with Etrade at length about this. The questions they asked are NOT from my credit report. My sister or siblings information are not on my credit report. I only gave one example. There were other questions about other family members, work, income, address, phone numbers etc. I never provided that information. Heck, some of the information I didn't know. I don't remember the various apartments one of my not often spoken to family members has maintained in the past. Some of the data was more than 15 years old!

As is usual with E*trade it depends upon who you talk to at E*trade. Anytime I have done a International Wire from E*trade I have had to call and go through an extra security questionnaire to prove that I sent the fax with my name and signature on it. When I inquired as to where these questions came from I was told, " from information that is in your credit report " as with most things YMMV