Comments on A Slacker's Quest For His First Million: ING Direct Sharebuilder Review

I began investing using Sharebuilder, and I've had...

2009-02-02T00:06:00.000-05:00

I began investing using Sharebuilder, and I've had no problems with it. I switched to Zecco in October for the free trades, but since they have changed their minimum from $2,500 to $25,000(I call it bait-and-switch) I will no longer use them, so it's back to Sharebuilder again.

I think the greatest advantage of Sharebuilder is the partial shares, both with purchases (if using the automatic investment) and for dividends.

For that first poster (though I just realized the comment is over a year old now!), I'd recommend a mutual fund with Schwab. They have a variety of funds, and the minimum is $100, after that you can do any amount over $1. The customer service was very good, too. Even though I am a small investor and I only had about $200 with them, when I e-mailed them some questions, the guy actually called me and talked me through it over the phone - so they treat even the small customers well.

I use Sharebuilder regularly. I invest $200 each w...

2008-12-22T19:07:00.000-05:00

I use Sharebuilder regularly. I invest $200 each week, and the fees are quite reasonable. I do realtime trades, including options as well. They DO actually give you realtime updates on both stocks and options (in the research section). Once I figured how to turn that on, I have had no problem with their execution speed (in fact they beat OptionsXpress).

Thanks Scott!

2008-11-11T20:47:19.744-05:00

Thanks Scott!

As an update, ShareBuilder's Express Funding featu...

2008-11-11T19:48:00.000-05:00

As an update, ShareBuilder's Express Funding feature is now free from ING Direct Orange Savings accounts in addition to the Electric Orange accounts mentioned in the review.

I Think I Can,People have done what you're doing i...

2008-11-03T11:42:36.519-05:00

I Think I Can,

People have done what you're doing in the past. Eventually Sharebuilder found out, closed all their accounts but the first one, and took their bonuses away.

People have received the following message:

It has been noted that you recently opened multiple accounts with identical registration information.

We have restricted from activity all but the first of such identical accounts. ShareBuilder is closing these additional accounts under the provisions of Section 10 of the Account Agreement (https://www.sharebuilder.com/sharebuilder/Legal/Default.aspx). Future identical accounts will be likewise restricted.

I have used 3 codes for $50. free from Sharebuilde...

2008-11-03T10:29:00.000-05:00

I have used 3 codes for $50. free from Sharebuilder, and have 3 more to use. I only put $10. in each account to be eligible for the bonus. When I get my bonus, I'm taking out what I put in and investing the rest. That is truly the poor man's way of making money!

Sharebuilder is terrible for trying to trade durin...

2008-10-13T10:35:00.000-04:00

Sharebuilder is terrible for trying to trade during a busy market day, I have been trying to get to the real time trades screen for nearly an hour and getting time-outs the entire time. The site is not setup well to handle a large volume of people at once. I have also had situations where I placed an order overnight and the purchase did not go in at the opening price but rather the PEAK price for the day which cost me about 20% more then the original trade should have.

Careful about real-time trades with these guys. I ...

2008-09-22T18:08:00.000-04:00

Careful about real-time trades with these guys. I just paid over $100 dollars in commission on a real-time trade due to their large order surcharge. Their customer service says "In addition to the base commission, a large order surcharge of $0.015 for each additional share over 1,000 shares will be incurred. The total commission (base commission + surcharge) is subject to a maximum of 2.5 percent of the principal, but no less than the base commission."

In my mind that translates into a rip-off for large orders. No more real-time trades through sharebuilder for me!

Paul,I use Firstrade for my Roth and so far am ple...

2008-01-23T10:27:34.544-05:00

Paul,

I use Firstrade for my Roth and so far am pleased.

At $20 a month, if you want to buy stocks/ETFs, you should wait until you accumulate at least $404, and that's at Sharebuilder, where, as you know, the commission for automatic trades is $4. If you invest $404, you're paying the $4 and buying $400 worth of stock, so your commission will be 1% of your investment.

Buying $20 worth of stock/ETF every month for $4 a trade, you are losing 25% right away. That is, the stock/ETF you're buying has to go up 25% for you just to break even.

You might want to consider no load/no transaction fee mutual funds. You can buy these from Firstrade, Scottrade, TradeKing, for example. They all have no account minimums for opening and maintaining an account.

Depending on the mutual fund, there is usually an initial minimum investment of $500 to $2000, and all subsequent investments in the mutual fund are usually a minimum of $50 to $100. You would be able to do that every 2.5 to 5 months. Of course, it may be a problem raising the initial amount. If you are able to open an IRA, the initial investment minimums in mutual funds are usually lower.

As far as I know, Firstrade only lets you deposit money if it's $100 or more. So you would be able to do that every 5 months.

If you are interested in any particular company, you might want to find out if you can buy shares directly from them.The initial minimums are usually lower, but it depends on the company. To find out about buying directly from companies, you can either go to their investor relations sites, or look at http://www.equiserve.com/

I hope this is helpful.

Yea i found that sharebuilder is good if you catch...

2008-01-23T08:22:00.000-05:00

Yea i found that sharebuilder is good if you catch one of thier 50 dolar free deals then its great. After that I went with Sogo invest until they raised thier minimum. Now I am thinking Firstrade no minimums what about that? i am a very small invester $20.00 a month