Another Vanguard Rant

[Texas Proud]

I am gong to add my current rant to this thread as I do not want to start another thread...


So, doing my taxes and I have 3 1099Rs from Vanguard... but the program shows 4 from last year... so, I go to Vanguard to take a look and what do I see? TWO 1099Rs listed... but wait, I have 3 in my hand... where did the other one come from?


Well, it is their 'new' look.. I finally see a stmt at the bottom that says if you do not see your 1099 click here and go to the OLD page...



REALLY If I dd not have them in hand and had only looked at their page I would have missed a 1099R

 

[Koolau]

I am gong to add my current rant to this thread as I do not want to start another thread...


So, doing my taxes and I have 3 1099Rs from Vanguard... but the program shows 4 from last year... so, I go to Vanguard to take a look and what do I see? TWO 1099Rs listed... but wait, I have 3 in my hand... where did the other one come from?


Well, it is their 'new' look.. I finally see a stmt at the bottom that says if you do not see your 1099 click here and go to the OLD page...



REALLY If I dd not have them in hand and had only looked at their page I would have missed a 1099R

Did Vanguard SEND you three 1099s - they sent me NONE? I had to go into the web site and download them myself. I converted my accounts to their new-and-improved brokerage system to avoid a $200 per account charge.

 

[Gumby]

Vanguard sent me a notice that my 1099-R was available to download, so I signed on to my account, downloaded it and printed it out. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.

 

[Texas Proud]

Did Vanguard SEND you three 1099s - they sent me NONE? I had to go into the web site and download them myself. I converted my accounts to their new-and-improved brokerage system to avoid a $200 per account charge.

I had changed to e delivery for statements but mail for tax forms...

 

[Texas Proud]

Vanguard sent me a notice that my 1099-R was available to download, so I signed on to my account, downloaded it and printed it out. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.

BUT... it was not... I got 4 in the mail but only 3 show up on my tax forms for download... if I had relied on that page I would have missed a 1099..


So not so lemon squeezy..

 

[MarieIG]

Did Vanguard SEND you three 1099s - they sent me NONE? I had to go into the web site and download them myself. I converted my accounts to their new-and-improved brokerage system to avoid a $200 per account charge.

You can call and have them send you tax forms free of charge (or update your mail preferences to have tax forms sent by mail - and keep the rest of your notifications electronic - to avoid fees).

 

[Koolau]

Vanguard sent me a notice that my 1099-R was available to download, so I signed on to my account, downloaded it and printed it out. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.

Yeah, I agree it was "easy", but in the old days, they mailed them to me which was even easier! Almost infinitely easier since now I have to "do" something and then I just opened the mail. But, I'm not bitter.

I rarely visit the V site, so had to recall PW and security questions, and do the secondary check, etc. BUT it saved me several hundred dollars that V had threatened to charge me if I didn't do their brokerage account change-over for each fund I own. I didn't want to do that this past year, but the extra fees would have been very significant since it was gonna be $200 for each fund! But, I'm not bitter.

Then there is the little problem that I do not have a functioning printer. Fortunately, the CPA was willing to print the documents after I put them on a memory stick. Buying a printer and searching for print drivers that would actually w*rk with my ancient computer seemed a lot to ask just to have hard copies of my 1099s. So "easy"? Yeah, I guess it was easy, but not as easy as it used to be. I'm not a big "change" person and become less so as I age. But, "bitter" - no, I'm not bitter.


Returning you now...

 

[Piper20]

Had to call VG today since we moved and the security phone number was incorrect. First agent came on after 3 minutes but said we were broken up and couldn’t understand. Hung up tried again. 3 minutes for an agent and security phone number updated. I was surprised after what I’ve read here about long wait times.

 

[MarieIG]

Had to call VG today since we moved and the security phone number was incorrect. First agent came on after 3 minutes but said we were broken up and couldn’t understand. Hung up tried again. 3 minutes for an agent and security phone number updated. I was surprised after what I’ve read here about long wait times.

Last time I called (about a week ago) my wait time was much shorter (2 or 3 minutes) than it had been several months ago.

 

[Koolau]

Had to call VG today since we moved and the security phone number was incorrect. First agent came on after 3 minutes but said we were broken up and couldn’t understand. Hung up tried again. 3 minutes for an agent and security phone number updated. I was surprised after what I’ve read here about long wait times.

Yeah, I just haven't seen that (long phone waiting time.) Now, they may not give you the right info... but they answer pretty quickly in my experience. YMMV

 

[target2019]

Had to call VG today since we moved and the security phone number was incorrect. First agent came on after 3 minutes but said we were broken up and couldn’t understand. Hung up tried again. 3 minutes for an agent and security phone number updated. I was surprised after what I’ve read here about long wait times.

As far as I can tell, one person has complained about telephone wait time.

Other complaints in this thread are about wait times for transactions.

 

[orbops]

One of the reasons I left Vanguard this year was sending an email question, and having to wait a week for a response. Now that I moved everything over to Fidelity, I have a dedicated local person in my area that I can call and get a response within 24 hours.

Even when I was moving my account from Vanguard to Fidelity, Vanguard put a hold on a couple moves and wouldn't tell Fidelity the reason. When I called, it turned out there was some corporate activity, so a hold was placed on that stock. What drove me crazy is that they needed a supervisor to release the hold, my request alone wasn't sufficient even though it was my stock. (This was probably reason #30 for me leaving Vanguard after being with them for over 30 years)

BTW - Investopedia just updated their 'Best Online Brokers and Trading Platforms. No surprise that Vanguard wasn't even mentioned.
https://www.investopedia.com/best-online-brokers-4587872

 

[Rianne]

Or you can sift through this and decide for yourself. Does Fidelity pay or support Investopedia?

https://www.investopedia.com/vanguard-vs-fidelity-4587961

 

[Koolau]

Yeah, if I were just starting out (some 20+ years later) I'd probably go with Fidelity. Now, with everything (well, other than 401(k) and MYGAs, etc.) at Vanguard, inertia will keep me at Vanguard. Most of the issues I hear in this thread simply have not been an issue for me, but YMMV.

 

[orbops]

Yeah, if I were just starting out (some 20+ years later) I'd probably go with Fidelity. Now, with everything (well, other than 401(k) and MYGAs, etc.) at Vanguard, inertia will keep me at Vanguard. Most of the issues I hear in this thread simply have not been an issue for me, but YMMV.

I noticed that your location is Oahu. Keep in mind with Vanguard that for same day wire transfers out of your account, they need to be submitted by 12:30PM ET. That burned me one time since I live on the West Coast in the Pacific timezone, where the deadline was 9:30AM.

 

[Koolau]

I noticed that your location is Oahu. Keep in mind with Vanguard that for same day wire transfers out of your account, they need to be submitted by 12:30PM ET. That burned me one time since I live on the West Coast in the Pacific timezone, where the deadline was 9:30AM.

Yeah, that can be an issue, but I plan for it. YMMV

 

[Texas Proud]

Not sure what is going on but Vanguard will not let me buy some preferred shares.. says to try later or call... I will try later and if nothing happens will call tomorrow or the next day.. really frustrating..

 

[jebmke]

Not sure what is going on but Vanguard will not let me buy some preferred shares.. says to try later or call... I will try later and if nothing happens will call tomorrow or the next day.. really frustrating..

do you know for sure they are trading?

I recall back in 2008 when Tips were thinly trading I could not get orders placed online and ended up talking directly with one of their bond traders who helped identity lots. Back then the lots were pretty small ($100K) due to the credit market wonkinenss

 

[jim584672]

Not sure what is going on but Vanguard will not let me buy some preferred shares.. says to try later or call... I will try later and if nothing happens will call tomorrow or the next day.. really frustrating..

They may want you to go through the Bond Desk for that order. I ran into this issue many years ago with them.

It makes no sense, but that is how they set it up.

 

[Sunset]

Not sure what is going on but Vanguard will not let me buy some preferred shares.. says to try later or call... I will try later and if nothing happens will call tomorrow or the next day.. really frustrating..

I bought some a couple of days ago, but it wasn't the USB-A ones.

 

[Texas Proud]

do you know for sure they are trading?

I recall back in 2008 when Tips were thinly trading I could not get orders placed online and ended up talking directly with one of their bond traders who helped identity lots. Back then the lots were pretty small ($100K) due to the credit market wonkinenss

It might be that they are variable... I think I ran into this awhile back and just had to call them to place the order...


I will try online again and if it does not take give them a call as I am buying and holding this issue...

 

[Koolau]

You can call and have them send you tax forms free of charge (or update your mail preferences to have tax forms sent by mail - and keep the rest of your notifications electronic - to avoid fees).

I called twice and they never sent them. Guess this is the right forum for that.

 

[MarieIG]

I called twice and they never sent them. Guess this is the right forum for that.

I'm sorry to hear that.

 

[Koolau]

I'm sorry to hear that.

Yeah, me too.

What I had to do to send my 1099s to the CPA was put them on a flash drive and go to Big Brown's office to print them. Not fun, but once a year is probably acceptable to save several hundred dollars in (new) Vanguard charges for mailings. I'll try again next year to have the tax forms mailed to me. We'll see then. Aloha

 

[Midpack]

Yeah, if I were just starting out (some 20+ years later) I'd probably go with Fidelity. Now, with everything (well, other than 401(k) and MYGAs, etc.) at Vanguard, inertia will keep me at Vanguard. Most of the issues I hear in this thread simply have not been an issue for me, but YMMV.

+1. All my investments are Vanguard funds, and I don’t want to take the big tax hit in our taxable account to convert them to Fidelity funds. I know I can transfer in kind, but I’ll pay fees to buy new shares of any VG fund. I could just hold VG and put any new $ into equivalent Fidelity funds so still considering…but I’ve only had a few minor issues with VG, probably because I’m a very low maintenance customer. You do see complaints from Fido and Schwab customers as well, though VG appears to be the worst.