Morningstar Premium

[MBAustin]

I subscribed to Morningstar Premium a couple of years ago when I was thinking I would do more portfolio tweaking and could use the features such as X-Ray. But I haven't used it that much so when I got the e-mail warning me of the automatic renewal, I called to cancel. I wasn't surprised when the agent asked me a few questions and then said if I would consider renewing with a discount - I said it depended on the discount. She put me on hold to "check with her manager" and came back offering more than ⅓ off for another year. So I decided it was worth keeping it another year, with a resolution to use it more.

Just thought this might be helpful to others out there on the fence about renewing.

 

[frayne]

I use the Morningstar portfolio tracker to just check to see how I'm doing on a daily or weekly basis. Being a pretty much buy and hold indexer it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to pay for the premium service.

 

[LOL!]

I use M* premium services for free. TRowePrice (where I keep zero assets) lets folks do so. For instance, Portfolio Tracker, Portfolio X-ray are free. This loophole has not been closed in more than a decade.

M* could probably provide the service for free with all the ads they have on their web site. Plus it probably costs them more money to implement a faulty paywall than the money they collect from individuals anyways.

I wonder how folks feel who are paying for this service when they know that it is given away free to lots of people.

 

[nwsteve]

I use M* premium services for free. TRowePrice (where I keep zero assets) lets folks do so. For instance, Portfolio Tracker, Portfolio X-ray are free. This loophole has not been closed in more than a decade.

GREAT tip. Thanks LOL

 

[Free To Canoe]

I use M* premium services for free. TRowePrice (where I keep zero assets) lets folks do so. For instance, Portfolio Tracker, Portfolio X-ray are free. This loophole has not been closed in more than a decade.

M* could probably provide the service for free with all the ads they have on their web site. Plus it probably costs them more money to implement a faulty paywall than the money they collect from individuals anyways.

I wonder how folks feel who are paying for this service when they know that it is given away free to lots of people.

+1

 

[wanaberetiree]

I subscribed to Morningstar Premium a couple of years ago when I was thinking I would do more portfolio tweaking and could use the features such as X-Ray. But I haven't used it that much so when I got the e-mail warning me of the automatic renewal, I called to cancel. I wasn't surprised when the agent asked me a few questions and then said if I would consider renewing with a discount - I said it depended on the discount. She put me on hold to "check with her manager" and came back offering more than ⅓ off for another year. So I decided it was worth keeping it another year, with a resolution to use it more.

Just thought this might be helpful to others out there on the fence about renewing.

Morningstar X-Ray is available to Quicken owners.

 

[big-papa]

I was a frequent user of M* for a very long time. Really like the premium Mutual Fund screener. When I called to cancel I got the same sort of thing - but the reality was I just didn't need it anymore. I still get emails from them from time-to-time with pretty big discounts.

I wish they had a "one-time only" single-month subscription. Might be willing to do that once in a while. They do have a month-by-month subscription but you can't un-subscribe online (or at least you couldn't when I had a subscription). You have to call.

Big-Papa

 

[mrfeh]

I use M* premium services for free. TRowePrice (where I keep zero assets) lets folks do so. For instance, Portfolio Tracker, Portfolio X-ray are free. This loophole has not been closed in more than a decade.

Could somebody explain how to access M* premium in this way, even if we aren't TRP customers?

Thanks.

 

[steelyman]

Morningstar X-Ray is available to Quicken owners.

That's how I've been accessing it and took a little of the sting out of paying to upgrade to Quicken 2015. I've had T Rowe Price access through my 457 plan, but my investments are already in Quicken, so they're already integrated (that is, they've been entered across various accounts in the process of using Quicken for other purposes).

I like that the X-Ray makes it easy to see in aggregate what the expense ratio of an overall portfolio or subset is (vs an individual fund).

 

[travelover]

Could somebody explain how to access M* premium in this way, even if we aren't TRP customers?

Thanks.

My local library has a Morningstar membership and I can access it on line via my library card number. Yours might also.

 

[MichaelB]

My local library has a Morningstar membership and I can access it on line via my library card number. Yours might also.

That's a great idea. Thanks! I just checked and found I have access to M* and ValueLine.

 

[Cobra9777]

A few years ago, I was tweaking several things in my portfolio. I needed to model a few alternative scenarios and quickly compare aggregate data for each, such as AA, ER, yield, duration, geography, and sectors. I signed up for the 2-week free trial on M*, did what I needed to do with X-Ray, and then canceled before my CC was charged. I use Personal Capital (free) to monitor same analytical stats for the actual portfolio. But it's not as good as X-Ray for ad-hoc modeling of hypothetical changes. I also have free access to Fidelity's GPS, which can model hypothetical portfolios. But I've found the actual analytical content is a little better at M*, and it's a little easier to use. M* Prem is just way too pricey for the infrequent times I need to use it.

 

[LOL!]

Could somebody explain how to access M* premium in this way, even if we aren't TRP customers?

Thanks.

There is a discussion about it:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/asset-allocation-tutorial-31324.html

 

[clifp]

I negotiated with M* last time my premium membership was to do renewal.They gave me a good deal on 3 years. Just a couple of months later Schwab announced that they were including M* research as part of the brokerage service. I think M* stock research is the best, although Value line is also very good.

However, I'll cancel my M* membership if I can get 90% via Schwab.

 

[steelyman]

I negotiated with M* last time my premium membership was to do renewal.They gave me a good deal on 3 years. Just a couple of months later Schwab announced that they were including M* research as part of the brokerage service. I think M* stock research is the best, although Value line is also very good.

However, I'll cancel my M* membership if I can get 90% via Schwab.

Don't bother. Maximizing "view count" is a great way to get easy money in the bank by promoting a blog on e-r.org. Might not be kosher by forum guidelines, though.

 

[target2019]

Portfolio tracker and x-ray are free with the free level of M*.
Premium has extra features. For example, it will find the intersection of a certain stock in your portfolio and give you a percentage held.