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All reviews are prepared by our staff. Opinions expressed are solely those of the reviewer and have not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. The information, including any rates, terms and fees associated with financial products, presented in the review is accurate as of the date of publication. WellsTrade WellsTrade review 2022
Bankrate senior reporter James F. Royal, Ph.D., covers investing and wealth management. His work has been cited by CNBC, the Washington Post, The New York Times and more. Updated November 9, 2022 Bankrate logo The Bankrate promise
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WellsTrade Best for
Wells Fargo customers Buy-and-hold investing Low commissions on stocks and ETFs WellsTrade may be a good fit for existing customers of Wells Fargo or those who’d like to consolidate all their business with one financial institution. The broker will get the job done with no-commission stock and ETF trades, while mutual fund investors will like the 1,900 no-transaction-fee funds available. But active traders will likely not find what they’re looking for here, especially if they’re trading options since WellsTrade still charges a base commission — a practice the industry abandoned more than two years ago. So this broker makes a better fit for those who need a basic service and not a fully featured brokerage. If you want to consolidate accounts and are looking for a strong brokerage arm, check out (associated with Bank of America) or behemoths such as Fidelity Investments or . If you want to trade actively, then may be more your speed. WellsTrade In the details
3.0 Bankrate Score 3.0 Bankrate Score About Bankrate Score Bankrate scores are objectively determined by our editorial team. Our scoring formula weighs several factors consumers should consider when choosing financial products and services. Minimum Balance $0 Cost per stock trade $0 Cost per options trade $5.95 + $0.75 per contract Promotion None Commission-free ETFs All No-transaction-fee mutual funds 1,900+ NTF mutual funds Securities tradable Stocks, options, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs Customer service Phone Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 p.m. ET, email Account fees $30 annual fee but can be avoided by enrolling in e-delivery et al, $95 IRA distribution fee, $95 outgoing transfer fee Mobile app WellsTrade offers the “WellsTrade Mobile” app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Rates as of October 14, 2022 at 1:47 PM Top feature you’ ll love
Integration with Wells Fargo
One of the biggest reasons to select WellsTrade is its integration with Wells Fargo’s banking operations, so you’ll be able to see your whole financial life at one company. There’s a real benefit to this kind of consolidation, and companies such as Wells do a good job offering small perks that encourage this kind of consolidation. Another advantage of aggregating your accounts is quick money delivery from a bank account to a brokerage account, or vice versa. That works substantially faster than a typical transfer from a bank to a separate broker, and you’ll have ready access to your cash for trading. On top of that, it’s just easier to have multiple accounts with one financial institution. And if you opt for Wells Fargo’s robo-advisor, called , you’ll have another account that you can consolidate under the same roof. Pros Where WellsTrade stands out
Low commissions
Like most of the industry, WellsTrade has moved to $0 commissions for stock and exchange-traded fund (ETF) trades. That’s an attractive price, to be sure, but it’s not the critical differentiator that it used to be. Clients should note that WellsTrade’s lower commissions are only available for stock and ETF trades, and do not apply to options trades (more below). Account minimum
WellsTrade requires no account minimum, a very investor-friendly move from a brokerage that doesn’t always have the most investor-friendly policies (more below). But opening an account with no minimum is the standard for the industry now. So while it’s nice to have, it doesn’t do much to differentiate the broker from its rivals. No-transaction-fee mutual funds
WellsTrade offers a solid selection of mutual funds without a transaction fee — at about 1,900 in total, down from last year, according to our research. Still, that gives you plenty of choice when you’re searching for the fund you need. However, many funds from top companies such as are not offered without a sales commission ($35). But you will find a large selection of no-transaction-fee funds from brokerage rival , though not its ZERO funds, which don’t charge a management fee. You can use the fund screener to find exactly what the broker does offer before you sign up. The fund screener looks and feels pretty basic, with some key search criteria (fund family, Morningstar rating, expenses and asset class, among others) but it works well enough. Cons Where WellsTrade could improve
Other trading commissions
While WellsTrade has dropped its commissions for stock and ETF trades, its prices for other types of trades have remained the same. For example, its commission on options trades remains stuck at a $5.95 base commission plus $0.75 per contract. And not only is the base commission higher than those of online rivals, so is the per-contract fee, by $0.10 to $0.25 over typical pricing at rivals such as . Now WellsTrade sits at the high end of the industry, lower than only Vanguard among major brokers, depending on exactly how you measure it. And those priced less than $1 will face a stiff fee of the greater of $34.95 or 3.5 percent of their principal for each trade. So WellsTrade is not the place to trade these stocks. If you’re looking at mutual funds, you’ll have to pony up $35 per trade. With a narrower selection of fee-free funds and higher commissions, Wells Trade won’t be the cheapest place to invest in mutual funds. Account fees
When it comes to account fees, WellsTrade is not especially investor friendly. The broker charges a $30 annual fee for all accounts, though customers have a few ways to dodge it. Two of the easiest methods are to sign up for electronic delivery of documents or linking your account to Portfolio by Wells Fargo. WellsTrade also charges a pricey $95 fee for terminating an IRA, meaning the complete distribution of the account, though it waives the fee for clients over age 70 ½ or accounts that are closed due to death or disability. An outgoing account transfer will cost a higher-than-typical $95. Fractional shares
For a broker that offers the basics and so may appeal more to beginning investors, it misses one feature that would definitely appeal to this group — the ability to buy fractional shares. Fractional shares allow investors with a smaller balance to put all their money to work immediately rather than having to wait and buy whole shares. This helps new investors build a diversified portfolio more quickly. However, WellsTrade does allow customers to reinvest any dividends into fractional shares. So while this feature is not quite as good, it still helps get money invested a little bit faster. Overall experience
The overall experience at WellsTrade just doesn’t feel like that of other brokerages, meaning the design is stripped-down and more basic. It has no trading platform for advanced traders, for example, and the trade interface is simple, albeit effective. So to be fair, though it lacks the razzle-dazzle of rivals, WellsTrade will get what you need done, or are buying infrequently. Those who need more from a broker won’t find WellsTrade offering the same kind of perks – such as advanced stock screeners – offered by other brokers such as Fidelity or E-Trade at a $0 commission. However, you will get the broker’s own in-house research reports and market commentary as well as reports from Morningstar. And other things just feel clunky. When you click the “Contact Us” menu, you’re presented with no fewer than 10 phone numbers to call depending on what seems like arbitrary or unclear account distinctions. While some customer support options run 24 hours a day, others run 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. or 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. So it can be a bit of a maze. Review methodology
Bankrate evaluates brokers and robo-advisors on factors that matter to individual investors, including commissions, account fees, available securities, trading platforms, research and many more. After weighting these objective measures according to their importance, we then systematically score the brokers and robo-advisors and scale the data to ensure that you are seeing the top options among a field of high-quality companies. .