I had a 100k Trad IRA with Fidelity. I recently got a seasonal job that allowed me to contribute to a 401k. I started contributions and then 2 weeks in I get an email from Fidelity that there will be a $25 fee on withdrawal or moves of 100% of balance. I make $15/hour and will be employed for maybe 3 months about 20 hours/month. It's more fun than lucrative. In the end though, I'll have to work 1.67 hours to pay Fidelity to rollover my Fidelity 401k into my Fidelity Trad IRA. Bump that noise. Smacks of commercial bank fees to access MY MONEY!! I promptly ended my 401k contributions and have moved my 100K to my larger Vanguard IRA.
There has been recent talk about how Fidelity is matching/beating Vanguard on fees. I took a chance with Fidelity on an old 401k rollover from previous employer to gauge how they would be. I was invested in various funds, none of them fee free. Not to mention Fidelity already gets fees for admin/mgmt of my 401K. So Fidelity just lost my business forever over $25. I'm sure they won't miss me.
To be fair, I thought Fidelity's customer service & web UI was on par with Vanguard. But in the end, the principle and profit motive of it all made me ditch them. I know my seasonal employer agreed to the fee so I'm annoyed with them as well. But at least from their side I can now avoid future fees by not contributing. I really feel like those that had contributed prior to fee introduction should be grandfathered. It just feels like a profit taking fee because there is no way to avoid paying it. At some point, either through rollover or RMD you will eventually withdrawal 100% of your funds.
All of this reminded me of this comment thread from a few days ago.
I know there are Fidelity fans out there and I was happy with them up until this. I'm a bigger fan of Vanguard because I've been with them for decades and never had an "surprise here's a new fee" moments. If anything they only notify me my fees have been lowered. If you like Fidelity, cool. Just thought some people might be interested in some of their business tactics. I definitely feel like Fidelity screwed me and everyone in this company out of $25 for such a common transaction as rolling over a 401K. Being seasonal, my employment will end and I will be forced to remove 100% of my funds because it will be below the $5K min. And Fidelity gets $25. So long, Fidelity.
TL;DR Fidelity introduced an $25 fee and it was enough to make me move all my money to Vanguard.
Submitted November 21, 2018 at 09:11AM by SilentObelisk https://ift.tt/2FwRcQ3
