Capital One Investing — formerly known as Capital One Sharebuilder — is a full-service online broker with competitive pricing. Trade commissions are $6.95, and the company has a unique pricing plan for users who make automatic investments, which lowers transaction costs to just $3.95.
Capital One Investing is best for:
Likes
Dislikes
Capital One Investing is clearly angled toward beginner investors, and it has the tools to help them build a solid base, along with low commissions and no account minimum. The brokerage’s automatic investment plan is a winner, and Capital One banking customers in particular will enjoy the administrative ease of putting all of their accounts under one roof. But advanced traders will want a larger investment selection and access to a trading platform.
Seminars, Education
Careful – when I tried to transfer my IRA for the $600 bonus I suddenly got a letter from customer service saying my account was flagged for suspicious activity. I was traveling at the time and they said I couldn’t access or even keep my account open while traveling. From Heather Fields
Capital One ShareBuilder Customer Service: “if you will be outside of the United States traveling periodically you will be unable to access your ShareBuilder account per our terms and conditions” …
It felt like they were trying anything to keep me from receiving the $600 bonus and I eventually gave up, closed my account, and went with someone else. I had been a customer for nearly ten years with no issues until I tried to sign up for the bonus.
i love the idea of getting the $50.00 for just signing up , but i don’t no anything about investing. is this still a good idea to open an account?
I’ve been using T. Rowe Price to buy mututal funds but I’m thinking of looking at buying stocks directly for dividends. I wonder if I’d be better off just buying a mutual fund that aims to get dividends, rather than building my own portfolio of dividend-paying stocks.
I’m thinking of rolling over my pension account from my last job. I’m nowhere near retirement age, so I don’t want to keep it in an IRA MMA where it is presently. I am interested in having mutual funds and stocks in the portfolio. I know there would be a transfer fee from the “exiting” institution to ING. I’m hoping the mutual funds won’t be ING funds exclusively. Do you know if there is a wide selection of mutual funds at ING? Also, would the trading fees/commission work the same for securities within a retirement account? Thank you.
How long does it take for your investment to come back? If Iinvested $50 how long would it take for it to become $500?
Thanks, very informative!!
I understand about not using Sharebuilder for ongoing trading. What do you think of using Sharebuilder for an ESA account?
Thanks again!
Hello,
Never invested before. Thinking about buying company stocks and dont know where to start..I just want to buy a little at a time to get started and begin my investing future..any help out there?
Larry,
Thanks for responding..I am so new at this I dont even know what indexes are. I will research and weigh my options. I started a new career, and being in my mid-thirties, I decided to start investing..
Thanks again
I make above minimum wage and is also a college student. I want to invest a few dollars but don’t know where to start, Please help
Hey, any idea why I can do sell orders with Trailing Stops on my iPhone, but not on the computer?
How fast can you buy shares and then turn around and sell them? Possible in one day if it shows up in your account ?
is there a hidden fee for buying sub-dollar stocks? or is it still 6.95 I cant find it on there site
I find that since the takeover by Capital One customer service has gone way down. I am seriously considering removing my accounts because I no longer trust them.
Nice review. Another perk of Sharebuilder is the ability to automatically reinvest dividends in domestic AND foreign stocks (ADR) for free. Not many firms offer this feature.
I’m totally clueless when it comes to the stock market but I want to start investing in something. So you’re basically saying that Betterment is great for clueless folks like me or people that are getting the hang of it?
Sharebuilder:
1. Their pricing has gotten worse and worse. It used to be $20/month for 20 trades. Now it is nearly $4 per transaction? That is a 400% increase, while other firms have been lowering their trading prices. Wrong way!
2. When I transferred some money to another financial institution, they did not provide an automated or electronic version of all of the trades. As I had the account, investing in 20+ stocks for over 10 years, this was a TREMENDOUS burden! I find it preposterous that they could calculate the purchase price for IRS reporting, or for “gains/losses” calculations while you have the account, but then “poof” that information is not available. Further, it took months to make the transfer. I still am not sure if they were just “friendly and incompetent?” Or if they were “friendly and uncooperative…”
I will say I have made a lot of money using this product – there are just several areas for easy improvement for the customer experience.
I am a new customer of Capital One Investing and tried their PortfolioBuilder. I built an aggressive fund based on the tool’s suggestions and executed a buy order just before 3:00pm EST. I kept checking and checking for the order execution but nothing happened. I called their customer service at nearly 7:00pm to find out why the order was never executed. The explanation I received was something that I did not like. It seems that my order will be filled tomorrow at tomorrow’s prices and not at the price at the time of the buy order. All of their PortfolioBuilder buy orders have to be in by 11:00AM or else they get executed the following day. I find that not only odd, but unacceptable. I cancelled the order and won’t be using that service. I didn’t read any of that information on the website.
Do you know if as of May 2016 there is a minimum balance for the account.?Also, if I decided to close the account at some point in the future or roll it over to someone else, is there a fee? I can’t seem to find this info on their website.
(They are offering a $50 bonus to open an acct)
Helpful review.
Do you know what the cost is to sell stock or mutual funds? Is it listed on their website?
Thanks
How much does it cost to sell immediately in real time
I work for a brokerage firm and I have a client who wants to transfer out of Capital One....OMG what a nightmare this has been.
Very difficult to get the clients account transferred, they aren't a part of normal transfer system...said it could take up to 30 days...
Horrible company, please don't invest with them!