Stay away from Wealthfront
Today morning, I initiated withdrawing my funds on Wealthfront. For extra security, they sent an e-mail for verification. I verified, a couple of times actually. I assumed that they started selling my funds and when its done, I would see the transaction details. A few hours passed by and nothing changed. Then, called Wealthfront. The lady said that "we didnt start selling your funds because for an extra extra security, we were planning to call you and ask you some personal questions for security but bc you already called we can do it now." I completed it and she said "I completed the transaction, now". WTF? But I lost $600 because market lost some value in that time span. And she said, " Sorry, Wealthfront is not a tool to time the market." Just wow and couldnt say anything else. They lost me money and then blamed me. Did a very similar transaction on Betterment earlier flawlessly, btw. Fuck you Wealthfront.
Could have gone the other way and it would have saved you from losing $600. Would you be complaining then? Wealthfront is about passive investing. Set it up and forget about it. If you need to buy stock immediately, go through your broker. Wealthfront serves a different purpose. If you cut off your fingers trying to cut fruit with a chain saw, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
Lets say I called an Uber and waiting for my driver. Nobody appeared and called Uber and asked "where the fuck is my driver"? And they replied "Oh sorry, we have to verify your identity first.". And, I reply "why the fuck didnt you tell this earlier? I missed my flight." How do you like it?
OP stop being salty. The lady already explained that it was a security measure, simple 2FA (or in this case, 3FA). I feel like as an engineer you should (hopefully) already take it seriously. Financial tech (and consequently policy) is always very carefully engineered and it's very meticulous with atomic architecture and they take security very seriously. If you wanted to day trade without security you should have used Robinhood. I agree that the delayed call (and no prior rip about it beforehand) may have been annoying, but a few hours is reasonable for what sounds like a large financial transaction. It's not like it took days. I don't know too much about how WealthFront compares to similar services but it sounds like they take security very seriously, which is a good thing believe me, otherwise you would be trusting a less secure option. We appreciate you telling us about your experience, but the reality is that it's only to be expected. (Much like how you don't get your whole paycheck at once, some of it is withheld until a tax return is filed).
Ok, folks defending Wealthfront STFU. When someone asks to sell a fund, they should sell it. I would complain to FINRA/CFPB. Joker in chief has made them a little docile but most brokers will still shit their pants.
Absolutely not. Don’t make shit up that you don’t know. Some of us work in this field. And no, I don’t work for Wealthfront. CFPB? Hahahahaha 🤣🤣🤣🤣 omfg! I snarted!
Well you obviously don’t work for a good one. CFPB actually forwards the complaints to the right institution if they are not and helps track it. FINRA will make wealthfront shjt their pants.
Wealthfront is a fucking joke. Their app looks like a General Assembly UX course final project. Not a place you want to park $100k of your hard-earned money. Their app reported I had $5,000,000 by mistake, their entire site was down the first day of the correction without so much as an email apology afterward, and none of their external linked accounts update faster than 3 days. Not professional. Moving to Morgan Stanley.
I’ve really liked betterment.
If it's that bad, leave the money in there and next time it glitches you to 5M, just cash out and run :-D Obviously if it actually works let me know, I'm interested
Haha they fucked me in the correction to. How can they not be fined for this.
Also waited like 3 days to open account when it was going up 2 percent a day..
Agreed it’s not for active investing. Mutual funds wouldn’t have processed your request until the next market close either. However, their tax documents are really fucked up this year. They just sent me a second set of forms from a different brokerage name (apex) after they said they had already finished them (which was already later than all my other brokerages).
What are some alternatives?
Open a brokerage account and invest in the S&P 500 index fund (or ETF). That’s all you need. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/16/warren-buffett-won-2-point-2-million-on-a-bet-and-gave-it-to-girls-inc.html
This is bad advice. You should invest in a diverse allocation of ETFs, including international. @152, I’ve really liked betterment. You pay 0.4% but it comes with some added features like auto deposit, free financial advisors, and a consolidated way of looking at other investment accounts.
If you care about price changes in one day, you really shouldn't be using wealthfront. I closed my account a year ago and remember them calling me to verify my identity. I expected it to be slow and painful so it was better than I expected.
Yes maybe not control the trade by the second or hour but I think same day trade to cash is a reasonable expectation.
This is what aggravates any downturn. Clueless individuals who panic at any market action because they are not in/on the proper platform/strategy/diversification etc. Then look for who to blame/sue/smear. Wanna day trade? Get a brokerage account. Stop blaming platforms for your cluelessness. Same Day Trade? Use something else. Wealthfront literally tells you this upfront. THEY CANNOT GUARANTEE TIMING OF TRADES. Take some fucking responsibility kids. Edit: The Uber example above is shit. It’s like calling Uber then waiting for Lyft.
Hum. Still what's the time frame? Same year? Next day? There has to be SOME SLA on when they will trade
You trade at the flea market, you get fleas. Get a real broker. 🍆
If the market had gone up in that time and you made $600, you would have written Wealthfront a check?
Irrelevant.
Timeliness was way off. That's the point. The other way around is still a problem. No check. They are still delaying what was asked of them, on purpose.