My Relationship with Wachovia is Over (I think)
This week I got my final (I think) statement from Wachovia indicating my account had been closed. I can’t imagine what else they’d be sending me a statement for now that they’ve indicated my account is closed and my balance is $0, but I’m not going to be sure for a while yet. They already tried to charge an account maintenance fee on a closed account, after all.
So now I have the fun task of totalling up what this little transferring to Vanguard endeavor cost me. For, I am sure that every fee imaginable was squeezed out of me. When I began, I had a Roth IRA with Wachovia that consisted of 6 mutual funds and a money market account. According to my final statement, as far as I can tell, I was charged a $7.50 per mutual fund fee for selling them to transfer the money to Vanguard (that seems reasonable, for a total of $45 for 6 mutual funds) and a $95.00 termination fee to close my account. Lovely. I pay you $95 so you don’t have to deal with me any more. Nice. Not really on board with that, but, what is done is done and at least…. it is d-o-n-e. So, $140 in fees later, my money is finally moved and I don’t have to deal with Wachovia any further (I think).
Unless they try again to get another $75 annual account maintenance fee out of me… but I am hoping they’ve realized their error and have moved on.
Whew. Fees are the enemy of compound interest!!

September 24th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Yes, “fees are the enemy of compounding”!!! I have to agree with you. I suffer from a little but not-so-well known fee for my Fidelity Spartan 500 Index fund which states there’s a small fee for balances under $25000. And the kicker is they allow you to open an IRA for 2500.00. Each year I have held this fund, they charge me the fee out of my holdings, not my cash balance. Great quote.
September 24th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Ouch, that’s a lot!
Can you get a 401(k) through Vanguard?
September 25th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Thanks!
I don’t have an employer just people I contract for so I can’t get a 401(K) but my spouse has one.