Overview of Merrill Edge Pros And Cons
Merrill Edge is a low-cost broker owned by Merrill Lynch, a division of Bank of America. Let’s take an in-depth look at this discount brokerage firm and evaluate Merrill Edge cons and pros.
Merrill Edge Pros
- Merrill Edge has no surcharges on penny stock trades, orders with 1,000 shares or more as well as on orders executed during extended-hours trading.
- The broker provides free dividend reinvestment plans on securities.
- Customer service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This includes both investment and technical representatives. Other brokers, such as Vanguard, don’t have 24/7 service.
- The research and educational tools at Merrill Edge are some of the best in the industry. They are much better than what is available at Wellstrade, for example.
- The firm has a network of investment advisors across the United States, called Financial Solutions Advisors. They are located inside Bank of America branches.
- Mutual funds with a transaction fee are $19.95 to trade. This fee is quite a bit lower than what other firms charge. Transaction fee funds at Fidelity, for example, cost $49.95.
- Accounts with this broker have no minimum opening deposit or minimum balance requirement.
- IRAs also have no minimum balance requirement and no annual account fee. An IRA with Merrill Edge would be ideal for small investors looking to gradually build up a nest egg.
- Merrill Edge Login offers several attractive cash management features. A brokerage account can be used with checks and a Visa debit card. Withdrawals at Bank of America ATM’s are free of charge. The broker also reimburses its clients up to $200 for non-Bank of America ATM’s annually.
- The broker’s trading tools include a trade ticket at the bottom of the web browser called TradeBar. It’s very useful and makes order entry quick and easy.
- The broker has an app for Apple Watch.
- The firm has good offerings of fixed-income products, including Treasuries, CD’s, and secondary bonds. An effective fixed-income screener is also available.
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Merrill Edge Cons
- Merrill Lynch has a history of poor judgment and money mismanagement. The company almost went bankrupt in 2008 and got rescued at the last moment by the U.S. government forcing Bank of America to buy it.
- The firm charges high commissions on mutual funds comparing to some competitors: $19.95 per transaction versus $9.95 charged by Ally Invest and $0 at Firstrade.
- If a customer sells a mutual fund within 90 days after purchasing it, he or she will be charged short-term redemption fee of $39.95.
- Another one of the Merrill Edge cons is that even in this low interest rates environment the firm charges high margin rates.
- There are numerous technical issues at the firm, such as unusable login cards, website going down, etc.
- Investors at Merrill Edge have slightly more than 4,000 mutual funds to trade. Of these, less than 900 have no load and no transaction fee. This pales in comparison to many other brokers. For example, Ally Invest offers its clients over 12,000 mutual funds.
- The broker charges 0.45% of assets annually to use its Merrill Guided Investing robo-advisor service which will cost an investor a fortune over time. In contrast, M1 Finance has $0 fees.
- The firm’s mobile app does not have streaming business news. Other brokers, such as TD Ameritrade, provide streaming financial news at no cost.
Merrill Edge withdrawal at a glance
When you are using an online broker for your trading/investing, there will come a point when you may want to enjoy the potential fruits of your trading activity if you’ve been making profitable transactions, or you just need access to your funds for any reason. To do that, first you have to withdraw money from your broker account.
That doesn’t sound very complicated, but brokers differ considerably in what withdrawal options they offer (such as bank transfer or credit/debit cards), as well as in the speed and convenience of withdrawal. And while withdrawal at many brokers is free in most cases, some brokers and some types of withdrawals may involve a fee.
So how does Merrill Edge fare in this regard? Before we dive into the details, let us show you at a glance how you can withdraw money from Merrill Edge and how Merrill Edge’s withdrawal fees and options compare to some of its close competitors.
Merrill Edge withdrawal options
Withdrawal via bank transfer is by far the most common option. It is available at basically all brokers, and Merrill Edge is no exception.
However, bank transfer is the only withdrawal option available at Merrill Edge Login, putting it at a slight disadvantage over brokers that also offer withdrawal to credit/debit cards or electronic wallets.
Speed also matters. Unlike some deposit options, withdrawal is rarely instant. It usually takes at least 1 business day, but often several business days for your money to arrive.
We tested withdrawal at Merrill Edge and it took us more than 3 business days – a little bit on the slow side compared with most other brokers.
To withdraw money from Merrill Edge, you need to go through the following steps:
- Log in to your account
- Select ‘Withdrawal’ or ‘Withdraw funds’ from the appropriate menu
- Select the withdrawal method and/or the account to withdraw to (if more than one option is available)
- Enter the amount to be withdrawn, and, if prompted, a short reason or description
- Submit your request
Please note that you may only withdraw money to accounts that are in your name.