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03-26-2021, 06:34 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-26-2021, 06:35 PM by ken-do-nim.)
So by doing a refinance cash-out, my mortgage payments are going to be higher starting in May. No problem, I have DRIP turned off and I will collect the dividends and pay my mortgage that way ...
Gah! Every time I look back at the Dividend Reinvestment tab in E*Trade, I see that DRIP is turned back on. Must be some software glitch. I can't withdraw! I have a ticket into their support; I'm just venting. I can always lower my 401k percentage to balance my budget, but I would prefer to use the dividends. And even if I want to reinvest, I would prefer to direct my reinvesting rather than simply have each dividend go back into the stock that spawned it.
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That is dodgy indeed. But it's up to the broker to sort it out, calling will probably be a lot quicker than support tickets if this is something you want done ASAP.
Drip is nice since it's automated but my preference is indeed to just redirect that cash manually to where it is needed the most.
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So I think I may have figured out the software glitch. When I buy a new equity, any others that I recently withdrew from, that have yet to pay an actual dividend, get automatically turned back on for reinvestment. I'm going to try avoiding adding anything new for a while and see if that solves the problem.
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Nope that wasn't it. I'm showing that I'm enrolled in everything again today and I didn't do anything. No one ever responded to my support ticket either so I will have to call.
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Today I will have to call. Yesterday I used Live Chat and the guy said they'd manually stop the DRIP for me, but nothing changed in my account. Again I tried turning off just 1 or 2 from DRIP, but they are back on today.
My first fund reinvested its dividend today. Only 22 cents though.
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The problem is (seems) resolved after I called.
With respect to switching to another broker, only if I have to. I have other accounts: 529 (Fidelity), HSA (TD Ameritrade), company stock (Morgan Stanley) and when it comes to website usability I find E*Trade blows them out of the water. That's not to say there aren't points about the others that I like; TD Ameritrade is much better about showing real-time quotes as opposed to 15 minute delayed ones.
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TD is very good for trading IMO. I use it when trading my Vanguard account. They have little interest in being the trader's roost.
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Trader's roost? Is that a midwest expression? Lol. Never heard that one before.
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LOL, Vanguard has good customer service but I do get the feeling they are not at all trying to encourage frequent trading. They have a few quirky rules to discourage it. Especially in their mutual funds.
