Sharebuilder now apart of ING Direct

Sharebuilder has announced that they are being acquired by ING Direct. This is great news as it will allow them to grow the business and take advantage of ING Direct's size.

From Sharebuilder press release:

ING DIRECT USA, the nation's largest direct bank (part of Netherlands-based ING NYSE: ING) announced today that it has completed its acquisition of ShareBuilder Corporation, a privately-held Seattle-based online financial services company. The acquisition which is part of ING DIRECT's latest step toward meeting the financial needs of Main Street, USA, will add cost-effective, simple investment options to ING DIRECT's consumer product offerings, which currently include online savings and checking accounts, CDs, Mutual Funds and mortgages.

Through this transaction, ING DIRECT, through its broker-dealer subsidiary ING DIRECT Securities, Inc., has acquired 100% of ShareBuilder Corporation's outstanding equity-related interests, including its subsidiary ShareBuilder Securities Corporation.

Sharebuilder Offers Options Trading

From Sharebuilder:

Iwould like to notify you about an important new service that is now available — Options Trading.

Last month, we introduced a new feature for customers: you can now buy and sell stock options in your ShareBuilder account. Our options trading tools have been designed like the rest of the ShareBuilder service — straightforward and easy to use. Option trades are not for everyone as they carry greater risk*, so our brokerage professionals must approve your account and activate this feature before you place trades. You can learn more about options and apply to have your account approved for options trading by clicking here.

Thank you for your business.

Sincerely,

Jeff Seely
Chairman and CEO

Current Sharebuilder Offer Codes

If your interested in promotional codes for a Sharebuilder account, here are some various promo codes to earn a bonus. During signup, Sharebuilder should prompt you to enter this code in.

Promo Code	Amount
ENTERTAIN50	$50
HH50LOGIN	$50
GIFT50	$50
SHAREBUILD50	$50
CAMPUS50	$50
FREEGUIDE50	$50
GIFT05	$40

You can sign up and use the free bonus to invest in a ETF (such as VWO) to turn the free money into 1000s.

Transferring Brokerage Assets to Sharebuilder

I have decided to consolidate some of my DRIP and brokerage accounts to simplify my finances and reduce account fees. Since I am most frustrated with my Etrade account I decided to start by pulling everything out of this account and transferring it to my Sharebuilder account.

Here is the progress I have made so far:

1) I decided to do this now since its the beginning of the quarter which should give me the most time to leave my Etrade account open and get everything transferred before they charge me a service fee of $40.

2) I needed to figure out what Etrade was going to charge me to move these assets. I had 3 stock investments and some cash sitting in my Etrade account. Currently, Etrade's fees were $25 are a partial transfer and $60 for a full account transfer. I decided to request a transfer of the 3 stock holdings hoping Etrade would only charge me $25 for the partial transfer, then I could just transfer out the cash in the account via an online transfer. I am hoping this will save me money.

3) Next I went to Sharebuilder's web site to find out how to do a transfer. Sharebuilder has a Transfer Assets to Sharebuilder form. I had to fill it out, listing the assets I wanted to transfer, get it notarized at the local bank, then fax it along with a recent Etrade statement to Sharebuilder.

4) Unfortunately, Sharebuilder is not an ACATS (Automated Customer Account Transfer System) eligible broker, so the transfer of assets must be done manually.

5) I got an email the same day I sent the request from Sharebuilder saying they have received my request and it could take 4-5 weeks to transfer.

6) Now I wait and see.

Sharebuilder to Auto Sync with Personal Finance Software?

Since the biggest problem I have with my Sharebuilder account is the lack of an auto sync feature with my personal finance software (MS Money), I sent a email request to Sharebuilder asking them if they were planning to add this functionality.

I was pleasantly surprised when I received a reply less than 5 hours later:

Dear [2million],

Thank you for contacting ShareBuilder regarding the new OFX file format. Currently, ShareBuilder does not support exporting transactions in this new file format. We do allow you to export transactions in the QIF file format, however Quicken 2005 no longer supports QIF files. We are looking into possibly supporting the OFX format sometime in the future, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Sincerely,

Customer Care Agent
ShareBuilder - Build your Future

Sharebuilder's reply gives me some confidence they will eventually add this functionality.

Sharebuilder Bonus

If your interested in promotional codes for a Sharebuilder account, here are some various promo codes to earn a bonus. During signup, Sharebuilder should prompt you to enter this code in.

Promo Code	Amount
FREEGUIDE50	$50
GIFT05	$40

You can sign up and use the free bonus to invest in a ETF (such as VWO) to turn the free money into 1000s.

Sharebuilder Account Review

Last August I opened a Sharebuilder account with a $50 deposit to give it a test drive. In addition, I recently started an investment in Johnson & Johnson in my account.

Overall I am very pleased with this account. When you consider the cost to buy stock is $4 vs $15.95 for my Etrade account its hard not to like that fact that your savings money.

Pros
-Professional site, easy to navigate like most major brokerages
-No fee dividend reinvestment plans for holdings
-A $4 purchase fee is hard to beat
-No minimums or account maintenance fees. This is probably the biggest benefit to me. I have had brokerage accounts at Olde/H&R Block and Etrade and both periodically raised minimums and account maintenance fees to reduce my returns.



Cons
-It is not intuitive how the purchase fee is charged. When you make an investment the site prompts you for the amount you want to invest, but doesn't tell you that your purchase fee will be deduct from the investment amount.
-The site allows you to download transaction files for MS Money/Quicken, however it doesn't have the autosync feature that most major brokerages offer that allow you to download transaction directly from your personal finance software.
-Sharebuilder is not an ACATS (Automated Customer Account Transfer System) eligible broker which means transferring holdings from another brokerage to your Sharebuilder account will take longer than normal. Not a big deal but could delay transfers an extra week or so since they need to be done manually.
-Doesn't have the in-depth research reports typically offered by most major brokerages
-The company is still building its customer base so its fee structure could become more expensive once the company's new customer growth slows.

I am going to continue using my Sharebuilder account and slowly begin to consolidate some of my accounts to it. I am going to start by looking at my Etrade account and Merck DRIP and see if I can consolidate them to this account.