Following problems with Firefox experienced in
Vanguard login security code, I decided to dig in a little deeper. In summary, I thought that my login to Vanguard was blocked because I was using Firefox (version 94.0.2).
It turns out that I was indeed logged in, but didn't discover that until I clicked on a link in the page footer.
1. Go to the Vanguard personal investor home page.
Vanguard
2. Login to your account and get this error.
We're experiencing technical difficulties
We apologize for the temporary inconvenience. You can reach out to our client services team for more help.
There are no menu headers or anything that even hinted I was logged in. I decided to randomly click on one of the links in the page footer.
AdChoices - which is the privacy policy. Other links will work, but it was an interesting read to see how they track you via website beacons - which includes email.
3. The Privacy policy page now had a menu header at the top of the page containing "My accounts". The very top-left had a drop-down menu titled "Flagship services". Scrolling down to the bottom of the page shows a bunch of links listed as:
My Accounts
Account overview
Balances & holdings
Cost basis
Dividends & capital gains
Buy & Sell
Order status
Transaction history
Statements
The page layout is quite simply, broken. Clicking on any of these links at the top menu or page bottom brings me to my account info. I was indeed logged in and never knew it.
My impression is that the "new" website design is used for their front-facing public pages. The "old" website is somehow made to work within this framework.
Observation: The privacy policy page header's background color is a blue/green blend. Why did they change colors? You spend years building a brand image and then decide to change colors. That breaks brand recognition. Blue is Schwab, green is Fidelity. Perhaps they're sending a message?
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I then decided check my statements, which I don't frequently do. There is a very clear and important error in my statement - the Roth IRA account details are completely missing.
The statement itself is titled as "LadyGeek - Traditional IRA Brokerage - xxxxx / Roth IRA Brokerage yyyyyy". When I view the PDF file, I see the Roth IRA mentioned in the statement overview, but zero, zip, nada details anywhere else in the statement. My traditional IRA has the expected breakdown. The Roth IRA details are missing from the 11/30/21, 10/30/21 reports, but are OK in the 9/30/21 report.
I've stated previously that I was on the fence about transferring everything to Fidelity. I can tolerate website errors, but this is simply not acceptable.
Also - When Vanguard makes financial errors that impact me personally, that's a cause for concern. The value of my investments is hopefully correct, but missing a complete account in a statement has no excuse. I am now planning to move everything to Fidelity in 2022. I want to wait for the year-end financials to close out - 1099-R, etc. I also do my rebalancing at that time.
I also have POA for my Mom's account. I'll see about moving her account as well, but I want to be careful about doing this under a POA. Her RMD was scheduled for the middle of December. Last year, they were unable to do an ACH withdrawal and sent her a physical check instead. That was a problem, as she is unable to handle financial transactions. I took care of the deposit for her.
I just moved the RMD a week earlier - at least that part of the Vanguard site works - and will see if the ACH transfer executes. If they do a physical check again, I will definitely move her account (with mine) to Fidelity.