How/when does upgrade to Voyager Select happen?

[bhsince87]

I moved some money from individual stocks in my Vanguard brokerage account into to some Vanguard funds on Monday. By my calculations, this should make me eligible for Voyager Select service level. I'm at about $520k in Vanguard funds now (assuming Prime MM counts, which I think it does).

I was going to make a few more trades, but figured I'd wait until my cost drops from $7 to $2 (hey, every little bit counts!) I set up a trade today, but the cost still came in at $7, so I didn't pull the trigger.

Does anyone know if I have to do anything on my part to "activate" the step up? Or is there some sort of waiting period, such as end of month or something?

Thanks!

[Phineas J. Whoopee]

You could phone them and ask for the upgrade now, or wait until their business process says for their computers to evaluate accounts, which may be several months away. I don't know their processes.

I bet they'll upgrade you immediately if you ask.

PJW

[Toons]

I moved some money from individual stocks in my Vanguard brokerage account into to some Vanguard funds on Monday. By my calculations, this should make me eligible for Voyager Select service level. I'm at about $520k in Vanguard funds now (assuming Prime MM counts, which I think it does).

I was going to make a few more trades, but figured I'd wait until my cost drops from $7 to $2 (hey, every little bit counts!) I set up a trade today, but the cost still came in at $7, so I didn't pull the trigger.

Does anyone know if I have to do anything on my part to "activate" the step up? Or is there some sort of waiting period, such as end of month or something?

Thanks!

I found it to be automatic,,may not be immediately

[bhsince87]

You could phone them and ask for the upgrade now, or wait until their business process says for their computers to evaluate accounts, which may be several months away. I don't know their processes.

I bet they'll upgrade you immediately if you ask.

PJW

I'm not at a place where I can make a call right now (in an open office, and my cell phone died last week ). I do see now that I can call them until 10:00 PM so maybe I'll do that tonight. I was not aware they accepted calls so late.

I was going to send them an email, but that says it's a 2 day turn around, so I figured I've give this a shot first.

Thanks.

[bhsince87]

I found it to be automatic,,may not be immediately

Thanks! I thought it was automatic too. I guess I'm just impatient!

[Longdog]

You could phone them and ask for the upgrade now, or wait until their business process says for their computers to evaluate accounts, which may be several months away. I don't know their processes.

I bet they'll upgrade you immediately if you ask.

PJW

I'm not at a place where I can make a call right now (in an open office, and my cell phone died last week ). I do see now that I can call them until 10:00 PM so maybe I'll do that tonight. I was not aware they accepted calls so late.

I was going to send them an email, but that says it's a 2 day turn around, so I figured I've give this a shot first.

Thanks.

Saving $5 per trade will allow you to get a new cellphone in practically no time!

[Grt2bOutdoors]

Surely you can buy a cell phone given your status? There's frugal, but this is going to extremes.......

[highercall]

I just went through this. I made a trade and was charged $7.00. I called them and was told that it is not automatic if you qualify for Voyager Select. So the person upgraded my account and in about a week I received a welcome note in the mail.

[bhsince87]

Surely you can buy a cell phone given your status? There's frugal, but this is going to extremes.......

Oh yes, I didn't mean to imply I wasn't buying a new phone. It took a few days to figure out if my old one was salvageable. Turns out it's not worth saving. So now I'm sorting through other options. I hope to have a new one picked out by next week.

[bhsince87]

I just went through this. I made a trade and was charged $7.00. I called them and was told that it is not automatic if you qualify for Voyager Select. So the person upgraded my account and in about a week I received a welcome note in the mail.

Thanks! That's the kind of info I was hoping for. I'll give them a call tonight or tomorrow morning.

[ShiftF5]

The upgrade may not be automatic, but if it was (like it should be) it sure would make for a much better experience for the customer.

[Phineas J. Whoopee]

The upgrade may not be automatic, but if it was (like it should be) it sure would make for a much better experience for the customer.

You're right about that.

I don't have inside knowledge, but based on hints and bits of information that come out from time to time, I think the infrequent automated process includes evaluating accounts for upgrading and also for downgrading as part of the same sweep (although I believe downgrades based on market movements, rather than share sales, don't happen).

It would be hard to argue, I think, it would be a better customer experience to be downgraded promptly and automatically.

PJW

[livesoft]

I'll add a data point to this thread. We now have enough assets to get status. We got a nice pre-printed thank-you card from some Vanguard VP or somebody for our deposit. But no status yet. I am not in a hurry to claim status nor really need it, so I will wait until they give it to us and let everybody know how long it takes.

I suspect they run a computer job to look for status changes once every quarter or maybe once a year at the end of the 2nd quarter, but are happy to do phone upgrades.

[livesoft]

Update: It happened overnight. That was about 6 weeks after assets were high enough and less than 24 hours after writing about it on a public investing forum.

[bhsince87]

I didn't call them yet. I went to look at new phones last night.

But now I'm thinking about sending them a "Thank You!" note for not reducing my commissions so soon.

In the time since I originally planned to make my trade, the stock I was going to sell is up $1200!