Vanguard Reviews 

I have had an account for over 50 years. The company has gone down hill dramatically. THERE IS NO CUSTOMER SERVICE--THE WEBSITE IS CONSTANTLY CHANGED TO MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO DO ANYTHING WITH YOUR ACCOUNT. They refer you to the website as their robotic systems are useless. They verify you 8 million times--toss you to 8 to 10 people if you get past the robotic system crap. They do not care about the investors at all, just the money they take from you.

Investors beware. I recently transferred 2 accounts from vanguard due to lack of trading functionality. I called before the transfer and reviewed their online instructions and they did not disclose a fee. They charged a $100 fee per account which drove my retirement account into a negative $100 cash balance at the new institution since all my funds were in holdings; they would not assist and said I would need to straighten it out with the new institution. Awful customer service, on top of the already limited functionality. Can’t sell fractional shares, reinvest dividends, etc. Take your hard earned savings elsewhere.

Opening a traditional IRA with Vanguard turned out to be an extremely frustrating experience. I spent over 10 days trying to set up the account, but was blocked due to a legacy account from 25 years ago that had already been closed. There seems to be no efficient way to resolve this issue. Very disappointing for a company of this reputation. I ultimately opened an account with Fidelity, where the entire process was smooth and completed in under 30 minutes.

they ripped us off of over 50,000. Then for us to be able to withdraw our money, they wanted another 32,000. I would run fast and far from these scammers. If we could give it negative 1000 stars, i would do so

THEM:
You have successfully unenrolled from Digital Advisor
The unenrollment process usually takes less than 24 hours. Keep in mind, if there are pending transactions in your account, it could take up to 4 business days. Once the process is complete, you'll regain access to trade within the account.
ME:
This is something that a customer should know about ahead of time. They have access to all my funds, just under 10k. I don't have any access. I don't recall ever seeing that if you sign up for a robot account, this is what you find out. It is also difficult to find out how to close it, which took plenty of research to do. Often times people close an account because they are in financial need for funds. I find this very inappropriate and deceitful.

Their customer service is rude, and do nothing to help the customer. They banged me with major transfer fees for my kids’ UTMA accounts and wouldn’t budge, wouldn’t reimburse even partially, despite the fact that I have a large sum invested within their brokerage. Supervisor wouldn’t even get on the phone. They care more about the fees than keep a client holding far more than that in their brokerage. For the record, Robinhood doesn’t charge transfer fees. Vanguard is very much on their high horse and doesn’t care about the middle class family.

I regret setting up an investment and retirement account with Vanguard . The customer support is poor and highly unprofessional, My account got restricted without any tangible explanation and the customer support has proven helpless . After much turmoil, it's impossible not to recognize the value that Quick help earn delivers . Vanguard needs to do better with it's customer support .

Ffor three days now, I have not had access to the information in my account. Even though I have over half a million dollars in there, I cannot do a thing in the app.
it says data unavailable. I have called multiple times, I have sent messages through their app, I have chatted with them. I’ve talked with multiple people. They apparently do not have a dedicated tech support group. It is unfathomable that an investment corporation would not be able to give clients access to their account info. I’m about to move all my money out of Vanguard. don’t use them use Schwab or T. Rowe Price.

Do NOT use Debby Chiang, Registered Representative,
Vanguard Personal Investor. We have a hefty portfoilio and we set up an appointment with her. She got the times wrong and my elderly mother prepared for the meeting only for NOTHING to happen. Debbie is unprofessional and does not know what she is doing.

Opened an account with them and I didn’t realize they’d freeze my funds over a 60 day mandatory hold per their company policy.

Life happened and I needed access to these funds and basically they were being held hostage by Vanguard.

Bottom Line: never trust a bank or financial institution that doesn’t allow you access to your money beyond 10 days.

I was trying to set up an investment and retirement account. After creating an account, it took weeks for me to get a hold of anybody. They never even reached out to me. I repeated my Social Security number and ZIP Code to them several times and they came back with six different names. None of them matching mine. They seem very unorganized, very unreliable, very unprofessional, and that made me very uncomfortable trusting them with millions of dollars. To give a company millions of dollars when they can’t even pull up my account or find me in the system after I had created an entire account with them was very scary. I came to Vanguard because their percentage rates were the best and much lower, but I found it worth it to just go with Charles Schwab and pay the higher fee and get the outstanding customer service I expected. I guess you get what you pay for.

Vanguard support is absolutely useless. When you call them, you'll arrive at a team that can't help you with your specific request, and they'll assure you they're transferring you to the correct team. Once transferred, that team will tell you the exact same thing. Oh, and every time you're transferred, you'll need to perform security verification and tell the story all over again.

I must have gone through every single team at Vanguard for my request without a single one being able to help me. What should have taken a few minutes ended up taking over an hour, and I didn't even get my issue resolved in the end.

I suggest not contacting Vanguard unless absolutely necessary.

I recently inherited 76 shares of IBM. I subsequently did an internal transfer on Vanguard website of 38 shares into each of my kids Vanguard accounts. But, instead of transferring 38.00, Vanguard transferred 37 and fractional shares which were not the same. Called customer service and rep did not know why. He said he would do some more research and call me back. This should have been a simple transfer. If Vanguard can not get this correct, what else are they getting wrong. Awaiting rep response. Very frustrating.

When my father passed away, I began the process of receiving his mail and going through his paperwork. A check for the RND for an IRA he had through Vanguard arrived. I contacted Vanguard to report he had passed. Their company’s policy unlike the policy of other companies is that they will not deposit the money back into the IRA. This meant that I would I have to take the distribution earlier than I’m required to and be taxed at a higher rate. They reissued the check under my name which I deposited and I then transferred the remainder of the IRA into an Inherited IRA account under my name. I then got a statement that 27 cents in interest was left in the closed IRA account. I had to contact Vanguard again to resolve this only because I knew it would cause tax issues if left it in my father’s account. It was over 3 hours of time to resolve 27 cents. The problem is you have to be handed over to a special, Change of Ownership Team, that has very long hold times and you cannot leave a number for them to call you back. I finally thought that I was done until a 1099 tax form arrived for my father stating he was the recipient of the check that they had originally issued in his name (he died at the end of 2024, the check was issued at the start of 2025.) My tax account instructed me to call as the 1099 should be issued showing I was the recipient. I spent an entire afternoon again trying to resolve this. In the end, Vanguard refused to do anything to resolve the issue. My estate planning attorney told me “They do not know what they are doing.” I am left now to straighten out this mess with the IRS. I will be transferring the inherited IRA and my own personal Roth out of this company asap. When someone passes you should not have to go through this kind of distress. It’s hard enough.

Okay well first of all, I never chose to do business with them. I had them for my 401K at a job I left after a few months (not a good fit). I wound up closing the account and funneling the money into a Roth IRA I set up for myself at another investment bank. And then, when it came time to do my taxes, I found that I did not have a 1099 from them. So I called them and asked for it- and was told that it had been sent out more than a month prior.

By asking a series of follow-up questions, I came to learn that Vanguard sends out tax information in unmarked envelopes. And let me state for the record that I'm 59 tears old and have been in the workforce for more than four decades, and this is the first time I've heard of 1099 forms going out in envelopes that are not clearly marked as containing tax information. Well as it happens, around the time that they sent it out, I had been getting a lot of mail from Vanguard that I didn't care about, being that the account was closed.

So you can guess the rest, right? I realized that I had thrown out my 1099. So I asked for another one, and was told that it would take a week just to generate a new copy of the form and put it in the mail. I mean wtf, if I had a print job that needed doing, I could get it done in an hour or less, and I don't even have a working printer in my home!

And the phone rep even admitted to me that he had heard of many Vanguard customers throwing away tax information, or even checks, because they mistook them for junk mail. Which would, if you were an intelligent human with an interest in providing good service to your customers, cause you to reconsider the policy and start properly labeling the envelopes, as everyone else does, wouldn't it?

So I called back to complain about the delay, and was offered the option of starting an online account, so I could access the form myself. Well it would have been great if the first rep had offered me that option. And tbh, I didn't want to bother starting an online account with an investment bank that no longer has any of my money, but sure, if it will eliminate the delay in getting my paperwork, whatever.

Only to find that, because of a technical issue that has nothing to do with me, Vanguard can't start any online accounts just now, or for days to come.

All this over an account that never exceeded a $500 and change balance!

In short, I am thrilled by the fact that I will never, as long as I live, have to do business with Vanguard ever again after this debacle. Now if I could only get my 1099 form and close the books on my dealings with them, once and for all...

I spoke to Tomi at Vanguard and felt I had to leave a review.
He was incredibly patient, calm and genuinely kind. He listened properly, explained everything clearly and handled my questions with real care. When I asked for advice about my shares, he very professionally explained he could not give personal financial advice, which I respected completely. That integrity meant a lot.
What stood out was the balance of warmth and professionalism. Charming, reassuring and yet absolutely correct in every way.
Every interaction I have had with Vanguard has been excellent, and Tomi continues that standard. Truly impressive service.
Thank you, Tomi.

I opened and funded my account sometime towards the end of January 2026. After doing so and buying a couple stocks with no more than about 50 bucks, I suddenly was no longer able to access my account. I called and was told I would receive a call back in 72 business hours (they love using that phrase btw). 3 days later, I was called by a fraud specialist named Paul Houstings. Such a rude person! Accused me of having fraudulent accounts connected and TELLING me that I was GOING TO invest $100,000 (that I obviously don’t have, which is why I started with $50) and that I was starting off small and he got me before I got the chance. I literally could not believe the things this man was saying about my name as if he was absolutely sure that I was going to do this. Obviously offended, I just wanted my money back but Vanguard only sends messages to the account that they won’t let me log into. DO NOT INVEST WITH VANGUARD. YOU WILL NEVER SEE THAT MONEY AGAIN! I would have gladly furnished any proof, ID, bank statements, anything they may have needed. But this guy just started with false accusations and a narrative that I had $100,000 to fraudulently invest..with my $30,000 salary. I’m offended, I feel duped, and they’re doing nothing to return money that I worked hard for. Blood, sweat, and years of labor and they just make up a story and keep people’s money?? It really makes me wonder how many people are they doing this to and getting away with it. $50 x 1 million people screwed over and you’ve got quite a “business empire” by the end of the year. Go with Charles Schwab if you want to see your money again. I’m just being honest. I wouldn’t want anyone else making this company rich by making false accusations and keeping consumer’s money.

The worst customer experience ever. They have people from overseas who have thick accents and they repeat things in the same tone so it makes no difference in our understanding when we ask them to repeat themselves. Prepare to have your blood boil over. If I can give 0 stars, I absolute would.

My experience here have been drawn out for long and i do wish they can just settle their debts and we all move on different paths. I lost money and i'm not happy with that.
I already stayed locked in with #ECHOMINES. they have been perfect so far

Have been with vanguard for over 25 years and seeing their customer service is getting worse from A to D. Reps have almost no patient or enable to answer the questions. Wonder if I should stay with this company.