Withdrawing money from Sogoinvest
As mentioned in a previous post, a few people have voiced concerns of the “hoops” that they have to jump through to get their money out from the Sogoinvest account (for example, see Raj’s experience HERE and Sogo-Nogo’s experience HERE and HERE).
With the recent cash dividend distribution from my VWO holding, I decided to test drive Sogoinvest’s current cash withdrawal process and see if there is an excessive delay from the time I request an ACH withdrawal to the time I receive the money in the bank. For comparison, keep in mind that an ACH withdrawal requested from the Ameritrade Izone website on business day T should get the money into my bank account on day T+1. In any case, since I have also some cash dividends to withdraw from Ameritrade Izone, I am going to initiate two withdrawals at the same time and track which one credits the money to my bank account first.
According to Sogoinvest’s website, you need to set up the bank accounts that you want to be able to perform ACH-withdrawals to by first mailing them a completed form with the required information and a voided check. I have completed this step some time back in August 2006. Hopefully they have not lost the paperwork!
Now for the fun part. The following is the time-line that I experienced and I will update it as soon as a new stage is reached:
- 12/29/2006 (Day T+0) :
- Sogoinvest 7.22am PST: ACH withdrawal form was faxed. The remote fax machine acknowledged with a receipt.
- Izone 7.30am PST: ACH withdrawal request submitted online.
- 12/30/2006:
- Noticed that the ACH amounts were debited from both Izone and Sogoinvest. Everything seemed to have gone smoothly.
- 01/02/2007 (Day T+1) 7.00am PST:
- Both the ACH requests were credited to my bank account.
Well, I am pleasantly surprised that the ACH push from Sogoinvest had been as fast as that from Ameritrade Izone. I can think of the following reasons why my cash withdrawal from Sogoinvest had been smooth
- I had submitted the appropriate paperwork to link up my bank accounts for ACH-push.
- I had faxed in a properly completed ACH withdrawal form.
Or someone at Sogoinvest is monitoring my blog and giving me priority. 
Seriously, I think the real reason why some investors are experiencing problems with cash withdrawals is that they have not submitted the appropriate paperwork (as requested by Sogoinvest) to link up the bank account for ACH-push.
Of course, whether this additional paperwork is necessary or not is questionable since Sogoinvest had already implemented the industry standard ACH verification system (verify two small deposits). Most other financial institutions operate fine with this ACH verification.
Now if only Sogoinvest would implement the online ACH withdrawal request instead of having to fax in the request…
Stumble it!
December 30th, 2006 at 9:35 am
Hey Indexfundfan and Grant. I’ve been reading the past BAD reports on Sogoivest.(Getting money out) I THINK that the two different persons are actually the same person. After copying both reports I underlined statements on both reports and it SEEMS that there is to many look alikes. It SEEMS they are the same person OR maybe Sogoinvest REALLY does have problems. It may be that someone really likes another broker and likes to sing praises for their broker and doesn’t like Sogoivest. Just my thoughts though!!!I’m with Scottrade also but they aren’t perfect either!! Indexfundfan I’d be very interested in your report on your withdraw as well. (Sogo may push yours through faster if they are monitoring this blog) ONE RED FLAG that I DIDN’T like seeing from Sogoinvest is, Quote”Your check is in a backlog”(Fri,22 Dec 23 2006:45:21) IF that statement is true, then that tells me what is going on at Sogoinvest in the last 30 days. ( If that is true I wouldn’t put money into Sogoinvest) Let us know Indexfundfan,thanks,Vacman
December 30th, 2006 at 9:51 am
Hey Indexfundfanand Grant, (this is my 2nd post ,1st one went somewhere else) anyway, after reading and copying the two other post on “getting my money out” is SEEMS the two are the same person!!! To many same happenings. Unless Sogo REALLY does have problems. ONE RED FLAG that I didn’t like reading is sogos’response was, Quote:”Your check is in backlog” If that is what they said and what DID happen, It would tell us what is going down lately at Sogoinvest!!!(doesn’t look good if that is what they said)Let us know about your withdraw!! (If Sogo is still monitoring this blog you may get your money fast) Vacman
December 30th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
Vacman,
This morning, I logon to the Sogoinvest site and noticed that the money has been deducted from my cash balance. Apparently, Sogoinvest has deducted the money in preparation for the ACH push to my bank. So it seems like the ACH-out problem might not really be there. But I will not know for sure until the next business day.
In any case, I will report the progress in the next few days.
December 30th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
I guess that both of my comments came through. Indexfundfan,I hope everything comes through on your ACH withdraw!!!.Just a note about your name! I have 6 ETF’s and 14 stocks and ALL my ETF’s are BEATING my Stocks. I’m thinking about moving all my money over to the ETF’s.(all my ETF’s are Up an average of 13.66% compared to all 14 stocks of an average of 8.25%) Are you 100% into ETF’s and Indexes or do you have stocks also? Have a great weekend! Vacman
December 30th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
Vacman,
Good to hear that you are doing well with your ETF investments!
At this moment, I have only one stock, which is my company stock held through stock purchase plan. The bulk of my investments are in passively-managed funds held at Vanguard. I also hold a few ETFs.