Advantages and disadvantages of Stash investing. What are the good and bad features of the brokerage company? Stash review, cons, and pros.

Stash Rating: 

Overview of Stash

At Stash, investing is only part of the story. The company offers trading and several additional financial tools, which makes it worth a closer look.

Investment Products and Services

For investors, Stash offers both robo and self-directed accounts. The former setup uses ETFs with low expense ratios. The latter setup offers a broader mix of stocks and ETFs. Because this second system is fully self-directed, it’s possible to choose your own investments. The software application in the robo program, called Smart Portfolio by Stash, handles this work for managed accounts. The managed program focuses on diversified ETF portfolios.

While self-directed securities accounts can decide what to buy and sell, they can’t choose the exact moment an order is sent to the market. Stash makes that decision. It uses four trading windows during the day—two in the morning and two in the afternoon.

There are a few tax structures at Stash that investment customers can use. These include individual taxable, IRA, and custodial. There are no joint accounts, trusts, 529 plans, or other esoteric accounts at this time.

To help its customers understand what they’re investing in, Stash provides both personalized and impersonal investment guidance and education. And to round out the financial picture, a Stash subscription can include life insurance through Avibra. Other insurance products are available at additional cost through Stash’s insurance partners.





Securities (but not insurance or cash products) in Stash accounts are protected by SIPC up to $500,000. Apex Clearing, which is Stash’s clearing firm, also provides the sweep and custody infrastructure for brokerage accounts.

To open any type of account at Stash, lawful residency in the United States is required. Moreover, some visa types held by lawful foreigners are not accepted (a Green Card is accepted). The only tax ID number Stash will accept is a Social Security Number.

Banking Tools

The investing services described above are only the beginning of the financial picture at Stash. The brokerage house has partnered with FDIC-insured banking providers to offer some really useful cash-management tools and features. Examples of perks include:

- Mastercard debit card
- Stock-back program that earns fractional shares using the debit card
- Instant transfers between deposit and investment accounts
- Early payday
- Goal-setting tools on the website and mobile app
- Round-up program to earn even more shares of securities
- Cash deposits at participating retailers
- Ability to lock and unlock the debit card on the app

Funds deposited into a Stash bank account are FDIC insured up to $250,000. (Stash also has an FDIC-sweep program for its investment accounts that moves idle cash into program banks that deliver FDIC insurance.)

Stash Pricing

Investing and banking are only part of the equation here. In return for its services, Stash charges a recurring subscription fee. The current pricing is $3 per month for Stash Starter or $12 per month for Stash+, with annual billing options also available.





The $3 monthly plan is called Stash Starter. It comes with robo, self-directed, and retirement accounts. It does not offer custodial accounts, which are only available on the $12 monthly plan, which is named Stash+. The Stash+ subscription comes with more life insurance ($10,000 versus $1,000), additional investment education, and stronger Stock-Back rewards.

Stash does not have any account minimums. However, the subscription fee is still due even if an investing account is not actively used. To start investing, an external bank account or another payment method can be linked, and that funding method can be used to pay the subscription fee.

For everyday cash services, Stash has partnered with Allpoint to create an ATM network of fee-free machines. Using an ATM outside of this network will come with fees—from Stash and from the ATM operator. Stash charges $2.50 for a withdrawal and $0.50 for a balance inquiry. It does not charge a foreign transaction fee, although third-party fees may still apply.

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Margin Trading

Stash does not offer margin accounts. All trades are placed on a cash basis.

Customer Support

Stash offers a lengthy list of self-help tools on its website and mobile app. Examples include dividend settings, a plan selector, and the ability to update account details, like phone number and email address.

The financial firm also has a robo-chat tool on its website and mobile app. The widget does not have the ability to switch to human mode, which means when it inevitably fails, it provides two alternatives: email and phone support. There are no branch locations.

Stash’s email address is support@stash.com. Its phone number is 800-205-5164. Associates are available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. There are no late-night hours, though.

Common questions that a lot of customers will have are covered in Stash’s FAQ section located at ask.stash.com.

Website

The Stash method of investing is more of a buy-and-hold strategy. As such, it doesn’t emphasize active trading or advanced software. Its website is very simple, although this does make it easy to use.





An Investing tab at the top is where the trading tools will be found. On this page, an Explore Investments tab sits at the top, and this is where the collections of stocks and ETFs are. These collections do not constitute an actual security screener. Instead, Stash groups securities into certain themes, including:

- Global Exposure
- Technology Innovation
- Commodities
- Retail
- Energy

An asset’s profile can be pulled up by clicking on an entry in one of these categories. Stash does not deliver a great amount of information on these profiles, although current price data and basic news are available. Stash doesn’t want its customers trying to engage in short-term trading, so the platform remains intentionally simple.

Charts are likewise incapable of delivering an advanced experience. There are no tools of any kind, although there is a maximum timeframe of 10 years. There are news articles for many stocks. Potential sources include CNBC, Business Insider, and 24/7 Wall Street.

The order ticket on the website is very simple. There are no advanced trade types of any kind. And remember, Stash is the one who actually submits orders to the exchanges. So the trade ticket is more of a trade request that is sent to Stash, who will later send the order to the exchanges.

Mobile App

Much of the layout from the website is replicated on a mobile app that functions on both Android and Apple phones. The emphasis on simplicity remains, which means the app can’t be used for any type of advanced trading or security analysis.





Asset profiles on the app have mostly the same data points that appear on the website, although news articles are missing. Trade details that show up include:

- Dividend yield
- Day’s price change
- Market cap
- P/E ratio

The Stash app recommends a diversified portfolio with specific suggestions using ETFs to balance out an account. The tool that performs this analysis will be found at the bottom of every security profile.

Additional Services

IRA Lineup: Traditional and Roth accounts are available at Stash on the Starter plan.

Extended-hours Trading: As mentioned earlier, Stash does not offer the full day session for securities traders, so just forget about pre-market and after-hours trading.

Initial Public Offerings: Missing in action.

Fully-paid Securities Lending Program: Although margin isn’t available at Stash, the brokerage house does have a securities-lending program. Customers with eligible whole shares can earn extra income from this arrangement. Taxable brokerage accounts with more than $50 can participate if they have agreed to the program.

DRIP Service: Stash has a free Dividend Reinvestment Plan. It’s really easy to turn on and off with a toggle switch (look for it in the settings menu, which is located in the upper-right corner of the website).

Periodic Mutual Fund Investing: Not available.

Fractional Shares: At Stash, trades of securities are placed in whole dollars.

Our Recommendations

Beginners: An automated account with Stash would be a decent way to start an investing journey.

Mutual Fund Trading: Although Stash doesn’t offer any mutual funds, Firstrade has more than 11,000 without any loads or transaction fees.

Long-Term Investors & Retirement Savers: IRAs really aren’t enough to build a roadmap to retirement. Charles Schwabhas many more resources, including financial planners, annuities, target-date mutual funds, branch locations, and retirement calculators on its website.

Stock and ETF Trading: Due to insufficient software, we can’t recommend Stash. Webull, by comparison, has a very good desktop platform.

Small Accounts: Because of Stash’s flat monthly fee, it’s not an ideal company for small investors. Robinhood, by comparison, has no monthly fee and no minimum balance requirement for its clients.

Stash Pros and Cons Judgment

Although Stash has tried to come up with a novel method of investing, it hasn’t done a spectacular job of it. The irony is that the company performs best in the banking arena.

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