“Responding belatedly to moves by Charles Schwab and Fidelity, Vanguard said today it will let brokerage customers trade its own exchange-traded funds for free and slashed commissions on stocks and non-Vanguard ETFs. Beginning today, Vanguard brokerage clients can make commission-free transactions in all 46 Vanguard ETFs. These are index funds that trade throughout the day on a stock exchange,” Kathleen Pender Reports From San Francisco Chronicle.

Pender continues to say, “To buy or sell stocks and non-Vanguard ETFs, most customers will now pay $2 or $7 per trade, down from $20 to $45. Customers with less than $50,000 in Vanguard funds and Vanguard ETFs will pay $7 for the first 25 trades each year and $20 per trade thereafter. Those with $50,000 to $500,000 will pay $7 per trade. Those with $500,000 to $1 million will pay $2 per trade. Those with $1 million or more get 25 free trades and $2 thereafter.”

The lowered commissions apply to online trades and those executed with the help of a Vanguard rep, the Valley Forge, Pa., company said.

“San Francisco-based Charles Schwab started the price war in November, when it launched its own line of ETFs and offered them commission-free to online customers. At the same time, it chopped commissions on stocks and non-Schwab ETFs to a flat rate of $8.95. In February, Fidelity’s brokerage arm fired back: It began offering free online trading in 25 ETFs from market leader iShares, a division of BlackRock based in San Francisco. Fidelity also cut its commission on stocks and other ETFs to a flat rate of $7.95 per online trade,” Pender Reports.

Around that time, Vanguard quietly offered 100 free trades per year to certain high-net-worth brokerage clients, which caused a “kerfuffle” when other customers found out, according to Dan Wiener, editor of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, a newsletter not affiliated with Vanguard. Wiener wrote that the new offer “should not be seen as a license to day-trade.” He says Vanguard told him that “if someone makes more than 25 trades in a given ETF over a one-year period, they reserve the right to block the investor from trading in that ETF again for 60 days.”

See more to the story: HERE

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