How To Withdraw Money From Betterment

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Jim of San Diego, CA Verified Reviewer

Original review: Sept. 29, 2021

I attempted to close my Traditional IRA with Betterment and transfer it to a different investing option. The initial attempt was in early July. The final amount was received on September 28th. The customer service was awful. We talked with many different advisors, none of whom could help us find out what was going on. The standard response was that they would reach out to their "team", somewhere in the rear offices, it seemed, and get back to us. Which they did, often times a week or two later. It is so unprofessional and disorganized that we could never get a straight answer. DO NOT invest with this group of incompetent children.

Jim of Flushing, NY Verified Reviewer

Original review: April 9, 2021

My money was put into ETF fund in the model they set up, which supposes to follow the general market performance. However my account lost money the first day when all indexes on the market was up big that day. I suspect they manipulated my transactions that they purchased the EFT at low point of the day and sold/book into my account at higher price. I asked for the trade details from them but they refused to provide the information. My portfolio in Betterment account underperforms the market on consistent basis. There is something really fishy there. This firm's trustworthy and credibility is in great doubt.

TAmmy of Nashville, TN Verified Reviewer

Original review: Feb. 23, 2021

I have multiple online (robo-investing) investment accounts (ie. Wealthfront, etc). I have had money in my Betterment account for a few years. It has performed below the market and since it is in the six digits, I decided to move it early last month. I asked my local broker to do a transfer in kind to avoid tax issues, etc. Betterment will not acknowledge the paperwork. I have called and emailed so many times. Yesterday I was on hold for 2 hours and then finally got a woman on the line. I answered my security questions and she said that she didn't see the paperwork requesting transfer so she would have to transfer me. I said NO, way. I have been on hold for two hours. And by the way, I have tried several times to use the "press 2 and we will call YOU back" choice.

They never returned the call. She said for me not to worry ... that I was now on an 'in-house' line and it wouldn't be a long wait at all. After 45 minutes I hung up. I sent them one final email and said that I couldn't understand why they were holding my funds hostage. I listed the steps that I had taken and that I had spent so many hours on hold. I put it all in writing and decided that I would contact legal authorities. And that is how I was going to proceed.

Miraculously, last night, after I made it clear that I was done playing their game, they responded to my final email and admitted to receiving the transfer in kind request. So now, I have that in writing but I have zero trust for this company. Trust me - something is very amiss there. I am not in the financial world (hence my thoughts of using the robo-investing to diversify some of my investing) but I am smart enough to know that Betterment has a big problem right now. If you have money there, GET IT OUT or at least try. You have been warned.

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Dee of Mountain View, CA Verified Reviewer

Original review: Jan. 23, 2021

First of all, I have multiple brokerage and investment accounts. All fairly easy to sign up for since I have good credit and good financials. Signing up with Betterment was like applying for a credit card. You have to give a lot of personal information but then you don't get instant access or response. They have to review and approve it first but that isn't very obvious from the start.

I was able to log in initially then I couldn't access my account. I try to reset the password and I can't. So I try customer service. They have no email or chat or messaging system. There is only a phone option that I could find. Phone is ONLY available during the weekday during certain hours. Ok fine. So I call and you have to wait on hold for a while (not sure if this is normal or a Covid affect). Then you speak to a rep who says they will look into and then get back to you. Ok fine. I don't hear back so I call again, wait on hold and am told that they will look into it and get back to me. Then I eventually get an email saying that my account is closed due to fraud and that this was final and can not be appealed. Ok great.

But now that I've given out all this personal information, can't the company be more forthcoming as to what the fraud is and what caused it? So I call back, this time no answer at all after waiting on hold a long time. Then I call back with a different phone number and it is answered right away. They definitely use a caller ID system and apparently don't answer specific phone numbers (maybe they block the number associated with the application). So my call is answered and all the rep said is the account was flagged but again no details. If there weren't other "professional" reviews of this company then I would think they were a scam and stealing personal information AND I still am left worried about why my account was closed.

Anyway, this was my first attempt to use a smaller financial company (vs the large brokerages like Schwab, Vanguard, etc). Maybe it would be fine after you go through all their processes. I like to be able to access and self manage and do things online. But seeing as how you actually have to call in to get anything done is irritating. This was surprising as it is a younger company but the whole experience felt very archaic and dated/old school. Not sure how the reviews are so good but maybe the experience is different once the account is up and running.

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Ruth Ann of Phoenix, AZ Verified Reviewer

Original review: Jan. 19, 2021

In looking for a new bank, I I like what I read about Betterment, so I opened an account. Shortly thereafter I received a large deposit that I had been waiting for for weeks. When I was finally able to use my account, I used it for four transactions, as I was just beginning a much needed road trip. One transaction was to transfer money, the others were gas for my car, soda from a convenience store and $20 cash back. To my surprise,, I was denied getting my $20. Immediately I looked on my app to check my account and it had been locked.

I had a message asking to call customer service, and I did. I was asked to verify my identity as well as some security questions, which of course, I answered. Thinking my account would be unlocked at that point I was proceeding to hang up. The customer service representative then advised me that now I was to check my email to further verify my identity and that once that was done, my account would be unlocked in 2-3 DAYS!!!! I WAS FURIOUS! I requested to speak with a supervisor, and was denied. The customer service representative was extremely condescending, as she continued to tell me that she was sorry that I was traveling and could not access my money, but nothing could be done, and there was NO supervisor available! I hung up.

I called back three more times, and after being verified again, the phone was disconnected two of those times. The third and fourth time I called, I got the same representative that I spoke with the first time, and she already knew who I was! When was the last time you called your bank and got the same representative THREE times!? At this point I requested a supervisor again at which time I was put on hold. The same representative came back on the line, not a supervisor. She advised me that they received my documents and that everything was put on a high priority status and hopefully the verifications were done quickly so that I would not be stranded while traveling, for too long. I am seriously beside myself with anger. This is unacceptable and once this issue is resolved I will withdrawal every penny from my account and will NEVER use Betterment again!

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Axel of Los Angeles, CA Verified Reviewer

Original review: Jan. 13, 2021

I don't know what y'all 1-star reviewers expect from a ROBO-advisor. I opened a regular taxable investment account with them in May 2020 when the market was already on its way out of the covid hole. By January 2021 they earned me 28% of the sum of my deposits. Simple as that. I haven't tried rolling over, withdrawing or asking questions their robo customer support. Trouble withdrawing is no fun obviously but again, haven't been there, haven't don't that. And tbh when I transferred some money from a Fidelity brokerage account it took forever too. I don't know if you realize it or not but your money is not stored in cash there, it's in securities, ok? It's NOT an ATM. So it takes time to sell them, then transfer the proceeds to another firm and then buy securities there. Just google how the whole thing works before raising hell and harassing the robo customer support.

Rachael of Melbourne, FL Verified Reviewer

Original review: Jan. 5, 2021

My company-sponsored health plan allows for me to opt into an HSA. Once I have enough funds in my HSA, I can then invest the funds. The company the HSA uses for investing is Betterment. I went through the process of creating my Betterment account. I provided the two forms of identification requested (picture of my driver's license and my social security card). I was told it would take several business days to verify my information.

Two days later, I was informed that they were closing my account due to confirmed fraudulent activity, and that I would not be allowed to open an account with them. No further detail was provided, and they said no amount of additional proof would change the circumstances. They currently have $152.50 of my HSA money of the initial investment I've made. I called to verify that my funds would be returned to my HSA where it was originally taken from. I was told that it would be returned but that I would need to check with the HSA company to ensure it is returned properly?

The whole ordeal has been nothing short of a disaster. I'm still a little shaken after this experience as I still have no clue why they said there was fraudulent activity and now I'm concerned my personal information and identity has been compromised. I've never experienced such incompetence in my life. At this point, I just want my funds returned to my HSA and to be done with Betterment for good. I would never recommend them to anyone. Customer service and clarity is clearly lacking. If my money is not returned to my original account, I will be forced to take legal action against this company.

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Herbert of Holiday, FL Verified Reviewer

Original review: Dec. 27, 2020

In the 12 months leading up to Dec 2020 - Not one of my other accounts (stock/401k/IRA) at other institutions lost money. In fact my 401k returned 20%. But the ROBO investing at Betterment 'lost' $1000 of my $5000 I put in there to see if ROBO worked. So, as I withdraw the money and transfer it out after a year. I hope the people at Betterment take a cold hard look at the algorithms in their system and re-work them. Even if they do, I won't be back.

Ben of Bellevue, WA Verified Reviewer

Original review: Dec. 8, 2020

I can't explain it any other way. I moved away from my full-service CFP, and transferred all assets, as well as a rollover, into a Betterment IRA. I originally opted for the full package, which includes financial planning advice with a human. What a joke--a very green, uninformed individual clearly reading from a script. No thanks. Now, several years later, I need to move those funds. Betterment makes it extremely difficult/inconvenient to transfer funds. While they boastfully advertise that they accept "in-kind" roll-INS, they are not able to do so when you're moving funds OUT of Betterment. You have no control over when assets are sold, so it's completely up to chance. With a volatile market, this is not a risk I'm willing to take.

I have reached out their support team multiple times on this--they are helpless and hapless. They make it sound like it's a technology problem. It's not. It's a policy: make it as difficult as possible for people to move money out of Betterment. I will continue to do whatever I can to liberate these funds from Betterment. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!

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persephone of Cambridge, MA Verified Reviewer

Original review: Dec. 2, 2020

I decided to stop using Betterment and instead of having a tax implication by selling, I initiated a transfer of my betterment balance to my Vanguard account, in kind. Betterment only transferred 75% of my holdings, leaving 25% in their account! My vanguard rep was perplexed by this and thought it could have been some part to do with the fractional shares, even though I had specifically authorized the entire balance including fractional shares to be sent over to VG in kind. I called to sort it out and was on hold for too long, and so decided to sell off the rest to just be done with them. (Yes tax hit, but alternative is deal with them keeping my funds and infinite back and forth?) The withdrawal into my savings account was recorded, but it said it would not post there FOR SEVEN DAYS. Read that and decide if you want to do business with a financial outfit that will tie up your money for an entire week. Inexcusable.