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John Hechinger, Cutting the Cord: Fidelity to Restrict Access to Frequent Phoners, Wall Street Journal (Mar. 26, 1999)
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Abstract: Fidelity notified 30,000 customers that they will no longer be able to obtain information from telephone representatives, but will be required to use automated service instead.
Fidelity said that the volume of calls received by these customers was "several times" the 4 or 5 calls received each year from the average mutual fund customer. Fidelity said that a call to a phone representative costs $13 per call, in comparison with $1 per automated call. The affected customers represent about 0.5% of Fidelity's retail brokerage and mutual fund customers.
In compiling the restricted phone access list, Fidelity considered the frequency of customers' calls, their trading patterns, and the size of their account balances. First Union reported uses a similar system that ranks customers based on their account balances, account activity, branch visits and other variables.
This page was last updated on June 28, 2001.