As indicated in the book The Lazy Investor by Derek Foster setting up a DRIP can be done in a few easy steps and this blog is about shedding some light on my DRIP set-up experience and a few pointers that should make things a little easier for you.

1) The asked for the shares in question from my eTrade account and it cost me approx. $75 CAD (This cost covers the Priority Courier postage service used)

2) Do not fall for the customer service warnings about the process being lengthy and very complex. The CS rep I got tried very hard to convince me to keep my shares in my eTrade account after she told me in very short order that I did not have enough shares to qualify for the DRIP program offered by eTrade

3) Once you get your share certificate your HOLDER ACCOUNT NUMBER is located at the top right corner of the certificate and starts with “C” and approx. 10 to 11 numbers after the “C”

4) Check the web for the transfer agents website that administers the DRIP/SPP program for the company shares you have just gotten from your trading account

5) My transfer agent was Computershare. Go to the web site and register your shares and name with them. Once that is done you can sign-up for the DRIP/SPP program offered right of their website and no offline forms have to be filled and sent back in (even more money savings!)

If you come across any other cool tips and money saving options please feel free to leave them as a comment on this post.

Happy DRIP’ing
Mr. Lobo

P.S. If you have any further questions about the set-up process, please feel free to email me…