E-Trade Brokerage Review
E-Trade is arguably the most popular and well known online discount stock brokerages. Boasting over 4000 employees and having a net income over 600 million dollars per year (2006), E-Trade clearly is sitting high on the list of top online brokerages. I personally use E-Trade for all of my investment needs and do recommend it to anyone who is considering opening an account with an online stock broker. Here is how it E-Trade ranks among their competition:
Site Layout - 4 out of 5
E-Trade’s site layout is effective, intuitive, professional, and easy on the eyes. Compared to some of the other online stock brokers I’ve used in the past, E-Trade easily ranks the highest in this category. Finding my portfolio’s allocation is just as easy as finding quotes for a stock.
Tools - 3 out of 5
E-Trade has powerful and easy use tools for just about everything you’d need as an investor. It has fully customizable market and trading platforms, along with other useful tools such as asset allocation, account performance, income estimator, risk estimator, and more. The only complaint I have is that some of their more effective and desired tools are not free to users unless you pay a fee or have a minimum numbers of trades per quarter.
Security - 5 out of 5
E-Trade really sets itself apart from its competitors because they offer a free SecurID product to ensure that your account stays in your protected and in your possession at all times. I love the SecurID product, it’s extremely easy to use, creates an incredibly strong second layer of protection on my account, and of course it was free thanks to E-Trade. This feature alone is enough for me to stay with E-Trade, because I like sleeping at night knowing that I have added protection on my account.
Customer Service - 5 out of 5
E-Trade’s customer service is extremely good, especially in a time where most customer service departments are full of outsourced employees who are reading off a page of specified things to say. Customer service employees are friendly, knowledgeable, and extremely helpful. I’ve made countless numbers of calls to their customer service phone number and had my questions and issues resolved instantly. In fact, E-Trade was recognized for outstanding customer service in 2007 by Smart Money (a financial magazine).
Commission Fees - 2 out of 5
This is really the only downside to E-Trade. With E-Trade your commission fees are higher than most online discount brokerages unless you make a minimum number of trades per quarter. I tend to overlook this part of E-Trade as it is obvious that the higher commission fee is definitely worth what I get in return compared to other brokerages.
Overall - 4 out of 5
E-Trade is a great online discount brokerage, and I truly believe E-Trade leads the industry with their superior tools, outstanding customer service, and ease of use for investors. Their commission fees are definitely higher than their competition, but if you want the best, you should expect to pay a little more than usual.
[...] I was able to avoid two stock market corrections in 2007. Here is a picture I took off my E-Trade account showing my performance versus the S&P 500. Note the stock market corrections that [...]
I DO NOT recommend E*Trade for stock trading! E*Trade will take money from your account without you knowing. I have a STOCK account with E*Trade and have been sitting on just a few stocks for a couple of years. I am not receiving any service from them, yet I just found out I’ve been charged a $40 “Account Services Fee” every three months for the past year and a half just for having an account with them! I wasn’t charged anything when I first signed on so I thought it was a great way for me to try investing without the help of a broker and to do it for free. I was so wrong! They never even notified me that they were going to start charging me. It wasn’t showing it on my account summary or transactions page. I didn’t receive a phone call from them, nor did I receive an email alert mentioning that I was being charged a penny. I wouldn’t mind paying $40 on occasion if I were investing a lot of money and needing the advice of a qualified broker, but to be charged $40 every 3 months for holding less than 30 shares in a couple of companies that I picked by myself is ludicrous! There is no cap to these fees either. It now shows I have a negative balance! Unless you are a day-trader, I think E*Trade is a horrible recommendation to anyone. I wish I had paid more attention to the complaints than the praises like I see here before I opened an account with them.
Sorry to hear that Dana. With Etrade, the more active you are (buying,selling,etc) the less they charge you. I get lots of free services that you normally would have to pay for.
I completely agree with Dana, having had the same experience myself. If you are a smaller trader, do NOT go with Etrade. ScottTrade might be a better choice, though I need to do more research there as well. It’s $13 a trade, not the lower fees they advertise on TV. This means you need a gain of $26 on every transaction–no small thing for someone trading in small quantities–just to cover their fees.
Of course, this inhibits trading–it’s not worth it. But, if you don’t trade, you are charged $40 a quarter. Outrageous and simply not worth it. Even the mostly positive review above notes these high fees, though they are treated as an afterthought.
Bottom line, smaller investors should not choose Etrade.
I deposited $2,000.00 in 2006 in an etrade brokerage account and purchased a stock for around $1,987.00. Unbeknown to me $40.00 per quarter in fees were accruing, taking me into a margin debit that also accrued interest fees. I would log-on monthly to view my account and the account value would only show my stock value–no reference at all to fees accruing or margin balance. I sold the stock for $2,400.00 and they mailed me a check for $1,936.00. Thereafter I received a paper statement showing a net account value of $224.00. So I called inquiring about that balance and they say I owe them $1,600.00!!!!!! They say the check for $1,936.00 was a mistake and should never have been mailed it to me. I never borrowed on margin to purchase stocks–so what kind of gorilla math is this? I’m now waiting for them to research my transaction history to justify that claim–minimum 24 hours. They will not let you speak to a manager or anyone without an accent. sleazetrade is the absolute worst brokerage–period.
I agree — stay away from eTrade if you want to hang on to your money. Their ever-changing fees are outrageous. Finally, fed up, I called to close my account. I was left speechless when I was informed there would be a $10 fee to issue a check. Incredible!