Comments on: E-Trade Brokerage Review

By: Saad

Saad — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 03:26:02 +0000

I have just opened an account with E-Trade and in the process of depositing some funds. I have read many comments and reviews of the service and the main complaint of negative remark was for the quarterly charge. I personaly did not discouraged from this and did not come to a surprise to me. E-Trade website and decalrations are very straight forward and tells you how much you expect to be charged based on your trading pattern or level. My comments to all those people who have made these negative remark is honestly get out of investing in stocks becuase its obviously not for you. If you failed to monitor your own account in a brokerage firm and knwe exactly how much you are paying for the service how do you expect to make money in today highly volatile stock market where every month the rules changes. My advise to anyone who is reading these reviews you be the judge of any service and dont rely on others to form your opnion. start with a small account and see how the service is relay like before increasing your position.

By: Sue

Sue — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:55:40 +0000

E*Trade won’t let me close my account until I pay them almost $900 for many years of inactivity fees of $40 per QUARTER! I bought several stocks to hold for the future and they now own them. After I pay them all of their past inactivity fees, then they want another $75 to close the account! I just discovered that they have been keeping all of the cash dividends my stocks have been paying out all these years and yet I had to pay income tax on the dividends that I never saw. NEVER, NEVER use E*Trade — they will rob you blind!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:27:32 +0000

My employer offers ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Plan) through E-Trade at a 15% discount. The first enrollment/buying period is approaching and I am seriously thinking of enrolling and starting to add deductions from my check to the stock plan. After reading all of these reviews I am having second thoughts. Should I enroll in the program? These reviews make me want to just invest on my own. What do you guys think?
Thanks

By: Maryam Forston

Maryam Forston — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 05:42:09 +0000

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By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:39:51 +0000

Avoid E*Trade at all costs. They told me that if I opened a Money Market account there would be no more $40/quarter ($160/year!) service fees. So I did. Several months later, there was another $80 in fees. After many furious messages to them, their response was, “We can change the rules at any time, no matter what you were told they were when you opened your account. Pay it”

By: Parag

Parag — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:57:31 +0000

E*Trade is awesome. All these people who are complaining about $40/quarter are themselves to blame. These guys opened the account without reading the instructions. Instructions clearly state that you will be charged $40/quarter unless your account balance/securities value is less than $10,000. E*Trade is not for small investors. It is for serious investors only and it provides awesome services. I am with E*trade for over 11 years and I do not have any complaints.

By: Forex Tools

Forex Tools — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:00:36 +0000

Found you on google, it was easy, great site

By: Ingeborg Cockram

Ingeborg Cockram — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:41:39 +0000

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By: Aggregate Broker Reviews: E*Trade | The Wall Street Outsider

Aggregate Broker Reviews: E*Trade | The Wall Street Outsider — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:20:15 +0000

[...] The Investors Journal- The site hasn’t been updated in some time, but Adam’s review is unique and insightful. He gave E*trade a 4/5 on site layout, 3/5 on tools, 5/5 on security, 5/5 on customer service, 2/5 on commission fees, and 4/5 overall. [...]

By: ranndino

ranndino — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:01:51 +0000

A lot of the comments above are spot on. To my dismay I recently realized that I have been charged $40 per quarter in inactivity fees (for a total of almost $280 now). It is partly my own fault for not keeping up with my account, but nevertheless it’s ridiculous because they charge these fees for doing nothing. What’s even more frustrating to me is that at the time I opened my account you could avoid these inactivity fees by opening a linked savings account with E-Trade, which is what I did. I did not need this account and don’t use it. I simply opened it and put some money in it for the specific purpose of avoiding the $40 per quarter inactivity fee. It seems that while I have not been using the account their policies have changed and they started charging me. This is absolutely infuriating and I am looking for alternatives. They have refused to issue a refund even as a one time courtesy and I’m now in the process of closing my account with $280 of my money flushed down the toilet. Apparently they don’t mind losing young investors who are just starting out as customers as long as they can make a few bucks now. Very shortsighted policy.

By: Sue

Sue — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:47:12 +0000

I was hoping to find a way to reverse 5 (FIVE) years of inactivity fees which they started charging me once I turned off paper statements. If I had been getting a paper statement I would have done whatever it took to stop these exorbitant fees. I only had 2 stocks with $2000 in the account and actually forgot about them until I wanted to transfer them to another brokerage account. They have been stealing all of my cash dividends which I have been paying taxes on for five years and STILL charging me $40 a quarter for an Inactivity Fee!

Now before I can transfer these stocks I have to pay over $800 in Inactivity Fees and $60 to transfer and close the account.

By: DuWayne Burnett

DuWayne Burnett — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:55:09 +0000

Thank God I googled e-trade to read up on them before getting started in online investing. I am going to research opinions on EVERY online stock trader sight before I even think about trying to invest the money I’ve worked hard for. You’d expect to see some good feedback on a company that is suppose to be so good to customers. I only saw one on this forum. It’s great that it’s working out for Adam but it sucks for the rest of you that have lost money. You’ve helped me in my decission making and I hopefully your next experiences in online investing will be better. If I find horror stories like these in the other online services then I guess I’ll try a different venue for getting started in stock investing.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:37:57 +0000

Etrade rips you off on $20 Reorg fees. Is pure profit for them. Why charge more than a trade?

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:20:41 +0000

Don’t use etrade. We have problems with them too. I left my 100k in the account and we can’t get the money out of the brokerage account. They use all excuses not to let you wire the money. They said that they gave you a good rate but that is only for 2 months. After 2 months, you got nothing and will have problems to get your money out. We have accounts with different companies. Etrade is the worst.

By: fr3nch

fr3nch — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:58:38 +0000

etrade is HORRIBLE where it counts. Their commissions are really high and they have a TON of hidden fees. They charge you $25 to transfer money electronically to your bank account. They also have atarted charging inactivity fees. I decided to leave etrade after they charged me a $20 reorganization fee and billed an account I set up for my son $80 for inactivity (over half of the value of the account). Now its costing me another $120 just to get my money away from these crooks. I called them and just got the “tough s**t” response. They have $225 of my money that they shouldn’t have. Take your business somewhere else, these people are thieves.

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 04:58:35 +0000

I totally agree with the above opinions!
e-scan has completely drained my account with their $40/quarter fees.
They charged $160 /year for the “service” of taking your investment away from you gradually.
What’s worse is this done by the accumulation of the fees and then the sale of your stocks and closure of your account to “pay for the great service” they provide. Not only do you have to pay the ridiculos lack of service fees, but worse you also loose your stocks!

By: steve

steve — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:38:14 +0000

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!

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:35:31 +0000

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.

By: sarcasmo

sarcasmo — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 09:00:59 +0000

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.

By: Adam Freedman

Adam Freedman — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:31:55 +0000

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.

By: Dana

Dana — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:00:58 +0000

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.

By: How to Avoid Stock Market Corrections and Crashes

How to Avoid Stock Market Corrections and Crashes — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:42:31 +0000

[...] 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 [...]