Complaint Review: ETrade

Starting with a $1000 minimum account balance, etrade now claims to have $167 billion in funds in 4.3 million accounts. Do the math. This is an average account size of $39,000.

Apparently this has made them recognize the expendable nature of their smaller accounts. The minimum was raised to $5000, whereby accounts below this amount were levied a $15 fee quarterly, and then to $10,000 whereby accounts below THIS amount are levied a $40 quarterly fee. The fees are waived if you are trading actively during the quarter. In otherwords, if you are trading (and thus probably eroding your account through losses and fees, there is no cost to park your money. If you are standing pat, however, you will be assessed.

In my case, I simply stopped looking at my account for 7 years, and didn't realize that a small balance which remained was being eaten away by accelerating fees. about $2000, instead of surprising me by having grown during that time, was DIVESTED of the positions (I don't even know who performed the trades) and the cash has dwindled, purely through fees to $350. Ouch. It's not a lot of money, but it would be nice to think that you could forget money in a bank and it's somewhat safe, no? This $40 quarterly fee on a bank account is not expected and is extremely inconvenient. They do have something of a monopoly, so I don't know where else I would go to do online trading, however I no longer feel safe with that option.

David
Brooklyn, New York
U.S.A.