OK if you don't need service
Written: Jan 19 '00
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I have accounts at both e*trade and Schwab. My experience with etrade has been that they're OK if you just want to transact online stock trades, but downright totally useless if you want to do anything remotely nonstandard or requiring a telephone call.
For example, I needed "trade confirmation" paperwork suitable for tax purposes. Not only did I completely fail to get etrade to provide this (after wasting countless hours on the 'phone to them), but I had a hard time even getting them to understand what I wanted and why. By contrast, Schwab understood immediately.
Due to the aforementioned tax recording snafu, I decided to transfer a bunch of stock from etrade to Schwab. Never happened. I ended up selling it and writing a check on my etrade money market account and sending that in the mail to Schwab. etrade repeatedly lost my transfer instructions, and alternately denied that there was any such thing as an electronic stock transfer between brokers. The fax number they had me send the instructions to changed every day.
Schwab always answer my e-mail questions quickly and intelligently while etrade often never answer, and frequently only then with nonsensical piffle.
In short, etrade is cheap, and it shows.
I dislike their web site too.
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
Member: David Boreham
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 8 members
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