No Frills Investing
Written: Nov 26 '00 (Updated Nov 26 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast site, easy to navigate.
Cons: Expensive, slow to do things, poor CS.
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| LaughingTarget's Full Review: DLJ Direct |
At the dawn of the 21st century, the stock markets are gaining a lot of notice. Since the recent upsurge of the dot.com startups, the markets have been flooded by the masses looking to make it rich quick. While I cannot tell you how to get rich quick (and if I did know I wouldn't readily share it), I can at least help the budding investor to a place to house his investing experience.
Good: DLJDirect is a no-nonsense sort of brokerage. They give you a place to do your business fast and efficiently. Their web site is quick and intuitive. It is all laid out in a simple format. Finding where to buy/sell, how much you are worth, and how much spare cash is on hand is quick and easy.
Adding funds to your account is also simple and easy. Just send a check with your account number on a piece of paper and the check itself and it will be added to your account the moment the check hits their hands. They trust you when you tell them you have the money in the bank.
DLJDirect is actually quite fast when it comes to processing orders. Most of the time, my stock is bought or sold in a matter of seconds. That is very nice.
Bad: Like the title says, DLJDirect is a no-frills service. They expect you to know what you are doing as an investor. There is little information on what stock to buy, what the investing terms are, etc in easy access on their site. When I did manage to find such information, it was vague and explained in words only those familiar with the markets would understand, removing the entire point to a help feature.
If you are an investor looking to change from one service to DLJDirect, you will find the transition to be VERY slow. When I changed over into "hardcore" investing from my mutual funds, it took DLJDirect a good three weeks to get my money into my account for me to start my buying and selling. While it happened to benefit me since they got my money in just after the major March crash (still up on the year thanks to the slowness), I still don't like the time it took for them to finalize everything. I wonder what they were doing over there for the three weeks after my money was transferred over. It is hard to say.
Their margin orders have an insane return percentage. A family member made the recent mistake of buying on margin and the interest seems to accumulate faster than the value of the stock rises. DLJDirect should seriously think of dropping their margin loan rates significantly as to give the investor a chance to make SOME of that money back yet still give DLJDirect some profit.
DLJDirect tech support is horrendous. Recently, I had the frightening experience of losing my password. I had to call their main line (wasn't going to wait days for an e-mail response just to tell me to call) to get the mess sorted out. After 30 minutes of explaining to a guy I could swear was speaking out of an office in Bangladesh that my password was gone (where did it go?), he FINALLY, after trying to convince him my mother's maiden name, that I PUT on the card, was what I said. Why should I have to argue pronunciation of an English word when the guy has a thick Indian accent and actually mixes in non-English words into his speech? DLJDirect really skimped out on customer service.
The cost per trade is a little high for today's standards. $20 to buy and sell stocks is a little ridiculous when some places have it as low as $7 AND have better service. DLJDirect should at least drop their charges to $10 to make it more reasonable.
Also, forgot to mention this, when looking up your value, they fail to tell you how much you have made/lost over the year. There is supposedly a feature like this, but they have been telling me over the last three months that it would be turned on in three days.
Bottom line: First time investors beware! Well, any investors beware! DLJDirect is expensive and offers just about nothing in terms of customer service and explanation to first time investors. ETrade or some other brokerage house would be a better decision unless you really want to spend more for less.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
LaughingTarget
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Justin Murray
Location: Orlando, FL
Reviews written: 125
Trusted by: 105 members
About Me:
If you haven't checked out Netjak yet, where have you been?
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