Avoid using Etrade and if you already do - switch to someone else (not plugging anyone, you ll have to do your own research). I opened my etrade account in 1997 and the first few yrs were fine. Simple trading executions - and there was not a lot of competition at the time. That started changing in 2005 ... over time Etrade's record keeping has been abysmal, they will charge way above market on margin rates, fee you to death, scrape you on trades. And, their trading fees arent any cheaper. if you are reading this and still sign up with them then i have a space bridge that I want to sell you. Their commercials may be cool, but that is about the only thing that is. Their new CFO is form Telebanc - a company that etrade bought and the reason they almost went BK. Run, don't walk...

ETRADE has lost my $$ have documentation and still waiting 14days for answers.

After his death they added a new cancer to my life.

Because of etrade, I have to hire an attorney and go to probate court. We had arranged everything so that this would not happen. When the company he worked for set-up the etrade account, it did not fall under the auspices of his company, where I had been listed as the beneficiary all all assets.

When I tried to cash out stock options with etrade after my loved ones death, etrade locked me out of the account even though I successfully logged on, had all passwords, had all social security numbers and the deceased had already set up an account with both our names to transfer the funds into upon his death. He had even started transferring all stock options that had matured to the joint account prior to his illness/death. The stock was at a record high. I am losing THOUSANDS of dollars as the stock can be volatile. They treated me like a CRIMINAL on the phone. I was then bombarded with legalese. So now after watching the person I love fight cancer for 3 years, I now have to jump through LEGAL HOOPS to satisfy etrade and get monies rightfully earned by my loved one.

Here is a sample of the legal emails, mail and calls I am getting.

Generally, there are two ways in which to exercise the options. One may do a Same-Day-Sale also known as a â??Cashless Exerciseâ?? which results in the Estate receiving cash upon settlement of the trade equal to the difference between the option price and the current market value of the stock or one may do a Cash exercise which results in the Estate receiving company name stock upon settlement of the trade.

If the Executor would like to exercise these options, he/she may use E*TRADE to do so. The Company has an established arrangement with E*TRADE to facilitate the exercise of options and the sale of vested restricted stock shares for employees. Deceased name currently has an E*TRADE employee account where the exercisable options are held and a retail account where we deposited the 117 shares

If your cant open a checking account because of a bad report on the chexsystems, opening a etrade brokerage account is a great second chance checking account because it comes with checks and a check card along with direct deposit. See http://www.badcreditmd.com/second-chance-checking-account/etrade/

I used to love e*trade bill pay! It was easy and straightforward. Then, they did their updates and everything changed. Worst thing about it was i did not get any notification from them until many months later when the tos popped up on my web login and immediately got a letter requesting i accept the new terms from the bank, even though the changes apparently were done on april. When i realized i did not like the new terms of service and features as it was too confusing and hard for me to manage, i wanted to move the bill pay elsewhere. E*trade would not give me any online access at all to see my payees, their contact info, scheduled payments & billpay kept on paying bills even when i told them i do not agree to the tos and to stop any further payments. Finally, i just moved my bill pay elsewhere "blind" and they closed my billpay to stop any further payments. I knew it was a system error and i even got a call from them to reimburse penalties. I was getting that ready... Unfortunately, e*trade bill pay still keeps on sending out unauthorized payments and it has been almost two months now! Even to old accounts that i no longer have... From many years ago! E*trade keeps on giving me charges for going under their limits and i now have to figure out what bills it will pay, juggle accounts, avoid penalties there and elsewhere! I had one issue because of all the confusion, and got scolded in a signed personal letter from the bank. This fiasco has caused me so much distress! It has been a nightmare! I wanted to see if others also this problem, especially the lack of notice of the april changes and the unauthorized payments system flaw.

eTrade may be the worst companies out there. I gave them a chance 5 years ago and once again this last year. Going with eTrade was the worse business decision I have ever made. Their system forgot to put in a simple market order. Who or what can do such a thing. If you value your time and money, stay away from eTrade. I stand by my review. Richard Norwood. I am a customer of etrade.

They keep on making simple mistakes, handing out incorrect advice and provide no explanation after the event. The recent one being the 1099 issue that I had with them. My employer was with them so I had to be with them. After many employee complaints, the employer provided a second brokerage option recently. and I will switch asap.

My latest 1099 issue with them -

ETrade customer service system sucks big time. They haven't fixed the problem until today and can't even tell me when will they fix it. ETrade made a mistake on the 1099 and then multiple commitments were made to fix the issue by specific dates. Every time they didn't fix it and didn't provide any justification whatsoever. They plainly said that that is the way it is and it is my prerogative to take my business to a competiting broker.

I brought to their notice the mistake made on my 1099 and I have been chasing them for the past one and a half month. They made two runs of corrected 1099 in the past 4 weeks and every time the representative said they will fix it in the upcoming run but they didn't. I escalated to the supervisor before the second run and he escalated but still no fix in the second run. Based on some untold creteria, they decided my request was not important enough to be addressed. After the second run, I asked to speak to somebody higher in the command chain than the supervisor and supervisor, in his judgement, decided that it wasn't important enough and that request was denied. In addition to $ expenses (last minute reschedule of appointments with tax consultant, fee to file the extension), dealing with ETrade is just frustating because they don't give a headsup before the run and don't give any explanations.

Etrade has been excellent overall. The user interface is intuitive and straight-forward. Simple and free to move funds among accounts, simple bill-pay system, their investing and trading offerings and platform is easy to use and are as good or better than competitor's (unless you are a hi-volume trader, but this is not their business model). Their customer-service is excellent and I have used in many times, never have a problem getting ahold of a rep. They reimburse for all ATM fee's from any other bank ATM, which is fantastic. One negative with many online banks is that it can be tough to get large amounts of cash quickly. Its not a huge problem for me. In 2002 I called in a stop-payment on a large check, but I was too late and the check was cashed. Etrade looked up the date and time of my recorded call, reviewed it, and promptly reimbursed me the cash. The check was for a couple thousand dollars. They don't charge excessive fee's or hidden fee's. I cannot come up with too many negatives. I have had accounts with them for about 15 years.

Until today. I learned that they made a business decision to close all my accounts without any warning. I never bounced a check, did not have any margin and had plenty of money in each account. Customer service basically said they have no clue and I will have to wait to get something in the mail. I used them for the convenience of online. But what a nightmare they have put me into. Now I'm fighting to get my money out of them.

I have zero complaints about Etrade. They have a good interest rate on the MM checking and easy transfers with brokerage account. No fee and great customer service. When you call you get someone in NYC and they help you right away, never have waited for help, 24 hours a day. I do have a larger account with them, and maybe that is why I get quick service. My only beef is that there is no physical locations to deposit cash or check, but rather you need to mail them in.