ETrade Review, Online Discount Broker

E-Trade is an online discount broker that offers some of the lowest brokerage fees in the business. Account minimums stand at only $1,000 and trading fee could be as low as $6.99 if you meet all the requirements. E-Trade is arguably the most popular discount stock brokerage out there.

E-Trade ranked number 1 online stock broker by SmartMoney in 2009 and scored well in all areas including mutual funds and investment products, banking services, trading tools, research, and customer service.

Stock Investing

Currently, E-Trade is offering 100 commission-free stocks and options trade for new Power E*TRADE accounts opened with $1,000 minimum deposit. To qualify for Power E*TRADE, you must execute at least 30 stock or options trades during a calendar quarter.

Mutual Fund Investing

E-Trade gives you access to over 7,000 mutual funds, including 100’s of Morningstar top-rated funds. You also have access to over 1,000 no-load, no-transaction-fee funds at $0 commission. Otherwise, transaction-fee funds costs $19.99 per online trade.

E-Trade also offers easy to use tools, such as Automatic Investment Plan, and the All-Star Funds List of pre-selected leading funds and free Mutual Fund & ETF Screeners.

E-Trade users have access to three level of investing advice and guidance.

Tags: Discount Brokers, investing, Online Stock Trades, options, stock

User Rating

(4.25 out of 5, 8 votes)

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9 User Reviews

Steve
August 9, 2009, 10:50

I’ve used e-trade for quite a few years at this point. They’re very good with their communications via e-mail and there product offerings are among the best for the price.
They’ve been around for a while and even during the downturn, their service remained the same. I highly suggest them to my friends. The fees are much less than other brokers that offer the same services.
Kim Jolly
August 9, 2009, 11:52

I was an E*Trade bank customer for about 10 years before I rolled my IRA’s to them. The roll over was seamless. I even got a call from their local branch to answer any questions I might have. I’ve been very happy with how easy it was to make my trades. Trading is cheap, and maintentance fees are non existent. Plus I’ve really enjoyed all the great education tools. Great resources.
Daniel Smith
August 9, 2009, 13:56

I have been using Etrade since 1999 when I switched to them from Charles Schwab. I made the switch because Etrade allowed you to have an account with no maintenance fee, even if you started with a small amount. You can pretty much trade whatever you want with them, whether it is mutual funds, options, bonds, CDs, ETFs, or straight stocks. The trading fees are kind of high, $12.99 per transaction, unless you either have a large balance or make lots of trades. But they also offer a large list of mutual funds that you can invest in free of any transaction fee.

Also, you can open a bank account through them, and they have some of the highest rates around for savings accounts. The only drawback to their banking service is that everything has to be done electronically. They have no brick and mortar establishments. The offer refunds for your ATM fees, so as long as you don’t mind mailing checks and doing electronic deposit of your paycheck, they work great.
Lee
August 9, 2009, 16:41

I had a joint Etrade account with (Joint Tenancy with Rights of Survivorship) that I recently had to transfer to an individual account and it didn’t go well.

First they made me jump through a lot of hoops, I know some of it was necessary, but an Ameritrade account with the same circumstances was transferred much more smoothly. Then they suggested I leave the first account open for six months to make sure all dividends were paid correctly.

Some dividends slowly trickled in but I mostly ignored the account, because I had many other things to deal with. After six months I went to close the old account and they had been charging me a monthly inactivity fee. When I called I was informed that because I let the account balance drop too low and hadn’t been making regular trades I owed all these fees.

The third time I called they transferred me to the estates department and I finally got someone who understood how ridiculous it was for me to be charged fees on an account they told me to leave open. And how stupid it would be to be making trades with just the few hundred dollars of dividends that had accumulated. I couldn’t seem to make the first two people understand that.

The person in the estate department was very helpful and they refunded the fees, but I was very unhappy with their service.
Dena
August 10, 2009, 10:01

I’ve been using E-trade for about a year now. And I’m a very satisfied customer. I think their fees tend to be a lot less than most brokers offering the same services. It’s quite simple to make trades. And the best part is, there are no maintenance fees.
Jim Bocash
August 10, 2009, 13:04

I used E-trade for about 6 months. I never had any problems with the service. Sometimes I felt my trade requests were not handled as quickly as I would have liked, but they are a pretty big company, so personalized service is a little tough. Their fees were fair, the service was easy to use and they did not bombard me with spam or sales calls. So I would have to say E-trade is a very good service for someone who wants to handle their own trades and has a little experience.
Dan
August 10, 2009, 17:37

I’ve been using E*TRADE for over 9 years now and have been mostly pleased with the online offerings. Being able to trade stocks, mutual funds, options and bonds all in the same place is great. Good execution prices and fast reliable online platform.

However, the customer service offered via phone or the automated phone system leaves a little to be desired. Frequent incorrect information provided when question is more complex than the average request to send forms or changes addresses. The philosophy seems to be make the online offering great and just pray that the customer does not call in for assistance.
Eric
August 10, 2009, 17:38

I have had E-Trade account for at least 5 yrs when they bought Brown & Co. I do fairly complex trades utilizing options, common and preferred stocks, along with some day trades. However, I do not do it often enough to be considered a daytrader by the SEC.

TD Ameritrade, prior to moving to Brown, had classified me as a daytrader and it took numerous calls with lots of transfers to get them to understand that based on my activity and the gap in my daytrades I should not be classified as such.

Bottomline, E-Trade frontline staff are knowledgeable and if they don’t know they know who will and will get them on the phone, no multiple calls nor transfers. They are relatively cheap on commission basis, I don’t use market price orders but utilize limits and have not found any problem with execution of time or price since I get level II quotes and have independent source for quotes in real time, over the internet, to compare with their executions.

They also allow ACH funds transfers in/out of E-Trade account to other financial institution accounts that you own, once verified (a free service).
Sue
January 16, 2010, 19:02

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.

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