Ok, your points are well taken. So just forget about the debit card feature as being an advantage to you (for the moment) and let's concentrate for a moment on the unlimited check writing priviledges. Check Writing -- No fees! -- Write a check off Etrade Account, Deposit It at your bank or cash it at your bank immediately with no fees! -- If I wanted to write a check for just $1.00, I could cash it with no fees! IB Ach Transfers -- Fees with every transfer -- 2 day wait with every transfer Etade Debit Card Advantage -- Use at all ATM's with reimbursed ATM fees. Thus, no ATM fees Period! Power Etrade Pro -- My use of this platform is free as a Brownco transplant. But, active traders (those trading 30 trades per quarter) can get it free too. Also, Etrade has a 30-day free trial offer for Power Etrade Pro that you must ask for. If at the end of the 30 days you have not traded 30 times then I guess that is when the 29.95/mo. kicks in. By the way, Power Etrade Pro runs on Windows and MacIntosh. I love the platform! It's a huge advantage for me. And, true the commissions at IB cannot be beat but for me the use of Power Etrade Pro and NO CHARGES TO GET MY OWN MONEY FROM MY ACCOUNT is a sufficient compromise. View for details and click on the 'View Demo Button': https://us.etrade.com/e/t/jumppage/...A000DA3E7&sourceCode=003D79FF00654DCA000DA3E7 By the way, where did you get the $12.95 per trade? If you make 30 trades per quarter (or 10 trades per month which is easy to do) you pay $9.99 per trade. If you make 150 trades per quarter (or 12.5 trades per week which is also easy to do as an active trader) you pay $7.99 per trade. If you are successful as a trader then these rate become a minor point in light of the other advantages, aforementioned, thru Etrade. It is unfortunate that you have had so many upfront problems with customer service. I did not realize how hard it was to open up an account with them as my transition was easy for my personal account, business account and Roth Ira. But, bottom line is -- Once you're setup, things usually will run smoothly from my experience. Though I do not like having to deal with the initial contacts in India, my experience with broker customer support is great. The wait time for me has varied from about 5 min to 10 min to talk to a broker. But, once they are on the line, they are very helpful. But, I reallly don't need to call them that offen. (I do miss my dedicated service team from Brownco though. They were there for you to talk to at Etrade for about six months and then I started getting 'Genesh' on the line whenever I would call the old Brownco number. LOL. Finally, if you don't want to talk by phone to customer service, you can always drop in at one of their brick and mortar offices. I wish they had more of these and in time I am sure they will but personally, I really have not needed to go to any of them.
Here we go. People who read but dont understand. I think it is written in the new testament about those type of people. I'll find the vers and post it down the line, this isnt a religious discussion, I just find the jewish/Roman bible a nice text to glean from. Forgive my typos... There will be plenty.. I didnt winner typer of the year award.... So lets go through YOUR list of additional rebuttals... 1 - Checkwriting.... I have a bank account for that. Dont need my broker to have that feature. HAd that with my old broker back in 2000. Till some fool broke in my house, found the Brokerage account check book and wrote a bunch of checks for Pizza. So basically... I don't write checks any more. Nore do I order them, or keep them handy. I use my Banks Bill Pay service for that. Oh yeah, those Etrade checks... Never had the joy of instant cashing if the account wasnt already stacked with cash. But then there is SOOOO much check fraud, I can totally understand the banks position. Ergo, if the bank account has cash in it, why do I need Eâ¢trades checkwriting abilities.... But then someone with wack money management, who isn't smart enough to have a savings account with a minimum of 6 months income as emergency cash might need that feature. Oh year I did read some stat that says americans save -1% of their income. Glad I am West Indian. LOL. 2 - ACH Transfers. One a month is more than enough for my lifestyle. How desparate can your situation get. Hospitals accept health care plans, so that eliminates that emergency cash need. If your plan includes a large deductible, well shouldnt that Reserve backup emergency cash be in a local easy to get to account. Oh yeah poor moneymanagement again. And I hate repeating myself to people who are over 18, but I did say I pay my bills once a month, so one withdrawl (if need be) is more than adequate. My Play Job covers my bills. 5 days a month doing my play job and my bills are covered. My wife goofs off for mybe 6 days a month and any expenses she has generated are paid for. then we sit at home or hang out with each other. I hate strings.... I like freedom in life and being tied to massive debt is a string I got rid of. Then again Poor money managers are tied to massive debt and need quick access to every dime they have available. Also, Etrade is a 2 day wait for their transfers as well. I have never gotten one T+1 from them. 3 - ATM card. Read checkwriting and ACH for my opinions on that subject. Oh yeah, you still have to wait for the settlement period depending upon how leverage your waccount was during any trading session, so take your 50k example. If I leverage 45k of equites trading, I still have to wait 3 days before I can ACH these funds. If I need these features, hell keep cash local and manage your cash. Impulse purchase are not my style, but those that have to buy the latest and GREATEST today, and cant wait 3 days... well they need these lifeboats of ACH, Checkwriting and ATM.... 4 - PowerEtrade Pro 30 day demo. I asked for it. Or didnt you get that above... Oh yeah I asked to pay for it, and they said no. So If I asked for a free demo you think they would have said yes???? Thats backwards, we wont let him pay for it but he can use it for free??? Now perhaps if I was STUPID I would run my business like that. Hey yeah, I wont charge you a grand to mix your show, I'll do it for free. AND NO!!! You cant pay me to do it.... If you offer me money you cant have my services. LOL. Doubt I'll be married much longer.... 5 - TWS runs on Mac and PC, so moot point. I was speaking of the TT futures platform Pal. I did say I trade futures AND stocks.... Lets talk commissions. I read the website and I traded there. I would have had to incur $388 in trading to fees to get to the 9.99 level. Now I offer special rates to some clients. Guarantee me x amount of work, and I'll charge X price. We sign a contract and off we go. My default rate is lass than 1%. Etrade... Spend 12.95 for 30 trades and then you can get the lower rate, but if, during this next period you are 1 trade short. Oops higher rate again. Doesnt sound like a good deal to me. IB same rate all the time. If I decide to not trade stocks for 90 days and come back.... Same rate... I brought all these issues to my local Brick and Mortar.... They told me they couldnt help me and I had to STAY ont he phone with customer service. Perhaps if my wife told you the ins and out as well you'd get a clue..... ETRADE SUCKS!!!! They are like the chick on I'm gonna get you sucka. When you get her in bed you find out it was fake boobs, fake legs, fake hair, fake nails, fake eyelashes, and DAMN!!! she gotta johnson. Oops!!! (I added that last part. LOL) I knew IB's CS sucked when I jined. the 1 time I had an issue I got a response in about 2 hours. In other words I dont have the kinds of issues with them I had with etrade. Everynow and then the platform disconnects and reconnects. COmputers... it happens... Was it them?? Or was it the ISP.... I blame comcast... cuz I can check a website when it disconnects and if it takes longer to pull up that page... Hmmm it might be a heavy traffic spike.... That happens. Has it cost me money??? No.... Then I dont scalp..... SO That wouldnt worry me. Your experience is like my experience with the Music Softwrae I mix with. I read abunch of people with complaints, but in my 7 years using this program, it has been smooth sailing (except when they upgraded to V4 and I didnt bother to upgrade my computer) But V4.1 had all the problems fixed and the past 4 years have been smooth sailing. You are the me in my story and I am the others in my story.... For me ETRADE was a nightmare. However, SogInvest and IB have been nothing but wonderful. Is the support GREAT?? No, But then Etrades support was worse. People telling me they would call me back and didnt. BTW I have all this journalized. Every CAll. Every Day, etc..... Every promise for a call back and so on.....
Iwas inclined to mention this with regards to the ACH fee. I see a simple $1.00 fee after your 1st ACH withdrawal as a null and void thing. However, I see the Etrade Fees as higher than I choose to pay. I guess the antithesis of this is you see the etrade trading fees as great and see the $1.00 for each ACH past the 1st as exorbitant. SO I must ask. Is Etrade your Bank???? I dont need my brokerage to be my bank. I need my bank to be my bank, and my brokerage to be my brokerage. That works for me, perhaps not for you. And Like you, I have multiplicity of accounts. Personal Checking/Savings/IRA - Bank Business Checking (2), Business Payroll Checking (1) Bank Sogo - Trading IB- Trading TOS - Trading Etrade - IRA (2) And each account has it's JOB function.
Ok, Yeah. You got me. Etrade is my bank now. They do have their own bank, you know. They have Etrade Brokerage and Etrade Bank (Checking, Savings, CD's, Mortgages etc. etc.) And you can link your accounts whereby you may transfer funds between your Etrade Checking or Savings To or From Your Brokerage Account. Look. To each his own. If the way you do things works for you then fine. But, please don't presuppose that because I use Etrade for much of my banking that I have money management problems -- I don't. One other thing -- Do you even know where IB's physical location is or is everything conducted in CyberSpace only? Or are they physically in another country where it makes it harder for U.S.Residence to get to them. They have your money. Maybe they are in another country. One day they can decide to halt there web operations, not answer their phones and you can't visit them either because you don't know or have easy access to their physical location. I guess if something like this were to ever happen, you can always depend on the SPIC to get your money back, right? But, how long will that take? Will they have enough fund to cover everybody who seem to be coming to IB in droves. I feel safer knowing that my brokerage account is linked to my checking account in a U.S. Bank called Etrade Bank. where U.S. Banking Laws and Remedies are applicable. If I wanted, I could easily move all of my funds out of my Etrade brokerage accounts into my Etrade bank accounts with the full faith and credit of the FDIC. So, with Etrade, I am not restricted to CyberSpace where getting your money will be at the mercy of the CyberBroker. :eek:
Well now you finally understand the tone of my initial thread. Money management. I know Etrade has banking services. I was starry eyed about consolidating all my operations in one place, but they blew the stars out my eyes, then I did a cost study and realized what i am doing NOW is cheaper. 2nd... Before Etrade had tons of Physical Locations (sorry fronts, cuz your money isn't in some vault in the back.....) did you know where they were, or was the address on the website all you had???? And even with them having Places you can visit, can you withdraw cash at these locations.. Last I checked I couldn't. It was basically a computer office front. A Physical Customer Service Building. I dont care where you are located, just handle my business.. When you trade Global stocks, do they miraculously start trading in America, or are they still on the foreign exchanges, meaning you have to TRUST that your funds will TRULY show up in your account. If not, well I guess you can take that up with the SIPC as well. But then that is why they have forms and disclaimers that suggest that you should NOT trade with money you can NOT afford to lose. And they are right. If you can afford to lose it, then dont trade it. It's called RISK... Life is full of RISK. Is it guaranteed that NEW CARE you drove off the lot will start in the morning??? AGAIN... RISK.... Is it a guarantee your furnace will fire EVERYTIME you need HEAT... More RISK.... Is a guarantee that when you drive to the local store you WONT get hit by another driver??? (after all stats are most accidents occur less than 2 miles from your home)... Or is it what we call AGAIN RISK!!!!! If it wasnt for us taking RISKS we 'd all be shut ins, and thats risk...Black Mold, CO2 Poisoning, RADON.... I can go on.... IB has 30 years of existence to Etrades 24. So I am banking on a 6 Year differential RISK..... YET AGAIN..... living is a RISK. it is a RISK that when a Baby is born it will be healthy... With all of the medical science, no guarantee. My 1st Child was AT RISK. Wife had a Cerclage to sow up her cervix... It was a RISK... That paid off with a Beautiful Baby Girl..... No Risk, No Reward... But then again I believe you know that.
Its just that you were bitching about the commissions, and if you had a reasonably large account I forget the minimum, but its like $100k, its $10 for unlimited shares. With IB I'd get creamed just like I did with Tradestation and Fidelity any time i buy or sell over 1000 or 2000 shares. I can't think of many stocks except for GOOG where I'd be buying less than 2000 at a time. PS: If IB ever comes up with a more reasonable commissions setup for big accounts, hopefully they'll advertise it or something so i hear about it somewhere.
I was bitching when I was Paying $40/ roundtrip. I am a Cheap Bastard (yes I am a bastard. LOL. Legally) I always complain about costs. Regardless of what I am spending money on.... When I bear Music Gear, If I dont pay 10% over COST. I walk. I dont haggle, I find out what the dealers move it for, and thats what I try to pay. Just my way. My old Corp Job got me in that mindset. The GM always made me get 3 quotes for EVERYTHING. It got entrenched in my head. (This was 20, 21, 22) Sorry, I am just programmed that way. I guess all the prop guys who trade millions of shares suck because they want the cheapest Commish rates they can find as well. So toss that argument back in the bag... We all want cheaper rates....Unless you are a fool... And we all know how that proverb ends....
Oh yeah... Again I re-state, I dont trade stocks in that high volume or size. Not my tea bag, I am mostly futures.
Interactive Brokers is headquartered in Connecticut. The property of its customers is subject to the remedies and protections of U.S. securities laws, and within certain limits, is also insured by SIPC and Lloyd's of London, to a greater extent than FDIC insures bank deposits. Stylark3's suggestions to the contrary are blatantly false. So also is his suggestion that bank accounts are insured "with the full faith and credit of the FDIC"; when in fact, FDIC provides no insurance for bank deposits exceeding $100,000.