e*Trade

yolande of west hollywood, CA October 31, 2009

`On 9/28/2008, E*trade simply liquidated, at a considerably lesser value, and without informing me, the shares I had bought on 3/15/2000 for 1,107.45, in order to pay for the accumulated 25 "account maintenance fees" they had started charging me at some point in time. According to a customer service representative I contacted recently, the account was considered "dormant". Of course it was: I was waiting for the value of the shares to increase again to an acceptable level to sell them and limit my loss. So, it was simply closed without my knowledge, with E*trade helping themselves to my money...

I thought I would sell my shares these days, and get at least a fraction of my money back. I have nothing left. In addition, E*trade maintains that they sent me regular statements. The statements simply stopped coming after a while. If I had any idea my account was getting regularly depleted, I would have sold everything immediately to reduce my loss.

I filed a complaint with Finra. E*trade responded on 10/16/2009 with one of their boilerplate letters: account inactive; they started implementing a quarterly fee schedule, etc.; they sent me statements – I know I did not receive them – etc. So, according to Finra’s response, E*trade “has adequately addressed the issues raised” in my complaint.

Gregory of Port Washington, NY October 26, 2009

I had 3 college savings funds (Coverdell) ESAs invested in ETRADE's S&P index fund. ETRADE Liquidated the fund this past MARCH at the absolute bottom of the market. After more than 10 years of saving, saving, saving, and buying more and more ETRADE stock, they sold it at the absolute worst possible time, and DIDN"T INFORM ME. I check in on the funds in June and to my shock and horror discover that the stocks were sold and the accounts languishing IN CASH! I totally missed the upside of the market and lost 40% of what I had worked and saved for. I immediately then ATTEMPTED to transfer the funds and they delayed and deceived and defrauded me every step of the way. I only got the last account transferred last week! This is an account where the "Request to Transfer" (to the new account) had a discrepancy because the New account listed my daughter's full middle name, and the old etrade account had her listed by middle initial. To add insult to injury, they charged me 60 to transfer each of the three funds for 180 after the thousands they cost me.

Joyce of Brooklyn, NY October 22, 2009

I have accounts with E*Trade for more than 10 yrs. On 10/08/2009, I called the firm to withdraw money from my bank on phone (account service). And they refuse to do so; the reason is they can not identity that whom is on the phone even I gave all necessary myself information (DOB, SS#, email, Phone#, address, etc.). Than they block my access to all service. Now I can not trade stocks, access my bank money. I called E*Trade than they ask me to fax driver license to them, but I remain unable to access my asset.

George of Alameda, CA October 6, 2009

I have had an account with Etrade for years. When my account dropped below 10,000 they started to charge me a quarterly fee. To add insult to injury, they put this charge onto a margin account. So now I have 1300 in fees and interest on this margin account. This is crazy and should be illegal. When your account status changes like this, they should contact you. This is for an account that has not had activity on it for years! This is bad business. To make it worse, I put a good deal of money into this account (bad investment--lost most of this money) with the understanding that the would remove the fees, interest and stop charging me these fees. This was a lie! They took the deposit, but never refunded my account! There are other companies that don't charge for this type of account. My full brokerage account (with an adviser, etc--old school brokerage account) only charges 50 a year for an account with a similar balance. How do I fight this?

Megan of Springfield, OR September 12, 2009

Since I got my account, I have had the following problems with E-Trade: 1. They post a false "projected balance" and cannot account for it. When I called customer service, they said that they don't have a deal with Visa to show pending deductions. But this makes no sense, because she was looking at them herself and reading them to me. Further, she said that all restaurant transactions show twice in the projected balance. So, if you pay for an 80 dinner one night, expect to see the 80 x 2, plus a guessed-at tip on the projected balance.

This still made no sense, as the projected -- but not shown -- debit was still too high for that amount even. It did all wash out right eventually, but it took about a week and a half. I've never ever dealt with a bank so slow. And they're online!!! This happens repeatedly if I forget and use my Etrade card to pay for dinner.

2. Twice now, transfers of money to my landlord for rent have had massive problems. I won't go into too much detail, because it would take too long to read. Basically, the first time it happened, they said they transferred the money but didn't. A week later, the same thing. Finally, I had to call them. A rep on the phone told me I must not have hit the confirm button. I HAVE BEEN DOING ONLINE TRANSFERS FOR OVER TEN YEARS. bs. I know how to hit the confirm button.

Further, the second time I put it through, I noticed there wasn't any confirmation number. So, I emailed their "online customer service." You know the end of this joke. Two days passed, some guy wrote a generic email about how to turn on transfers, etc etc. I was furious. Finally, when I talked to the girl on the phone, she transferred the money. But she couldn't give me a confirmation number for it! I couldn't believe it.

The second time I had problems with the money transfer was just one month later. And it took them over a week to transfer the money. The receiving bank had not actually received the money from Etrade until 2 days -- weekdays -- after Etrade told me the money posted. This is digital information, people. And again, I've been doing online transactions with my money for a very long time. I've not had this etrade account very long. And I hope I don't have the same problems other people do getting my money away from them. I'm done with them.

Think about it. Why does a bank need to cling to your money for just another couple days, just three, just four, five, tops. And lie to you about it. Hide it? Something is amiss.

Kermit of Lancaster, PA September 5, 2009

Prior to the 10th of every month, I electronically transfer 900.00 to cover an 882.00 payment due on the 13th. They require 3 days for the funds to be available. E -Trade charged my account 25.00 for supposed NSF on the very same day that there were excess funds in the amount of over 300.00 in the account. Their explanation was that the funds were withdrawn on the 12th when they have never been posted before the 13th going back to July, 2005. I have never been late with a payment and yet they refuse to credit the 25.00. Their unreasonable and unfair response and lack of understanding is appalling. The refusal to transfer me to their superior is arrogant and represents the worst example of customer service I have encountered in years.

Diane of Boardman, OH September 5, 2009

We have been trying to rollover an IRA for three months now. After a month with no progress (we were traveling abroad), we called and were told that they had the forms and that the rep had no idea why nothing had happened. He assured me it would happen immediately. Several days later, seeing that the account was unchanged, I called again. This time, the rep said that a medallion signature guarantee was missing. He suggested liquidating all stock, then just transferring the money into our checking directly without bothering with the forms. I liquidated the stock eltronically, then found there is no transfer option for an IRA. I reinitiated all the forms and waited. Three weeks later, still no movement of the money. I emailed Etrade to ask why the transfer had not occurred. Rather than emailing me at my email address, they responded to a Security Message Center at the Etrade site and said, the only page they received was the front page! The forms were sent by snail mail, not FAX!! How could they have lost all but the front page? Please note that throughout all of this, ETRADE has never initiated communication. If something was wrong with my forms, THEY should have contacted me. I am eager to move all of my money from ETRADE. I have contacted the SEC. I wonder if I will be able to transfer my money out or if they will just dance around the request as they are doing with the IRA.

seevali of Singapore, Singapore August 22, 2009

I just cant believe how etrade can get away from all these complaints.....i had similar issues..Etrade leqidated my funds and stopped my brokerage account..For the past few weeks I haveb trying to reinstate this they have been asking for many requests and I have provided these information.. however, they keep requesting for same information!! as if one agent does not have any idea what was the communication trail was!!! Suring the process they stopped my account stating unusual activities. I was a regional Vice president and I travel with in my region and accessed the account (to check email s from e*trade, as they have not activated the brokerage ac)....It the most horrifying experiance of my life..They agents are so unprofessional and it a complete waste of my time.. Etrade still hold 5000USD for the past few years and toddate I have not been able to either get these funds back not activate my brokerage account!!! I wish some gov body can investigate as Etrade is not Ethical!!!

Richard of Redmond, WA August 2, 2009

In November 2008, I found out that my outgoing transfer in E*trade bank was not successful because they placed security hold on my account which was at the balance of approximately 20,000. I called them and they told me I need to write a notarized letter to them. This started my nightmare with their incoherent verification process and rude customer service.

They lost my notarized letter by accidents, repeated tricky requests to me even if I was not able to do their requests. Their requests didn’t make sense at all, like requesting my source bank to promise I am the account holder. But E*trade didn’t care, and would hold my fund forever until they smelled possible lawsuit from me.

Their representatives had been really rude during my communication with them. Some of them told me if I satisfy their request, they would “consider” removing security hold on my account. Some other representatives directly hung up on me and refused to communicate after I finally satisfied their request (and that was hard to do). They even got rude when I pointed out that they did receive my notarized letter.

Their service and attitude were very bad through the tedious discussion, which took me 3 months of time, countless call and headache. The funny thing is they kept making difficult requests to me, but they could never give me a clear answer why they placed security hold on my account.

After reading hundreds of complaint in Internet, I know my case is not rare. It looks like E*trade is doing every possible trick to hold customer’s money as long as they can. Very unethical and disgusting.

Rick of Boulder, CO July 29, 2009

Etrade liquidated my IRA holdings in its SP500 index fund at the bottom of the stock market without informing me.

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