I had only a small holding of stock in the company my sister works for in my etrade account… more a symbolic thing than anything else.
I just realized that Etrade has been charging me $40/quarter for a “maintenance fee” — and so, held against my modest stock holdings, my account is about at $0. If I continue to keep the account open, apparently, I’d owe etrade money for the privilege of them doing, well, nothing at all.
Some might argue that this is like a bank checking account fee of sorts… you know, keep the monthly minimum or get charged every month.
But that’s different. That fee typically includes the ability to write checks, use your check card in local ATMs and the grocery store and such, and so on.
With etrade, if you want to buy a stock, you have to pay a separate fee. Want to sell a stock? That costs money, too.
So what, exactly, has my $40 paid for? Etrade was even MAKING some money off of me from the small amount sitting in my cash account with them, and I sure as hell wasn’t costing them $40 worth of quarterly maintenance.
Sure, they disclosed this fee in small print on the last page of statements mailed to me, but heck, given that I wasn’t actually DOING anything with the account, why would I bother looking over those statements with a fine-tooth comb?
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As you might guess, I’m closing my account. Anyone know if other brokers are any less evil?
What do you think?