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More broker lists Brokers which accept "foreign" or "international" accounts, in order of ascending price of limit orders for equities:(The list is probably very incomplete. Where the site mentions a requirement for W-8 forms, I assume that the company also accepts non-resident aliens, and have so indicated.) Just2Trade,
(877) 206-2274, (202) 386-7261
Products: Stocks, options, mutual funds
Market Orders: $2.50. Additional charges for extended hours trading, paper documentation.
Limit Orders: $2.50. Additional charges for extended hours trading, paper documentation.
Mutual Funds: $2.50
Options: $2.50/trade+$0.50/contract
Minimum to Open: $2500
Inactivity Fee: Seems to be $0.00.
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$25.00. ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Based on proprietary base rate
Extras: Foreign accounts: "Non-US citizens are eligible to apply." Free real-time streaming quotes; otherwise, the site is extremely barebones. Checkwriting and debit card for an annual fee.
Notes: On January 11, 2008, a user reported that the advantageous money market rate posted on their site is not available to retail customers. "A division of Success Trade Securities, Inc." Clears through Legent Clearing; until about May, 2008, they cleared through North American Clearing, whose assets have been frozen in relation to a fraud investigation; see user comment below. "A minimum of 2 years experience with online trading and computers is required."
User Comments: "I have been dealing with Just2Trade since January 2007 and have done numerous stock trades. I have dealt with many brokers in the 50 years I have been trading. I have not had any problems with Just2Trade. Trades go smoothly.... I have found it is easier to get an answer by emailing them [than by calling]. They send answers fairly promptly and have [solved] any problems that have arisen.... They pay a high interest rate on balances, about 4.2x% at this time. [My two money market funds are paying 4.09% and 4.17%. Ed.]... [I]t is difficult to determine which funds they actually handle. They list many more on their site than they accept for trading at this time. I asked about preferred stocks. At the present time you must call them to place a trade, but they indicated that they would add this to their site in the future. They provide a [direct access] trading platform on their site. However, on my 22" LCD monitor the type size is so small it is unusable, and there is no way to enlarge the type. I do not use it but place my trades without it. They did not charge my IRA account when I made a partial outgoing transfer. This is a very good broker for the services they provide. I am happy with them and I highly recommend them for stock trading."(November 25, 2007) "[I]t is now easily determinable which funds they do trade."(January 12, 2007) "North American's monthly statements are by far the worst I have ever seen. They are poorly organized, confusing, and very difficult to reconcile. They need a makeover. I like doing business with Just2Trade, but equally dislike North American Clearing.... In the last few months they omitted a dividend from a new mutual fund purchase which I finally got them to correct. They still have not corrected an incorrect 1099-DIV where they showed distributions that should have been shown on a K-1 since the company in question is a partnership. This has been going on for almost two months. I called the company that made the distribution directly and they sent me the K-1.... I have called Just2Trade on the phone very occasionally. Sometimes I get them right away, other times it takes a few minutes."(April 13, 2008) "The worst broker I've ever dealt with. Their [recent] clearing company (North American Clearing) has had their assets frozen by the SEC pending fraud investigation and this has resulted in inability to liquidate (or trade, for that matter) for the last two weeks. I have now lost over $3500 because of this and all the broker can do is offer half-price commissions for the rest of the month of June (two weeks of trading left!), and tell me on the phone it has 'caught them by surprise' as well, so it's not their fault. Run, don't walk away from these guys."(June 10, 2008) "Just2Trade clears through Legent Clearing (since summer of 2008). Things are going very smoothly now. Trades are executed quickly. Dividends are properly credited. Statements are correct. I have had zero problems in over a year and think this is a great broker. If you email or call, you receive excellent customer service. However, since the advent of Legent as clearing broker I have had little need for customer service. One noteworthy change is the very low interest on free balances. I am now receiving .05% in an FDIC insured bank. [For comparison: My 2 FDIC accounts at Citi yield 1.00% and 1.19% today, but they are very high. ed.] Just2Trade is an excellent broker and is highly recommended if you do not mind the low interest on free balances. (I have accounts with Scottrade, ETrade, TDAmeritrade, Fidelity and Vanguard as well)."(October 24, 2009) "Since Just2Trade changed clearing broker two years ago they have been an exemplary broker. They have excellent customer service which is now rarely needed.... [T]hey do ACH transfer of monies to and from your bank. Low rates on stocks and mutual funds, great service and fast executions are definite pluses. Low interest on balances and limited research are minuses. Highly recommended if you can do your research elsewhere."(May 30, 2010)
Rates Updated: June 29, 2010 eOption,
1-888-793-5333, 1-847-375-6080
Products: Stocks, foreign stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options
Market Orders: $3.00
Limit Orders: $3.00
Mutual Funds: $14.95; applies to "All Mutual Fund Trades" except for periodic investments and withdrawals, which are $5.00.
Options: $3.00/trade+$0.10/contract
Minimum to Open: $0
Inactivity Fee: $0.00
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$25.00; $50.00 "Less Than 48 Hours".. DTC Out:$25.00 per security. ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Based on on-site table
Extras: Foreign accounts accepted. Both free and paid cash management services, including checking. Incoming and outgoing ACH. Dividend reinvestment. No setup fees or maintenance fees for IRAs, although it does have a termination fee. Also has direct access platforms.
Notes: "[A] division of Regal Securities, Inc." Clears through Penson Financial Services. Minimal research products. Seems to have a few unusual fees, as for worthless securities or conversion of convertibles.
User Comments:
Rates Updated: October 7, 2009 Zecco,
877-700-7862
Products: Stocks, options, no-load mutual funds
Market Orders: $4.50 (+ a well-hidden $1.50 for those who don't opt out of paper confirmations)
Limit Orders: $4.50 (+ a well-hidden $1.50 for those who don't opt out of paper confirmations)
Mutual Funds: $10.00
Options: $4.50/trade+$0.50/contract
Minimum to Open: $0. $2000 minimum for margin accounts.
Inactivity Fee: $0.00
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:"$15.00 per request plus interest from settlement date until paid". DTC Out:$25.00 "per request". ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Based on proprietary base rate
Extras: ACH transfers in both directions. Includes a forum and some user blogs. Foreign accounts accepted. Dividend investment for whole shares; the remainder is deposited in the cash account. In many cases, this will be a major limitation on dividend reinvestment.
Notes: Clears through Penson Financial Services. Seems to have very high margin rates - 7.20% on March 13, 2009, when the comparable rates listed on my margin rates page ranged from 2.25% to 5.75%; Zecco's site says that the margin rate is negotiable for debt above $50,000. Very low credit interest on default cash account, but see customer update below. They seem to have some unusual charges, such as an interest charge on the cost of securities purchased with uncleared funds, and a $7.50 per month per security charge for holding "Non-Transferable [or] Worthless Securities".
User Comments: "I've been with Zecco for about two months now, overall a very good experience.... I used their customer service three times. They did not follow up with one issue so I had to make the third call.... Out of two e-mails I sent I got one reply... Limit orders sometimes execute at better than the limit price... They send you a paper statement (free) every day that you had any transactions, so you might end up with a large paper trail. Their system did screw up once so far by replacing my purchase price for a position in my portfolio, but (as of today) they appear to be on top of it. Their user interface took a long time to get used to, and their double-log-in... and very short session log-out time are a hassle. 1% annual interest paid on cash balance in the account."[Editor's note: My default sweep accounts at two other brokers are bearing 4.46% and 4.39% right now.](August 10, 2007) "Opened a couple of weeks ago and customer service is terrible to fair if you can wait 24 hours on an email. But, no secure email from the web site and a very, very difficult web site to use. They do offer 4.39% on a money market sweep but you have to send in a form for it."[Editor's note: My default sweep accounts at two other brokers are bearing 4.51% and 4.55% right now.](August 31, 2007) "You get what you pay for, sometimes. Zecco trades do save a few bucks but their all free trades theme is rapidly going south. All things considered, I have lost more fooling around with this substandard brokerage than had I [would have if I had] paid more at a higher end discounter. Their customer service is virtually unreachable by phone and when you do get them through e-mail you get one excuse after another. No one seems to know what is going on. Mutual fund trades can go days or weeks without being filled. Stock trades are frequently rejected due to "insufficient buying power".... Zecco is not worth your time or money...."(November 16, 2007) "You have to tell them more than once that dividends are supposed to be reinvested. They charged me a $30 [IRA maintenance] fee at the end of November for 2007 when I opened the account and want to charge me another in February."(January 10, 2008) "I have used Zecco for two weeks. I use margin and sometimes trade options. Overall it has been ok. My only complaint is that when I sell shares, the sale does not get settled [?] until the next day. For non-margin accounts, the settlement period is three days. This makes daytrading impossible because you have to wait overnight before the buying power is refreshed."(November 25, 2008) "I read various comments on the Internet about ZECCO's poor customer service. Based on the email I sent to them and the response I got, I don't think customer service has improved." [His email to them: "How many mutual funds do you offer?" Their answer: "Please submit to us specific securities you would like to purchase and we will be able to assist you in finding out if you can hold them here."](January 23, 2009) "Zecco for a while has been using dirty tactics to make money.... Like taking forever to clear trades, etc.... The proceeds from the sale take forever to be available for another trade.... ACH deposit[s] take forever to be available.... [Their] customer service is the worst I've ever encountered.... And... they tried to charge me for taking money out of my account via ACH.... [M]any times I go to sell a position and they give me a message that my trade was couldn't be executed because I don't own the position, when in fact I do. This particular time i had my order rejected twice, before trying it a third time and finally being executed.... [I] have had many brokerage accounts... Zecco is the worst by far."(February 2, 2009) "Zecco... is the absolute worst online trading experience I have ever had. To start, their customer service reps and managers are woefully misinformed about SEC regulations and their responsibilities to their clients' money. They take the longest time on ACH transfers (20-30 days). A few of mine were cancelled for no reason and I had to call the office to follow up numerous times. Be prepared to call the office every day if you're taking money out. Many times the reps say that they will call back to resolve an issue, and they simply don't. Their online platform is mediocre to bad. Their trailing stops feature was down for a week during volatile market times, when my other brokerages were doing fine. Their charts lag relative to their competitors, and their executions are slow. Also, uninvited total screen refreshes put you behind the 8-ball when you have to wait, wait, wait, then make a quick move. Don't even think about trading on 5 minute intervals.... [T]hey have hidden fees on every transaction.... Their accounting system is broken. I'm having my accountant look over their records because my buying power doesn't even coincide with what their own account records say. As it is, I'm out about $500 because of a mistake they made, which I have yet to see fixed. I have complained to FINRA and the SEC. Yes, I believe it's that bad."(February 26. 2009)
Rates Updated: March 13, 2009 LowTrades,
(202) 466-6890, (800) 597-8767
Products: Mutual funds, domestic and foreign stocks, options. (No online orders for funds or international stocks.)
Market Orders: $4.95
Limit Orders: $4.95
Mutual Funds: $25.00
Options: $4.95/trade+0.60/contract
Minimum to Open: $500; $2000 for margin account. There is officially no minimum for a cash account, but there is a monthly "trading desk fee" for accounts with less than $500 in equity.
Inactivity Fee: $50/year, charged twice a year, unless one makes two trades a year, one in each of the 6-month charge periods.
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$40.00. DTC Out:$30.00 "per request". ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Broker Call+3.00%
Extras: Foreign accounts: "Applications are accepted from all countries outside the United States, excluding Canada." Free checking, online bill payment, and some other cash management services. ACH transfers.
Notes: Thanks to Doug L. for the update. "A division of Success Trade Securities, Inc." Clears through Penson Financial Services.
User Comments:
Rates Updated: February 3, 2010 MB Trading,
(866) 628-3001, (310) 647-4281
Products: Stocks, Canadian stocks, futures, options, bonds, mutual funds
Market Orders: $4.95
Limit Orders: $4.95
Mutual Funds: $50.00 for no-load funds
Options: $1.00/contract
Minimum to Open: $1000; $2000 for margin account
Inactivity Fee: $0.00
Some Other Fees: DTC Out:$25.00. ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Proprietary rate posted on their site. Was 8.95% on October 27, 2007.
Extras: A large assortment of Scudder money market funds available as sweep funds. Foreign accounts accepted from many countries, based on list.
Notes: A direct access broker, but I have listed it because it has no additional ECN or exchange fees.
User Comments: "I have an account with them and have had no problems."(October 27, 2007) "I've been trading with MB Trading and can't say enough good things about them; ranging from their trading platform to their customer support and university. I'm so happy I finally made the move from the "TV" brokers of the world. Although I still love the e-trade baby commercials. You owe it to yourself to give MB Trading a try."(February 24, 2010)
Rates Updated: October 27, 2007 Firstrade,
1.800.869-8800, 718.961-6600
Products: Stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, CDs
Market Orders: $6.95
Limit Orders: $6.95
Mutual Funds: $9.95 for no-load funds. NTF funds also available.
Options: $6.95/trade+$0.75/contract
Minimum to Open: $0
Inactivity Fee: $0.00
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$25.00. DTC Out:$10.00/security. ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Based on proprietary base rate
Extras: Dividend reinvestment. Valet accounts (with annual fee). Several kinds of Standard and Poor's research. No setup fees or maintenance fees for IRAs. Foreign accounts accepted, including non-resident aliens. Also has site in Chinese.
User Comments: "Bad service. Called from Thailand and was told to send a fax application first, to get an account number, then send the original by post. Did that. One week after sending the fax, no communication. Documents sent by EMS should have arrived two days ago."(August 11, 2005) "Firstrade has been an excellent broker in every way, they are quick to respond to queries, their Valet service is excellent, good all around. I would recommend them to anyone."(November 12, 2006) "I am an American living in Thailand and working in the UAE. I have traded with Firstrade for almost 2 years. I trade three accounts, 2 IRAs with mutual funds and 1 account with stocks. I have never had trouble with their online access and services. Trades are executed and confirmations received in a few seconds. I have deposited and withdrawn funds a few times - never any problem. Customer services responds to general questions via email in 24-48 hours. I have never called them. I recommend them for good basic service with low fees."(October 14, 2007) "Good customer service every time I have had to contact them, mostly by e-mail, once by phone. The best experience is when I had already sent in my application to rollover my IRA, they posted a new promotion on their web site (free trades for 1 year). I asked if they would extend the offer to me, even though the promotion did not start when I sent my application to them, and they agreed to do it."(April 23, 2008) "I own some preferred stock which was to be exchanged for common shares (Citi). E*Trade advised me of the offer by post as soon as they had the information. I own the same preferreds in a Firstrade IRA but did not hear from them even though all information comes to me in email. I inquired and have yet to receive anything but a runaround. They even suggested that the information went to the spam folder, but if they had looked, it would have been evident from my voting record that I get everything they send. They are 'investigating'; that message arriving August 19, 2009. They are not responding to my further inquiries, leading me to believe that they have discovered that they screwed up badly. I will be filing a NASD complaint for this error."(September 8, 2009)
Rates Updated: February 3, 2010 Wang Investments,
1.800.353-WANG(9264), +1.212.425-9264
Products: Stocks, options, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, money market instruments, foreign stocks
Market Orders: $7.00
Limit Orders: $7.00
Mutual Funds: $30.00 for no-load funds. NTF funds also available.
Options: $17.00/trade+$1.50/contract, $25.00 minimum.
Minimum to Open: 0; $5000 for margin account
Inactivity Fee: $35.00/year, except for "account values greater than $25,000", IRA accounts, and certain "active accounts".
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$25.00 (Also for mandatory reorganizations). ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Unknown
Extras: Seem to be no setup fees or maintenance fees for IRAs. Foreign accounts accepted, including non-resident aliens. Sites in both traditional and simplified Chinese; from what others have written, my impression is that many of their employees are native speakers of Chinese.
User Comments:
Rates Updated: January 9, 2010 Scottrade,
1.800.619-SAVE (7283)
Products: Stocks, options, mutual funds, CDs, munis, Canadian stocks
Market Orders: $7.00
Limit Orders: $7.00
Mutual Funds: $17.00. Load funds also incur a $17.00 redemption fee. Also has NTF funds.
Options: $7.00/trade+$1.25/contract
Minimum to Open: $500
Inactivity Fee: $0.00
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$25.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Based on proprietary base rate
Extras: Checkwriting. Also has site in Chinese. Personal broker. Provides a variety of Standard and Poor's research. No setup fees or maintenance fees for IRAs. This is what they said about foreign accounts on April 1, 2004: "At the current time we can establish accounts for U.S., Chinese, Taiwan and Hong Kong residents only. This includes the 50 U.S. States, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands."
Notes: Low credit interest on cash balances. On February 13, 2008, Paul M. reported that "Scottrade now pays 0.42% on the cash in your account with no sweep options." On the same date, the money market funds which are the default sweep vehicles in my own two brokerage accounts were paying roughly 2.97% and 3.31%.
User Comments: "Scottrade is a great broker if you rarely have excess cash sitting in your account. However, the interest that they pay on excess cash is very poor, at the time of this writing [September 11, 2006] it is 3% (on $10,000) while other brokers are typically paying 4.5%. [My two money market funds are paying 4.36% and 4.45%. Ed.] This difference comes out to $150 per year in lost interest on $10,000 that one could have earned if they used a different broker. It takes a lot of $30 yearly maintenance fees or $15 trades to add up to the $150 per year in lost interest."(September 8, 2006) "Scottrade's old trading platform used to be fast, functional and accurate. However, their new platform is extremely slow over a dial-up line and has many technical bugs and math errors which never seem to get addressed. They also lack the ability to write put options."(February 1, 2007) "Compared to my benchmark rate at Vanguard, they're sitting on at least 200 basis points of my money as maintenance fee. This is why I want to leave Scottrade."(February 27, 2007) "[Scottrade has] a security vulnerability in their website (specifically their Streaming Quotes tool) that I first notified them of several years ago. They have both failed to even acknowledge let alone fix it. The summary of the issue is that because of how streaming quote tool is first loaded, a third-party could impersonate the account holder and have visibility into the person's account and buy/sell securities within the account."(April 4, 2007) "Scottrade... has been a complete ordeal. [They] required me to visit one of their brokers to set up my account. Upon doing so I found this particular broker to be an arrogant ass who went to far as to attempt to correct me when I used the terminology Investment Advisor Representative.... Because of his ignorance I had to find some information not mentioned on the application prior to opening my account and fax the additional information to him the next day. The broker chose to not call me and notify me when he received the information and he chose to not notify me when my account was activated and ready for funds. Upon attempting to seed my account I found that Scottrade does not accept ACH transactions.... After sending them a check to seed my account and having that check held for 12 days I was finally ready to trade. Unfortunately trading proved difficult as I found their site, at least by comparison with Ameritrade, very clunky and lacking some of the key tools I have come to rely on. I only made two trades, a purchase and a sale of a highly liquid big-cap stock. Both of these trades were executed exactly at my limit price despite the fact that the stock was trading about 10c below the limit price when I bought and about 20c above the limit price when I sold. Thanks to an open call contract I haven't closed my Ameritrade account yet. I have, however, closed my Scottrade account and will send that money back to Ameritrade, that is if I ever get it."(April 11, 2007) "I sent in an application for business account to Scottrade on 3/27/2007. [Two weeks later] the account has not been opened. The representative seemed to have little knowledge of processing this type of account. I have resent the forms they required twice and they came back for more signatures which they could have told us about the first time.... Now this morning they want me to reapply from scratch and I flatly told them they can forget about the application and return the check I enclosed for account opening. This experience with Scottrade is indeed eye opening. I wonder how many new business Scottrade has turned away because of their poor customer service and [their representatives' lack of] knowledge of their new account procedures."(April 13, 2007) "I've been with them for about nine months....[L]imit orders never execute at a better than limit price. Also, they don't pay high interest on the cash balance in the account. I don't like them too much.... Scottrade's website regularly crashes after some time with Firefox 2.0.0.6. Their little graph that shows your portfolio status when you log [into your] home page is ugly, always slow, and sometimes does not load...."(August 10, 2007) "I've had a Scottrade account... for nine years, but active only for 7 1/2.... I normally use margin, which is exorbitantly costly at Scottrade.... The only other complaint I have about Scottrade is that in the middle of the night they shut the website down for 'batch processing.' They inform the reader that the process takes 30 minutes, which unfortunately is not the case. It may be hours, because I've never had the patience to keep trying after an hour or so. This has caused me twice to miss profitable buys."(September 23, 2007) "I have been using Scottrade for about 6 years. In the beginning the trades were quick; even funding my brokerage account via ACH debit took anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours to show up in my account if requested before 2:00 PM. I went to execute a stock buy a few days ago and it took approximately 4 minutes to execute; I ended up purchasing the stock for a much higher price. Yesterday, I initiated a ACH debit from my bank to my brokerage account. The funds will not be available for 3 business days. The stock that I was going to purchase has moved out of my range. I used to love Scottrade. It is now a sub-par company. I am looking for a new broker. I might just use my other broker, TD Ameritrade."(January 30, 2008) "I've had Scottrade since 1993.... I have had no problems with them at all.... Everything else has been fine. The brokers have been knowledgeable on all but one occasion, and he had the senior broker help me. My limit orders have filled at lower-than-limit prices.... I don't do options and I have high speed. I use... IE, Mozilla Firefox and Mac Safari."(December 12, 2009) "I have an account with Scottrade and I found out while trying to place an online trade that they have a policy that if a stock is down substantially on 1 day you can not buy it online; you have to call a rep to place the trade."(February 4, 2010) "It might seem like you are only paying $7 a trade, but because of various self-serving undocumented algorithms the [used by the] market makers who actually do your trades and *pay* Scottrade..., you will not get best execution. I had a limit order with Scottrade for an NYSE listed security. After the NYSE opened, the security dropped below my limit bid, then the *offer* for the security dropped below my bid, but still Scottrade did not fill me. Why? Because their "policy", though they admitted that it is documented nowhere, is to only fill after a security first trades on the NYSE. This allows their market maker to trade ahead of you and use your trade as insurance. You cannot opt out of this type of biased trading. The other problem with this is that more and more securities are traded off the listed market; in many cases most of their daily volume is off the listed exchange. I have a formal complaint filed with FINRA, but FINRA is just made up of the brokerage firms, so one has very little voice. Best to avoid this very poor brokerage choice. The commission might have been $7, but they just lost $618 of my dollars. Not much of a bargain."(March 25, 2010) "I have been with Scottrade a long time, and have had no problems."(May 30, 2010)
Rates Updated: April 20, 2006 Terra Nova Trading,
800.228.4216, 1.312.827.3663
Products: stocks, futures, options, mutual funds, forex, alternative investments
Market Orders: $7.50
Limit Orders: $7.50
Mutual Funds: Unknown, telephone only
Options: $1.25/contract+$7.50/trade
Minimum to Open: $5000
Inactivity Fee: $50.00, "applicable to accounts under $100 [!] in equity and inactive for over 12 months"
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:"Variable". DTC Out:$15.00/stock. ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Broker Call+3.50%
Extras: Free checking, paid debit card. Foreign residents accepted.
Notes: Also a direct access broker.
User Comments:
Rates Updated: January 30, 2008 Charles Schwab,
1.866.877-0134
Products: Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, CDs, insurance, annuities, foreign investments
Market Orders: $8.95
Limit Orders: $8.95
Mutual Funds: $49.95. NTF funds available.
Options: $8.95/trade+$0.75/contract
Minimum to Open: $1000 for US-based accounts, $25000 or $10000 for foreign accounts, depending on where held
Inactivity Fee: Unknown
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$39.00. DTC Out:$25.00 "per account". ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Based on proprietary base rate
Extras: Cash management and other financial services. Separate site for foreign investors, including non-U.S. citizens. A user reports that foreign residents cannot purchase mutual funds. Another user reports that the "minimum to open a foreigner account is $25000". Direct access also available. Has site in Chinese.
User Comments: "Have had a satisfactory association for about two years but this year I attempted to open a 'checking' acct because it was paying much better interest than the money market acct. Rec'd a stack of check books within a few days, and wrote one check. But couldn't find my new acct on my online Schwab site. Eventually I learned that my acct. had not been opened because Schwab needed further info re my joint owner (my daughter) even tho she was also joint with me on my regular acct. No one bothered to inform me that the acct. had not been opened. My check was bounced even tho I asked them to honor it and cover the amount from my cash acct. I am appalled that I was sent checks when the firm knew that I couldn't use them. Communication in this instance was abominable."(November 4, 2008)
Rates Updated: February 2, 2010 TD Ameritrade,
800-454-9272 for new accounts, 800-669-3900 for former Ameritrade accounts, 800-934-4448 for former TD Waterhouse accounts
Products: Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options
Market Orders: $9.99, +$2.00 for paper confirmation if requested
Limit Orders: $9.99, +$2.00 for paper confirmation if requested
Mutual Funds: $49.99 for no-load funds. Also has NTF funds.
Options: $9.99/trade+$0.75/contract
Minimum to Open: $0, $2000 for margin account. "Accounts funded with less than $1,000 are not eligible for any promotions. Electronic funding minimum is $500."
Inactivity Fee: Unknown
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$30.00 (Also a $20.00 fee for mandatory reorganizations). DTC Out:$25.00/security. ACAT Out:$75.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Based on proprietary base rate
Extras: Check-writing privileges for accounts with a liquidation value of $5000 or more. Funding by ACH transfer: "You can open and fund an account online in 10-30 minutes. You can fund electronically with your routing and account number. If you do this you may begin trading today." Much independent research. Apparently accepts foreign accounts, since they have toll-free phone numbers from many countries, and remarks about legal restrictions for foreign accounts. Seem to be no setup fees or maintenance fees for IRAs.
Notes: January 8, 2009: "TD AMERITRADE... and thinkorswim Group Inc.... today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for TD AMERITRADE to acquire thinkorswim.... thinkorswim clients should expect no immediate impact to their accounts.... TD AMERITRADE and thinkorswim expect the deal to close within the next six months."
User Comments: "In the Summer of 2006 I was contacted by phone and asked to move our Family Limited Partnership account back to TD Ameritrade from Brownco/E*Trade. I told the broker that the account was moved from Ameritrade a couple years ago due to the policy of not providing checking or real time quotes to partnership accounts.... He called back sometime later and assured me that the account would receive both checking and real-time quotes. In addition, in consideration for my time, efforts and expense, TD Ameritrade would credit the account $500 upon a full transfer. We agreed to move our Family Limited Partnership account to TD Ameritrade, which is a time consuming process. For the first month, I could not get quotes (and thus account balances) on my screen. After a lot of phone calls and emails stock quotes finally appeared in my account. A few months later, a $250 charge appeared on my account for providing quotes. After a lot of phone calls and emails the charges were reversed. Things went swimmingly for a couple months until a $125/month charge again appeared my statement. Again, more emails. Again the charge was reversed. Today I got a phone call that TD Ameritrade is not going to honor the assurance made last summer. Stock quotes (even delayed) will not be included with this TD Ameritrade account.... Something is amiss with a marketing program that buys accounts for cash while making misrepresentations about what basic and customary services will be provided. After [writing to the CEO of TD Ameritrade], I got a phone call indicating they would not give me real time (or even delayed) quotes. The account balance in question exceeds $500k. The IRA account is slightly larger. Both will be transferred to a another broker."(March 11, 2007) "I signed up for a "free research service from Ameritrade" which turned out to be a third party marketing group that sold my e-mail address to penny stock spammers. Besides this deal-breaker, Ameritrade has always executed my trades, both stock and options, quickly and exactly according to my instructions. Their online trade fees are reasonable and their site is easy to use and has all of the features I need from them."(April 11, 2007) "I have several accounts at [TD] Ameritrade. Unfortunately, Ameritrade issues a separate ID number for each account. This procedure fails to work with users of Intuit Quicken (at least, in the Macintosh version), since Quicken only one financial institution called Ameritrade and expects that each user will have one user ID."(May 28, 2007) "Several times their software indicated that trades had been accepted when they were actually not, and this cost me money. Their response was to try to blame me and/or [the] "market maker." Additionally, they started charging me for trades prior to their 30 day free trade period expiring (though they did, eventually, correct this). All in all, very frustrating experience, particularly dealing with them on phone (once I finally got through). Couldn't recommend them at all."(December 9, 2007) "TD Ameritrade is the worst broker. Their paperwork is impossible to understand, they never respond to complaints, they keep advertising and promoting their service but could save a lot of money if they would listen to their customers. Any intelligent broker should have a suggestion box that is easy to use."(December 25, 2007) "I've seen good and bad from the TD Waterhouse / Ameritrade merger, but the net result is a reduction in quality and service as far as I'm concerned. Compared to the old TD Waterhouse days, the website has improved and has more features, which is a plus. However, the new monthly statement is terrible - practically indecipherable: a grab-bag of double-entries, 'journal' entries, and other unprocessed data that appears to be intended for CPAs or auditors rather than real people (and I'm an engineer, so I'm accustom to looking at loads of raw data) It is almost as if TD Ameritrade is defying you to make any sense of what is happening in your account. Too bad, as the old TD Waterhouse statement was much better. In addition, the Quicken data download has similar problems with a bunch of double-entries, missing data and worthless descriptions. Again, it used to work with Waterhouse; why did Ameritrade break it? Finally - and this probably doesn't affect many people - I regularly have money deposited to my account via international bank wire from overseas. No problem with Waterhouse, but soon after Ameritrade took over, I stopped getting paid! I spent about an hour on the phone trying to figure out what happened, and the Ameritrade phone rep. gave me a BS excuse that, due to U.S. 'anti-terror' law, they were prohibited from accepting international bank wires. What?!? I told him that, if that was true, they better be contacting the FBI, because TD Waterhouse (now TD Ameritrade) regularly accepted international bank wires and I have the records to prove it. He then replied that this policy could not be changed and that was that. Useless. I'm actively looking for a new broker, which is unfortunate, because I had no problems with TD Waterhouse before the merger."(January 17, 2008) "I've been with TDAmeritrade since they took over TDWaterhouse. My margin loan is over a million dollars and so they give me a rate of 'prime - 1.75%'. This is a negotiated rate which I received when I began the process of transferring my account to Brown and Co. several years ago, and TDAmeritrade offered me this rate to stay with them. [On the afternoon of March 18, 2008, Prime-1.75% would have been 3.5%, using the prime rate from money-rate.com; TDAmeritrade's published minimum was 6.75%! Ed.] The only problem is that twice now they seem to have 'forgotten' this promise and reset my rate to a much higher one. Each time it was appropriately corrected, but caused me considerable stress as it did require some diplomatic arguing of my case. For this reason I'm no longer confident of TDAmeritrade's promise of excellent service and I'm looking to move elsewhere and am especially attracted to a broker who's margin rates are pre-set at a very low number and don't require any schmoozing...."(March 18, 2008) "I have been with TDAmeriTrade for almost a year but I am very disappointed.... The thing that made me decide not to trade with them anymore was I found out they did not recalculate my trailing stop order when my ETF distributed dividends. Not only did they not recalculate the order like Fidelity did, they canceled my order without notifying me. No phone calls, no emails to my registered email address, no email to my TDAmeriTrade account to let me know my order was canceled! I have an ETF ADRE in TDAmeriTrade's account. I set a trailing stop order on September 24th, 2009 in case there is a big drop in the market. On October 28th the market did have a big drop and I was surprised to find the order was canceled only four days after I had set it and my ETF was still in my account and the order was not executed. I contacted their manager and he said it is industry standard to cancel the order when dividends distribution was recorded. In doing so they are protecting their customers' assets. And it is not their responsibility to notify the customers that the order has been canceled and it is customers' responsibility to check their accounts to find the information and re-set the order. The problem with his story is that I have another ETF QQQQ with Fidelity. That ETF distributed dividends on the same day, October 30, so I assumed they have the same ex-dividend day. I also had a trailing stop order on the ETF. I did not have any information about whether this ETF was going to distribute dividends or not,... [but] when I saw the actual dividends distributed in my account on October 30, Fidelity had already recalculated the trailing stop order for me. I thought the whole purpose of trailing stop orders is to protect investors while they are not watching.I thought the whole purpose of trailing stop orders is to protect investors while they are not watching. If I monitor my investments everyday and every minute, I don't need to set the trailing stop order.... I had no choice but to move my business to Fidelity."(November 24, 2009)
Rates Updated: May 25, 2006 Trading Direct,
1.800.925-8566
Products: Stocks, bonds, mutual funds
Market Orders: $10.95
Limit Orders: $10.95
Mutual Funds: $21.95. NTF funds available.
Options: $9.95/trade+$1.00/contract
Minimum to Open: $0; $2000 for margin accounts
Inactivity Fee: $60 on accounts with no trades for that trading year, with exceptions.
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$30.00. DTC Out:$20.00/security. ACAT Out:$65.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Broker Call+1.75%
Extras: Seem to be no setup fees or maintenance fees for IRAs. Dividend reinvestment is available for an extra charge. Accepts foreign accounts, including non-resident aliens. Valet accounts available for a fee.
Notes: A division of York Securities. Clears through Ridge Clearing and Outsourcing. No money market sweep accounts, and very low interest on credit balances.
User Comments:
Rates Updated: February 3, 2010 Investrade Discount Securities,
1.800.498-7120
Products: Stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds
Market Orders: $7.95
Limit Orders: $11.95
Mutual Funds: $15.00 for no-load funds.
Options: $1.50/contract, $14.95 minimum
Minimum to Open: $2000, $5000 for international accounts
Inactivity Fee: $0.00
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$25.00 ($50.00 "Less than 48 Hours"). DTC Out:$25.00/security. ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Broker Call+1.50%
Extras: No setup fees or maintenance fees for IRAs. Dividend reinvestment. Streaming real-time quotes for active traders. Foreign currency conversions. Cash management accounts including checking, credit card, and bill payment. Customer-directed routing for broker-executed trades, which have a surcharge. Foreign accounts accepted.
Notes: "A division of Regal Securities, Inc." Clears through Penson Financial Services. Has a "processing fee" for pink sheet and bulletin board stocks.
User Comments: "I shorted QQQQ; had 70% of the short value in my account in cash, i.e. after adding the short sale proceeds I had 170%. IDS charged me margin interest on the other 30% and paid no interest on the big pile of cash in my account. What a rip-off!"(June 13, 2007) "I've had an account with Investrade for nine years. Early on they made an egregious error, and three free trades in compensation hardly made up for an ultimate cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Other than that, until they recently switched clearing firms, I've been happy with them. Their clearing firm leaves something to be desired. It sometimes reports day-ending balances tardily. In fact, in either July or August, they didn't post new balances for a week in the midst of stunning sell-offs, and for two days a client couldn't even obtain correct balances over the phone."(September 23, 2007)
Rates Updated: February 3, 2010 MarkeTrade.com,
1-888-353-6676, 1-415-901-0311
Products: stocks, foreign stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, options, futures
Market Orders: $9.95
Limit Orders: $11.95
Mutual Funds: $25.00
Options: $1.50/contract+$10.00/trade
Minimum to Open: $200. $2000 for margin accounts.
Inactivity Fee: Seems to be $0.00.
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$15. DTC Out:$10.00/security. ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Broker Call+3.00%
Extras: Also has Chinese version of site, and promises bilingual (Chinese) telephone representatives. Free checking for US residents, paid debit card. Foreign residents are accepted, but if they want checking, they pay a yearly fee.
Notes: Direct access and Web-based trading platforms with different conditions. Has an annual charge for sending you your 1099s! Clears through Penson Financial Services.
User Comments:
Rates Updated: January 31, 2008 AOS, Inc.,
800.569-3330, 312.253-0385
Products: Stocks, options, stock futures
Market Orders: $0.015/share ($14.50 minimum)
Limit Orders: $0.015/share ($14.50 minimum)
Options: $1.50/contract ($14.50 minimum)
Minimum to Open: $2000 (minimum balance)
Inactivity Fee: $30.00 if no activity in account for 1 year
Some Other Fees: ACAT Out:$50.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Broker Call+2.50%
Extras: Also has direct access trading platform with different conditions, private client services, checks and debit cards. Foreign accounts accepted, including "most foreign residents"; Canadian accounts are among those not accepted.
Notes: Formerly American Option Services. Ordinary securities on ordinary platforms clear through Terra Nova Trading, L.L.C. Their home page says that they also offer mutual funds, but I can find no reference to the relevant commissions or conditions.
User Comments:
Rates Updated: February 5, 2010 optionsXpress,
1.888.280-8020, 312.629-5455
Products: Options, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures
Market Orders: $14.95
Limit Orders: $14.95
Mutual Funds: $14.95, even on load funds
Options: Variable, according to table on site. $14.95/trade minimum
Minimum to Open: $0, $2000 for margin account
Inactivity Fee: $0.00
Some Other Fees:
Maximum Margin Rate: Broker Call+4.25%
Extras: Free checking, online chat to customer service, message boards, automatic trading. Includes many interactive tools. "Yes, upon our review and at our discretion we accept unsolicited accounts from non-U.S. residents.... Although our account opening process is geared toward opening accounts for persons with a U. S. domestic address, we will review and open foreign accounts." A user identifying herself as a "foreigner" said on August 25, 2009: "Offers foreigner accounts, although they don't offer mutual funds for foreigners. I actually pay $16.95, not $14.95, per order (stock trade)."
Notes: Specializes in options (obviously), including complicated trades.
User Comments: "OptionsXpress... has a less than satisfactory level of service. They are slow to respond to queries, [and] when they respond it is usually some "pablum" type of answer such as: 'We are looking into it, maybe at a future date, we are considering it'. They have a hard time saying yes [or] no or giving a timeframe for concrete action. They told me when I reached a certain level of option contracts traded that I would get a discount. When I reached that level, they reneged. I have over $300,000 cash in the account. I receive 2% interest in their money market fund. They told me they are looking at alternatives : pablum! I would recommend that anyone look elsewhere for a broker. I am in the process of evaluating different brokers to make a move in the near future."(November 12, 2006)
Rates Updated: August 25, 2009 E*Trade Financial,
1.800.387-2331, +1.678.624-6210
Products: Stocks, options, bonds
Market Orders: $19.99
Limit Orders: $19.99
Options: $19.99/trade+$1.75/contract
Minimum to Open: $1000; $2000 for margin accounts
Inactivity Fee: $40.00/quarter, with many exemptions
Some Other Fees: Tender Fee:$30.00 (also charges $20 for involuntary reorganizations). ACAT Out:$60.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Based on proprietary base rate
Extras: Extensive financial services. Foreign investors: Sites in many countries and languages; however, on October 31, 2007, Alex D. reported that they no longer open accounts for Latin American clients. Seem to be no setup fees or maintenance fees for IRAs unless you request paper statements and confirmations. Dividend reinvestment.
User Comments: "I contacted E*Trade Customer Service with some simple questions about insurance coverage on my two brokerage accounts. The E*Trade response was slow, less than satisfactory, and even a bit hostile!"(May 8, 2006) "I was a BrownCo customer and when E*Trade took that over, I became a customer of E*Trade. On August 16, 2006, per E*Trade's request, I sent them the necessary information to establish a money market fund account associated with my brokerage account and requested two ATM cards for my wife and myself. As of December 17, my wife had not received her card yet. I called them many times during that four months, and they were not responsive. During the last call, the representative said that he had put the request through and once it was out of his office, he had nothing to do with it. I tried to get through to his supervisor but he was not responsive either. I decided to close the account with them. They had the guts to charge me the fee for closing the account They were incompetent and unresponsive."(December 28, 2006) "I have been with ETrade for almost 3 years. The last year has been all down hill. Services are overpriced and customer service is non-responsive, hard to get to, and less than helpful. I am changing brokers; what pushed me over the edge was customer service's condescending attitude and refusal to inform me why denied when I recently applied for options trading upgrade. I would not recommend ETrade to anyone!"(January 24, 2007) "I was a Brown customer for over 30 years. I became an E-Trade customer upon the take over. It is like dealing with the "Keystone Cops." Since early December I have been trying to open a savings account linked to my brokerage accounts. Customer service is frustrating and stupid. Lots of platitudes, no action. Imagine my shock when I executed a trade for $12,000 and when I checked my account I was on margin for $1,250,000 .....ooops. I'm on this site to move my money!!!"(January 31, 2007) "E*Trade is terrible. I'm a longtime Brown & Co customer that got transferred to E*Trade; no real problems until it came time to consolidate some other accounts. We started with a simple Roth for my wife -- two total mutual fund transfers and one cash liquidation. They got the cash -- and immediately put it in a "restricted" status -- meaning we can do nothing with it -- and even [we faxed] the requested additional IDs, [it's still restricted and they can't explain why]. Customer Service has ever-changing BS reasons why the other two transfers aren't done.... Worse, E*Trade never tries to contact us to tell us what's going on -- we have to contact them and get the run-around. After several months of futility, we've had it....Stay away from E*Trade...."(June 20, 2007) "I have been an E-trade customer since they absorbed my HarrisDirect account some time ago.... On Sept. 21, 2007 I mailed a form requesting to open a SIMPLE IRA plan, which I had downloaded from their website. I sent it Priority Mail and the delivery confirmation indicated it had been delivered on Mon. Sept. 24th. I found the form a bit confusing and placed a sticky note on the form indicating that it was critical the account be opened before Oct. 1st since law forbids opening and funding a Simple IRA in the final quarter. I stated this on the sticky note and asked that if there were any problems to please let me know, providing both home and cell phone numbers. Since I heard nothing I assumed things were being handled, but on Oct. 1st I began to worry and used their online customer service center to send a written query. To make a long sad story short, nothing was done. I apparently had filled the form incorrectly. It is now Nov. 5th, 2007 and still nothing."(November 5, 2007)"On Saturday, I received an email from [E*Trade] saying that my order to sell ten contracts was rejected. This order had been in place since May. Since they provide only limited email service on weekends, I called them to inquire where their collective heads were.... The gentleman I spoke with was very polite but had no clue why it had happened. He told me that... I would have to wait until Monday, suffering the consequences if the price I set was reached. I then received two more emails telling me that it would take anywhere from one to four days to discover the problem. Obviously, that was unacceptable. I then started to dig on my own to see if I could determine why it happened. I discovered that the symbol on my portfolio was different from the order symbol. Their system changed it on my portfolio but the trading system obviously does not speak with the portfolio system. I then communicated this to them. The only response was that they were glad that they did not have to make the trade for their book. So much for trust."(June 17, 2008)
Rates Updated: February 4, 2010 Vanguard Brokerage Services,
1.800.992-8327
Products: Stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, CDs, foreign securities, insurance, commercial paper
Market Orders: $20.00; note promotional price below.
Limit Orders: $20.00; note promotional price below.
Mutual Funds: $35.00 for transaction-fee funds. NTF funds available.
Options: $30.00/trade+$1.50/contract
Minimum to Open: Unknown
Inactivity Fee: $20.00/year maintenance fee for regular accounts
Some Other Fees: ACAT Out:"Vanguard Brokerage Services does not charge fees for incoming or outgoing transfers.".
Maximum Margin Rate: Unknown
Extras: "Vanguard does not allow new accounts with foreign addresses to be opened online. Contact us." It sounds like Vanguard does open some foreign accounts, probably by mail. Dividend reinvestment for some securities. Electronic deposits. No commissions on Vanguard ETFs.
Notes: As of May 4, 2010: "$7 for the first 25 trades, $20 for subsequent trades. Vanguard Brokerage reserves the right to end these offers at any time."
User Comments: "I'm a Vanguard... Voyager Select (high value) customer. My trades are now $12 for 1000 shares. Quite nice. Downside: normal trades fine online, but no after-hours trading, and I had to wait 50 minutes (literally - the agent confirmed their wait time) to get to their Fixed Income Desk to buy a corporate bond (no online for corporates). Once I got someone they were very professional."(October 17, 2008)
Rates Updated: May 30, 2010 Wall Street Access,
800.925-5781
Products: Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options
Market Orders: $19.95+$1.50
Limit Orders: $19.95+$1.50
Mutual Funds: $50 for no-load funds+$1.50
Options: $1.35/contract ($19.95 minimum)+$1.50
Minimum to Open: Unknown
Inactivity Fee: Unknown
Some Other Fees:
Maximum Margin Rate: Broker Call+2.625%
Extras: Seem to be no setup fees or maintenance fees for IRAs. Foreign accounts accepted, including non-resident aliens.
Notes: For active traders. Clears through Pershing LLC. They actively solicit "soft dollar" arrangements. The way they express their margin rate and their commissions (omitting the $1.50 "postage and handling" fee on all transactions) makes me suspicious.
User Comments:
Rates Updated: April 19, 2004 PennTrade,
800.953-2860, 208.676-0562
Products: Stocks, Canadian stocks
Market Orders: $29.95
Limit Orders: $29.95
Minimum to Open: $500
Inactivity Fee: $35.00/year, if there are no trades for one year and less than $10000 cash in the account on Dec. 31.
Some Other Fees: ACAT Out:$30.00.
Maximum Margin Rate: Unknown
Extras: Foreign accounts accepted, including non-resident aliens.
Notes: " the online trading division of Pennaluna and Company". Clears through National Financial Services.
User Comments:
Rates Updated: February 3, 2010 |