E*Trade Financial
Reviews and Complaints

Etrade overdrew my brokerage account by $6, 000 with no notice to me nor even a simple phone call, just to satisfy the greed of some broke broker. I'll enjoy watching them and their lawyers in Bankruptcy court. Suggest you read every single line of their agreements or their lawyers will steal your money. I used to have over $100, 000 in accounts with them, and their short term greed has cost them all of it.

We had a small account with them that had $10, 000 plus in stocks. Needless to say, it went down in value recently and they started to pile on their maintenance charges. I decided to close it and get the cash. Easier said than done. I started the process October 7th, there have been glitches galore, and now, to add insult to injury, they are charging me $10 for a check. I still don't have the money. I had a checking account with them that they could have used, a wire to our bank account that they could have used, or just a plain free check. I will be back in the market but will go with any other company doing this sort of thing. I have never complained in print about a company, but these are bad folks to deal with. I can't imagine that their enthusiasm to get the float on every $ won't bite them in the... in the end.

Opened account with Etrade and electronically deposited funds. Etrade web site indicates funds will be available in three business days. It's been 5 business days and funds still not available for use. No Etrade indicates they will not release funds until two weeks after the account is opened.

Numerous calls and emails to Etrade have failed. Etrade refuses to release funds, despite acknowledging the funds were deposited electronically 5 days ago. Their customer service officials have no clue how to serve, they simply repeat no, no, no.

I will close my account... they won't close it until two weeks have passed... as soon as possible and suggest anyone considering this firm look elsewhere.

Well I’m now into my 3rd week of dealing with Etrade blocking my account because supposedly it had been "violated" by somebody from overseas. I was in Indonesia at the time and they allowed me access to about $1000 before shutting down my account. Since then, they have stated they need to verify my identity before fedexing a new banking card...

They continually promise FedEx tracking numbers with security tokens, but inevitably come up with excuses such as "FedEx said the zip code was wrong", "I’m checking into it". I have given them a 4 day deadline before I start engaging legal help.

If anybody has had a similar experience and resolved it... I’d appreciate knowing. This is my primary money source with most of my savings and funds.

I'd love to hear other stories or successful resolutions.

One idea was to literally sit on the phone and call every 10-15 min until they got weary.

I have brokerage accounts (in USD) both at Etrade US and Etrade Canada. In early April 2008 I submitted a Form B (to Etrade Canada) to transfer cash of USD 44, 000 from the US account into the Canadian account. I checked both accounts a week later and nothing happened. I called customer service (at both Etrade's) and inquired about the status. They told me it's in progress and should be done by 3-5 business days (from the day I called). I waited 5 business days and checked both accounts again. Same thing - no change. I called customer service again (both Etrade's) and the reps told me they will open a ticket to "research" on what's going on. And then they told me to wait another 5 business days and you guess it - the same thing happened. Finally in May 28 I was furious and told customer service (at Etrade US) that if the transfer is still pending, just cancel it and do a wired transfer of 44k US. At last (on May 29) I found out that all of my cash (i.e. more than the 44k I specified) had been transferred to the Canadian account. Now I have to call Etrade US again to have them deposit the "extra" money back into the US account. The whole thing lasted almost 2 months and I lost the opportunity to utilize my funds - had I simply write a check against my US account and mail it to Etrade Canada my funds would be available a month ago - and I don't have to put up with all the idiots in the so-called customer service departments with both Etrade's.

I had options in altria 2 months before the spin-off of Philip Morris intl. I talked to one of their reps 2 weeks before the spin-off and he reassured me that I would have adjusted options to reflect the spin-off. The spin-off happened on a Friday night and opened Monday morning. When it opened Monday my options were up a good amount. I tried to sell them but etrade wouldn't let me. I finally got through to the options desk and got a trade through. I tried to make another options purchase later that day and couldn't. I had a cash position of 6, 000 before this day even happened I wasn’t trying to use the proceeds from the sale. They had put a 13, 000 margin call on my account. This was supposed to be fixed when I looked at my account the margin call was gone. But I still could not buy anything, a closer look at the bottom of my info page revealed a cash call against my account for 12, 000. I missed several trades and a lot of money, the last rep I spoke with told me to write a letter to compliance and complaints. All they said was sorry about your inconvenience. If anyone else has had problems like this please contact me. I am going to send copies of my letter and there response to the NASD and the SEC.