e*Trade

Michele of Corona CA (03/03/09)
my husband and I purchased 800 shares of sirius (siri) for1650 in june of 2003 from Etrade. I just found out they sold MY stock for 484.00 to pay for 40.00 a quarter Maintaince fee that started in 2006. Apparently when they wanted the money they just sold the stock without notifying us. This was done with NO notification and this company is a modern Thief. BEWARE! Outright Crooks.

Besides losing 484 , we now do not have 800 shares anymore and we called to buy some more at the lower trading price. Amazing ripoff.

Randy of Dallas, TX February 26, 2009

Randy of Dallas TX (02/26/09)
I have had an account there for 8 years, supposedly fee less. I had small stocks worth about 2000.00 in June. The market tanks as does my balance. I had planned to let everything sit long term and let the stock ride.Three weeks ago ETrade liquidated my shares with no notice to me and stole what little my shares sold for to pay maintenance fees that I had no idea I owed. Who are these crooks and who can stop them.

10,000 shares of stock sold for .01

Dan of Aloha, OR February 24, 2009

Dan of Aloha OR (02/24/09)
I placed a trade at market value, it did not immediately go through. After 5 minutes, I tried to cancel the trade. E*Trade would not allow me to cancel, saying it was pending. I tried for more than an hour to change or cancel the order, to no avail. I left for a class, returned 3 hours later. The sale went through at 13:37:49 eastern time, more than an hour after I had placed it. The problem it sold for 1/10 the price for the day! The market never went lower than what I had paid for the shars, but E*Trade sold them for 10 cents on the dollar, wiping out my account. Supposedly they will verify, but I know they never admit being wrong.

Sold shares for 1/10 of lowest pric of day. Wiped out my account.

Stuart of Fort Worth, TX February 21, 2009

Stuart of Fort Worth TX (02/21/09)
I opened an account a few years ago with 1,000 in it. I did not plan on doing much, just to see if it would grow. I kept an eye on the investments every month and do not remember anything about a 40 penalty for not trading.

Afte about 4 years with Etrade, my statement said I only had 10 left in it. Etrade sold my stock and kept the money for their fees. There was NO WARNING that this might happen. I am sure there was some fine print somewhere that I missed. Bottom line, I BELIEVE THIS IS AN INTENTIONAL STRATEGY TO ROB PEOPLE OF THEIR MONEY.

Would we put up with an electric company that never sent you a bill them turned off your electricity without warning? ETrades policy is liked to that. I wish I had never heard of ETrade.

They sold my stock for over 700 and kept it all without ever warning me or sending me a bill.

Craig of Plano, TX February 9, 2009

Craig of Plano TX (02/09/09)
On December 10, 2008 I received an email from E*TRADE Securities stating they had liquidated my stocks and closed my account. I immediately called them to find out what was going on and was told they closed the account because there was no money left in it to pay the quarterly maintenance fees. I asked the customer service representative what he was talking about. My account didnt have any fees. He said that there was a 40 per quarter maintenance fee that they had been taking out of my account for some time and (coupling that with what the market had reaped of my stock holdings) there was no money left in the account to pay the fees. I was livid! I opened that account with 285 shares of my company stock on or about January 25, 2000.

I only opened that account because it was a fee-less account and I had planned on doing nothing with the stock until its value rose sufficiently to recoup some of the losses it had already incurred. Because of this I very infrequently checked the account--maybe once or twice a year--and then only to see what the stock was worth at that point. What I didnt realize was that somewhere along the way E*Trade began charging a maintenance fee on the account. Unfortunately, I did not discover this tidbit of information until I made the call as to why they closed my account. At no point did I ever agree to a fee-based account nor did I ever sign anything agreeing to such a change. I dont have any fee-based accounts and I certainly wouldnt agree to one for an account that I was just sitting on until the time was right to liquidate and close it.

It's apparent from this site and others that E*Trade has deceived many others in this scheme. Some say they are trying to put together a class action lawsuit against E*Trade, but I have yet to find any link or contact information on how to join the suit. In the mean time, I filed my complaint with the Texas Attorney General's office and the SEC Complaint Center and I highly recommend anyone else who has fallen prey to E*Trade do the same. E*Trades tactics are nothing short of larceny as far as I'm concerned and they not only should have their license revoked, but the management who trumped-up this deceitful and illegal money-grabbing scheme should be thrown in jail.

Had I been made aware they were going to start charging a maintenance fee on my account I could have, and would have, liquidated the account then. At least I would have gotten something out my stocks.

Dennis of Yorktown, VA February 3, 2009

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