e*Trade

This isn’t a huge problem for me as I don’t have very many assets in my account and I hear that Ameritrade is a whole lot better, but it is still incredibly frustrating that no one is able to tell me why E*TRADE decided to terminate my account. Even the customer support representative was frustrated with the fact that they don’t give him any ability to help their customers. This poor excuse for a company does not deserve your money and from hearing some of these other reviews, your money probably isn’t safe with them anyway.

Then... my bank card would suddenly be shut off with no notice randomly. I'd call, and they'd always say it was because it had been used at one of the city's transit stations -- which I use ALL the time. So, I had to repeatedly tell them, and I'm not kidding, that it was a legit charge and ask them to turn on my card. They literally told me that I shouldn't use my card at the transit machines anymore. They told me to go get cash at an ATM and put that into the transit station machine. I'd say it was because of the one customer service person who took that call, but this happened twice. And the card getting turned off for use at transit happened three times. I had to start buying monthly passes at my local grocery to get around it.

Then... any time I'd visit another city and buy something, they'd shut the card down. Somehow, when they did this, they actually DID manage to call me. (Why hadn't they called me when they shut my card down for transit station charges? Your guess is as good as mine.) I was appreciative they were watching out for me when this happened, b/c I was truly in another city. But getting the card turned back on was a giant pain in the **. It took about fifteen minutes, and I had to leave the store to finish the transaction. So, fine, I could deal with that.

But get this! They let some ** use my card numbers to pay their cell phone bill and pay for car remodeling in the Bronx! They never turned the card off. I lost $700 of my own cash in one day. And then they made me fill out PAPER forms and send them in to dispute the ** charges! They "kindly" granted me a portion of that money back -- after they got the paperwork -- and finally settled the dispute MONTHS later. Disgusting.

They also once lost a money transfer from one of my bank accounts to another. They said it was because there was no confirmation number on the transaction (what the... why is that my fault?). Fortunately, and I have no idea how, the money re-appeared in my bank account a week later. I've been threatening to leave them forever, but laziness and a joint savings with my husband on the same platform have kept me from it. The funniest part of all this is that I'm finally going to leave E-Trade b/c of the most recent bank card they sent me. Vanity! Hehehehe..

Get this. So, without any notice to me -- and I'm on the online banking site all the time -- they sent me a new bank card. Even though, my old bank card wasn't set to expire for years. So, I called, "What's up with this?" They said, "Oh, we're re-branding to Mastercard." Re-branding? Visa and Mastercard are two different credit companies altogether last I checked. (Am I wrong about that?) What is going on? So, the dude just turns on the card, even though I explained I don't want it. I have no choice in the matter. And it gets weirder. The card doesn't have numbers imprinted on it. The numbers are typed on the BACK of the card! It's so weird! And it is the uuuuhhgliest card I've ever seen. It looks like 80s Sesame Street colors. Blue, teal, purple, with a Mastercard logo.

Now I have to worry if where I go accepts Mastercard, too. Again, I have no choice in this matter. I asked several times. And then, the weirdest part of all. My husband hasn't gotten this new card. He has a checking account too, but he hasn't been forced into this fugly Mastercard E-Trade card. I am just... bewildered. Bewildered and moving my money finally.

I have been hung up on, put on hold for a total amount of hours upon hours, given false hope, tried to jeopardize me on the recorded phone lines, lied to, blamed for what occurred, and repeatedly interrogated whenever anyone spoke to me, and there was no sort of compensation in any sort of way at the end towards anything. Absolute disastrous business filled with scam and fraud, poor customer service, and hefty commissions that aren't worth a penny. I had to beg them to wire me back whatever money was left in the account back to my bank. I would call them in the middle of a transaction to stop it and to bust it, and tell them this is not authorized and was sent wrong and they would not, and would blame me.

I tried everything anyone can possibly do within the jurisdiction that is allowed to get this dealt with, but E-Trade just won't cooperate in any way. They would say I'm the only one having these issues and that it is my fault, but after doing the research and seeing for myself the problems many others have been having that are somewhat similar to mine as well within similar time frames, that statement is not true. Not fair, ethical, legal, or right in any sort of way what has occurred.

-App is NOT user-friendly. It looks like it was designed in the 80s and hasn't been updated. Difficult to find account info, almost impossible to change any info.

-Must use the website to connect bank account for instant transfer. Of course you can deposit from any old card, but to withdraw the money (even if it's just sitting there, not invested), one must go through several extra steps that take several days to complete. Supposedly to verify your identity, but really it's to keep your money.

-Account gets automatically closed (and your money stolen) if you don't put in $500 within a certain amount of time. Apparently I didn't do it within their arbitrarily set deadline, and now my account is closed, my money nowhere to be found. Unless you're Moneybags McGee, and know a bunch about investing, and e*Trade in particular, stay away from this thing.

-Would give zero stars if possible. Any other investing app (that was made in this century) is easier to use. Look for literally anything else.