Etrade vs. Ameritrade: Who is better?

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Azurik

Originally posted by: vi_edit
FWIW, I worked for Ameritrade for a year and even though I *could* move my accounts elsewhere, I choose not to. The trade executions are very quick and they have some of the best customer support access in the business. There are not many discount brokers out there that charge a $9.99 commission and still provide fairly quick 24/7 customer service.

I was with them during the TD merger and while some costs did go up(broker assisted trades & mutual funds) overall it was a major savings to clients. Normal equity trades went down and for the real little guys, no more quarterly maintenance fees.

I do enough trading to qualify for Apex and the advanced analyer and added services are nice (free overnight check delivery, front of the line customer support, free wires, ect).

My only complaint with them is that their DRIP program(dividend reinvestment) stinks. Firsttrade has an awesome system for that.

Mutual fund buying/selling is a big thing though. I mean, it will cost $100 to trade in and out of ONE fund. Other than that, I'm satisfied, but that mutual fund commission is just ridiculous.

Honestly, I just stick with Vanguard for my MF's. It's basically free over there. Obviously that's only with their own funds. AMTD is an equity broker first and foremost. That's their bread and butter. If I was a mutual fund only type person I probably wouldn't use them.

 

[manlymatt83]

Made my decision. I choose ameritrade 🙂 Thanks all for your advice.

 

[theeedude]

Ameritrade of the two, but Scottrade over both.

 

[dmcowen674]

Does this mean the one that robbed me of thousands with fees on top of fees is gone?

SureTrade