I hate E*Trade. Am I screwed?

[aic]

I opened an account over 5 years ago. They said I signed up for email financial statements. I forgot about the account and they just mailed me a statement. I deposited $500 and they took $410 in fees because there was no activity. When I asked them to waive the fees they recite contract terms.

Their customer service must enjoy screwing the customer. They will not budge.

Am I out my money?

 

[quakefiend420]

probably...considering you forgot it ever existed...i wouldn't worry that much about it, that's just me though

 

[everman]

They never sent you a bill, any kind of account statement?

 

[aic]

Originally posted by: everman
They never sent you a bill, any kind of account statement?

no they siad they sent via email but I never got it.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Hmm lets see here. You start an account, agreeing to terms. They enforce terms. You suddenly jump up crying and they say too bad.

:roll:

 

[aic]

Originally posted by: Nik
Hmm lets see here. You start an account, agreeing to terms. They enforce terms. You suddenly jump up crying and they say too bad.

:roll:

Yes. Problem?

Financial statements should of been mailed.

 

[Baked]

Take it like a man, you got PWN3D!

 

[everman]

Well I just don't see how you leave an account for so long, and they never come looking for their money.

 

[ttown]

escalate it to a supervisor or anyone higher up

cry and beg. All fees are negotiable... but not by a front line CSR.

 

[aic]

Originally posted by: ttown
escalate it to a supervisor or anyone higher up

cry and beg. All fees are negotiable... but not by a front line CSR.

Thanks but they will not budge. All I get is contract terms.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: aic

Originally posted by: Nik
Hmm lets see here. You start an account, agreeing to terms. They enforce terms. You suddenly jump up crying and they say too bad.

:roll:

Yes. Problem?

Financial statements should of been mailed.

That does not negate the terms of the account or disallow them from taking money from an inactive account as per the terms of the agreement.

 

[KK]

Why'd you set it up for email statements. If you didn't, can you prove it? And why the hell are you just now, 5 years later, worrying about it.

 

[Reckoner]

Look at it from their side:

Why should they bend over backwards for you if you aren't even using your account?

 

[dquan97]

what kind of account charges ~$80/yr in fees?

 

[conehead433]

If you're not an active trader you should sign up at Scottrade. No inactivity fees.

And BTW - Yep, you're screwed.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: aic

Originally posted by: Nik
Hmm lets see here. You start an account, agreeing to terms. They enforce terms. You suddenly jump up crying and they say too bad.

:roll:

Yes. Problem?

Financial statements should of been mailed.

Every account I've ever had that did e-mail statements required you to explicitly agree to it, so it's a fair bet you agreed to it.

 

[RU482]

I put $500 in an account in 2000, bought Lucent and McLeod. Then I kinda forgot about it and they both took a dump (McLeod went bankrupt).

I checked the account recently and there was a negative balance. If I just let this go for, say, another 40 years, do you suppose I will get some crazy bill saying I owe them thousands of dollars??

 

[Miramonti]

If you signed up for email statements then you also agreed to keep your email address up to date.

$400 in fees over that period is definitely high, but it shouldn't be a problem for someone who doesn't bother to check on $500 over a period of 5 years.

Its particularly odd not checking an investment/trading account who's industry has gone thru hard times over that period, and most instituted inactivity fees long ago as well.

Sure you still don't have some of those webvan shares in there...the ones you wanted to hold on to because you knew they would rally back?...

 

[squirrel dog]

das strong .

 

[suse920]

owned

 

[chambersc]

i think the important question here is: how the fcuk do you "forget" about $500.

 

[alrocky]

My E*Trade (IRA) account was inactive for a couple of years and I didn't incur any inactivity fees. I thought inacitve accounts were considered abandoned after 3 years and they're suppose to make a good fair effort to find you by mail/telephone before turning over the monies to the state.

 

[cjgallen]

Note to self: continue enjoying $7 trades, and no inactivity/maint fees with Scottrade