If I have stocks issued to me in certificate form

[Alphathree33]

without going through a broker: can I do it?

Basically I'm closing my E*Trade account because they kept charging me fees, and I'm getting my shares issued to me in certificate form.

I don't want to sell them, but I'm just curious: can you do it without a broker?

I realize that I'd have to sell the shares _TO_ someone, and that a broker and the stock exchange normally find that "someone" for me.

But is there some kind of "old fashioned" way of doing it? Can I just stand on a street corner and have people bid on my shares... and if I find a buyer, have them sign some paperwork to take ownership?

 

[kranky]

I do not see any reason you can't sell your shares without a broker. As long as you get the ownership properly recorded with the transfer agent, no harm done.

 

[Alphathree33]

Okay, I'm having the shares issued to me in certificate form.

Now E*Trade Canada is claiming that in addition to the $50 fee to get the stocks issued to me, they are charging me $50 to close my account.

If I don't close my account, they will keep charging me low activity fees... forever... until I close the account.

Can they legally do this?

What if I don't pay the low activity fees, will that ruin my credit rating?

 

[J0hnny]

What's the minimum amount required to maintain a no fee account?

This is why I would never sign up for etrade.

Just send those shares to tdameritrade, or some other more reputable broker that doesn't charge inactivity fees.

 

[Double Trouble]

Sounds like etrade is one of those shade brokers that has fees to close the account -- an obvious ripoff. That should be a red flag for anyone considering using etrade: if you are not happy with their service etc, you'll get nailed with yet another fee for closing the account. Nice........

 

[FoBoT]

why are you trying to keep the stock? if you want to close the account, just sell everything in your account and cash it out

 

[ebaycj]

Get a ScotTrade account. They don't charge me bullshit fees.

 

[iversonyin]

Open another brokerage account and have it transfer over. Theres other brokers that don't charge bullsh*t fees. Go with scottrade. I have them for years, not one dime charge for inactive.

 

[Macattak1]

Originally posted by: Alphathree33
without going through a broker: can I do it?

Basically I'm closing my E*Trade account because they kept charging me fees, and I'm getting my shares issued to me in certificate form.

I don't want to sell them, but I'm just curious: can you do it without a broker?

I realize that I'd have to sell the shares _TO_ someone, and that a broker and the stock exchange normally find that "someone" for me.

But is there some kind of "old fashioned" way of doing it? Can I just stand on a street corner and have people bid on my shares... and if I find a buyer, have them sign some paperwork to take ownership?

Greetings,

I worked at e*Trade for 2 years after they had just gone public. Horrible place to work. You should have seen the hold times and for how long those hold times lasted. My wife can give birth faster than those hold times. A very Click'ish place to work.

They finally fired the #2 manager that loved to black list employees. I think she made it to VP before that. They were promoting any idiot and she was that with no management experience, unless you consider foodservice management at the dregs level experience. Took about a year before I fell on that list. I spent the next year being humble just trying to see if I could get back on. Nope. Never. Evil evil lady. By the end I would not meet or talk with her with out HR present. That was back when the unemployment rate was fairly low to HR kind of cared.

Oh, well. Guess you can tell just how little I think of Etrade and their mgmt.

After I quite, several quarters later they instituted the no activity fee. Was $25/quarter I beleive. What a rip. If you had $10k in $ or investments I think you were OK.

Anyway, just a couple years ago Charles Schwaub went back to No or Nearly No fees for that kind of stuff. So I would go with them.

Do not get the certificates. You can not trade them. You can give them to someone. But I don't recall that you can trade them. You don't have a license to trade...

Scott Trade is good. TDAmerictrade is good. But I would go for Schwaub due to the easy nature of their whole program.

Peace and Blessings

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
why are you trying to keep the stock? if you want to close the account, just sell everything in your account and cash it out

Taxes.

 

[Mill]

I do not understand why you can't simply transfer over to another broker electronically. I have no idea why you would need paper shares. That seems silly as fvck to me.

 

[Alphathree33]

Originally posted by: Mill
I do not understand why you can't simply transfer over to another broker electronically. I have no idea why you would need paper shares. That seems silly as fvck to me.

I lost money on the shares and I want to hold them for a long time. They pay dividends anyway.

I don't want to deal with another broker who is going to charge me up the ass.