E*Trade Financial
Reviews and Complaints

I am in the process of collecting many such stories for a very likely class action law suit against E trade. Thanks for a great post. You would be surprised how much this company has ripped people off over dormant accounts just like yours. I have well over a 1000 emails.

I agree dude...just found out today my account is gone...i did nothing wrong except let it ride for a few years! totally crooked.

E trade is a crooked company...I too put in about 1500 dollars and held for long term...I did not realize they would be charging me more than my retirement account to keep money in securities...5 years went by and a stock that was trading at a bit less than what it was before was dwindled down to mere scraps! I cannot believe that this is okay to do. I am writing on as many websites about their practices to insure that NOONE does business with them again. I believe you must inform someone of a fee like that...and also send some form or statement letting them know that they are being charged a fee like that...I am not a socialist, but I definetely believe in regulation of these kind of practices. Lawsuit should be coming I am sure.

Scam, don’t waste your time and your money. I was scammed getting my money back was possible with the help of curtis howard 270 @ gmail . com, contact him if you are having problems withdrawing your money from your investment broker.

Copy of complaint sent to Etrade customer service:

Since Wednesday, April 21, I have been trying to get money out of my Etrade Brokerage account. I can't get money out of my account through ACH because when I tried to set up ACH, I was sent a message saying, 'We couldn't locate your account.' Whatever that means; never had a problem establishing an ACH link with that account before. I then called you people to schedule a wire transfer out. I sent a copy of my license and a copy of a bank statement. I saw my Etrade balance decrease by the amount of my wire transfer, but the money never showed in my external bank account. Now today, the money shows in my Etrade balance again. Two different people have told me they'd call me back and they never did. When I click on 'Balances, Transactions, Banking, ' etc., I'm brought to a page that says 'This feature requires an E*TRADE Brokerage, Retirement, or Managed Account.' I *HAVE* and am signed into my Etrade Brokerage account. What are you people doing? Where is my money? If this issue is not resolved by Tuesday, April 27, I will be contacting my attorney to commence with filing a complaint against you.

These people are lower than low. They have persecuted and redaculed my wife who is fighting cancer over the tone of her voice. The bum that started the whole thing is named Tim Mills direct #800.355-8888 ext 223-7737.

He has literally traumatized me over the sound of my voice. Nothing else. This company is slimy.

ETRADE TREAT THEIR CUSTOMERS WITH NO RESPECT AND THEY ARE NOT COURTEOUS THEY ALSO NEVER FOLLOW UP ON TIME WITH THEIR CLIENTS. ALSO THEIR MOTIVE IS NOT TO THE BEST INTEREST OF THEIR CUSTOMERS.THEY PLAY TOO MANY GAMES WITH PEOPLES MONEY. ITS AN ISSUE WHEN A CUSTOMER WANT THEIR MONEY FROM THEIR ACCOUNTS. THEY ALSO DISCRIMINATE. FELIX KITELE IS MY NAME AM A REAL PERSON THAT WENT THROUGH HELL WITH THEM. I AM PLANNING TO SUE THEM FOR UNFAIR TREATMENT. WATCH OUT PEOPLE BE CAREFULL WITH THEM.

I just bought CTIC 360 shares few days back, company split 6 to 1 SHARES, GUESS WHAT, E-TRADE CHARGED ME $20.00 FEE without telling me anything on my account. Fee titled new fee. Never open any account with E-Trade, you will never know what they will do to your money.

I have been trading for 20 years and have several brokerage accounts. I closed my etrade account 1 month after opening it. They have the least knowledgable reps on the planet and the customer service is horrifying - 30 to 40 minute waits to talk to someone when the idiots in the compliance department freeze your account - for trying to transfer money out into another account with your name on it! Unreal I have never seen anything like this place. FINRA should shut them down

Unfortunately if you really want to be sure that funds are immediately available in any brokerage account, WIRE the funds to them (especially with a new account). Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT) are relatively slow and won't clear for 3-5 days, depending on whether a weekend in involved and the actual time you initiated the transfer. Your bank will inform you on how to WIRE funds and their fee for this service. Your brokerage firm will let you know the information you need to WIRE funds directly to them.

Regarding the unrelated comment by badbluemoon, ETrade does not make any recommendations. They will only execute your trande and depend on you to know what you are buying. So there is no way that they can solicit you to buy a particular security. If you happen to call them, they will only inform you of what is available. Auction rate securities were very popular for awhile until the stock market crash in 2008. Meanwhile most investor who purchase these securities have been reimbursed at par.

They did almost the identical thing to me referenced by Mchristo above. If you are still reading this did FINRA side with the crooks? They are a kangaroo Court, the fox guarding the hen house.
E*Trade effectively stole, no stole as in thieves, $50, 000.00 from my IRA account in December 2007.
They committed fraud by selling to me on a solicitied basis no less, a security that just 4 weeks later was illiquid. This trash is an Auction Rate Security. The former CEO was dumping them in his own account in the early fall of 2007 and in E*trades house account. meanwhile the little pos' "brokers-liverworts" there were selling them as cash equivalent, money market funds, short term AAA rated short term bonds. Nothing was further from the truth! To this day I cannot access MY funds, and E*Turd just tells me to go pound sand.
STAY AWAY UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE ROBBED BY A GANG OF THUGS! The "folks" at this bucket shop make Poncho Villa look like a guardian angel, imo.

The latest with E-trade is their false advertising of immediately available funds whe you transfer from one E-Trade to another E-trade.
I made an on-line transfwr, received notfication that funds would be made available immediately. When I checked the account details they were in the balance but not available yet. Since the transaction had been made early am PT (before 4:00 p.m) I called. Funds have always been made immediately as is their written policy.
I received a vague excuse that sometimes it takes longer to process yet they would not clear the transfer.
A week ago when I tried to take out my $1, 000.00 ATM limit the bank permitted $800 only.
After callong Etrade they tried to tell me it depended on the bank (I have not seen that in writing anywhere)
Since I had made those type of withdrawals at the same bank I asked why now?
There have been several inconsistencies of what is policy and what actually happens, but holding money that should have been legitumately available? ISTHAT NOT WHAT WE CALL STEALING?

Yes horrible experience. Actually, https://us.etrade.com/e/t/estation/help?id=1903000000#Know2

tells you that the hold time is only 3 days. They have been holding my money for 5 days now. I replied to their customer service after getting an email about the 4 day period, with this linkage saying, you are contradicting yourself, and it actually says 3 days. I don't know why they are holding the money. I transferred this money from a savings account, and this money has been sitting there for 5 DAYS!

Here is the WORST PART:

I wanted to buy a penny stock with this money. IN THE 4TH DAY OF HOLDING MY MONEY, THE STOCK ROSE UP %56 ! Can you believe how ridiculous this is? Beware of e-trade. Go to websites where you can trade stocks easier. Avoid etrade at all costs. They hold your money and give you contradicting information about it. I just missed a great opportunity thanks to E-Trade. Thanks for nothing...

I found that they hold for nearly 2 weeks when you first open up an account. I did an instant funds transfer from B of A. They have it in their account and it has posted, yet they won't let me at MY money. They will hawever pay me one half of one percent. That won't change my life but it will their owners when you mulitply the millions of dollars they use for less than the prime! What a bogus deal. I am going to move on to another stok brokerage and see what their deal is. Sure does pay to shop around these days!

They did almost the identical thing to me referenced by Mchristo above. If you are still reading this did FINRA side with the crooks? They are a kangaroo Court, the fox guarding the hen house.
E*Trade effectively stole, no stole as in thieves, $50, 000.00 from my IRA account in December 2007.
They committed fraud by selling to me on a solicitied basis no less, a security that just 4 weeks later was illiquid. This trash is an Auction Rate Security. The former CEO was dumping them in his own account in the early fall of 2007 and in E*trades house account. meanwhile the little pos' "brokers-liverworts" there were selling them as cash equivalent, money market funds, short term AAA rated short term bonds. Nothing was further from the truth! To this day I cannot access MY funds, and E*Turd just tells me to go pound sand.
STAY AWAY UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE ROBBED BY A GANG OF THUGS! The "folks" at this bucket shop make Poncho Villa look like a guardian angel, imo.

Etrade's policies and employees are unethical. Don't use their site.

Total rip off!

I have had MUCH WORSE ISSUES with E*trade so consider yourself warned by your experience. CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT WITH E*TRADE, DO NOT BUY THEIR STOCK! I just finished a FINRA hearing against E*trade in which their inexperienced reps sent out false and misleading information to my account which caused me to lose 125K, yes one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars!

They are breaking laws each and everyday and will be out of business soon. In my case the attorney's for E*trade lied, covered up and refused to produce documents, erased recorded phone calls of their untrained stupid [censored] reps talking to me, deleted portions of other conversations, and lied about screen shots they send out ot their customers. This company is pure ###...I've seen them in person, I've seen them Lie through their teeth. THEY WILL BE GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SOON!

ETRADE SUCKS! DONT OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITHOUT READING THIS BLOG!...

I had the same problem with etrade. I requested to close the account immediately... But the problme is that they will not transfer my money until 2 week waiting time is completed. Etrade sucks... I bet you they are using this money in stocks and making extra profit with my money...

The customer service sucks, and dont really care if you are going to close the account. The online transfer said it will be available in 4 business days, and at the 3rd day I looked and shocked to see that funds will not be available for 2 more weeks. I immediately called etade and close the account..

I am gonna try scottrade. I learned that their stock trade fees are $7 versus $9.99 and electronic funds will be available in 2-4 hrs on the same day. Thats what I call fast service. It is amazing to see etrade still in business...

I am so pissed that I am thinking about opening up a web site dedicated to complaints about etrade. That would teach them a lesson in the long run. But in the short run I requested to close my account immediately.

I had the same problem. Their customer service is usless! Oh by the way by the time they release your funds you lapse your time to redeem their so called 100 free trades promotion. How are they still in business?

ETRADE ACCEPTED SECURITIES WORTH MANY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ON 5/30/2013 RECEIPT ACKNOWLEDGED AND NOW HAS NO IDEA WHERE IT IS 14 DAYS LATER AND IS PASSING THE BUCK, A REAL SCHLOCK HOUSE OPERATION

Leave etrash. Avoid. They do what they do, and it sucks for client when it falls on you. Life is too short to voluntarily be treated like a fraud more than once by the same coompany

If you have an inactive account with a low balance, eTrade will lock it under the auspices of security and make it nearly impossible to liquidate. My impression is that this is intentional and they are following the lucrative example from the gift card unused balance scam.

Starting late December 2022.

My Etrade Account/portfolio is gone for undefined reason. It is seemingly held hostage by etrade for unending further info on my identity and outside account statements.

My account was closed and they keep my funds, what’s the reason why my account was closed and my funds was kept

Date 16/09/2022

16/09/2022

10am

I’m here by to complain about my etrade closing account and I have talk to the etrade customer service on phone and said they are going to send me a letter to my mailbox and I haven’t received any letter since then so I need help on this and why my account is closed

SNDL stock. Was charged $38 in my account.

I do not own the stock.

Been on hold for 47 min now. Still on hold.

How can Etrade take money out of my account without my knowledge and steal?

I also agree -- polite, but unhelpful (like that old joke about the plane lost in the fog circling the Microsoft campus).
In my case, I had collected a handful of TWX certificates over a number of years (after my company was acquired and I could exercise-and-hold ISO shares for a "long-term investment" -- believing the AOLTW hype was my first mistake!). I later deposited them in my E*Trade account and had set up the exercise date and price for each lot.
Along comes the 1-for-3 reverse split. Though all of the other (Non-Qual) shares were handled correctly, i.e. multiplying the exercise prices by 3 and dividing the shares by 3, E*Trade mis-recorded the certificate shares as a 1-for-9 reverse split! The total number of 1-for-3 shares were maintained by E*Trade creating a new lot with no exercise date or price.

Q: "Look, you did it correctly for one set, can't you correct it for the other set?"
A: "The information provided in the portfolio is not an official cost basis record, rather it is there for your convenience, and can be edited by you to properly reflect the correct purchase price. For liability reasons, this information will not be adjusted by E*TRADE Securities employees." (Translation: Not our problem.)
"In order to change the information listed in your portfolio please click on the blue Edit link located on the far right of each position. You may then change any information that is incorrect or missing." (Translation: This is what our script says.)
Q: "Really? The quantity is incorrect and I can't change it. I can't divide the new combined lot into the original exercise dates and quantities. You think the IRS isn't going to audit me after I sell these and the E*Trade tax report shows a basis that doesn't match my tax return?"
A: "You are welcome for the information that was provided. I hope everything was handled to your satisfaction. Please let us know if there is anything else that we can help you with. Thank you." (Translation: Now go away.)

Note that all through this Cust Service never acknowledged the original problem -- that there was a recalculation error. Does make you want to reexamine all of your E*Trade statements...

I agree that Etrade's Customer Service is the complete opposite of the word and definition. It is ironic and shocking that they even have a Dept with this name! They do not value their customers, their time or money, nor appreciate the fact that they merely exist on the benefit of customers who hold $money/funds w/ them. They "only want" your money and never want to help you with managing, growing it nor do they want to release your money back to you when you want or need it. Furthermore, they only want to release your money back to you for additional fees (wires, processing fees, etc) and would only do so at extremely long and intricate internal operating procedures that make NO business sense. Etrade is UNfit to be called a financial services company, they do not understand business nor the advancement of available technology to service any customers that come to them. Again, Etrade does NOT understand the meaning of service, let alone "Financial serviceS" -- is this the reason for their demise in the recent credit crisis and was only able to exist through the benefit or capital infusion of a legitimate financial services company?! I wonder how long Etrade will survive on their antics of so-called customer service or financial services? Words of advice: Seeking financial services of any kind, do yourself a favor and go anywhere but etrade!

Etrade are thieves. They closed my account two years ago but still have the $14, 700 (the value of the account when closed). If you are not a US citizen and do not live in the USA they have you over a barrel. My lawyer described them as "selective scammers" and said the short version of the contract is "If you give us your money, they you authorise us to do with it as we please".

I still get a monthly statement through email and it shows the $14, 700 less their monthly account fees and it appears all investments and interest has stopped.

They won't take my calls and my later advised that his cost to persue the case would be more than the account is worth. In total the fund I had started for my grandchildren is worthless, and the people who have stolen it will not speak to me, answer my letters or emails.

I cannot believe I fought wars so these donkey's can take our money.

My experience is similar:
ETRADE Securities
671 N. Glebe Road, 10th Floor
Arlington, Va. 22203

Re: Account:
Attn. Mr. Donald Layton
Mr Layton,
To be brief:

With the condition of the stock market, I thought that this would be a great opportunity to purchase some stock. I was looking for a expedient solution, and ETRADE looked like a viable option. I was ready to do some trades.
I transferred $2000.00 into an ETRADE account this weekend. I did this via your online website. After making the transfer from my bank account to ETRADE (transaction complete) I found that there was a four day hold period on my funds. I wasn’t too happy about that, but it was too late.
I contacted ETRADE today (10/08) and found out that there is an additional 7 day hold on my funds, though it was verified that you are indeed in possession of my funds as of today. In essence that gives you the use of my funds for another 7 days, and there are (to my disappointment) still no trades for me. It seems very unreasonable considering that we are in an age of electronic transfers that you would hold my funds for such a length of time.
This is ridicules and bad business. I had hopes of doing some trades, but you guys are so hard to work with. I also spent a lot of time on the phone to your representatives trying to sort this thing out. I was put on hold for a long time. You should release my funds immediately. I wish to close this account immediately. I expect to be refunded my money immediately.
THIS HAS BEEN A HASSLE AND A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. I will not recommend ETRADE to any of my friends, (all who invest heavily). Close my account and refund my funds. I will file an FTC complaint. This is a bad policy that needs to be corrected.

Etrade has locked my account.
They said to me that they cannot tell me why because
they are not sure that I'm me, I ask to call back me on my wired phone but they disagree.
They ask me to send a NOLA mail only to tell me what the problem is. Account was "secured" from three months and my mail was still delivered to etrade, but they don't call me back. Etrade has to completely rewiew his policy and to radically change his customer's service.