E*Trade review: Trying to close my account

About 2 months ago, or mid-June of 2022, I contacted eTrade to close my brokerage account and told them to send me my remaining cash funds via the US mail. The eTrade Representative called me and told me that the funds were being held indefinitely because I had “manipulated” the balance of my account.

I have always had a cash stock trading account with eTrade, no money has ever been release to me that had not already cleared. I did at one point attempt an ACH transfer from Crypto.com however the near $ 5,000 I attempted to transfer did not credit to my eTrade account, probably my error, and the ACH transfer failed. There was no auto-approval of the funds, I did not buy stock or trade with the money before it was credited, it simply failed to transfer. But my eTrade Rep said that I had attempted the ACH transfer to get funds to trade on their dime.

I sent eTrade a “proof of funds” from Crypto.com that showed them that the cash funds were in my account when I attempted to transfer them.

Their statement was a flimsy excuse for not closing my brokerage account and sending me my remaining balance. So now I have to complain, complain, complain and start a small claims action. If eTrade was honest they would have closed my account and sent me the remaining balance, but typical of their “new way” of doing business they continue to play games.