And Yet Another Reason to Hate Etrade

I've detailed previously that I hate Etrade because they closed their index fund leaving me high and dry. Not only that, they closed it at the end of March. Do you know what's happened since the end of March? It's up about 15%. That means I would have an extra $4,000 in my Etrade accounts if things had stayed the same and the index fund had not been closed. Ugh!

So anyway, I'm in the process of transferring my Etrade accounts to Vanguard. Here's a brief history of what's happened on that front:

• I got the forms from Vanguard to initiate the transfer. On the forms it tells me that I may need a medallion signature guarantee if the firm that I'm transferring the assets from requires it.

• So I call up Etrade to see if they require a medallion signature guarantee for a transfer.

• I get a snot-nosed kid (sounded like he was 15 years old) Etrade customer service rep who cuts me off in mid-explanation to inform me that I have to initiate the transfer with the company that I'm transferring to, not from, so why am I calling Etrade?

• I tell him I know that and if he'd let me finish, he'd know why I was calling.

• I tell him the rest of the story and ask if Etrade requires a medallion signature guarantee or if I can simply sign it myself and that will be fine.

• He says something to the effect of, "Oh. Let me ask." He puts me on hold.

• He comes back a few minutes later and says that as long as the name and address on the new account is exactly the same as that on the Etrade account, I do not need a special signature to transfer.

• Since I plan to keep everything the same title-wise, I follow Etrade's advice and sign the forms. I send them in to Vanguard.

• Last night, I get a notice from Vanguard saying they'd love to transfer my accounts but that the company I'm transferring from requires a medallion signature guarantee.

Ugggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I HATE Etrade!!!!!!!!!!!

So now I'm back to square one. I'll go get the signatures needed and send in the forms again. I'm betting Etrade socks me with a huge "transfer fee." At this point, I don't care -- I simply want to be as far away from this company as possible.

Comments

[Ben]

My transfer from ETrade to Vanguard just completed a few weeks ago. I got the medallion guarantee signed from Bank of America, but I had to open an account there so they could have a signature card from me. The Etrade account will be fully closed at end of this month (it has to wait for any remaining interest, etc.) and then hopefully I'll be able to see if I got charged anything for transferring out. I also moved out because they shut down their index funds.

[JerryB]

I almost went with Etrade for my brokerage account. After reading this, I'm glad I didn't.

My Roth IRA and my non-retirement mutual fund are both with Vanguard and I've been happy with them.

[Apex]

I feel your pain.

I really hate having to go get things like signature guarantees, its just a big hassle. So I can understand the desire to find out if it's required. And when I get the kind of information you received from ETrade I hope its true and go with the information too. But down in the depths of my soul, there is a little voice that keeps telling taunting me:

Deep Soul Voice: You know that somewhere along the line of sign-offs and verification checks handled by both computers and people (of varying quality, ability, and apathy) it's almost guaranteed this is going to get rejected for not having the medallion signature guarantee on it.

Me: Yeah, anything is possible but he talked to his manager. I mean why would they say that if it's not true. Someone over there must know something no matter how screwed up I think they are. It should be ok.

Voice: Ok, but you are just going to have to do it twice and be pissed at everyone and be pissed that I told you so.

Me: Whatever.

......

Mail: Rejected, needs signature guarantee.

Me: What a bunch of crap. Man those guys are a bunch of morons. I would like to ring someone's neck. What a pain, now I have to get the stupid signature guarantee and do all the paper work again. Glad I keep all the old forms, cause I figured this would happen.

Voice: Excuse me but I think I am the one who said this would happen and you ignored me. I told y....

Me: Oh Shut-Up!

[Bargain babe]

Ug, I feel your pain. This is why I stay away from high finance. Dealing with investments is a necessary evil. I'd rather spend time saving money on everyday expenses. For some reason, I'm much more willing to look for sales and coupons than read a company prospectus.

[Paula]

Unfortunately that was my experience with Etrade from the beginning. Opening accounts with them was a hassle but the really lousy customer service was the reason why I closed my accounts and never looked back.

[Brian S.]

Sounds like my experience with Fidelity trying to get my 403(b) rolled over into the Federal government's Thrift Savings Plan. Tell me one thing before I send in the forms, then say they can't complete a critical form and force me to get it signed by my former employer. Why couldn't you have told me that to begin with???

[Nick]

I know that Etrade offers no-load no transaction fee index funds beside the etrade family of funs. Why didn't you move your money to a new index fund?

[TStrump]

What a drag!
Hopefully, you have better luck with Vanguard.
I'll be avoiding Etrade for sure

[Andy]

I hate etrade as well. Try changing your address and then transferring money. They won't let you do initiate a transfer for 2 months unless you send them a written statement via snail mail. In the course of all of this, I also had to deal with an offshore call center my first 4 days of calling. That is right, 4 days of having to deal with someone reading from a script, and finally 1 day of dealing with someone who could think on their own. I have very little money there now, just waiting for some things to wind down and it is bye bye etrade. I only did banking with them, but with their interest rates it is not worth the hassle.

[Andy]

I forgot to add that seeing etrade win Smart Money's Best Online Brokerage made me sick and wonder if Smart Money is really all that smart.

[theCase]

hmmmm, I've got about five accounts with E-Trade, total value over 7 figures. NEVER had a problem.

I use their Complate Savings as a sweep account linked to some other non-eTrade accounts and am ALWAYS moving money around. I repeat, NEVER had a problem...

[Abby]

Sounds like etrade. We moved all our accounts to another broker after it took eighteen months and filing the paperwork three times to transfer my MIL's account to an estate account after she died. That's eighteen months of not being able to access the account, but at least that was before the crash. The transfers cost $70 per account.

We also abandoned two accounts at etrade after they ignored a written request to close the accounts (which had no money in them by then). They kept sending us statements until we changed our address without notifying them.

[F. Morana]

The ineptitude of the E*Trade telephone representative was probably no greater or less than the ineptitude of telephone representatives generally.

If you were conducting a billion-dollar transaction, would you rely upon the instructions of a telephone rep? Absolutely not.

In my experience, the information, advice, and instructions given-out by telephone representatives are erroneous or flawed more than fifty-percent of the time.

[mysticaltyger]

Yeah, E-Trade is horrible. I had an account with them years ago and dumped them when they started sneaking all kinds of fees into their accounts. Not worth it.

[B Mocha]

It gets worse. The E*trade service rep kid I talked to today said I need to send in a *notarized* form. When I went and downloaded the form from my other broker I noticed the part at the bottom for medallion guarantee and had the sense to call and find out what it was from my bank (Wells Fargo) rather than rushing to the notary and wasting money in notary fees. I am stuck with E*trade because of my empoye's stock plan, but from now on, not a penny in commissions for them. I'll cash out asap.