E*Trade

I have had an E*Trade Checking Account for many years. Although they have no local branches, I have found their customer service phone support to be excellent, they are very accommodating. Their 'dashboard' is easy to use, it's easy to transfer money between accounts, and their fees are quite reasonable. Initally finding ATM's was challenging, but once they removed fees from using others, it… became quite easy fo do my banking. Again, the only challenge is you can't do your banking in person.
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E*TRADE offers excellent charts, a great trading engine and is very good in all other aspects. I would not recommend E*TRADE for those that are charged the $40 quarterly account maintenance fee but there are lots of exemptions so most customers will not be charged. E*TRADE is highly recommended.

I had an account on Etrade. I had a stock that paid dividends. I had it on a DRIP, so the dividend would be reinvested. They posted the dividend to my account. When I called and asked about it, they said it was a cash distribution and not a dividend. They said they couldn't give me partial shares for the DRIP-only cash. I called the company that issued the stock, and they said it was a dividend… and that they paid in partial shares. They said that the entire tax structure of the company would be changed if they paid a cash distribution. Etrade would not budge. I transferred my account to another on line brokerage. They lost an account over some partial shares. I will likely have millions running through my account over the years, but they insisted it was a cash distribution.
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