Scala..."strange" is a good word. I was just coming here to write about another strange experience. I liked, as you did, the trading interface. The site is clean and easy, and at the time that I opened an account they won me over by having physical branches. This was earlier in the 2000s, when I wasn't as comfortable with an online-only firm.

But the "strange" kicked in when I started getting a lot of phishing emails feigning to be from ETrade, and after a lot of phone and email time, they didn't really offer any help or interest in figuring out when I could trust their emails. There were a lot of options out there, so that was my sign that it was time to stop dealing with their fees and close my account.

I love their trading interface. But the bank is strange. They let me open a brokerage account with no problem, but then (even though I had thousands trading) they denied my bank account application because they couldn't 'confirm' my identity. Really? I'M YOUR CUSTOMER ALREADY. I went through weeks of trying to prove my ID over the internet and finally gave up. The bank side are numbskulls. They just quote the patriot act blindly, when in fact, the act states that the bank has full discretion to meet the requirements. Which I met fine with the bank I ended up going to.

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.

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.