Don't Trade With E-Trade

I like to dispense advice that helps people.

A lot of it goes unheeded. Things like;

"We should not make any more real estate loans."

Or

"X-Box Sucks"

Or

"Iceland should become a tax haven if it wants to get out of its economic crisis."

But while I cannot get entire governments or entire banking corporations to do what I say, perhaps I can get a couple individuals to save themselves the pain and agony of dealing with ETrade.

I had a small online account with E-Trade. Waiting patiently, biding my time for the bottom to hit, I was in no rush to trade and had a little cash built up.

I went online to see how the few stocks I had in the account were doing and saw a $40 "fee."

Apparently I'm not the only one this has happened to. Students of mine have also complained about this where if you don't trade once a month or something, you get charged a fee.

I called up the customer service guy, read him the riot act and closed my account.

And though I am not Drudge Report or anything like that, perhaps Etrade and other financial servicing firms out there who have decided to pad their wallets with hidden "fees" will think twice before screwing individuals over.

Who knows, they may even embrace a business model that SERVES THE CUSTOMER!

Ho ho! Now I'm getting loopy. A US finance firm that doesn't screw over the public.