Interesting. I haven’t seen this. I have an account there and have been pleased recently that lots of Vanguard ETFs have been added to the trade for free list. That’s all I care about. I’d be concerned though if I couldn’t get knowledgeable reps on the phone.
So as long as I read the info each month on the ETF's I am interested I should be okay right? To make sure nothing has changed. They can't change it so there is a sell commision on ETF shares already bought right?
Bought SVSPX 5/3/2012 - NTF fund at the time. Today, $19.99 per transaction.
Sold SVSPX 12/2/16
Bought NOSIX 12/5/16 - NTF fund at the time. Today, $19.99 per transaction.
Sold NOSIX 9/11/18 - along with the $19.99 fee
I did "encourage" them to reimburse me my fee into my brokerage account with a little hard negotiation, but now there's not $19.99 dollars in my daughters ESA, which would have compounded to ~$50 by the time she goes to school.
Not the end of the world, clearly, but the fund is relatively small (only able to contribute $2k a year) so it ends up being a pretty significant portion of the total. I'm just sick of playing their games. I thought briefly about their NTF Schwab funds and decided I'd rather pay another $60 to close the account with them and move it to my preferred broker where I'll get the funds I want directly.
I don't know specifically if they do this on ETFs - I don't invest in ETF's. (I'm not usually home during trading hours to make it worth my time.) However, I wouldn't be surprised if they pull these shenanigans on their ETF's as well. I'd love to hear someone else's experience.
You've got to remember that e-trade doesn't have any of their own funds. Their entire business model is based on encouraging many [high] fee trades. Whereas Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab, etc also provide funds where they earn a expense ratio. They won't charge you a transaction fee because they charge you a [small] fee to manage your funds in the form of an expense ratio.
Now imagine your a single mother on a small income say $30k/year, and you were auto invested in a fund - to put $100/month away for your child's education. You've been faithfully saving on a limited budget for 18 years. You should have about $62k of tax free education money for your child, but you don't. In year 3 they changed the NTF fund to a load fund and you continued to invest. But now your investments are now only putting in $80 per month, and etrade is skimming 20%(!!!!) of your investment off the top, all because you missed one of the 300 emails you get from etrade a year. Now her child only has about $52k of tax-free education funds. Those fuckers
stole $10k from this single mother. $10k that is so important for those that are in this sort of situation.
This shit should be illegal, and it's probably worth a class action lawsuit if a lawyer here wants to take it on. This doesn't even effect me much on a personal level... it's the people that end up in this hypothetical situation that I feel for. They are backed into a corner and may not even realize it's happening.
God now I'm pissed. You've encouraged me to go finish my paperwork to make the transaction and put this SHIT company in my rear view mirror.