[Porsche-O-Phile]

Avoid ETrade. They suck. On top of their horrendous over-exposure to subprime, their customer service is deplorable. I just went through a three-month long fight with them over an electronic (ACH) transfer they screwed up. In order to get resolution, I had to spend about six hours on the phone and write a letter to the Dep't of the Treasury Office of Thrift Management (federal overseer of ETrade Bank).

Basically I initiated a transfer from my ETrade bank account to another bank (I pulled my stuff out because of insolvency worries) and they debited my ETrade bank account AND my other bank's account for the same amount. Effectively I'd been out 2X the transfer amount for three months. And of course they tried to duck behind their bureaucracy and layers of India call center boneheads for weeks about it (basically my request for inquiry/resolution kept getting "blown off", I was repeatedly told "someone will look into it" but was denied a contact/investigator's name and/or extension for direct contact). Total B.S.

THEN they closed my brokerage account (without my permission) after I transferred my positions to another broker. I'd wanted to keep it open for occasional trades and research but keep the bulk of my stuff elsewhere in case ETrade went under (I know they have SIPC coverage but I don't want to have to deal with that red tape if I could. . .)

In short, I'm done with them. My advice would be to not waste my time.

My current brokerage is OptionsXpress. They've been nothing short of outstanding thus far.