Two Thumbs Down for Firstrade

themadride

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I just thought I would share my 2 cents about the bad experience I had with Firstrade.com

I started my account by wiring in some funds from my bank. Firstrade told me that the funds would post immediately upon arrival. My bank wire was sent in a batch at 11:00am on a Thursday. My funds didn't post until after 3:00pm on Monday. Certainly not worth the cost of a wire transfer.

The next problem is not really anything they mislead me about, but rather I just feel their minimum account balance requirements for options trading are too high. Much higher than most of the competition in fact.

When I sold stock the first time they put some sort of IRS hold on 20% of my funds until I faxed them an agreement of some type. Again, they said that the credit would post immediately after I faxed the form. Instead it took abotu two business days.

Finaly, and this angered me a great deal, when I decided to withdraw a large portion of my funds they sent me an email the following day saying that my check would be delayed by about 30 days because I had a new account and they had to make sure the funds actually went through or some such nonsense. It's nonsense of course because I funded the account with a wire transfer.

Very displeased with Firstrade. Their costs are really not very competitive, their rules are stringent and problematic, and their customer service is virtually nonexistent. When I called their customer service to ask about some of my problems a lady answered who acted like she had no idea about their business and their were kids crying VERY LOUDLY in the background. Clearly they just use some phone transfer program for people working out of their homes.

Two thumbs down for Firstrade.
 
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