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Today is the last day to make 2006 contribution to your IRA account and I?? sure many people will take advantage of the account opening offers from brokerage firms like Etrade financial and TD Ameritrade. All I can say is, remember to read the fine print!
I was one of those lazy people that seldom reads the fine print, and let me tell you how I realized losing $29.97 with my Etrade financial Roth IRA account.
About 2 months ago, I read the headline when I logged into my Etrade account which says “Fund your IRA account and earn 50 free commission trades.” I quickly sat up straight and opened a Roth IRA with Etrade financial since a) I have an Etrade brokerage account which I?? quite happy with, and b) I want to open a Roth IRA account.I happily bought an exchange traded funds (ETF) with symbol DVY. Without going into too much about the performance, I bought the ETF three times, as I put my 2007 IRA funding money into my account. This equates to $9.99 per trade x 3 (for 3 trades) = $29.97. When I didn?? see the money credited back to me, I called Etrade and the representative over the phone told me that they will do an assessment about 8-10 weeks afterwards and credit all the trade money back into my account. I thought that was acceptable, and told him he answered all my questions at the time.
Today, when I called TD Ameritrade about my girlfriend’s IRA account (click here for more details), one question let to another and the representative told me that TD Ameritrade?? free trade offer is only good for stock trade. That means it does not apply to mutual fund trades, nor does it apply to ETF trades.
I quickly checked the fine print on the Etrade offer, and realized what I did not want to see
“The new account holder will receive a maximum of 50 free trade commissions for stock or options trades executed within 30 days of the opening of the new account.”
I probably would not have bought an ETF if I had known. Money and opportunity wasted…
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Argue more. An ETF is not a mutual fund, and most commission-free offers I have seen include ETFs.
Perhaps the person you were talking to didn’t understand.
Yeah I should try that over the weekend when I have more time. I will post results after I have done so. Wish me luck!