Has anyone used Ameritrade IZone?

[Olav23]

Hi all,

The Wellstrade thread started me thinking about moving my current assets from TD Waterhouse (now Ameritrade) to Wells. In my research, it turns out Ameritrade has some sort of "stripped down" version of their trading tools called Ameritrade IZone. Since I'm already part of TD Ameritrade, I'm thinking of making a switch with a portion and see how it works out.

I have been planning on dumping many of my funds and going the ETF route, so I don't need much. Just cheap commissions to buy. And I can now do a two-for-one, instead of $10 a trade, they do $5. And it has access to the same NTF supermarket as TD, and $18 commissions for non-NTF funds.

Has anyone had any experience with them? They strip out some of the niceties like:
no depositing checks, have to go through ACH
no phone number to call, all problems have to go through email

Minimum deposit is $5k.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with it.

http://www.izone.com/

 

[Olav23]

After doing a little digging, turns out IZone was formerly something called Freetrade, which provided free trades back in the day.

 

[LOL!]

Why pay $18 for mutual fund trades when they are free at WF? Why pay $5 when they are free at WF? And it's a superb bank as well.

Since you are former TDWaterhouse, now TDAmeritrade you can get out of TDAm without an account closure fee this month. Better act on it, or you will pay $50 in the future.

 

[Olav23]

Well, it was mostly since I had a relationship there already and mostly good experiences with them. But yeah, you have a good point.

When you say I can get out this month without a fee, is it some coupon code or something? I looked through the WT thread and didn't see anything. Is this something specific you saw on TDAM? Please let me know.

 

[figner]

I've had an izone acct since they were freetrade, and also have a regular ameritrade acct. Overall it's been fine - customer service has been reasonably responsive thru email, and the web site is pretty much the same interface as the regular ameritrade site. ACH transfers to/from my bank account have gone smoothly.

Although I've never tried it, I recall seeing somewhere that transfers of securities between izone and regular ameritrade accounts is free. So at some point i might transfer some stocks to izone when it's time to sell, to take advantage of the lower commissions.

 

[LOL!]

When you say I can get out this month without a fee, is it some coupon code or something?
I looked through the WT thread and didn't see anything. Is this something specific you saw on TDAM? Please let me know.

In a letter e-mailed to me from TDAM, if you are a former TDWaterhouse client that got bought by Ameritrade, you can now close / transfer_out your account without cost if you desire since former-TDWaterhouse clients of TDAmeritrade will finally get their accounts switched to the Ameritrade platform and clearing house.

I guess if one came to TDAM via Ameritrade that this does not apply.

 

[maddythebeagle]

Thanks for the post LOL...I dont recall that email but also will look into it....I have a substantial account (for me at least ) with the old TD Waterhouse and certainly would rather have it all at Wells....

 

[LOL!]

I have just mailed in our WF forms to transfer ALL the mutual funds in our TDAmeritrade account. I'll be working on the form to transfer my IRA from TDAM to WF this weekend. We do not pay transfer fees anyways because of the size of our account.

I rather like TDAmeritrade for the level II quotes, the broker-sold CDs, gifting stocks, and the online S&P's The Outlook so we are not closing our TDAmeritrade account. We are only reducing our potential expenses at TDAM to virtually $0 by leaving only ETFs and some stocks with them .

 

[flipstress]

I was with Ameritrade, then Freetrade which then became Izone. I have been satisified with Izone's $5 fees with the minimal trading I do, consisting of buying and selling individual stocks.

However, I am considering opening a Wellstrade account as suggested by several posters in this thread and from this thread that OP mentioned from a few weeks back:
http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=12281.0

Edited for clarity