Online Brokers

[Julia]

At Rich's request, I'm starting a new thread rather than put general comments on either the Comsec or E-trade threads.

Greggy and Nizar,
my problems with E-trade seem to have been sorted out now and all is working well.

At the time I was most irritated I contacted Suncorp Online Trading via their website. The website appeared fairly standard but there was no reference to any research such as that offered by E-trade and which, imo, justifies their slightly higher cost. I received an automated email response. Then a further email stating someone would telephone me to discuss my requirements.
No phone call. Three days later another email asking me to fill out an application form.
Emailed them back saying not interested in filling out application forms when I don't know the details of what I am applying for, and that I withdraw my interest in their service.

So it seems many of them have one sort of problem or another.
I have to say that, up until the recent stuff ups due I suppose to E-trade taking in HSBC, I've been really happy with E-trade in every way.

Um, isn't it easy to be relaxed about it when the problems aren't actually happening!

Julia

 

[Fab]

I am with Commsec and I have to say I can not find a better broker with regards to online price that is why I am staying with them

 

[GreatPig]

I agree that general operation of Etrade is mostly okay now, but they still keep stuffing up my finances, and have started preventing my investment account from accessing the new website.

I was particularly annoyed that they recently froze my account for a few days because of their own problems, meaning I couldn't buy anything during that time, and right now, two days after cancelling a couple of buy orders, the funds are still not showing as available to trade.

Anyway, I'll be off to NAB any day now, so watch for the new "What the $&%@! is wrong with NAB this morning" thread starting shortly...

GP

 

[babyboomer]

I am with Comsec as well and am happy with the service.

 

[clowboy]

I have an application in the mail for comsec as I have had enuff of westpac. To top everything off, monday you could not trade cuase there site was down.

Funnily when I went into the commonwealth bank to enquire about a comsec account I was told they could not help me becuase they where not qualified and gave me a number to ring

 

[babyboomer]

I've had the same thing happen to me when I went to a CBA branch to enquire about my Comsec CDIA account. Reading between the lines of what CBA told me, Comsec is a separate division to the rest of CBA and the CDIA account is basically a Comsec product but the "bank" part of CBA provides just the logistics and infrastructure to maintain CDIA accounts on behalf of Comsec for their clients.

 

[YELNATS]

Hi, I use netwealth who I find to be reliable, prompt and fairly cheap ($23.50 for trades up to $10k, $31.99 for over $10k & up to $25k, plus up to $25,000 3 days credit for purchase of top stocks). I have used them for about 6 years and although they may not be the most sophisticated I have never felt the need to change. regards YN.

 

[babyboomer]

Comsec rates are..

$19.95 for orders up to $10000.00

$29.95 for orders $10001.00 - $25000.00

0.12% for orders $25001.00+

To qualify for these rates you need to be CHESS sponsored by Comsec and open a CDIA account for your settlement account, otherwise the rates are a little higher.

 

[nizar]

Can any1 recommend an online broker to trade overseas shares and their rates?

 

[Out Too Soon]

I'm stuck with Westpac at present. Once I'm out of debt tho it's bye bye to a bank that thinks earning money is all about charging fees, finding new ways to charge fees, & changing rules to charge some more fees.
Netwealth has been offering $17.99 a trade but after they sent my appl back requesting a copy of my drivers licence after stalling me a dozen times (2 mths) already for more info, bank statements, ID, what I had for breakfast, ad infinitum, I realised they simply didn't want my business. They must be doing well, I've spent $1800 just in broking fees so far this yr.
Commsec looks more expensive on the surface but maybe the benifits outway the extra costs, Westpac loses me money sometimes simply because it's sooooo slooooowwww! & unreliable. Westpac & Westpac Broking r run like seperate co.s, another excuse to charge fees passing money between bank & broking acc.s.
There must be regular, exp, traders on this forum who know the best option, broker wise. Please let us frustrated beginners know. Please!

 

[Julia]

I have an application in the mail for comsec as I have had enuff of westpac. To top everything off, monday you could not trade cuase there site was down.

Funnily when I went into the commonwealth bank to enquire about a comsec account I was told they could not help me becuase they where not qualified and gave me a number to ring

Yes, I found the same thing when going into ANZ to make original enquiry about E-trade.

Julia

 

[Fab]

Which broker brokerage is the best for transaction between $30 000 and $200 000 . Commsec appears to be the best for low amount transactions but then I guess their idea would be to keep you as a customer and then when you get to build a portfolio charge you more for your higher amount transaction

 

[bvbfan]

Try brokerchoice website
http://www.infochoice.com.au/investment/onlinebroking/default.asp

 

[lesm]

Can any1 recommend an online broker to trade overseas shares and their rates?

Nizar,

Have a look at the Interacive Brokers site, all the information is on the site:
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/main.php

A number of Australian Traders use them and they have an office in Sydney.

They also have a demo version of the TWS platform if you want to have a closer look.

Cheers.

 

[Wheelz]

Hi everyone, is St George online share trading good? if not, what are some of the better online brokers?

 

[thidoan]

hi i am with westpac atm too.
i am kind of new to this game, but i think westpac is not too bad. i havent tried any others tho lol

what others do people recommend?
i dont think i will go with commsec, as when i tried to open a saving account with them, dramas occured.

 

[exberliner1]

I an highly recomend Power etrade...the web iress platform....loads of extra features.....it also has a main gainers feature during the day which allowed me to find BLTO and 2.1c and to top up on GSEO both as they started their stellar rises recently...

Last year I had some major issues with etrade as the site kept crashing...but over the last few months it has been very good.

Power etrade costs $80 per month but trade more than 10 times a month or 30 times a quarter and the platform is free....

Check out the demo...

EB

 

[exgeo]

The first and only online broker I've used in Australia is Sanford securities. I've been with them for 7 years. In the UK I've used Etrade, Selftrade, Comdirect, TD Waterhouse and Natwest stockbrokers, so I have quite a bit of experience of other online brokers, just not in Australia.

Sanford are head and shoulders above any of the others I've used in terms of website functionality and also reliability - very important if your main source of income is trading. The UK version of Etrade are pretty rubbish the same as the Aussie version, as seems to be the consensus from what I've read on this site. The maximum I pay is 29.95 a trade for any amount (well, I've only traded up to about 50k so far), falling to 22.95 if I make more than a few trades a month which I usually do. National Bank's online trading platform is provided by Sanford under a "white label" agreement, therefore if you are using NAB, you are actually using sanford. I would heartily recommend them.

 

[ezyTrader]

Julia,

Sounds like you have experience in using both Commsec and eTrade. What's your preference and pros & cons? Or anyone else?

 

[lakemac]

Well there goes Sanford down the toilet.
They have just announced that their wonderful Sanford Pro trading platform (the same one that E-Trade and NAB use parts of) is to be no more.
They are replacing it with a crappy version of WebIRESS

Contrary to what their rhetoric says about "enhanced functionality" the demise of the old Active-X based Sanford Pro platform and replacement with WebIRESS means less functionality; to wit:

No historical intra-day charting
No historical intra-day data (they used to provide up to 2 months worth of 5 min data)
Amateurish looking chart printouts vs a very smooth professional printout.
No abiltiy to select the date ranges on charts.
No ability to save individual colum layouts for different windows (eg. one layout for stock market depth and one for stock option window).
Really poor visual style and poor contrast display around charts (they are now using dark grey borders with black tick marks - say what

The list goes on and on.

WHY WHY WHY go backwards. I really can't believe Sanford/IWL are so stupid.

So ok the old Sanford pro had problems with charts resizing incorrectly and they had to remove the online ordering system but PLEEEEEEESE why have they got rid of what was probably the best trading platform around.

Anyone else out there angry about this?
Am I the only one?

Sigh...