E*trade Australia Review – Is it the best?

With over 4,000 dedicated employees and an increasingly substantial 600 million dollars per year made in net income, the online stock brokerage hub E*Trade is certainly sitting pretty as the go-to of its market. Furthermore, in most cases, if you were to ask a friend, co-worker, financial advisor, or the like, which website they use to handle all of their investment needs, E*Trade would undoubtedly be high on their list, if not at the very top.

While E*Trade Australia is a branch off of the E*Trade tree, it loses absolutely nothing by being an extension; the website comes with all of the same features, advancements, customer service, tools, security, and solid investment opportunities.

10 Simple Reasons to Sign-Up with E*Trade Australia

1. 1.       Sign-Up is Completely Free: Customers of E*Trade pay only when they trade.
2. 2.       New Investor Guidance Provided: New investors can take advantage of E*Trade’s “New Investor Hotline”, as well as a plethora of seminars, free product trials, and tutorials.
3. 3.       Leading Research Available: Customers can take advantage of E*Trade Australia’s vast collection of leading, independent research houses; the largest within the Australian market.
4. 4.       Top-of-the-Line Trading Technology: “Smart Alerts”, “Conditional Orders”, and E*Trade’s infamous trading platform “E*Trade Pro”.
5. 5.       E*Trade is an Award-Winning Online Brokerage: AFR Smart Investor Blue Ribbon Award “Fully Featured Online Broker for 2010”, named “Best Feature-Packed Online Broker” by Money magazine for four consecutive years, “Best Innovative Feature” (Free Tax Tools) by Money magazine’s “Best of the Best 2010”, and “Best Innovative Feature” again by Money magazine in 2011 for Global Shares.
6. 6.       Dedicated Service Team: From 8am-8pm, Monday through Friday, E*Trade customers are provided dedicated assistance from some of Australia’s leading client service consultants.
7. 7.       Choose from Numerous Investment Opportunities: Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), Managed Funds, Options, the SharePack, and Warrants.
8. 8.       Sharable Investment Loans: As a means to assist its customers in wealth-creation and to provide a portfolio leveraging opportunity, E*Trade offers its “ANZ E*Trade Share Investment Loan”.
9. 9.       Seamless Access from ANZ Direct: Customers of ANZ Internet Banking enjoy direct access to the E*Trade platform; simplifying their daily investment management.
10. 10.   Customers Stock Up on Qantas Frequent Flyer Points: As you trade, E*Trade rewards you with Qantas Frequest Flyer Points (if you’re a member); E*Trade Australia is currently the only online trading service to offer such a substantial perk.

Website Features Reviewed – 5 out of 5 Points System

• Featured Tools – 4 out of 5 Points

With fully customizable trading and market platforms, asset allocation tools, account performance monitors, income estimators, risk estimators, and more, E*Trade offers the investor just about everything they need to succeed. Typically, the only complaint voiced by E*Trade customers is that some of the most valuable tools are not free, but an extra expense. Some reviews deduct more points for this, but an overall free service of this stature, offering the best of the best, has to make money in some fashion in order to do so.

• Ease of Site Layout – 5 out of 5 Points

The E*Trade Australia website is, in many ways, easier to maneuver than the American E*Trade Website, simply because less digging is necessary. Both websites offer those who are already members a tremendous amount of ease, but E*Trade Australia offers the potential member more ease in getting answers and getting set-up.

• Priceless Customer Service – 5 out of 5 Points

How often are you patched through to a customer service department and feel as though the representative you’re speaking to knows less than you do about their own product? This is not the case with the E*Trade Australia Customer Service department; they’re delightfully friendly, dedicated, knowledgeable in their product, and are eager to help.

• Security You Need – 5 out of 5 Points

Here’s the thing that separates E*Trade from its competitors in the best possible way – SecurID; an incredibly substantial secondary security measure offered free to all members, no questions asked. With this system in place, you can lay your head down on your pillow at night knowing that your account is safe, protected, and always in your possession alone.

• Fee Structure – 3 out of 5 Points

Anything that’s truly great has to have at least one caveat and in the case of E*Trade, it’s certainly not a deal breaker. E*Trade’s commission fee structure is a little more substantial than other online discount brokerage websites, but the services they offer more than make up for it – honestly, I doubt you’ll pay much attention to it at all once you fall head-over-heals for the service at large.

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