I have been looking at Zecco.com (40 trades/month are free, then $3.50 ea) but some of the comments I’ve read have been negative regarding getting an account set up and customer service. Has anyone tried Zecco and could comment on their experience with them?
Stefano
(Yes, this is a copy of Rachel’s post, the only one found here about Zecco)
I decided to go ahead and open an account this past weekend and give it a try. I was able to do everything on line–no forms to mail. I was able to verify and request an ACH funds transfer today. It’s too soon to tell, but so far no problems.
Rachel
I’ve been trading a small account with them for about 6 weeks. Getting it set-up was a hassle and customer service well…But you really do get 40 free trades a month and the slippage is no worse than what I’ve experienced at Fidelity. Also, once you’re actually in to the trading screen everything is smooooth.
Do they offer trade triggers, such as trailing stop loss?
Good review at:: http://seekingalpha.com/article/23199 Use comments generally positive at that site.
The same review was posted at a different blog site – http://www.1stmillionat33.com/2006/12/test-driving-zeccocom/ – and zecco generally had negative reviews at that site.
Also:
http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/stock/first-trading-experience-with-zecco/
http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2006/10/zecco-feature-review-and-free-trades-details.html
I average 25 trades per month using P123. I’m paying $7 per trade at Ameritrade (if you’re an Apex client, just tell them you want a lower commission like at Scottrade), so that would save me about $2100 per year.
Given the customer service issues I’ve read about, I’m not ready to open an account there yet. I think I will, just not right now.
Tried to convert multiple accounts from Scottrade, Sharebuilder and Trade King to Zecco- yes they have online forms but you have to mail them in for transfers (you can fax but they still require you to mail the originals). I found this frustrating, but went along, faxed my stuff in and never heard back from them. I even called and they said “send in the forms”. I gave up, more based on sense that they still need to work out the customer service, than anything else. I think they will change the game with this model, just plan to give them a few months or year to improve customer service.
My Zecco account is only 2 weeks old, but I have few complaints to date. As I posted earlier, I was able to do everything on line with no forms to mail, but I have not tried to transfer a brokerage account or open an IRA account yet. It appears that this requires forms to be mailed and can be expedited by faxing or emailing the forms as well.
Yes, they do offer trailing stops.
There are some things I like better about Zecco than my $7/trade brokerage account.
First, that they will do ACH transfers from Zecco to my bank account. The $7/trade brokerage account will only do ACH deposits. I’ve done 2 ACH transfers to Zecco, and funds were available for trading in 2 to 3 days.
Zecco offers 3 money market funds for an automatic sweep with interest rates much better than my $7/trade account. This week I emailed them the fund I’d selected, and they responded the same day to confirm. It’s already showing up in my account information.
I also like that they show the average cost of a stock purchase. Frequently my orders are filled with multiple transactions, and this eliminates the need to calculate the average cost for manually entering it as a single transaction in my P123 ports.
So far my only complaint is that the account balance, including the cash balance, is updated daily rather than after each order is placed. This is a small inconvenience in view of the savings.
In addition to saving on trading costs, you have that much more money to invest and appreciate. I have run sims on some of the ports I’m trading based on both $7 trades and free trades, and the difference in the ending market value is considerable.
Rachel
very good service… trade execution is nice , site is still a little un-user friendly, but it has saved me $$ on commissions…
can’t beat that!
I have also done options… pretty good as well(minimal cost)
I have an account with Zecco and am quite happy with it.
While customer service seems a little bit slow by email they have always been very, very polite and helpful on the phone.
I have recommended the service to a couple of friends and the only complaint has been that they (Zecco) may not very quickly prompt you you still need to send some of the forms by mail. I did everything online but it looks like for IRA and foreign accounts they reuire more complex forms - just my understanding.
I have always been very sensitive to fees and commissions. The only successfull way I have found to invest is maintain a very broad portfolio (a set of a number of smaller model portfolios) and to me commission can stop you from executing that.
I have tried before a commission free service caller freetrade.com, (now $5 izone.com of Ameritrade) but they did not offer free RT quotes and any phone customer service. Zecco does both.
In addition to everything else through Zecco I can trade pink sheets $0 commission, which are not tradable through brokers like IB (though IB falsely claim they are; IB somehow excludes a large number of pink sheets out of their tradable instruments; even p.s. that are very liquid and ones of foreign stocks that have nothing to do with penny stocks or development stage companies).
I have a very important to me portfolio in pink sheets - mostly pink sheets for foreign stocks that do not have a proper ADR (ADRs are some times pink sheets by the way).
One CANNOT (yet) put online orders on pink sheets through Zecco. You have to phone but commission in this case is still $0.
I also think their trading platform is very easy to use and very efficient. This is contrast to many online trading platforms that in the try to implement new and hip technologies have become very cumbersome.