Any advice in choosing between Zecco, Sogo, BofA, TradeKing, and Scotttrade?

Also does anyone know how much they pay if your money just sits there while waiting to trade?

Zecco
only 10 trades a month

Sogo
$2500 min
$3 trades

TradeKing
No Min
$5 Trades

BofA
25k Min
30 free trades
Scottrade
No Min
$7 Trade

use td ameritrade go to tdameritrade.com/7 to get $7 trades. They'll offer more services and such. Money sitting in cash gets barely anything though.

I'm only recommending them because you mentioned Scottrade and they have been fair to me in the past.

I just opened a Fidelity account to take advantage of the bonus United airlines miles, butyou can get Delta or Starwoods points. Also an option for $100 for opening an account with 10k.

Go in brach and they'll give you 1 year of $8 trades by coding your account as "Gold" status and they might give you free trades too depending on how much you deposit.

Also got a free pen and one of those sack type book bags, which I will use as a small laundry bag.

I don't know how much you are beginning with, but if you're going to make less than 10 trades a month, and don't have any idea of what to expect in an online brokerage then go with Zecco.

If you request the money market sweep (this is for balances above $500) you can get ~4.25% interest on your money which is higher than everything else out there. Sogo is about 2%.

With BoA you get free trades with 25K in a BoA checking/savings account, not in your actual brokerage account.

If you make anything over 10 trades a month, I would go with either SogoElite ($1/trade as long as you are trading less than 250 shares at a time) or Interactive Brokers ($1/trade, 200 shares max, $10 min/month) for the improved customer service/trading platform.

You need to provide more information to get useful answers. There are direct brokers that will charge $1 for 100 share trades.

What is your typical trade size (# shares)?
How many trades per month on average?
What is your avg account balance?

Have you considered either MBTrading or InteractiveBrokers (IB) - depending on your answers to above they might fit your needs better then a flat-price/trade broker.

Wellsfargo PMA also has the 25k min. Great deal, but your money is stuck with them in that sense..

Right now Zecco high % paid on interest and low cost are a great match. Just worried that they can change the fees at any time!

My concern is about keeping the fee structure constant and low min (if I decide to pull $$$ and put in high yield mma.

TheGersh said:I don't know how much you are beginning with, but if you're going to make less than 10 trades a month, and don't have any idea of what to expect in an online brokerage then go with Zecco.

If you request the money market sweep (this is for balances above $500) you can get ~4.25% interest on your money which is higher than everything else out there. Sogo is about 2%.

With BoA you get free trades with 25K in a BoA checking/savings account, not in your actual brokerage account.

If you make anything over 10 trades a month, I would go with either SogoElite ($1/trade as long as you are trading less than 250 shares at a time) or Interactive Brokers ($1/trade, 200 shares max, $10 min/month) for the improved customer service/trading platform.

How do I request the money market sweep?

By the way, Zecco Trading will credit an interest rate of .5% annually (.5% APR) on cash balances held in all accounts. 0.5% APR paid monthly based on average monthly cash balance.

Zecco executes fast in my experience. As fast as Ameritrade. You can have Zecco put your cash in a MM Sweep that was paying 4.3% before the rate drop, not sure what it is now. Thinkorswim has the best trading software imo and offers $5.00 trades.

niicceem said:Consumer Reports Money Lab evaluated about twenty online brokers
You mean this one:

From Consumer Reports Money Advisor
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/money/personal-investing/online-brokers-6-07/ratings/0607_broker_rate.htm
firsttrade
etrade
tradeking
schwab
scottrade
Terra Nova
TD Ameritrade
ChoiceTrade
optionsXpress
Muriel Siebert
Fidelity Investments
Banc of America Investment Services
StockCross Financial
Wells Fargo
Trading Direct
Investrade
T. Rowe Price
Netvest
Vanguard Brokerage

Smartmoney 2007
http://www.smartmoney.com/brokers/
E*Trade
Fidelity
Charles Schwab
Banc of America
TD Ameritrade
WellsTrade
Vanguard

scanchain said:gotsmack said:use td ameritrade go to tdameritrade.com/7 to get $7 trades. They'll offer more services and such. Money sitting in cash gets barely anything though.
Offer expires 9/30. Any new link?

Nope. Try to push it through anyway. If you don't get the $7 trade then call up to complain and threaten to go somewhere else.

I had an existing account and I called to complain about new customers getting $7 trades, then the rep spoke with his manager and let me have the $7 trades for depositing $2k.

I am an apex client though so you may not have the same outcome if you only have a few $k.

You guys have ignored the best broker in the universe.
Interactive Brokers

1) They charge 1/2 a cent per share and never more than 0.2% of the trade.
2) They give you interest at LIBOR - 0.5% (only for cash in excess on $10K)
3) They have the fastest execution platform. This is probably the best feature. Their smart routing will take your order where you get the highest price for selling and lowest price for buying. Ameritrade, ETrade & others route it to a market maker and you will never get the best price as Interactive Brokers. This alone means you save more than your commissions.
4) They are an integrated platform with stocks, options, futures & FOREX , all in one place(and with cheapest commissions).
5) You can trade over 10 different exchanges across the world, all from your browser.

I challenge anyone to find a better broker out there than Interactive Brokers.