Test driving Zecco.com
Posted by ML on December 2nd, 2006
You probably have heard about Zecco already. The name stands for ZEro Cost Commission. True to their word, they offer zero commission internet trading for stocks and ETFs, for both market and limit orders as long as the account balance is above $2000. There is a limit the number of trades but it’s a more than generous10 trades/day, 40/month. Bank of America also offers free trading to customers with a combined $25,000 in all accounts in a dozen states (AL, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA). However, after comparing the other fees it was obvious Zecco was the clear winner, so I decided to give it a try.
Source: Zecco
Application/ACH transfer
I was actually offered a Zecco account suppose back. I suppose because of my other blog. I signed up for an account which lets you participate in their forum and post blot entries. Online trading requires a separate application and password.
The online application was a snap and I received approval the next day. However, I found the interface unpolished in several places. It lacks the ability to enter trailing loss or conditional orders (which BAC lacks also). Since they were upfront about this limitation, I was not too disappointed.
When it came to set up the ACH transfer, however, I found the interface cumbersome and unintuitive. For example, on Nov. 27th, I scheduled a transfer on the 29th. However, once that request was entered, I had trouble finding a record of it. I ended up emailing them on the evening of 28th (No 800 number, phone number for trading help only) and got this reply the next morning.
Thank you for contacting Zecco Trading. You will need to click on PENDING Transfers to see that we have received the request. I do show a pending ACH for your account. We appreciate your input on our ACH processes, we would like you to know that we are constantly upgrading our website and this is an area we are looking to improve.
Should you have any questions, please refer to www.zecco.com
Thank you for your interest in Zecco.
The ACH transfer did manage to go through and I was fairly happy with the way they handled my questions.
My rating so far
Site interface: 3/5
Customer service: 4/5
Overall experience: 4/5
Next key area to be evaluated: order handling and execution
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December 2nd, 2006 at 8:42 am
Great review! Keep us posted on how your trading experience goes.
-Grant
TheCornerOfficeBlog.com
December 3rd, 2006 at 11:53 am
Thanks for letting us know! Let us know how well they execute trades when you get a chance.
December 3rd, 2006 at 1:59 pm
I also opened Zecco account, based on free commission offer. I do agree with you that their interface needs some improvements, as I thought it wasn’t so user friendly.
It does take some time to navigate thru different tabs, knowing what to do such as finding out pending transactions.
For the first trade I made, it went thru very smooth. Not the fastest trading, but acceptable. Keep up the good work.
I found your blog today, and enjoying your blog very much.
Andy
December 3rd, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Thanks guys for your encouragement. I’ll probably trade through this account this week.
I’m also trying to figure out their money market sweep. I signed up for it in the account application but couldn’t find a way to confirm it now. It was a big draw as it promised a rate of 4% on the cash balance.
ML
December 5th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
It seems that BOA is the giant pink elephant in the room here…
Looking at the breakdown, BOA is the best of the listed firms….
If you got $25K in a few accounts and CD’s at BOA, dont need a broker and dont trade daily, BOA seems to be the best and better than Zecco…
December 10th, 2006 at 4:43 am
About time someone took on the Banks.
When are you guys starting up Down South in good old Australia?
December 17th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
I couldn’t find any information on DRIP plans at the Zecco website.
Do they offer dividend reinvestment?
December 18th, 2006 at 7:56 am
Im still waiting for the outcome on Zecco. What are you experiences with buying/selling ?
I went once to their website and couldnt log in . Not a good sign .
Thanks
Vanessa
December 18th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
TJP,
No, Zecco doesn’t offer dividend reinvestment.
Vanessa,
I’m working on part 2 of the review. Order execution is fine; however, I’m experiencing some problems with withholding/margin/money market sweeps.
I can’t give my endorsement to Zecco at this moment.
December 22nd, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Hi ML & others,
I find your blog interesting and i’m keen on following.. but could you let us all know .. about the min. balance requirement. I see that they ask for $2500 min. but wat does that actually mean.. You cannot (shouldn’t) use your last $2500 so as to avoid any fees/charges… or there is some avg daily/monthly balance they are referring to.
Also, another thing I need to know is, is there any fee related to tranfering funds to/from your checking/savings account (ACH, check or other means.).
I tried calling their cust. service but they don’t seem to have cust. service for general queries/help.
From your replies.. may be I can make my decision onto start trading online. As you must have guessed I am a novice trader starting with small amount and risk.
thanks,
December 23rd, 2006 at 6:13 pm
Taz and others,
I’m writing a 2nd part of this review and it should appear around next Tuesday. I’ll try to answer all your questions then.
ML
December 31st, 2006 at 10:22 am
My initial ACH went through also but there were problems:
1. I entered my transfer and it showed pending that Friday
2. Then there was no record of it and the $ was still in my bank
3. Through e-mail reps only said it takes several days to ACH but could offer no reason there were no pending transfers on my account.
4. Finally my zecco account showed my ach was approved and my bank account
was minus the assests.
5. I checked my zecco account but the money wasn’t there.
6. Major freakout time
7. After several phone calls they told me their servers were down because of bad weather and they were updating buying power by hand.
8. My account showed buying power as the money I sent in instead of 2 times the money and my cash balance was a big fat zero.
9. Finally my account was corrected all in about 4 days.
10. My advice is that if you are going to open a Zecco account:
A. Be sure you fill out the margin agreement that is separate from the account application.
B. Send in only a small ACH as your initial deposit so you won’t freakout when your money disappears.
February 17th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I see that someone mentioned that BofA also has a free trading deal. The problem with BofA is that the difference between the highest yield on savings with them and the highest yield on savings at other banks could add up to over a $200 a year loss. If you don’t trade that much, it’s not really worth it to tie up your savings with Bank of America in order to get the free trades. I’m with TD Ameritrade now and am thinking of switching to Zecco. We’ll see. Free trades seem a little too good to be true.
February 27th, 2007 at 6:12 am
ShareBuilder.com — offering $4 trades on Tuesdays — should have been on the list. It’s closer to Zecco.com than E*Trade or Charles Schwab. The two former brokers offer many more services.
Thanks for the reviews. I was about to open an account with Zecco.com but maybe I’ll wait a bit. Hearing how their servers were down because of the weather and how some of the processing was done by hand gave me the chills. Maybe it’s just growing pains.
Ian
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:20 am
Zecco trading: Stay away from them. Filled out application online, mailed paper work, funded the account more than 2 weeks ago still not able to trade. Status shows pending approval. I was able to apply and trade same day from other online traders. I guess they are not kidding when they say they are able to make money using your account balances. Obviously bcoz they do not let u use ur money for so long. When called they said waiting for processors approval, whatever that means. Tried to withdraw funds 4 days later ach still showing pending processors approval. Bottom line Zecco bad news.
March 30th, 2007 at 3:41 am
Paul,
Thanks for the info. I was about to open an acct with them. But I guess I’ll wait for a bit. I am using Ameriturd now but having some difficulty trading many block stocks by them. My next choice would be ETrade.
April 16th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Stay away from Zecco. I initially applied for an account last December, mailed hardcopy, waited a month, nothing. had to do with choosing to substitute driver’s license instead of passport as ID, and I made it clear on the hardcopy what was going on. Called to inquire a few wks after, in Jan 07, was told it hasn’t gone through yet (!) would be taken care of, but again heard nothing for about a month. Then got email saying multiple accounts were opened in my name, please call again. At this point, I’d decided if they couldn’t deal with this simple matter that I had already explained to them 3 times, why should I entrust any money to them?
In the past couple of months, they’ve been emailing and leaving voicemail saying please fund this account (what account?). I called in today and tried to navigate through their not very helpful voicemail - it just kept ringing for several minutes, then it invites you to leave a message but then immediately starts ringing again for awhile, invites you to leave a message, and the 2nd time it may give you a signal to do so.
So my experience is: if anything needs to be corrected or adjusted intelligently and promptly, you’re out of luck. If this had been a financial matter instead of a bureacratic/paperwk glitch, where would my money have gone???
April 20th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I opened an account last month with Zecco and the process was very smooth. I did an ACH from my bank and have started trading with no problems. I am moving the rest of my funds from Scottrade to Zecco. I would recommend a Zecco account. Make sure you read all the instrucions carefully to prevent and delays in opening your account.
April 28th, 2007 at 11:28 am
I opened a Zecco account a few weeks ago. I faxed the app, mailed the app, and setup the ach deposit.
I had problems with my first ach deposit attempt. Nothing happened after I clicked submit, so I tried again using a smaller $ amount. I got a confirmation page for the smaller amount, and was able to view the record in pending deposits. I emailed cust serv about the first ach attempt, but they sent a general message that they received an ach request. They didn’t respond to my second email when I asked for more details about which ach they were referring. I figured the transaction didn’t go through after a week and was able to successfully transfer additional $. I now always make sure I click the submit button slowly for ach deposits.
I’ve made a few trades, 1 market and 2 limit … and had no problems with the trading functionality. Trading for free is nice.
If Zecco can improve customer service, maybe by adding an instant messaging feature, like Fidelity or Tradeking … they will really be awesome.
April 30th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Why don’t you rank firstrade.com? Consumer reports just rated them #1 in their rating of online brokers.
Do you know anything about them?
j
May 4th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
I was pretty skeptical about zecco as well, and concerned about the security of my sensitive financial data, after reading some horror stories (zecco losing paperwork, poor customer service, etc). But my experience has overall been POSITIVE.
Account was set-up in about a week or ten days; the website is basic, but performs well. Trade executions have been efficient. (NO comparision to share-builder; Zecco has REAL-TIME Trade executions, as you would expect from any ‘real’ broker). I do have brokerage accounts at TDameritrade, and fidelity, and do my research there, but you just can’t beat the commision free trades. I find the executions at zecco as fast and efficient as at TD Ameritrade.
Unlike TD Ameritrade, ZECCO does give a respectable 4.3 % interest on cash sitting in the account (sweet!)
I am a conservative investor, who likes to buy-and-hold, and dollar-cost-average. I had not been using ETFs due to the commisions to brokerage houses. Now, with FREE trades at zecco, I can diversify, and get into asset classes (commodities ETFs, BRIC ETFs, forex ETFs, etc), I would not have entered earlier. I can dollar-cost average into these ETFs, for free. AWESOME!
I have placed MORE trades in the last few weeks than I placed in the entire year in ‘06
As regards Zecco’s customer service, I have never had to use them; so can’t comment on them. But I certainly won’t expect the service I have come to expect from the big-name brokerage houses…
I hope they stay in business, and help level the playing field for small investors like me (us!).
BTW, for those of you who can afford to keep $25k (INCLUDING monies in your brokerage account, IRA, mortgage with WF), I would strongly recommend Wellsfargo PMA checking account: 100 free trades per year PER ACCOUNT. You can open a regular brokerage account, and IRA account, and get 100 free trades PER ACCOUNT. And yes, you can get mutual funds, ETFs,and stocks without commissions…There is a whole discussion on Fatwallet on this topic…. You do get a decent 4.8% INTEREST in their money-market sweep account for cash sitting in your brokerage account. (I think their offer is MUCH better than BoA’s offer, UNLESS you already have a relationship with BoA, and you are happy with them…)
Cheers!
May 7th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
I filled out the IRA application online and sent in the form two months ago. I’ve been calling and emailing them about the account status. A couple of days ago, they responded my email, saying my account is activated and I can start trading. I tried logging in and the website said my account didn’t exist. One of their rep even emailed me the other person’s signature authorization form. In a word, their customer service sucks and they didn’t know what they are doing. I’m so fed up with them. I’ll move my money somewhere else.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:48 am
Please acquaint yourself with the only fees you’ll ever encounter at Zecco Trading. Our prices are not introductory, nor are there any hidden fees after your account is established. By the way, Zecco Trading will credit an interest rate of 1% annually (1% APR) on cash balances held in all accounts. 1% APR paid monthly based on average monthly cash balance.
DONT BE STUPID ….
THE HIDDEN FEE at the end of the year… 1% annually
May 11th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Actually, Zecco pays the same as TD Ameritrade for the cash sweeps (currently over 4%), you just have to sign up for it. The 1% is if you don’t sign up for anything. I did have a problem with a limit order yesterday though. I had a limit buy order on China Mobil (CHL)for $45.00. It dipped to $44.96 before maket close yesterday and they didn’t execute my order! Of course, today it was up 5.5% from yesterday. I called them about it and they gave me a really lame excuse that since I didn’t order 100 shares, they couldn’t process my order. All I know is, this would not have happened at TD Ameritrade, but I guess I get what I pay for.
May 13th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
R U Nutz,
The 1% is the interest that they will pay you if you haven’t signed up for a money market account. If you have, the interest is 4+%.
TDAmeritrade now also has a high interest rate (4+%) money market account available. However, you’ll need over 100k in equity to qualify.
May 29th, 2007 at 9:06 am
zecco problem you should know. customer service at zecco is
very very very bad. it started on 05/07/2007 10:06 AM Buy 600 ACH@$30.50 Rejected (reason)i had the money in the account but was waiting on
them to get the mail. it cost me .56 cents more per share 3 days later.
If you send a margin call via email. They
need to tell the client what is needed to put the account
back in standing. I recieved no email telling me the amount
needed also no phone call. no phone call for the 15 times
i called to find out what they needed to fix the account. the
emails provided no guidence. One email i revieved told me
my account was in order. only to find out 3 days later
they closed my account. the boss should look at my
experience and make sure it does not happen to another client
why burn money advertising if they can not keep clients. If i had known
the amount needed, in my cases less then $500 i would have wired the money.
they should also have a comment section
so they could fix other problems that
would arise in a new business.
May 31st, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I filled out the IRA application online and sent in ALL the appropriate paperwork a month ago along with a check to fund a Rollover IRA. I’ve been emailing them about the account status ever since. A week ago, they responded to my email stating my account was activated. I logged in…no money. I’ve emailed a couple times since and… NO RESPONSE. I’ve no idea if they received my money or not. I’m about a day short of contacting the NASD to file a complaint. This looked like the greatest idea since sliced bread. Now I’m just hoping someone didn’t run off with my money.
June 3rd, 2007 at 6:19 am
I have done 6-7 trades so far, it’s been a breeze until now. Setting up the account was difficult initially, once done it was cool.
Their interfaces are basic, however I use other brokerage services for tracking the price.
Anyone who want to start should start with low investment and based on their comfort should ‘up the ante’.
June 6th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
What happens to your accounts if Zecco goes BK. Will your account balances sit in limbo for years going thru BK proceedings? Just wondering?
June 9th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Hello ML and all others
I’m a total newbie and looking at opening a trading account with Zecco and have plenty of questions I hope you can help me with.
Is it a problem that I’m a non US citizen ? Do they accept offshore bank transfers from tax haven bank accounts ? Can I buy stocks from any exchange in the world through Zecco and is this a special trade or normal ? From what I have read from you guys so far if I sign up for the Money Market Account my account balance will get 4% interest ?
Do you guys have any preference to your resources such as Peter Leads or Penny Sleuth or is there better ones out there??
Is there any other thoughts and hints I need to know about ??
Cheers for now Rhodia
June 10th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Rhodia,
The quick answer regarding your opening an account is I’m not sure. As for buying stocks on other world exchanges the answer is no. I could say you should contact them to find out but mine and many other people’s experience show that this is too complicated a case for Zecco to handle reliably. Please understand that Zecco is an EXTREMELY low-cost and unsophisticated broker! I would consider looking into Interactive Brokers in your case.
I don’t use Peter Leeds or Penny Sleuth. They seem to have wider popularity in the UK? I read mostly precious metal and natural resource related websites like gold-eagle, goldseek etc.
June 20th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Zecco is awesome for my style of trading which is trade only once or twice per month.
I love the free trades and their money market sweep is very competitive at 4.xx%.
The fact that they save you money on LIMIT trades is also great.
Read more about it in my review of Zecco
June 27th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Zecco have a very poor customer service.
They have lost my paperwork and it was impossible to solve the problem until sending again all the papers. The customer team is not able to follow a simple problem and to solve it. Very very poor service. Hope that nobody will have problems, because it takes days to solve them.
June 27th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Hello. Just a note on non-US investors considering Zecco. Do not open a Zecco account if you are a non-US citizen. It may cause just too much of a headache for you. If you have a social security# and is a US citizen, opening an account is a breeze. However, it may turn out to be a horror story if you are not a US citizen so don’t even bother to stay on the safe side. Just my humble opinion.
June 29th, 2007 at 7:51 am
That’s weird. When I signed up for my account last month, I was able to check the DRIP plan box to enable the dividend reinvestment. I guess Zecco added this feature after you posted this zecco review.
Also, They dropped the minium balance to $0, so you might want to edit the picture for future visitors.
Finally, I can start a bit of short-term trading as an experimentation. In the past, paying $5 a trade made this impossible. Thanks Zecco
June 29th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Ok, I have honestly gave Zecco a try. I do options trading. This Web 2.0 trading platform, for the lack of a better term, sucks and is very often unreliable. On several occasions, I would try and try again and again to place an order and the order simply would not go through. Then, I try again later that day at odd hours like 12am and the order goes through. If you face this situation but must execute an order, you are forced to call in and their customer service is also lousy. And they are only working Monday-Friday. Their email support is also horrid. This test is over, I am closing and taking rest of my balance to my TDAmeritrade account.
July 1st, 2007 at 9:10 am
What the heck? I’ve tried to pull up the zecco website every day for the past 5 days and…nothing! What’s going on?!
July 3rd, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Zecco’s site (Microsoft .Net/ASP crap in general) do not work well on Firefox browser. Nor does it work particularly work well period even in IE browser. If the trade execution isn’t reliable, what good is your online brokerage account? None. Doubly horrid in light of horrible Zecco customer service that only works banker’s hours Monday through Friday. It’s horrid all around. And who needs a snail mail confirmation for every single one of your trades anyhow? Stamps are cheap to Zecco? Where is the electronic statement options. And no trade confirmations via electronic means either. Investing and effective trading and earning has nothing to do with saving couple of bucks in commissions compared to other brokerages that have their acts together. Zecco is not saving you cheapskates all that much in commissions. Zecco is only for you if you are a total amateur investor having vivid fantasies of grandeur that you will make a fortune in Zecco. Go to the big boys like Etrade, TDAmeritrade, or even OptionXpress and dump Zecco already.
July 3rd, 2007 at 4:44 pm
There may be some of you who haven’t had any problems with zecco. I wasn’t that lucky, decided not to entrust my $ to them. Zecco is not for you if you:
-want or more importantly, NEED quick attention from a human rep to ask questions or fix a problem.
-need quick attention or confirmation, PERIOD.
August 9th, 2007 at 2:35 am
I’ve also had problems with Zecco. I’ve been trying to get an account transfer through since March. Their customer service is idiosyncratic and poorly responsive. They have lost paperwork that I’ve sent them, and don’t seem to do a good job of tracking customer communications or on following up. When a piece of paperwork was missing from me, they didn’t get in touch until I contacted them a month later. ACH transfers have been fine, and my trades have gone through swiftly, but their account transfer department seems to be totally incompetent. I’m sticking with it because it’s a great deal and seems to work fine, but I’m still waiting for them to get my account transferred, more than four months later. They ought to hire some non-chimps in customer service.
September 4th, 2007 at 10:04 am
I opened a non margin account with only $700 in there. Will I be charged a fee? Is there a $2500 minimum balance? I thought when I opened the account it said there was no minimum balance.
September 4th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Angelo,
You will be charged a commission for each trade ($3.5). There is no minimum for account opening but you have to have at least $2000 to qualify for free trades.
ML
October 4th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Customer support for Zecco is horrible. I have a trading account and it is fine. It’s all automated. Beware of doing anything that involves a transfer or processing or emailing support. They are not helpful. I faxed my Transfer form to them three (3) times–once they said they had received my documents. But when I emailed two weeks later they asked me to please fill out the form again. Latest, I emailed and they said they could not help me without a reference number? WTF Reference number? They’ve never given me a reference number. Perhaps they mean account number, I dunno. The worst customer support I’ve come across recently. If anyone else was doing totally free trades, I would not hesitate to try them. Yes, it’s free, but the bullet you wanna buy to blow your brains out after dealing with zecco support IS NOT FREE.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Zecco is a terrible company to do business with. Stick with the big names, there is a reason they charge for trades. You get what you pay for. Check out my experience: http://theitguysblog.com/2007/10/16/zecco-trading-word-to-the-wise-stay-away/
November 6th, 2007 at 10:47 am
I have never used ZECCO but am considering using it, I can deal with a long wait to start trading. Not a problem. My only concern is executions here. I have seen many comments on other brokers. I am a full time day trader and so far Scottrade and especially ETRADE are not good for active trading. Scottrade’s commision is just rediculous but ETRADE is just a crook. I pay them to execute orders and not to make money off of me. I bought a stock for .19-.21 the other day and went to sell it for .25 x .28. When I put in an order to sell at .25 I saw ETRADE on L2 jump to .26 on the ask. They are trying to make .01 on my trade. When my trade just sat there forever they filled half and the bid fell to .23 finally filling me. ETRADE is the biggest crooks I have ever dealt with.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I just found out that, for Bank of America, the minimum balance of $25,000 has to be held all on the Banking side (Checking, Savings, CDs), and the amount in the Brokerage account does not count towards that 25k.
That is a huge difference. That means I need $X more than the $25,000, if I want to have $X in my brokerage account.
January 11th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Zecco is what you pay for by and large. Just opened an account. Am transferring the bulk of my trades from my bank, Yikes!! I see the above and am really worried now.
I don’t care for their order execution. First they accept and then it sits and sits and sits there until executed so I don’t really know if they’ve got it at the limit price or not. Oh, dear me. Sharebuilder is a lot better but of course a major limit on the listees to trade.
We’ll see. NK
March 17th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
The application process wth Zecco took over a month for me. Responses have been slow, emails have “disappeared” on their end, the site is kloogie and works poorly in some browsers. They have already raised mininmums. All seems kinda bleak to me. Approach with caution.