Caution: TD Ameritrade and Commission Free ETFs

I wrote recently about Commission Free ETFs and how they can be very helpful in parking spare cash without incurring transaction fees. I then went ahead and placed buy orders in Fidelity (EVY) and TD Ameritrade (JNK) for their commission free ETFs. Then I happened to look at the transaction history - and while Fidelity did conduct the transaction without any commission, TD Ameritrade happily assessed their usual $9.99 commission on the trade.

I sent my usual angry email and I received a reply next day mentioning that you get the commission free trade only after you enroll on the commission free ETF program! What crock!! I am not complaining against the getting my sign-off on a bunch of terms and conditions (which is what the whole enrollment was - one check box on whether I accept the terms and conditions) - but couldn't they have made that the default like Fidelity has. I had to search for and find the program and then ask them specifically why I am not getting the benefit. What is the point of having the program is you are hiding the program, hoping that more people don't find out about it so that they can keep charging commission. So folks, if you have been looking to trade the commission free ETFs at TD Ameritrade, then go ahead and enroll yourself in the program first.

Now, the actual terms and conditions of the program - there is a $19.99 short term trading fee if you sell within 30 calendar days. Fine - that's normal. However, they specifically state that its LIFO - and that bugs me. Is there any rational, business reason for them to use LIFO and not FIFO. The 30 day wait is small enough and the 20 bucks fee is small enough that it doesn't really matter - but why this whole effort to nickel and dime the customer. How much money are they going to make in short term trading fees anyway!

TD Ameritrade needs a high ranking executive with enough functional power put in charge of customer experience and customer service with the goal of ironing out these minor inconveniences. They are minor individually, but they combine to become significant in aggregate. Really, its more about culture than anything else - get out of the culture of nickel-and-dime'ing the customer TD Ameritrade!

Lizard by the master of tessellation M. C. Escher