Commsec vs. E-Trade

G'day everyone, looking for some recommendations. I'm going to be opening a broking account soon. I've pretty much narrowed the field down to eitehr E-Trade or Commsec. Note: if anyone has a nfity online broker they use that I may not be aware of, feel free to shout out!

Anyway, based on the premise that I will not be actively trading, but using a long term buy and hold strategy, which one do you think is better and why? Cost per trade isn't a big issue, since the difference between the two is negligible.

What I'm looking for is value of access to information and ease of use and stuff like that. Also, I'll be using a discretionary trust, so if there are any issues relating to this with either one, I would like to know (although I can't see this being a problem).

Thanks in advance.

Mark

 

I think both are a much of a muchness. Are you using a margin loan? if yes then consider the interest rate avaliable to you from both providers.

If you have property with CBA and are on a wealth package, comsec gives you a 25 point discount on your margin loan.

 

How about macquarie prime?

ps not a recommendation - just trying to think of other online options.

Cheers
N.

 

I would recommend staying away from anything with macquarie written on it. All the dealings I have had with them have been riddled with errors, poor performance, poor customer service, excessive fee's, slow to act..

 

Wow, we agree for once. I think hell just froze over. A broker friend of mine also recommended Commsec, so I think that's gonna be the way to go. No plans to use a margin loan with direct shares at this stage.

Mark

 

Mark,
I’ve got still an open account with Commsec (just in case ).

 

Hi Mark,

I've got both etrade and comsec.
I prefer the comsec one as it is extremely straightforward to use.

Cheers,

Dan

 

One factor U might like to consider - when the market is trading vast volumes Commsec(Commsuck is its second name according to a few punters) is notorious for breaking down and U can't get your orders filled. E Trade is not immune from that fault as well but I would say is better in that regard- seems to have less Outages than comsec--Ur a longer term holder but who knows when the sky is falling??? May the Bourse be with u

 

I think prime is a fantastic option.

Ive got Comsec, Westpac Broking and Prime. And they prime leaves the other for dead. The new graphs feature they implented last week is brillent and really lets you create your own graphs with the options they give you.

Brokerage is $20 per trade and their margin loan rates are lower than anyone else.... Also the streaming of real time prices is available on comsec with out going to the professional package which is like $50 per month. The free live feed of news from the Dow Jones is really informative and gives you all the brokers changes in stocks for free....

But hey individual choices