Zecco = ZEro Commissions?

Hm so what does Zecco stand for these days?

Ah yes, ZEro COnfidence.

History Repeats itself

Its been a while since I've written to this blog, mostly because as I said I would a year ago, I gave up using my Zecco account.

So almost a year later, I see an email in my junkmail folder regarding Zecco's new pricing structure.. "Not an Introductory offer, Pt II"

The whole business model up to this point has been to build a user base, get users to attract other users, get users to invest their money in Zecco, and *boom*, set the hook. Afterall its not easy or cheap to close an account and liquidate your assets.

Illegal? no.. Unethical? no.. A place where I wanna do business? no

a few free trades just aren't worth it?

Just remember the future is unpredictable.

Zecco doesnt get it

http://www.zecco.com/trading/PremiumTools.aspx

Great news.. Zecco is now offering Streaming quotes, just like many other providers. So why am I blogging about it? BECAUSE THEY ARE CHARGING $20 A MONTH!!!!!!!!

They charge for access to the Tax software as well.

You can get access to all of this software for free at Scottrade and many other brokerages. Dont waste your time at places like zecco who keep changing their fees and going back on offers, only to offer these "great new tools" at the "fantastic zecco price"..

What a fucking joke....

Zecco has now officially become desperate

Zecco used to be able to brag about how it could recruit users for free because people loved the service so much. I admit, I used to brag about 40 free trades a month and suckered alot of other people into signing up. Then zecco had to go get greedy. They thought they were better than they actually were and could raise their prices and go back on their offer. Why raise prices? "for better customer support, to hire more reps" as the CEO put it.. I didn't buy that reason, and after seeing zeccos new ad, I'm glad I didn't .

I thought they were going to use all this new revenue to improve customer service, offer new programs. So far, there has been nothing new offered on this site that your average investor would want (ohh how many people that signed up for free trades has $25k in margin to take advantage of 1% cheaper fee, or knows what a 3-4 legged option is). No tickers.. No gainskeeper (been promised for months and months). The only new thing is zeccoshare, which seems to be alot of fluff (flaky implementation and privacy statement that makes you wonder who you're signing your soul away to).

So what does zecco do to get back users? It takes the new higher commissions that you pay, and has to put that money to buying users. A company that once had virtually $0 recruiting costs and very low advertising, had had to resort to buying customers to make up for them dropping the ball... Take away the 40 free trades (of which I only used 20) to cut costs to "hire more people", and give $50 away for any new user.. Wheres the logic in this.. Why dont you keep your $5o and give me the $50/$4.50 trades back.

How pathetic you have become...

Zecco has lowest rating with Better Business Bureau

Before you open an account with zecco.com, Please take a look the
Better Business Bureau: Zecco Profile


They currently have a company rating of F, which is the lowest possible.
They also have 6 outstanding, unanswered complaints as of this posting.

According to their Broker Check profile, Equinox securities
(All securities and investments are offered through Zecco Trading, a division of Equinox Securities, Inc. ) was fined $4,700 by SEC for late filing of Financial Statements. Remember whose dealing with your $$$$.

You are paying for Zecco's Wastefulness

$ .34 postage per statement
x 40 statements per month
13.60 postage per user
+ .46 postage for end of month statement
14.06 wasted per customer, per month
x 10,000 users (modest estimate)
$140,600 of postage per month
x 12 months per year

$1,687,200

$1,687,200 amount of money zecco flushes down toilet on postage
÷ 30,000 descent salary for call center rep
56.24 call center reps that could be hired out of the waste on postage alone

For the money zecco wastes on postage alone, it could easily hire 56 more call center representatives. So if the motivation of raising rates was to improve customer service, why not trim the fat on your operation, instead of punishing your users by jacking up fees!

So the next time the CEO tells you that your rates are being raised in order to improve customer service, be sure to quote him this figure. I'm sure in the future this postage mailings will be trimmed, but the prices for the services will not go back to what they were.

This is a prime example of why this "new offer" for zecco is bad for all of us

Zecco has become what it was against

Press release from Zecco, before their bait and switch went into effect. Now they have officially become what they once used as their selling point.



http://media.zecco.com/releases/zecco_disputes_wellsf_02-13-07.html

Zecco Disputes Wells Fargo's Claim to be Best Commission-Free Online Trading

Wells Fargo Restricts to a Few What Zecco Provides access to for All.

Burlingame, California

Zecco.com, the industry's first online trading site that provides access to zero commission trading, points out that Wells Fargo's new offer requires a high balance and gives investors too few free trades.

"We are pleased to welcome another legacy bank with a half hearted offer to the free trade community, but it's too little, too late," says Jeroen Veth, CEO of Zecco. Zecco provides access to up to 480 stock trades per year with a minimum balance of as little as $0 through its association with Zecco Trading, a division of Equinox Securities, Inc. a NASD, SIPC member firm. "The old-school banks are trying to get into the free trading game, but all of them have a huge catch and none of them deliver value to investors like Zecco."

Wells Fargo requires $25,000 in combined balances and gives customers only 100 trades per year. Bank of America requires $25,000 in uninvested cash, which can generate $1,000 or more per year of revenue. And, both banks charge an additional account fee: $100 per year for Bank of America and $60 per year for Wells Fargo.

Through Zecco.com, there are no catches. You can open a regular brokerage account with Zecco Trading and get up to 40 free trades per month with a minimum initial investment of $2500 in cash or securities. What's more, you can open an IRA with $0 minimum initial contribution and get up to 40 free trades per month. A $30 annual custodial fee does, however, apply.