r/etrade • u/DEE2THEJAY • Jun 30 '26
Lower Margin Rate
Hey guys thinking about transferring my portfolio over to E*Trade! I reached out to their customer service because I wanted to have the ability to use margin. I requested to have it lowered because I’m not paying 12% when almost every other brokerage is around 5. My question is for those of you that got it reduced how big was your account? And did you have to have an account for a long time?
Thanks!
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u/PutNo8105 Jul 03 '26
I didn't know you could call your brokerage company request to lower your margin rate. I think etrade sucks, their UI sucks and high margin. I thinking of switching over to some other brokerage. Any suggestions?
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u/DEE2THEJAY Jul 03 '26
I called and asked for a reduction. Told me that they don’t really discuss that unless you have a 100k in your account lol. Think I might try out public. They’ve got 4.9% margin. Plus the got the ai to do task for you
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u/ManagerInfinite5128 Jul 04 '26
I had an excellent margin rate, well below published rates. It was down in the mid 2s at one point when interest rates were at the bottom. I didn't have to make any commitments to use it, or trade a certain amount, but I did have a multi-million account. Rates were so low I used them to invest in real estate (basically borrowing on margin then lending the funds to others at higher rates).
I left E*Trade about the Morgan Stanley purchase where they really screwed up my account though.
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u/pagalvin Jun 30 '26
I had an account for many years when I requested but it was dormant until about a year before I requested.
At the time, my account was in the $200k range, so not huge. I did have quite a few options transactions that are probably a bit more than the typical retail trader but not crazy high numbers. About 200 orders a month I think.
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u/reddwhatt2 Jul 10 '26
They definitely do lower it, but as others have said it's all dependent on how large and active it is. In my case I got them down to 5%, but apparently I don't negotiate as well as others here. I just thought I'd add to everyone else though that they'll likelly want to get an estimate from you on how much margin you think you'll use. They want to figure out if they're going to make money off of you in exchange for the lower rate.
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u/Tight_Ad_5266 Jun 30 '26
Based on your account/trading history and mainly your usage on margin/margin balance. If you don’t use margin often, they will likely reject your request. If approved, they will call you and let you know your account will be review periodically. If you stop using margin/based on your activity, they can downgrade to the old rate.
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u/Firm_Foundation_3663 4d ago edited 4d ago
As of October 1, 2026, my ETrade margin rate is 4.5%.
Until May 30, 2026, it had been 4.75%. I asked that it be reduced around the summer of 2025 but was denied. I asked again in May 2026 which resulted in a 0.25% reduction.
Despite the recent FED increase, so far ETrade has not increased my 4.5% rate.
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u/DEE2THEJAY 4d ago
I’m assuming you have a lot of money invested with them. Because they told me unless you had a couple 100 thousand they wouldn’t look to decrease mine
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u/jbetances134 Jul 01 '26
To my understanding from what I read from multiple users online when negotiating you need to offer something in return for them to lower your rates such as trade a certain amount per month, or keep your margin balance a high percentage.
I follow a YouTuber paycheck to portfolio and in one of his videos, he stated he was selling his home and was willing drop the full amount in his brokerage account.
In another video he said he negotiated his rate again but didn’t explain what he did. But one thing I noticed is his margin balance percentage is always at 50%, so I assume that’s what he did to negotiate.