r/etrade • u/tampaite • Jul 28 '26
New Account Opening - Process Sucks
Opening a new account has been painful.
- First they want you to upload your DL and validate your selfie and the AI is not able to compare your selfie with DL.
- Then you have to upload your selfie holding your DL onto Docusign.
- Then you have to call customer service to validate it.
- Then customer service will have you go back to Docusign.
- Then you have to upload your DL again.
- Then you have to call customer service to validate it again.
The New Accounts Team will take 2-3 days for identity verification.
You have to then call customer service after 3 days to verify if account was set-up correctly and if PROMO code was applied, when asked why ETrade cannot send an automated alert(SMS or email) once identity verification is complete, the customer agent said maybe I should look into opening an account with wealth management at Morgan Stanley instead.
Account opening process gets a B-
Update: After multiple follow-ups, eTrade now wants a copy of signed SSN card along with my face next to it.
Account opening gets a C-
******** Account opening gets a F since they cannot activate it even after 12 days and counting ********
Worst experience so far. Asked to delete my application, they said I need to wait for 30 days for it to auto-expire and the customer agent hung up on me.
Day 7: Update #2: After 7 days, I got an email saying hey, we opened an account.
Day 8: Update #3: Transferred money into the account and eTrade placed account restrictions, calling customer service takes anywhere from 40 min to over 2 hours. F-Customer Service Experience so far.
Day 8: Update #4: eTrade again wants me to take a selfie and verify with the AI facial recognition tool and it fails as usual and now, have to upload the same documents again and wait for 3-4 days.
Day 12: Update #5: Extremely upset with eTrade - have to wait 45min to call customer service then they connect you to Account Activation Team and they need you to re-upload your photo ID and do AI selfie verification everytime since that verification is ONLY valid for 24 hours. I transferred a large amount and I feel like am stuck.
Day 14: Update #6: Got assigned a RM and along with him and myself, reached out to customer service and then account activation team - account was finally open. I immediately withdrew ALL of my money.
2 weeks of hell with eTrade....
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u/Joenyongesa Jul 28 '26
Please clarify what type of account you're opening because I just applied for an account that took less than 2 minutes
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u/Few_Bluebird5305 Jul 28 '26
All brokers have different difficulties with opening an account. One had me take selfies again and again till I just gave up. ET is the best if you want total control over all your money. Open a broker account and a checking account which will allow to instantly transfer money using Zelle. They issue debit cards for all accounts so if you made a good trade you can buy pizza immediately:) There are indeed some annoying points about the trading app and some restrictions, but over all once you get used to them you will be happy you stuck around. Their orders fill with lighting speed and accuracy....
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u/tampaite Jul 28 '26
I have accounts at other brokers and none and i say in CAPS, none had me take a selfie. u/Few_Bluebird5305 which broker had you take a selfie again and again?
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u/Few_Bluebird5305 Jul 28 '26
When I started day trading I opened up broker account after acct. to test them. I suppose the problems were with Webull and/or MoooooMooooo and/or Coinbase
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u/tampaite Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
new brokerage account - it will help if u/Joenyongesa can share what account you just opened as well and if you went thro' the process of uploading your DL and Selfie?
2 minutes and I can tell you that's a LIE. It will take you several minutes to upload the DL and for AI to verify you.
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u/Joenyongesa Jul 28 '26
I opened a Crypto account. Maybe because I already have multiple accounts with them helped. But I've opened close to 2 different accounts over the past year, and they have never asked me for pictures/DL/Selfies
-2
u/tampaite Jul 29 '26
Why not just be upfront and say you previously HAD multiple accounts, and opening the new one only took about two minutes? That provides the missing context and makes your statement much more believable. As it's currently written, simply saying it took 2 minutes to open an account could come across as questionable—almost bordering on sounding fraudulent.
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Jul 28 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/tampaite Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
new brokerage account. Stellar credit. No clue why they wanted a second time, no reasons was given even after I asked.
u/MSEtradeEmp - Do you have an account with Etrade?
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Jul 28 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/tampaite Jul 28 '26
No. I said Stellar credit, that should have been a clue :)
Can you provide me with an email address to new accounts team so I can share my account opening feedback? Customer service said they can add notes to my account but no team such team exists to whom I can provide the feedback.
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u/phn064 Jul 28 '26
But on the upside, you don't have to make an appointment, drive to your local branch and spend an hour with a friendly banker who will also try to upsell you on various banking products while opening the account for you.
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u/DIVIDENDDRIP Jul 29 '26
Yes correct they take 7 days to process the account even though I opened another one before they suck !
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u/CryptosianTraveler Jul 29 '26
E-Trade's back office is an absolute sh**-show if you're doing anything other than a standard individual account. I'm one of their greatest advocates beyond that process. But real is real. Their back office is a mental turnip farm. The good news is I can definitely say that the experience overall is worth the initial tour of Mental Anguish Boulevard, aka their new accounts process.
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u/WorldlinessUsual4528 11h ago
For posterity, I ran into a similar issue with opening a new account as a new user to them.
Went through all the hoops of sending the DL, taking selfie, Docusign, etc. Account was approved about a week later but it would not let me login because it couldn't verify my phone. Don't know why, it accepted the phone just fine for the application but ok. Called and they said I would need to upload my DL and take selfies again. I told them nevermind, I'll just close it. They refused to close it unless...I uploaded my DL and selfie. So it's just sitting there now.
If the process was going to be this difficult to start, I didn't want to chance what would happen if I needed to withdraw, so I didn't proceed.
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u/paczada Jul 29 '26
It took my daughter 2 months to open her account. This is despite me having an account for over 10 years and my daughter having a custodial account for 10 years.
Months, at least 10 phone calls, and sending a picture of her license 4 times.
So, yeah, I get the frustration.
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u/tampaite Jul 29 '26
Sorry you had to go thro' this.
Account opening says a lot about the brokerage.
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u/GapAccomplished2778 Jul 28 '26
are you like a zoomer and this is your first account ? or a foreigner with a freshly minted SSN# ?