Zecco Adds Minimum Balance Requirement and Reduces Number of Free Trades

Published 10/2/07 (Modified 3/22/11)
By MoneyBlueBook

Was it too good to last? Only time can tell. Zecco joined the online brokerage scene only a year ago promising free trades and even slashing minimum balance maintenance requirements during the summer. Now the balance requirements are back and they've even reduced the maximum number of free trades allowed per month. Zecco issued the slightly disappointing news release today.

Changes You Should Know

Customers who applied before October 1, 2007 will get to retain the old pricing structure until 2008. However, the policy changes applies to all new customers from here on. Under the new structure, Zecco reduced the number of monthly free trades from 40 times to 10 and slapped on a minimum balance requirement. To qualify for the 10 free trades per month, you must maintain a minimum balance of $2,500. If you have less than $2,500, each will trade cost $4.50. Despite the changes, the cost is still lower than that charged by other brokerages.

I find it sort of ironic that in my earlier post about Zecco I thought perhaps the new brokerage firm was signaling a change in the way online brokerages were going to do business in the future - focusing more on cash interest and other services than relying on commissions to generate revenue. It is quite remarkable how soon and fickle company policies can be. I guess one can never get too comfortable with any one particular financial product. The terms do change and you just have to keep up with the times and changes. It's always an ongoing process. But I think the Zecco investment trading platform is still a pretty good deal since the free trades are still available. You just have to bump your account balance up to the required amount.