Is Zecco’s Free Trading Offer a Fraud?

All the best things in life come for free is an old saying. However, in the current times, especially after the advent of internet, one of the worst things in life come for free, as the things that usually offer free services are the ones, which fraudulently target your money.

Is Zecco a Scam?

Somehow, when an individual reads about Zecco, the same thought comes across that person’s mind. The very thought of a company offering freebies in lieu of your bank details and other personal information at the end of the day is a scary prospect.

Prior to the thought of opting for Zecco, it is advisable that people really look at the pros and cons of the services provided by the broker so as to ensure that Zecco is legitimate and safe. While first investigating into the trading offer, the most important thing to do is to check the legitimacy of the offer by checking where Zecco has actually been listed.

Is Zecco a Registered Broker?

At the current point of time Zecco has been registered as a division under Equinox Securities, a Company which was registered on 01/21/2005 and has had no trouble since its inception with the regulators. The company does seem to be genuine; however, there is a possibility that Zecco could be a bigger fraud, as in the founders of such ventures can vanish all of a sudden, leaving the investors without a hint of a doubt that they have been cheated.

Another way to ensure the safety of money is to check the records of Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), whether the Company is listed with them. However after an examination, the company was found to be listed with SIPC as well. A check of the SIPC and the listing of the Company are proof enough to ensure that Zecco is a genuine venture.

Is it too Good to be True?

However, the surprising thing is that if Zecco is offering free services, then who’s the one, who will benefit from the deal? The user, well maybe, but at the end of the day a founder usually opens a business with an intent to earn money and not for philanthropy.

Despite, the checks and the rechecks, Zecco just does not comes off to be the best option regarding online trading, even though it’s free. The simple reason is because though it’s free, the customer services for Zecco have faced immense criticism by users for the poor customer services and when it comes to money, nobody wants any blunders and also wants answers quickly, rather than staying on hold for a longtime. Customers have reported Zecco not so keen in handling trade related issues with required diligence.

Conclusion

The best advice for the current situation is that opt for Zecco only at your own discretion. Besides that apart from Zecco, people always have better options like TradeKing and other such ventures, which offer services at lower prices.

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Comments: 6
Garry J
21 July 2011
Reply

I have zecco for 4 months now and it was great when I first signed up. They’ve changed so many rules and add on fees that I question if they are even legal. My first few transfer of 5000$ went through within few days. Then I made a transfer of $20k+ and took them more than a week to put it in my account although my bank account was clear of that transfer. The first time I bought stock from zecco, I had under 100$ left so I bought some shares of penny, OTC stocks and now they changed the rule. I can’t even sell them. Selling $100 worth of penny stock, I have to shell out $700 transaction fee. Anything this company does is “BAIT AND SWITCH”. Most people that refer friends with their referral program don’t even get the $75 promised.

    Punit K Gupta
    19 June 2012
    Reply

    @Garry I dont know what the deal is with you, but I have never had anyone tell me that you have to pay $700 brokerage fee for transacting normal stocks. Just not true. There was probably some misunderstanding. Please re-post here if its a real issue. We have some contacts and can potentially connect you to some higher ups at Zecco

jaxon
08 April 2011
Reply

Zecco it turns out was a scam. It was a bait and switch operation. A lot of people thought they might pull that, but what’s bad is Zecco has censored their own forums in an effort to keep customers from discussing the issue and possibly filing a class action lawsuit against them. They’ve made thousands off giving people no other option than to move there account then hitting them with high fees. The problem is they always listed ACAT fees in their contract, but no one expected to have to move. Then they jacked up their trading fees and people had no other choice yet Zecco changed their pricing structure and still charged people the ACAT fee when they left. This was a crooked bait and switch scheme and hopefully they are prosecuted and shutdown, but it looks like it will be hard for enough customers to find each other to band together and do so.

    Varun Walia
    08 April 2011
    Reply

    Thanks for your bit of information. I guess many brokers are not left with any other option but to raise broking charges, as the competition in this industry is making it very difficult for them to survive.

    However, I don’t think this kind of a move is a scam as many other leading brokers do the same. I guess investors should not take the rates for granted. I think Zecco is still a very good platform for beginner investors who do not deal in large volumes, as they can benefit from free trade promotion.

    Someone who is not happy with the Zecco platform may opt for OptionsHouse as their rates are lowest in the industry and the new platform looks promising. Check out:- http://www.comparebroker.com/blog/?p=1751

    If you are ready to pay a bit higher but want to enjoy flat pricing on all your trades then Tradeking suits you more than OptionsHouse or Zecco. Checkout their latest pricing and promotions:- http://www.comparebroker.com/blog/?p=1231

    I hope you will find the above links helpful. In case you have a query please do not hesitate posting it here.

Brett
08 February 2011
Reply

I recently opened an account at Zecco after reading some positive external Reviews and the 10 free equity trades per month is nice. However, I’ve never experienced worse execution; the platform is a joke…looks like it was programmed you know where. Customer service is more like an HR complaint line than a ‘let’s resolve the issue’ department. The whole brokerage just feels like an MBA project that got a C- but was launched anyways. They erroneously executed a covered call for me at the worse execution I could ever imagine. Now I have to wait 6 weeks to earn $-3 for this trade. I even had a limit order in but they couldn’t handle it.

Let us get one thing straight: The only people who should use Zecco are LONG ONLY investors with less than 10 trades per month. No one else should touch this joke of an organization. I should have steered clear. I’m going to OHouse ASAP.

    Varun Walia
    08 February 2011
    Reply

    Brett, you are very much right about Zecco. Its an ideal platform for beginners but professional traders should opt for a sound platform. You made a good decision of switching to optionshouse. You should take a look at scottrade too.

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