etrade compensation for meltdown, page-43

I'm really surprised people are still using eTrade, the only thing "good" about them is a fancy interface. I have used both and took advantage of etrade's free trade order. After my free trades were up, I transferred my CHESS holdings to Comsec, so I have yet to pay a cent to eTrade. Comsec has a lion's share of the market and its the case for a reason. Some of which are:

Comsec's internet trades are only $19.95 as opposed to $29.95 for etrade.

Comsec has a high interest account which you can park your funds when you don't use it. Etrade's interest in the ANZ transaction account which they give you is patheitc.

Comsec goes by a cash basis as opposed to an accrual basis for etrade. Cash basis has its advantages and disadvantages, it will mean you need to wait t+3 to use your funds if you sell while with eTrade you can transfer it into your nominated account immediately. Commsec somewhat offsets that with a Masterdebit card linked to your trading account so you can use CBA's many ATMs to withdraw money as well as to use EFTPOS.

Comsec has offsetting (due to them using a cash basis) which means you can buy then sell within t+1 and if the sell if more than the buy you don't have to outlay a cent, the difference will be credited to your account in t+3. I have been taking advantage of the offsetting system for a year now and I have made 20+k of gains since May 2008. A word of caution though, this strategy if very risky because if your sell is less, you have to make up the difference.

From those reasons alone, I don't know why people are still with etrade. I can't think of any benefits which I'm willing to pay for, that Etrade has over Comsec.