I already have a Global account with Etrade. Yes, it costs nothing and is easy to to set up but you also have a (small) annual fee to pay on shares held and all shares are held in nominee accounts - and the trustee may not always act in your best interest.
However the killer is the brokerage fees. I recently wanted to place a small ($15,000) buy order through Etrade for UK shares but found the brokerage, from memory, was $450.0. At that point I said Fee that ( or something similar) and dropped the whole idea.
LNC Price at posting:
$1.31 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held