I’ve been trying to open a Roth IRA for my wife for 2006 contributions at Zecco for a few weeks now.

Initially I couldn’t open their stupid .fdf file. Finally I gave in and updated my adobe acrobat to the latest version in order to open it, filled out the paperwork, printed it all out and asked the wife for a copy of her drivers license.

She didn’t have. She’s lost it and isn’t going to waste time at the DMV until after tax season is over. Bummer, without it Zecco will not open an account. Unfortunately tax season ends on 17th April this year, which is the last date I can make a 2006 contribution.

Total time wasted in this activity has been about 4-5 hours. This involved filling out the online application 3 times, calling customer support and being placed on hold for 30-45 minutes (and then giving up), emailing them, printing out the forms and then shredding them.

Instead I decided to go with TDAmeritrade. I currently have all my accounts with them and they have excellent customer service. They also sent me a free 2 GB Ipod when I asked them!

I went online and in about 10 minutes, the account was setup and funded via ACH.

Zecco may have free stock trades and ETF trades but it has significant drawbacks.
1. There is no customer support.
2. There is no technical support.
3. Too much paperwork to signup.
4. They charge you commissions for Mutual Funds.
TDAmeritrade has a TON of mutual funds that are no commission and no load. They also waive the minimum purchase amounts for most of them too.

I think Zecco is definitely over-rated. Besides that, TDAmeritrade gave me free trades for 45 days and a free copy of Money!

Also check out this post about Ben Stein’s Rule of Retirement Investing.