got a bit fed up with etrade, you seem to pay top dollar for an average service, i believe pro is better however i decided to try something different in Bell.
have been excellent, seriously for $15 it wipes out etrades standard offering (although we'll see what changes anz are making with this weekends maintenance upgrade)
i pay an extra $10 a month for real time data, otherwise its delayed 20mins, they provide a pretty good news service but have some limitations in conditional order types although they are adding more and more features every few months.
Belldirect sms alerts are more expensive 55c compared to 33c however they also provde more options in this service and i also find etrade will send two sms each time a price sensitive ann comes out, one for the ann and a second to say the share resumes in 20minutes.
think the cash rates on both are pretty standard, the only advantage is as i bank with anz my accounts are linked online and direct transfers into etrade happen immediately whereas on bell they are in the next morning.
bell have an easier to use site, provide alot of simple but handy information on the market overview (main) screen.
in summary i'd continue to hold both just for those quick trade moments when you want to get in fast (use etrade)
however if you are an investor or don't trade heavily use belldirect, but i still think for traders etrade is the way to go and with etrade the more you trade the less you pay anyway.
