etrade, is it worth the time and money?

Go with firstrade. 6.99 flat-fee trades (a bunch of free ones at first if you deposit enough), and the money is wired to your bank account within 2-3 days of withdrawal request.

I've been trying to find a checking account with free ATM fees and my pops told me Schwab has one. They make you open a brokerage account too though, and even though I couldn't find any hidden fees or anything attached to it, I really don't want to have 3 of them open for no reason. I don't remember what their fees were though, so it might be a good idea for me to just roll into using them. Its not like the other accounts have anything in them, and I'm not planning on making a ton of trades.

I've never used Schwab so I can't speak to that. I just know from personal experience that E*Trade is head-and-shoulders above the rest of the big online brokerages. Some of your full service brokerages may be better, but I assume their fees are also astronomically higher.

E*Trade's Direct Access Trading Platform is really the selling point for it, although someone who doesn't trade much may not find much use for it from a trading standpoint, but will probably still love the free Level II, News Streamer, and Screener that come along with it.

I deal with Scottrade. Flat fees and no inactivity fee (I have one investment with them -- some muni bonds -- that simply sits there and I don't get charged anything).

Recently started with scottrade and have enjoyed it so far