Amidst the battle for online trading business, prices have fallen precipitously; as online brokers scrap for customers, the prices per trade have dropped overall–and may continue to do so for the near future, as more brokers bust out online platforms.

So far on BankShout, we have reviewed a couple of the lower-priced online brokers. No one, however, is advertising a deal quite like Zecco: $0 trades. As in free. Zecco gives you your first ten trades, per month, for no charge, so long as you either maintain a $25,000 account balance or execute 25 trades minimum. It is a pitch that has attracted many new customers to Zecco, and traders like the idea that commission fees won’t cut into their profits (Zecco’s name itself is said to stand for “Zero Commissions.”). The company says they make money off margin trading, plus reduced advertising and marketing costs.

Trade price, however, isn’t everything. In this review of Zecco, we will look at the broker’s products, additional fee schedules, and trading tools and services to give you a well-rounded view of what Zecco offers.

Like most online brokers, Zecco has an array of products available for trading. Some of these products include stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and even FOREX (foreign exchange, or bets of one currency, like the U.S. Dollar, against another). Zecco also lets you trade from an IRA account, and the same 10 free trades-deal applies to each type of IRA you have, according to the broker’s website.

Zecco also features options trading, which includes the ability to execute more complex strategies (condors and butterflies, for example) with a single “buy” ticket. Zecco also has bonds and you can also get a money market sweep account that earns interest on balances of $500 or more.

Obviously, the big draw with Zecco is the no-fee trading deal for equities. Simply put, there is not currently (at least not as of this writing) another broker offering anything close, price wise. However–and you knew there would be a ‘however,’ didn’t you?–Zecco does charge you for things that other brokers do for free. First and foremost, No-load mutual funds will cost you $10 each. This is a product that companies like E*Trade and Scottrade offer with no additional charge. Zecco also charges you $30 annually just to have an IRA with them, and it will cost you another 30 bucks to close out your retirement account.

Perhaps the biggest eyebrow-raiser of all, however, is that Zecco actually charges you for access to streaming quotes. You pay the broker $20 per month to use a platform called Quotestream II, which includes valuable charting and historical data. A lesser version, called QuoteGrid, has fewer features but still costs $8 a month.

On the plus side, Zecco has no account minimums or inactivity fees. Wire transfers, stop payments on ACH payments and checks, and research/statement copies at Zecco all compare favorably with most other online brokers. Zecco also currently has a referral bonus of $75 if you get a friend to sign up for the service.

The fact that Zecco charges for their trading platform software doesn’t mean that the programs are inferior. In addition to the charts and historical data that most traders need to take positions, Quotestream II allows you to create up to 10 portfolios with 52 symbols per portolio, and market news streams in along with prices. Quotestream II can be configured to your own customized trading strategy or preference. The downgraded platform, Quotegrid, still allots the 10 portfolios/52 symbols model, but excludes the charting and most of the streaming data.

Zecco also has a tax-planning tool. The program seems exceptionally easy to use, with screens that keep track of your investment income and tax implications, plus advice for things like Schedule D filing and export tax planning. Zecco offers its tax planner for free for the first two months, then charges you $24.99 for a six-month subscription to the service.

• Trade pricing; 10 free trades is unmatched among online brokers
• No account minimums or inactivity fees
• ETF traders can avoid other brokers’ extra trading costs
• Referral bonuses

• Fees for access to trading platforms
• Annual and closing fees for IRAs
• Deposits not always available right away
• No international stocks; probably ill-suited for daytraders