Fifth third securities charges $200 to transfer retirement account

I opened a RothIRA with fifth third in 2016 wand recently filled out an account transfer form with eTrade. Before submitting, I called fifth third securities to make sure I filled everything out correctly.

The transfer went through and I was charged a $125 Retirement Close/Termination fee from fifth third, plus $60 and $15 in account maintenance fees, not listed in their website. These are now negative cash balances on my eTrade RothIRA. eTrade said that an account transfer fee is standard, but they charge $75, and that $200 is pretty steep.

Called fifth third securities to ask about it and both the brokers I spoke to said they don’t know why they charge it but it’s in the fine print when you open an account. I asked what the extra two charges were to total $200 beyond the $125 and they said that’s just how they do it and their hands are tied. There was no financial advisor attached to my account, and when I asked if theres anyone else I can negotiate with, they said no.

Anyway, just a word of caution before opening a retirement account with 5/3 — if you ever want to transfer out it’s gonna cost $200.