Qtrade is a bit of a mystery despite being ranked the #1 discount broker in the Globe and Mail survey for two years running. I personally don’t have an account with Qtrade, so I asked Evan, who has been a customer for about one year, if he would be willing to share his experience with other readers. Before turning over the floor to Evan here are the highlights from my chat with a Qtrade representative (in keeping with the high marks for customer service, a live person picked up the phone instead of starting off with “For service in English, Press 1″).
Fees and Commissions: Qtrade’s trading commissions are not as cheap as some of its competition. They charge a flat $9.95 per trade for accounts with $100K in assets and $19 for market orders ($23 for limit orders) otherwise. Registered accounts with less than $15K in assets attract a $50 per year administration fee. You can see their entire fee schedule here.
Wash trades: The “wash trade” feature available from Qtrade is limited to setting the same exchange rate if you buy and sell U.S. stocks on the same day. It does not offer the ability to sell a U.S. stock and park the proceeds in a US Money Market fund.
Parking Cash: Qtrade offers money market funds to park cash (both CAD and USD) temporarily. The minimum investment is $1,000 and there are no fees for buying or selling and no minimum holding periods.
Evan mentioned that he would “definitely” recommend Qtrade to his friends and family, primarily for their stellar customer service: “Qtrade’s customer service number is staffed by real humans - no navigating menus and then being placed on hold indefinitely. Email queries are answered within 24 hours”. I also asked him if he has encountered any problems with the broker and Evan feels that their DRIP enrolment is cumbersome because you first have to contact customer service to obtain a form, fill it and mail or fax it back. He also noted that Qtrade’s commissions are not as low as Questrade’s, which has a confusingly similar name.
When asked for his input on The Globe’s special praise for Qtrade’s stock research and their performance reporting, Evan replied that he is mainly an ETF investor and hadn’t made much use of these services. Overall, it seems to me that Qtrade is a solid contender if you are considering a discount broker.
I wish to express my thanks to Evan for sharing his opinion of Qtrade, especially since it was hard to find a customer among our readers. If you’re a Qtrade customer, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. You can also check out the reviews of other discount brokers: BMO InvestorLine, Credential Direct, Questrade, RBC Direct, Scotia Direct and TD Waterhouse.
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11 responses so far ↓
1 MillionDollarJourney // Nov 20, 2007 at 8:39 am
I’ve also been curious about QTrade also. Seems a little expensive in my books for those with less than $100k in assets.
2 Steve Heath // Nov 20, 2007 at 8:39 am
I’m just signing up with them, I’ve sent off the application forms, and during the course of filling out the initial forms I wound up having a few questions… in total I sent 4 emails. 3 of them answered within 5 minutes, the other took an hour or so. I have less than $100,000, so I’m not going there for the huge savings over the bank brokerages, I’m going there for the service.
3 Canadian Capitalist // Nov 20, 2007 at 9:23 am
MDJ: Yes, Qtrade is a little bit on the expensive side but they are competitive with E*Trade and cheaper than the big banks. Hopefully, competition will lower prices at all brokers.
Steve: I called Qtrade twice and was impressed that they answered the phone right away. Their reputation for good service seems justified.
4 MillionDollarJourney // Nov 20, 2007 at 10:02 am
Does anyone know if they offer real time charts? How is their transaction history paperwork? I know that Questrade is a pain when trying to obtain transaction history.
5 Marc // Nov 20, 2007 at 1:39 pm
How about TD Ameritrade? They also charge $9.95 flat a trade. Anyone have any thoughts on them?
6 Canadian Capitalist // Nov 20, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Marc: Canadians cannot open an account with TD Ameritrade but can with TD Waterhouse. I personally have an account with TDW and I’ve reviewed the broker in an older post.
7 Weekend Reading - Nov 23, 2007 | Million Dollar Journey // Nov 23, 2007 at 3:33 am
[...] any experience with them. Besides, they seem a little expensive with their $19.99 trades. Canadian Capitalist has interviewed a QTrade client about his experiences with the discount brokerage. If you [...]
8 Weekend Reading - Nov 23, 2007 | Million Dollar Journey // Nov 23, 2007 at 3:33 am
[...] any experience with them. Besides, they seem a little expensive with their $19.99 trades. Canadian Capitalist has interviewed a QTrade client about his experiences with the discount brokerage. If you [...]
9 Kevin // May 6, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Hi, I have been using Qtrade for over a year now and called them sometimes at 5.30 AM and spoke to one of the brokers, very helpful especially when doing bank fund transfer into your account, orders are filled fast@ sometimes lower than your buy price, Average $27 per US trade…
10 E*Trade Quietly Offers Limited Wash Trades // May 21, 2008 at 4:31 pm
[...] sent me an e-mail noting that E*Trade has joined TD Waterhouse and Qtrade in offering some form of “wash trade” capability when buying and selling US dollar [...]
11 Gerold // Jul 14, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I’ve been using Qtrade for three years and I highly recommend them. Excellent customer service, fast account updates (unlike the banks,) customizable charts and cheap if you qualify for “Active Trader Discount” (min. 30 trades/ 3 months) so I pay about $11 / trade.
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