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moneysense.ca, 25/09/07
Giving up on Questrade
Few months back, I moved our investment accounts to Questrade, attracted primarily by their ultra-low commissions and good word-of-mouth recommendations. Everything went smoothly for a while – my account was transferred out without a hitch and trades were executed perfectly – until last week. I logged in to my account and discovered that an interest charge was deducted on our USD account. The interest charge was puzzling because I never trade on margin or short stocks. I thought it was no big deal; mistakes happen and it has happened once before at my previous big bank broker and it took a mere phone call to have the charge reversed.
It turned out that at Questrade it is a big deal. I’ve been contacting them for four straight days asking for an explanation and reversing the interest charge but it’s always one excuse after another. The first day the agent said it is taking time to check my account and he would resolve the matter by the end of the day. The next day, a different agent claimed that “the servers are down” and I would be contacted for sure shortly with an explanation. On the third day, I got the same agent again claiming they were still working on resolving the matter. Today, another agent claimed that someone would have to review my records for each trading day to verify my claim that there was no margin balance (though it took me a four minutes to check; not four days). And on and on it went …
Finally, I had to send an e-mail to Emil Vojkollari, Client Acquisitions Supervisor at Questrade requesting his intervention in this simple matter. Sure enough, within a very short time, a Questrade agent finally contacts me with the information that the interest charge was an error and would be taken care of shortly. Well, why did it take so long?
As a client, my bottom line is very simple: if Questrade made a mistake, it is a simple matter of acknowledging it and reversing the charge immediately; not giving me the run around. Perhaps for $4.95 per trade, you do get what you pay for.
moneysense.ca, 25/09/07
So did you actually close your account Questrade and where did you go to?
I’m curious as to where you’ll go as well. I’m looking to open an online account and it’s good to hear this kind of first hand account of different brokerages.
John, laketrout: I haven’t decided to move my accounts yet but if I did move, I’d consolidate all my accounts with TD Waterhouse. We currently have our RRSP accounts with them and though I’ve been with TDW for only a few months, I am impressed with their service. Also, if you have $100K in total household assets with TDW, you qualify for their $9.99 commissions. I’ve posted about TDW and other brokers elsewhere on the blog. Just look in the “discount broker” category.
Interesting situation – I suspect that errors and issues that come up with Questrade have more to do with the fact that they seem to be a fairly new company rather than the cheap trades.
Mike
I’ve been thinking about opening an account at Questrade, and I’m quite close to doing so, but every now and then, there’s a negative that comes up about them, either as a comment at the famed Million Dollar Journey Questrade post, or as a post on a site like this. From what I’ve read, Emil does a great job at taking care of business once things get to his level, but I’m concerned about having to hassle every now and then with mistakes like this. What to do? I really just want to set up a sleepy portfolio with some funds, but brokers like eTrade or TDW just charge too much.
That was part of my reluctance to jump over to some of the new kids on the block. I always get *very* frustrated when client reps can resolve simple problems (try transfering a phone number between carriers, it’ll drive you nuts).
Er, that shouldn’t be *CAN’T*. I have no problem when they can resolve simple problem. I actually like that.
I opened up a Questrade account about two months ago but have yet to execute a trade there. Shortly after I opened my account, both the broader market as well as my own opinion on the market turned bearish. So, there’s nothing but the basic minimum in that account holding it open.
Faisal – if you look hard enough you will find both positive and negative comments on every broker. I don’t know what you should do about a broker but maybe just try to pick the one that best suits you and go from there.
Mike
Faisal: I second Mike’s opinion. If I still paid $29 at the competition, I would probably put up with Questrade. But we are eligible for TDW’s low commissions, so I’d rather not deal with any hassles.
I am not concerned that Questrade made a mistake but the CSR’s gave a runaround instead of fixing the problem. As of today, the charges are still not reversed! That’s FIVE days!
I can’t help but compare their service with TDW. I called them once to link all the accounts of our household for the lower commissions and one week later it still wasn’t done. I called them a second time and the CSR offered to fix the problem and call me when it was taken care of. Now TDW made a mistake too but it still impressed me that they took care of the problem so well.
What are the implications of moving your broker? I assume there is just a termination fee per account (I believe $100 for RBC Direct investing). And a bit of time for the change to take effect..
Is that it?
I had a similar incorrect charge at TDW. The agent had it fixed before the end of the call.
Joe: Moving to a different broker is very easy. You have to fill out a transfer form, a fee is deducted from your account ($125 at Questrade) and it takes a week or two for the account to be moved. Brokers often offer to refund the transfer fee.
TonyR: It happened to me once at RBC Direct Investing. They reversed the charge immediately. That’s what I expected of Questrade too.
Ugh…I just opened my Questrade account.
CC, have you actually got the US cheque transfer (with fax) to work yet? I know you detailed how to do it but wasn’t sure if yuo’d actually performed the transaction. How quickly is a USD deposit at TDW completed?
For me the difference between a $9.99 commission and a $4.95 commission is significant enough to stick with Questrade. But I’ve only made one purchase siince opening the account and I’ve still not transferred our RRSPs until I see how it works out.
Use Interactive Brokers – 1$/most trade, min 10$/month. Works perfectly for someone interested in sleepy portfolio and investing in index ETF’s
Telly: Yeah. I got the US cheque transfer working with Questrade. With TDW, if you deposit the cheque at a local branch, your account would be funded within a few days. I mailed a cheque to the local TDW office and they had to go to a branch to deposit and even then it only took 4 business days.
For me, there isn’t much difference between $9.95 and $4.95 because I make only a few trades in our investment account in one year. I’d rather have reliability compared to the lower cost.
Willfly: If I do move my account again, I will go to TDW. There are benefits to consolidating all accounts in one place.
Generally, our clients’ response to the service team is very positive, saying things like fast, efficient, knowledgeable, and courteous. Unfortunately, even if we’re batting 99.999%, there is the rare ball being dropped.
And unfortunately that’s what happened in your case, Canadian Capitalist. We are investigating the precise details of what happened, which we do any time there is an issue.
Now I’d like to turn to a few of the thoughts that have been raised in this thread.
Canadian Capitalist // Sep 25, 2007
Finally, I had to send an e-mail to Emil … requesting his intervention in this simple matter…
Canadian Capitalist: I’m glad you emailed me. In fact, this is precisely what I’ve been saying for a while in your forum and others. If there’s every a problem, contact me directly.
Faisal // Sep 26, 2007 at 12:00 am
From what I’ve read, Emil does a great job at taking care of business once things get to his level, but I’m concerned about having to hassle every now and then with mistakes like this.
Faisal: My invitation to contact me directly is for everyone. It is not a hassle at all. As I said above, sometimes a problem doesn’t get adequately addressed – and this can and does happen with any company. My role is to be the back-up – make sure nothing and no one is overlooked.
• FourPillars // Sep 25, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Interesting situation – I suspect that errors and issues that come up with Questrade have more to do with the fact that they seem to be a fairly new company rather than the cheap trades.
Questrade is now in its 8th year of operation and we have about 70 employees at our office. We were the first direct access broker to become a member of the IDA in Canada, and we are members of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund, and a participating organization of the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, and the Montreal Exchange. In other words, Questrade is a solid, dependable brokerage. And we do listen.
Thanks,
Emil Vojkollari
Client Acquisitions Supervisor
Web: http://www.questrade.com
Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
Fax: (416) 227-0078
Emil: Thanks for your comments. I do know that Questrade listens to clients and you thought out of the box to fix the delays with depositing USD cheques. That’s why, despite my recent experience, our accounts are still with Questrade.
Yes, mistakes do happen. But, I’ve been contacting your CSR’s every day for four days asking to justify the interest charges. They promise to investigate further and contact me by e-mail or phone but don’t follow up. Why? That’s not one dropped ball. It’s four.
As of this morning, the interest charges are still not reversed despite yesterday’s email that the error has been “identified and corrected” and the issue would be “resolved very shortly”. For me, this is still an open issue and Questrade’s response has been unacceptably slow even when you are cracking the whip.
Hi CC, Is saw your post about the 9.95 at TDW with 100K in a household. Do you have a link for that info from there site? I’ve never heard of this before with them. thanks.
Mike: If you have 100K in total between all accounts in the same household with TDW, you are eligible for a $9.99 commission. You have to call in to notify TDW about the accounts to take advantage of the lower commissions. This is very new and is only effective as of Sept. 2007.
Link
[...] to believe that this week is bad customer service week. Canadian Capitalist posted the other day on giving up on Questrade discount brokerage (although in their defense, their “Customer Acquisition [...]
Emil: Actions speak louder than words. The charges are still not reversed ONE WEEK after I contacted Questrade.
Finally, the interest charges were reversed and my account credited as of this morning. Thanks to Emil for his efforts in sorting out this problem.
Thanks all for the responses! CC, good to hear that your charges have been reversed. At this point, I’m still debating opening my RSP there.
willfly, IB is great no doubt. I had an account with them and except for the added urge to become a trader, I really enjoyed being with them. In the future, I’ll definitely go with them again for my non-registered investments. If only they did RSPs, though.
“If you have 100K in total between all accounts in the same household with TDW, you are eligible for a $9.99 commission”
Do “all accounts” include only brokerage acct or does it include savings / chequing accts at TD bank as well?
Thanks,
Dom: I believe it is only brokerage accounts with TD Waterhouse that counts.
telly: I just deposited a USD cheque into my TDW account on a Sat. The deposit showed up on the cash balance on Tues, the same day it was cleared from my checking account.
Interactive Brokers; the lowest commisions
Example
100 XTR – $1
2,000 CVV – $4.8
[...] I have written a series of posts on redflagdeals here. Turns out the problems are also being reported by others, like CanadianCapitalist.com as well. [...]
Hi CanadianCapitalist. Thanks for having your web site and teaching the web community. I have also found that Questrade is not all that they are cut out to be. I have put a small post on my blog, and put a series of posts on redflagdeals.com detailing my experiences.
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?referrerid=32220&t=508143
http://www.mayurjobanputra.com/index.php/2007/11/27/questrade-not-all-they-are-cut-out-to-be/
I am still with questrade today, and I have pretty much put all my transactions and investing on hold (except for a few small investments). Clearly, there is a lot more I need to get educated on before I jump in further with a larger investment
I noticed that questrade Online Live Help is not working! Anybody experienced that?
I cancelled my questrade account after they mistakenly sent me someone else’s application form (complete with Social Insurance Number)
I mailed a us draft to questrade 1 week ago, 2 days later, I was able to trade those founds.
3 days ago looked to my account and all my positions were sold, and all my money is gone, I have been talking with them for 2 full days, they say they will contact me or email me, but they haven’t. I cant believe that they don’t know where my money is. I Talked to my bank and they said the draft has already been cashed. I don’t really know who to contact.
Painful situation .
Jose: You should contact Emil with your problem. I hope your problem gets resolved and please do let us know how it turned out.
Yes I will let you know. They haven’t been able to tell me where the money is yet, this is so frustrating.
Well, I guess we get what we pay for
I too am having problems opening an account with Questrade.
On Dec 14 I initiated an Internet transfer to open an RESP account at Questrade. As of Dec 27th the money has yet to appear in my account.
Most concerning is the lack of interest by the phone representatives at Questrade. Initially I sent an email and received only an automated response.
After several phone calls each with empty promises to follow up I spoke with a phone rep who admitted that there was a computer glitch on their side and that I should feel confident about making a larger transfer to accommodate an end of year tax deadline.
When asked when I could expect to see the issue resolved they could provide no timeline. Monies deposited would not be accessible until the issue was resolved.
After escalating the issue Questrade indicated that they would send me an email confirming the situation. Two days later I am still waiting for the email to be sent.
…/Disappointed
A friend and I were thinking of opening a joint account with Questrade, but are also considering forming a “club” of sorts (we’re in university) with a few other people and thus opening a club account. Anyone know the benefits/down-falls of both accounts? Tax implications? charges? etc.
Thanks!
Well, I have swapped several times because no matter where you go, there are problems.
I trade a lot of US stocks in my RRSP and even if TD Waterhouse “washes” trades, it is a completely manual process and error-prone. I have to check over the washes to make sure it’s done correctly and this is because of really inadequate software.
And yes, when I had issues around how they arrived at some of the values it took 3 calls to separate people and two weeks to get an answer and correction.
My background is financial software, and this stuff is complicated, so that’s why a good system is important. As soon as you have to get people to do a review of some issue, that’s what takes time, and you have to follow up no matter where you go.
Personally, I like any company (like Questrade) that endeavours to keep Canada in the 21st Century by at least making attempts to bring technology to us. The US has had it for years – take a look at “Think or Swim” – just awesome trading for everyday people like us.
Anyway, Questrade just announced they’ve added the capability to keep US dollars in our RRSPs to avoid exchange rate fees, so I’m checking them out.
To Mark:
I was in a similar situation like you. It took me two and a half months to see my internet transfer, and it wasn’t even the full amount. My suggestion to you is to contact wherever you are transferring your money from (e.g. your bank) and have them investigate the transfer. Don’t waste your time on the phone representatives. Each time you call them, they all act retarded, with a memory span of a goldfish.
As for those considering Questrade, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!! The fees are enticing, but CAVEAT EMPTOR (let the buyer beware). If you consider them, DO NOT WIRE THE MONEY VIA INTERNET!!!!!
i have had numerous problems with questrade. here’s the latest.
i got an e-mail from them detailing my account info, and how they had tried to send me correspondence, but it kept getting returned. the account info they e-mailed me wasn’t mine. there in front of me was someone elses name, address, account number, phone number account type, everything but there passwords!
i logged into my account at questrade, and sure enough, staring back at me was this other persons info.
needless to say i was furious. they kept brushing me off, though. never addressing my queries as to how this could happen. this was 2 weeks ago, and i am currently looking for another online service.
Paul,
Please contact me ASAP.
Thank you,
Emil Vojkollari
Client Acquisitions Supervisor
Web: http://www.questrade.com
Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
Fax: (416) 227-0078
_____________________________________________________________________________
Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3
Trade Stocks for $4.95
Ranked # 1 for both Fees and Customer Satisfaction – The Globe & Mail
Fox,
I need you to contact me as well. I find these situations quite hard to beleive.
Thank you,
Emil Vojkollari
Client Acquisitions Supervisor
Web: http://www.questrade.com
Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
Fax: (416) 227-0078
_____________________________________________________________________________
Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3
Trade Stocks for $4.95
Ranked # 1 for both Fees and Customer Satisfaction – The Globe & Mail
Paul, Fox,
I still need you to contact me.
As for anyone else reading these blog, please disregard the above comments from Paul and Fox until I verify their validity.
Thank you,
Emil Vojkollari
Client Acquisitions Supervisor
Web: http://www.questrade.com
Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
Fax: (416) 227-0078
_____________________________________________________________________________
Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3
Trade Stocks for $4.95
Ranked # 1 for both Fees and Customer Satisfaction – The Globe & Mail
Emil: I’ve emailed Paul and Fox asking them to contact you directly.
need advice
i was looking to open a individual questrade account do start day trading. I am mostly looking to trade within the nasdaq or nyse but i live in canada. Are there any fees between the currency conversion when i buy US stock? If there is can i aviod paying this fee by setting up an account which only hold US dollars? Are there any discount brokerages in canada where i am able to do trade between canadian exchanges and US exchanges without a fee?
Derek: When you open a taxable account with any discount broker, two accounts are opened for you: one CAD account and one USD account. All transactions in the USD account are in US dollars. I’m not sure I understand the second part of your question.
“As for anyone else reading these blog, please disregard the above comments from Paul and Fox until I verify their validity. ” Emil Vojkollari- Client Acquisitions Supervisor
This person seems an expert at putting out “fires” but the question remains…WHY are there so many fires at Questrade???
I am surfing here (webpage) because I want to move all my holdings OUT of CIBC, which incidentally indulge in nickel and diming their investors to death, on top of major screw ups of their own! And yes, the last illicit charges I discovered, I had to fight tooth & nail in order to have them reversed; which they only did, after many weeks, because I threatened them with a complete move out! I assume this kind of “eronneous” activity will only increase since they (CIBC) have written off somewhere around $7.2 BILLION dollars (or more by now!) of Wall Street con job subprime mortgage related “investments”! You would think that heads would roll over there but nothing happened; business as usual! Where do you think they will plunge their greedy hands in order to make up for their short sighted stupidity? Take one guess!
But, on the other hand, they still have not “lost” my account holdings, such as is the case with one of the aforementioned Questrade “fires”!
So, my dillemma seems to be: do I keep on maintaining the expensive ship (CIBC) I hardly use [no Canadian shorts in RRSPs & bear market] or do I save money by transferring to a cheaper but rickety paddle boat that can sink (lost account/ wrong trades executed/ etc.) at any time while I attempt to cross the alligator infested waters (Wall & Bay street)?
I have been using Questrade for many months. I am overall happy with it, made about 50-100 orders alltogether. I think I would recommand Questrade.
I’d like to warn some people though. Those of you who sometimes make quick actions, like selling one share to buy another one instantly… watch out! Questrade has lot of issues with their server/database and sometimes when you sell, your available money is not updated right away, and you won’t have ’sufficient funds’ to buy. More than once I had to contact customer support with their web/java support page, and they had to contact account management to have my available funds manually updated by them. I don’t know what’s wrong with their system but there is definitely something wrong.
But if making “quick” actions is not something you usually do, Questrade is certainly the way to go, from my own experience.
[...] Customer Service: There must be some very satisfied Questrade customers as it was ranked #1 that category in The Globe & Mail ranking of discount brokers. Let’s just say I am not one among them. [...]
I have been a longtime eTrade customer. The only problem I have had with them is the trading(Limit Orders) odd lots. I did switch sometime ago to Questrade but at the time they offered 2 different system of fees: 9.95 or 4.95 plus 1 ct/share. The latter got pretty pricing if you took a run at a “penny stock”. Plus the fact that I was never really comfortable with their trading platform. The long & short is that I went back to eTrade. Since then I see Questrade has gone to a straight $4.95/trade(correct?) and I am still having the odd lot problem with eTrade so I was thinking of switching back to Questrade(that is how I came across your Blog) once more. But now I am puzzled.
I saw some mention of Interactive Brokers: I have had a futures account with them and know a number of other traders connected to them. The consensus was that they had great commission rates but literally ZERO customer service.
Any suggestions has to how one might get around the odd lot business with eTrade which they tell me only applies to the Canadian exchanges?
Butch: Can you explain a bit more about the odd lot problem with E*Trade? I must confess that this is the first I am hearing about it.
An example: I just went to my eTrade acct and attempted to place a Spot on 320 shares of QUA that I hold and received the following error message:
“Currently eTrade Canada is not accepting odd lot stop orders for TSX & TSX Venture securities.”
To the best of my knowledge, I did not have this problem with Questrade. I am not familar with other brokers.
Butch: I checked with TD Waterhouse and it seems to let it through with a warning “The number of shares you have entered includes an odd lot and may be subject to a price premium.”. Not sure how to get around the problem with E*Trade.
Butch: 320 shares is not an odd lot order. It is a Mixed Lot order. Methinks you don’t know what you are doing.
Well Watcher may well be correct. I never proclaimed to be an expert but I do know that I can buy 540 shares of XYZ but when it comes to placing Limit orders(a Stop or a Sell) for those same 540 shares I get the error message above: “Currently eTrade Canada……………………..
Questrade’s Incompetence
causes
financial loss for investor
Late June 26 2008 I funded a Questrade account after extensively familiarizing myself with the Questrader Pro demo as well as consulting with ‘new customer service’ when questions arose.
Starting to trade on July 1.08, using the Life Questrade Pro Platform, I executed more than 100 trades as a day trader / swing trader to date.
In absence of a comprehensive Questrade manual showing rules and regulations pertaining to its policies and trading platform, calls to customer service were needed to clarify discrepancies inherent in the life versus the demo platform.
Unfortunately, I received as many contradicting information as there were agents I spoke with; requiring additional calls asking for verification from a supervisor. Andrew has to be mentioned as most professional, helpful, willing, competent and customer service oriented .
Nonetheless, reaching the “life” customer service department involved extensive waiting periods and when finally connected the respective, presumably knowledgeable ‘life account holder agent’ often needed to consult someone else to get an answer to the question; i.e. clarifying after hours trading to execute an order set off many contradicting instructions by Wes, Wen, Wendy, Ricki and Karan Mahotra whereby the latter fortunately does chose to get help instead of spouting unqualified misinformation which fails when followed.
Some of the issues are the number of decimals allowed to enter, excessively long time lapses to fill market orders despite direct access, limit orders do rarely appear on level 2 queue view, commission amounts charged are shown at 2x the amount incurred, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. and on and on.
Aside from these shortcomings, one is hopeful will iron itself out after learning Questrade’s intricacies in the most inefficient manner, Questrade’s ineptitude and lack of concern for the client does also prompt a heavy monetary loss to the user of Questrade as shown below:
On July 22.08 I closed one of several same symbol long positions which were accumulated over several days. The trading platform however, closed a position other than the one selected by me which had shown a gain when closed out at that time. Instead a significant loss occurred when the system chose a different position of the same symbol acquired at a different price than the one I had selected.
I called Questrade immediately following the incident. After 15 minutes on hold, I was informed by Ilia?, / Elia? that Questrade’s policy does not allow for account holder selection of positions to be closed out of multiple same symbol positions, but the system selects automatically the first in first out position if several positions have been accumulated over several days.
Conversely, if all of several same symbol positions are accumulated during the same day , the last position acquired is the first one out upon closing/covering one of the positions held.
I accepted that information as a lesson learned, after confirming that I had not overlooked that crucial information in Questrade’s 70 page info/disclaimer material. Instead I was advised by Ilia/Elia? that it was my responsibility to call in for obtaining such information prior to doing the trade because Questrade is a discount broker.
With this information in mind, on July 29, 2008 at 14.08 hours, I covered that day’s last acquired position held as one of several same symbol positions acquired during the morning of July 29.08. That particular position showed a gain of $148.73 .
This gain, added to a $557.23 gain closed earlier that morning in other symbols’ positions, would result in a total gain of $705.96 before commissions.
Instead, the arbitrary Questrade system selection presented me with a loss of $254.11 because the trading platform system covered a different position which was not the last position opened and thus had a different price and therefore was creating a loss. Consequently, my gain for the day to 14:09:36 hours was reduced from the earlier gained $557.23 to $303.12.
In addition, my unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue in several phone calls to customer service resulted in repeated disconnections, more than 13 minutes waiting periods on hold and refusal by agent Ilia to connect me to a supervisor.
Instead, rude, rushed and unfriendly, he tried to convince me that only a paper, but no real loss had occurred.
He assured me he had now adjusted the account to eliminate the loss occurred. When I asked him how the result is shown so that I can see it in my trading account, he answered that he is not an IT programmer and thus, does not know how the computer did it.
I was/am unable to detect any changes made, my losses remain the same as prior to my call to Questrade and are reflected at closing of the markets.
Brad, agent at the trade desk, and later agent Karan, assured me the account would be adjusted at end of the trading day because current attempts made by them failed for technical reasons unbeknownst to them.
During my 1 and ¾ hours occupied with the phone ordeal and frustration, my other positions could not be closed out at 14:15 hours which would have resulted in a small gain; instead, an additional loss of $ 1120.57 occurred for a total loss of a minimum of $1374.68 at the end of the trading day.
Furthermore, the unresolved issue prevented me from re-acting to market performance during the remaining 1 ½ hours of trading, disabling the opportunity to re-gain some of the previous weeks’ losses.
Questade’s agents remarked they are very sorry about what happened. I requested several times to be connected to a manager or supervisor and asked for a call back, I AM STILL WAITING TO BE CONTACTED.
Related documentation is available.
Last Thursday I was successfully approved for an account at Questrade after about 40 minuets of online interrogation which was easy enough. I was/am eager to invest so I immediately transfered $1000 into my account from my online bank account.
I contacted Emil to further speed up the process and he told me he was doing all he could to speed up my account setup and that it would take 2-4 business days; so Wednesday at the very latest.
I sent Emil an email on Monday which he hastily responded to kindly telling me that he was doing his best, and that the funds should be in in the next 2 days. Unfortunately they weren’t and on Wednesday I sent an email to Emil and another on Thursday, both of which have yet to be responded to. Indeed instead of getting an helpful information whatsoever I received insult to add to injury in the form of an email that I could have received over a week ago telling me that “my account has been approved” and listing methods by which I can “Now” transfer money into my account, online transfer being listed as the fastest.
I feel like this latest email was manually sent as something for me to chew on as nothing gets done, I find it very frustrating and to be honest and I’m a beginning to worry about my money.
ps does anyone know if Paul or Fox ever resolved those issues with Emil?
Canadian Capitalist: Are you still with Questrade?
Questrade’s promotion for 30 Free Trades is a Scam!!! I signed up because of the promotion and now they tell me I didn’t enter the promotion code. I made sure that the code was inputted and perhaps their site made an error by omitting it but instead of offering to investigate the situation their answer is because you didn’t enter the code you do not qualify. Customer Service is horrible!! They even tried to tell me my account was activated after the deadline which really outraged me. The email they sent thanking me for opening an account with them was dated in July. And if they say they will call you back be sure not to hold your breath because you will definitely not hear from them.
It is really sad to see nowadays that a company’s image is only worth approxiamately $150.00.
i **** agree with you. i’ve a questrade account too and it took 2 weeks to activate it. wuz worse, i lost a 300%+ opportunity in FRE and FNM
Well Kevin, I just open an account with them AND it does takes approx 10 business day to do it, just like any other broker. As per your lost opportunity, well it nice to say “I lost 300% opportunity”, the reality is you wouldn’t take the trades or you would of lost money…..I love newbies mentality…..Here ‘a hint : now that your account is open, short WB (Wachovia)….
Kevin: Of course, it took you 2 weeks. I just opened an account with RBC and it took me one week. I expect and plan to have no trades for a week or two when an account is opened and transferred. IMHO, your “lost opportunity” isn’t Questrade’s fault.
Beware of illegal trades on Questrade on your account by hackers
Please note that recently my Questrade trading account was compromised (so were a few other accounts of other inverstos -as per the information by the Questrade agent. )
due to the low commission fee structure, I registered and set up an account with Questrade. Everything was going well untill this Thanksgiving day when someone hacked into my account and sold some of my divedend paying stocks that I owned and purchased 2000 shares of another stock on my account without any authorization.
Questrade states that I am supposed to cover the trades ? If a credit card is stolen (similar to stealing my Questrade pasword) the bank covers the loss.
TD waterhouse has a system by which even if you log into your trading account , you need to enter an additional four digit trading password (like a pin number) to confirm a trade whether it is a buy or a sell. E-trade has a similar system, when a person can log into their trading account but cannot buy or sell unless an unlill a four digit pin is used
Something to ponder is that why is it that Questrade do not have ample security or layers of security measures to prevent illegal trades from happening from individual accounts.
Questrade seems to the only online trading company that does not protect its accounts against “frauds” with an Online security quarantee..
Is this the reason for the low commissions on Questrade ?
Someone put a buy order of 2000 shares of anpthe high value stock ie $20,000 dollars worth illegally.on my account
can you imagine that this could have set me back a few years due to this illegal trading by the hacker…
since a few other investors had the same problem, this is also the result or minimum levels of security at Questrade.
hence cheap trades are great , however if an investor is not protected against online trading frauds by Questrade, as is the case with other online trading , one could become pauper in seconds
I am at a loss to figure out what to do about this situation.
If you value good service and reliable web site then STAY AWAY!!
[This comment has been edited for profanity. To the commenter: Please remember that this is a public forum in which we welcome all viewpoints stated in a polite manner. We cannot accept innuendos, profanity, vulgar comments or wild allegations. You are welcome to submit comments that conforms to these rules. Otherwise, your comment will be deleted and you'll be blacklisted.]
I these idiots, are the worse in the industry. Yhet have this $250 min account balance requirement. so if you trade options and suddenly you drop under $250, they suspend you trading platform, they freeze your account and they still charge you data fee. Bunch of idiots..really. they did that to me even though i never had a negative balance and had traded 54 time in 2 months.
they, they go and sell out your account without even sending you a notice or a phone call. they make discretionary trading in your account without your permission or, even notifying you and convert currency.
worse of all, i opened my account with a 30 trades rebate promotional code, and they told me it takes 3 months to get it. and now, since i am pissed at their conduct and am not interested in trading with them, they are telling me the offer was expired and not willing to give me my 30 trades rebate.
another thing is, my account had $30 negative balance because of data fees, which they had suspended anyway and i was not using, so instead of just a nice first time email to request the money, which i wired it anyway, they go like: pay it immediately or we send it to collection. I am like, WHAT THE **** IS WRONG with you idiot!!!
another thing, if you look up your transaction history on penson web site, you’ll see they also screw you on commission. i just saw $140 commission for 35 contracts, which is supposed to be just $9.99 + (35x 1.25)
YanYan: No profanity please. You are welcome to share your experience and frustration without resorting to obscenities. Thank you.
Hi CanadianCapitalist readers,
As much as market volatility can be an opportunity, it can also be a challenge. If you are trading on margin in current market conditions and your account enters a margin call, we are bound by industry regulations to take action – which may include liquidating a position.
Questrade’s obligations in regards to margin are to individual clients as well as to the regulatory bodies that oversee the Canadian financial services industry.
For more information about our margin policy, visit our margin centre located here: http://www.questrade.com/pricing/margin_centre.aspx. There are links to our stocks, options, and forex margin requirements as well as a link to IIROC (the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada).
Note that part of our risk mitigation is to freeze access to trading platforms if the equity in an account drops below $250. This is clearly noted several places on our website. The practice protects individual clients and Questrade.
If you have issues with any of our policies or processes – be it a margin call, commissions, a rebate or offer – then please let us know directly. Writing about it here in this forum may help inform other clients, but without formal requests through our client services department, we are unable to act.
YanYan: I can sense your frustration. Please contact client services and request escalation to a supervisor. In the case of margin calls, we may not be able to make any changes for reasons indicated above. However, if there are errors in your account, we will be able to initiate an investigation. If, as you noted, you would like to transfer out of Questrade, we will be able to expedite the request.
Lynn Suderman
Communications Manager
Questrade
Wow. Some interesting reading. I just opened up an account and it took 6 business days equating to 8 in total. I must be lucky eh?
It would also seem to me that most of the negative sentiment is driven by people with poor grammatical skills. Not all mind you. I wonder if there is some correlation between people that can’t express themselves effectively and the problems that have occurred. Perhaps it is really difficult for the Questrade staff to deal with some of these complaints due to the fashion in which they are approached. Maybe?
As for opening my account; I had no issues and realized from the get go that it could take a few days. I was happy. My internet bank transfer had taken effect the day after I received the new account welcome email.
I am a novice at this and therefor the only piece of advice I can give to prospective account openers is this: It is NOT the same as opening a “”Hotmail” account. People think that they can pop in and open an account and make a quick buck on a tip they heard somewhere. Nope. I have realized that it is a way of life. Whether you day/swing trade or invest for a longer term, you had better realize that you are getting involved in a very complex system where mistakes and errors can and often do happen. Deal with it.
If you can show me a broker or any other service in this world that has a 100% perfect track record, I will show you a fantasy world.
I’ll try to keep my own words in mind when I run into a snag…!
Here’s a profanity for you all which I am sure you have heard; “Sh*t happens!”
Happy trading.
[...] Whether you day/swing trade or invest for a longer term, you had better realize that you are getting involved in a very complex system where mistakes and errors can and often do happen. Deal with it. .. Read more [...]
I totally agree with you. Questrade customer service sucks big time. Empty promises all the time. I’m closing my account now and they are still asking me to fund a 20 cent deficit in USD. WTF….. they wont’ even take my loony and keep the change. Stupid company.
I f you open an account in Questrade .
Questrade will eat your money all the time when you don’t check your balance and cash history.
After that , you have to make calls to beg them to change it,
then they will delay to tell you the reason or just forget this .
Even their commission is cheap, throw it away.
You save commission here, but you will lost more in Questrade , trust me.
It is a Garbage Questrade!!!!
Wow – I wish I would have seen this site before I made the mistake of opening an account. The actual opening process was quite nice. Electronics signatures, electronic transfers… unfortunately almost 2 weeks after it was approved and still no trading account to use. So I asked what the delay was… “This is totally normal”. Ok I said – what does it mean when you say you should be up and trading in 1 business day? No reply. I asked for them to close out the account and return my money. Now more then a week later I am still waiting for my money. A different excuse every time I call the customer service line. It’s a real shame – that have the potential of a good product. It’s just their customer service makes it unbearable.
I also wish I had seen all these comments before joining questrade, I am an amateur to trading but there are certain things common logic can judge. I have contacted questrader about the problem I have, all I was looking for is an explanation but it seems when I brought up the info they chose to ignore me so I am going to post on every website to search for the answer. I contacted them concerning a change of name from PNHL holdings to GTLA. After they gave me GTLA shares at an average of 0.20 when the high was 0.17 on the day of trade. This is the exact email and reply sent.
Hello,
As per our conversation, your account has been reviewed and we can confirm that your account has been properly updated. The terms of the corporate action that saw PNHL simply change symbols and name to GTLA (GT Legend Automotive), was that each share of PNHL was exchanged for 0.0005 shares of GTLA. At the time your account was holding 4,929718 shares of PNHL which were converted to 2465 shares of GTLA. The average price for the GTLA shares has been set to $0.20 based on an average price of $0.0001 for your PNHL shares. The prices are not official and are for display. It is your responsibility to know what price you have paid for your PNHL shares and what price your GTLA shares should be valued at. Please contact us if you have any further inquiries.
Thank you,
Nicholas Roussos
Client Services Specialist
Web: http://www.questrade.com
Phone: (416) 227-9876
Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.421
Fax: (416) 227-0078
hello, I thought the trade was supposed to be 1 pnhl for 0.005 shares of GTLA since even if it was just an exchange, the GTLA on that day was 0.02 , can you check that for me please Wednesday nov 26 which was the day of the “change in name” , this is the chart from historical prices Google finance, as you can see it opened at 0.02 that day and wouldn’t change to 0.17 until after the name change is effective, that is a dramatic jump that can only be influenced by such an occasion, also if the high of the day was 0.17 why was my average purchase price even above that. If I am to calculate from the 0.02 opening price, since the name change should take place at the opening of the market to begin trading immediately I should have had 24648 shares… that is $0.0001 per pnhl divided by $0.02 per GTLA, giving 1 pnhl for every 0.005 GTLA therefore dividing 4929718 by 0.005 giving 24648, I think the error in you calculations came in the placement of the decimal place, the price of GTLA was 0.02 not 0.20
I will really appreciate it, if the experienced traders will let me know where I stand in this situation, now even if I was wrong I would never in my life recommend this excuse of a trading website to anyone, not even an enemy. My experiences with them begun with a VTSO placed for a penny stock worth 0.82, I knew it was a risky trade and asked the limit to be 0.80, the stock dropped to 0.20 in about 2 days, I am not actively managing my account, I return and find out I lost about $300 so I contacted customer service, what I was told was that they do not advice the use of VTSO with penny stocks because sometimes their system fails to execute the trade, something along those lines, I was basically 1 month into trading at that time so thinking it was my own stupidity not finding out how well vtso works with penny stocks before placing it I left the matter, now a few months later speaking to the same Nicholas above about some other matter I asked about the vtso since it popped into my mind, just to find out if the answer I received previously was the common held notion, His excuse or reply I should call it was, I told the system to execute the trade if the price dropped 0.80 instead of 0.02, now I recall distinctly that the other representative went over the trade and confirmed that I did everything right…I then told him to check the chat between myself and the other representative to confirm it, his reply was since the trade was done 6 months ago the chat was deleted from record and their risk department cannot do anything about it now given the period of time, then he just closed the chat window without even awaiting my reply.
I learnt my lesson, so from now on any conversation I have with them I save, and I have hard copies of their rudeness and ineptness.
Hi
I’ve been trading full time for 5+ years. I have traded at many houses and can state that the best is INTRACTIVE BROKERS. Not the best for a newbee as this is where the real big dogs play such as fund managers. I’m looking at the forms that on on my desk filled out and ready to send into Questrade, realizng now, I will not follow through. I had too many problems with the basic online application, which is a very early warning sign of the future problems with the trading platform.
Can some one inform me who is behind Questrade.??
I want to open aCanadian TFSA and that was my only reason for examining Questrade.
Can anyone provide information on Tradefreedom?
Thanks. and please explore your options with INTRACTIVE BROKERS.
Questrade just died. I tried to trade on the 5th, all my orders were rejected – “insufficient buying power” (I placed 4 or 5 of them reducing amount every time, still – rejected). On the 5 th phone was busy all day, I managed to contact some Susan via live chat but she disappeared midway through the conversation. Today I got through on the phone but only to the machine, nobody picks it up. Looks like they got way too many clients, more than they can digest. “Anthony to the rescue”, I am looking for another broker. Their customer service does suck. This seemed to be a common story by the way, when a company just starts they all nice and plush, then they become too fat and complacent and they do not care anymore (Sorry, just venting)
Hi CanadianCapitalist readers and Anthony,
As with many other brokerages, Questrade has been working diligently to correct the errors caused by the Horizons stock split / consolidation. These are HGD.TO (consolidation: 1 new for 5 old), HOU.TO (consolidation: 1 new for 5 old) and HOD.TO (stock split: 2 new for 1 old). If your trade issues relate to any of these securities, please contact our trade desk at 1.888.QUEST.66 (783.7866), extension 3, and they’ll be able to execute your trade.
Which brings me to your concern about telephone accessibility. We have been experiencing technical difficulties with our phone service provider. The major issue has been solved, but in order to prevent this problem from recurring, we are setting up a dedicated trade desk line which should be operational in the next day or two. I will return here to post the number as soon as it is live.
If you cannot get through to the trade desk at the existing number (above), please email me directly with your name and phone number, and I will pass the information along.
Thank you to all Canadian Capitalist readers who comment here.
Lynn Suderman
Communications Manager
lsuderman@questrade.com
Glad I found this post (and comments). I was halfway through completing an application in the other browser tab but have decided to take my money elsewhere. All the comments here combined with my not-at-all-impressive phone call yesterday to enquire about a new account have convinced me to stay clear of these guys.
p.s. The technical difficulties with your phone service provider, and your admissions of such, smacks of a small-time operation. I understand you’re still growing but I’m not trusting thousands of dollars to a company that can’t maintain a phone line. (I called the toll free number yesterday and the lines got crossed with someone having an existing conversation…they couldn’t hear me, but I could hear everything the gentleman was discussing with the other party. I thought it was my cell phone, but it appears it was the technical difficulties with your telecom service provider. My advice: switch providers, sign up to strict SLA’s and have redundancy built into your system.)
Thank you all for the education I could not find on official websites. It is forums like this that really help us who are just starting out and really can’t afford to learn from the school of hard knocks. I was considering Questrade due to the review in the Globe and Mail when it ranked all the on line brokers. I think someone should send them a link to this page.
Once again thanks for saving me a pile of frustration.
Thanks everybody … your combined comments have me convinced and I will be looking for some other on-line broker now. Not that I needed much more confirmation … two days ago I spent well over an hour in a chat with an agent named Emil without ever getting a straight answer to a straightforward question.
Their System was down again for part of the afternooon two days ago. They sent a message to traders on the trading web site about orders.
Take it from someone who knows Questrade inside out, people at this company really don’t care about individual clients, they are only focus on their combined $$$. I was initially introduced to this firm through a friend but quickly ran into several problems with them at an early stage; I closed my account with them after five months. Unfortunately, despite being a service firm, they appear to know nothing about ‘quality customer service.’ Rather than finding a solution to what are simple problems (such as requests not being completed on time, or not being able to get through to a customer service rep) these people seem to prefer blaming someone else (often their own clients) for the problems. Since that unsatisfying experience with this company, I have openly told all my friends and family to stay away from them and would strongly suggest the same to anyone who is reading this post.
Yeah, I have been having problems with Questrade too. I have been trying for a month to open a new trading account with them. It’s a joint account with my wife, so I had to send in all of her ID as well as mind. They confirmed that they had received everything, then, about two weeks later, they somehow managed to loose all of the ID, the $5 cheques and the pre-authorized deposit agreement I had signed with them to fund the account. It does not exactly instill confidence in their ability to hold my money safe, if they cannot keep track of basic documents
Low commissions, Direct Access Platform, Streaming minute Charts, Level I and II, and the ability to hold $US in my RRSP, and no currency conversion fees, convinced me to open an account with Questtrade.
Opening the account was smooth, however I could not get the account funded.
I wanted to transfer 4 stocks from my Royal Bank RSP. They said it would take 10 days. After 32 days still no transfer. I canceled that transfer, thinking perhaps I did something wrong.
In my second attempt to transfer the 4 stocks, I sent the paperwork by express courier to speed things up, ($20.), but they lost the paperwork. It was supposed to arrive overnight, but eventually after 5 days they found the paperwork, and then after another 32 days from that point …. still no transfer.
So I canceled the 2nd transfer and gave up.
If it is going to be that hard to put money into the account, how hard will it be to get my money OUT.
I canceled the account, but, now I get an official TAX RECEIPT in the mail for my original $5.00 deposit, which means the account is still open, I’m afraid to deal with them again. How much will they charge to close the account that they could not get to work in the first place?
I tried to open an account online and had nothing but problems so I faxed all my documents except for the cheque, then to speed up the proccess I sent everything by courier. I was told it would take 2-3 days to be approved yeah right more like 2-3 weeks. I give it a week then I talk to an agent on chat cause you can’t get through on the phone and ask what the status of my account is. They tell me they have’nt recieved the documents yet. This goes on for a few days meanwhile the stocks I’ve been watching have 12+% gains but my account is still not open. Finally they say ok we did get your documents and we will try to speed up the approval process. I give it till the next week to allow them their so called 2-3 day BS. So again having to do the chat thing they tell me they have’nt recieved them, by this point I’m ready to lose it. I ask to speak to a manager and am told that I am, he says that he can understand my frustration but can’t open my account until I send them the documents AGAIN because THEY MISFILED them and could’nt find them. I said I allready paid $20 once to get them there and it’s your screwup why should I have to pay again. His response was you can send them regular mail and then asked if there was anything else I he could help me with, upon hearing that I hung up. I read all the negative comments on million dollar journey and now here and gave them the benefit of the doubt IDIOT. All I have to say in closing is the comments have a lot of validity as I experienced it firsthand from rude incompetent chat agents telling me they never recieved my documents when they had to whomever was the STUPID @!@#$ IDIOT that missfiled (another word for lost) my application. I will be looking for someone else even if it cost a little more and I strongly suggest you do the same.P.s. they lost the application but managed to cash the $5.00 check, go figure.
I had funds with Questrade many years ago but transferred them out for a better deal elsewhere. Then last year, I realized I could make a percent more on some funds if I switched them to F Class. None of the brokers in Canada would let me hold F Class except for Questrade. I transferred some funds to Questrade to take advantage of this. Then little by little I found more advantages at Questrade and kept transferring more funds there until I have almost everything with them.
Yes, there are little difficulties with paperwork and such just like you’d see at any brokerage but overall, I think Questrade is fast becoming one of the best brokerages in Canada.
In November 08 I opened a joint acct. with my son through Questrade. They lost my son’s $5 fee. My son then sent them a second $5 fee. in Jan. 09. They promptly proceeded to lose this cheque as well. I put a trace on the chq. and informed then when the chq was received. Two weeks ago after many phone calls and runarounds they finally located the chq and said they would open the acct in the morning and would receive an email with instructions. I know from experience how slow they are so I gave them a few days. Today is Feb 17…I emailed them. They said they need a $5 chq from my son and thats their final offer..No apologies.
They also inadvertently deposited the initial $4500 I sent to open the acct. into my own personal trading acct.
I have made a very long story short here. I worry about my money with this company. Is it safe??
In November 08 I opened a joint acct. with my son through Questrade. They lost my son’s $5 fee. My son then sent them a second $5 fee. in Jan. 09. They promptly proceeded to lose this cheque as well. I put a trace on the chq. and informed then when the chq was received. Two weeks ago after many phone calls and runarounds they finally located the chq and said they would open the acct in the morning and would receive an email with instructions. I know from experience how slow they are so I gave them a few days. Today is Feb 17…I emailed them. They said they need a $5 chq from my son and thats their final offer..No apologies.
They also inadvertently deposited the initial $4500 I sent to open the acct. into my own personal trading acct.
I have made a very long story short here. I worry about my money with this company. Is it safe??
pablo,
this is truly unbelievable. If it were me in your shoes I would probably just put an end to the relationship. The story that you’re telling indicates a poorly run company, with extremely poor ownership and management. Tim Hortons is better organized – and more respectful of their customers – than that.
Bob B. 02.23.09 at 8:51 pm
I’m peeved with Questrade too. I’ve had tens of $Ks in cash laying in my Questrade margin account for months, as I’ve been prudently staying away from holding much in the way of stock shares lately. Finally, I got around this week to checking on my cash and how much interest Questrade is paying me on all that idle cash. Their page says I’m getting paid “CAD rate – 2.5%” on balances up to $49,999, as long as I have a $10K minimum. But they don’t define “CAD rate”. Instead they offer a link to the Bank of Canada site’s home page, and you’re left to go searching… I never did find the “CAD rate” there. I found the Prime business rate, 3%, and thought maybe that was it. But a Questrade LivePerson chat rep. later told me no, CAD rate referred to the overnight bank rate. She said she believed it was currently 2%, which means I’m getting paid 0% interest on my cash! She confirmed that yes, I’m geting paid 0% “currently”. Outrageous enough, but what’s worse is they don’t come out and straighforwardly tell you this on their site.
In fact, someone glancing at the page might easily mistake the minus sign for a hyphen and conclude Questrade is actually paying them a generous 2.5% interest , much more than their bank savings account does – encouraging themn to keep as much cash with Questrade as possible! In reality, Questrade’s happy to hold large amounts of your cash, but refuses to pay a cent in interest on it!
I suspect Questrade is deliberately misleading people, trying to keep as many clients as possible ignorant of the fact they are getting ripped off, and receiving an unjustifiable 0% interest paid on their hard earned cash.
The rep I spoke with claimed rates change all the time, so they can’t post the specific rate! Yeah, right. They can update the value of my account balances daily, but not their interest rates? Sure.
By contrast, my other broker, Interactive Brokers, not only pays me interest on my cash ( 0.5%), but posts the figure plainly as 0.5% , as well as showing how they derive it: It’s the current LIBOR bank rate minus 0.5%. IB says the LIBOR is currently 1%. I suspect the “overnight bank rate” the Questrade rep. mentioned and LIBOR are one and the same. I also think she was guessingb (incorrectly) that that bank rate was 2%.
I’ve also come to despise Questrade and all other Canadian brokers and the TSX for the comparatively sky high commission fees charged on Canadian listed stocks, and usually on US listeds too.
When I buy US listeds via Interactive Brokers (a US Broker with a Canadian branch) , I typically pay a mere $1 US per trade! IB’s fees are higher on low priced stocks, as it’s based on the number of shares, but I can buy $10,000 US worth of a $35/share stock for $1!
I now like to daytrade, which entails multiple round-trip trades per day, and at $1 a pop commissions, daytrading US stocks via IB is very feasible. It is NOT feasible to daytrade TSX stocks though , because at $5, $10, $20 per buy or sell trade, the commissions mount up fast, and will soon wipe out any profits!
The TSX and Canadian brokers continue to gouge and insult customers by continuing charging high fees, and by paying 0% interest on your cash while obscuring this ugly fact.
Questrade is also less than candid about the extra “exchange fees” that apply
above their advertised $4.95 or $9.95. You only get the base rate if you “add liquidity”. Whenever you oplace a market order, or place a limit order but hit the current bid or ask price, you are removing liquidity, and you get penalized for doing so by being charged “exchange fees”.
Only if you place a bid lower than the current “best bid” or place an ask price higher than the current “best offer” price do you avoid these extra fees.
Again, sneaky Questrade is not very up front in their ads or on their site about this stuff. I had to go to another broker’s site to find an explanation of removing and adding liquidity. But check your trading slips, and you’ll see lots of those extra fees, unless you know about them and place your orders in such a way as to avoid them.
Online stock transactions are not much more complicated technologically than are ABM bank machine transactions. There’s no reason why commission fees need to be more than $1 per trade. Anything more is indefensible gouging of customers by greedy exchanges and brokers.
Bobb999. Your comment woke me up a bit.
“Online stock transactions are not much more complicated technologically than are ABM bank machine transactions. There’s no reason why commission fees need to be more than $1 per trade. Anything more is indefensible gouging of customers by greedy exchanges and brokers.”
My take: As I see it, people need jobs, and to get paid you need someone to pay you money. I think some of the fees are not just greed, but need. I am beginning to understand how technology has been putting a lot of desk jobs out of work. I don’t like to be out of work myself… Would I help my boss to put in a machine that would eliminate my job? I think not. Unless I was very close to retirement.
Yet, I want the most for the least myself. I wonder if things are moving to fast these days for people to be able adjust comfortably? When I grew up you held the same job for 40 years: today you might get 4 months or 4 years, and then have to move on.
Bobb999: all brokers will charge these ECN fees on top of the commission fees.
Bobb: I’m not a huge fan of Questrade but paying almost nothing on cash balances is standard industry practice, not unique to Questrade. TD Waterhouse, for instance, pays 0.025% on RRSP accounts and 0% on Investment accounts.
Some brokers charge an extra ECN fee; most don’t. The big brokers like TD Waterhouse and RBC Direct do not charge extra ECN fees.
The points you raise in your comment aren’t specific to Questrade. It could be a general criticism of the industry.
Yes, I know Questrade isn’t unique in some of its client-unfriendly policies. But there’s something insulting for a broker to pay 0% interest on even large (multiple $K+) cash balances. Still, Interactive Brokers pays something, 0.05%. To my mind half a % is far preferable (and less contemptuous of clients) than 0%.
The entire Cdn. brokerage and exchange system remains a rip-off compared to what’s available in the US. Many US brokers have a wonderful system, where your cash is automatically swept into a money market fund each day, with interest rates comparable to, or better than, bank savings account rates.
Those exchange fees charged when one removes liquidity are charged by US exchanges too, but only when your order is a very large size, like a $50K trade or more. Most times, I pay a rock bottom $1 per trade through IB (on US listeds), with no extra fees at all.
Paul Binder: Your post reminded me of something too. My job niche I once worked in was killed by the internet and
technology advancements. Now I’m trying to make a living
in a different way, via stock trading online, using the same technology that wrecked my previous livelihood!
Internet and computer technology allows people like me to be self employed, working from home trading stocks.
Technology eliminates certian jobs, but it opens up brand new jobs for many others.
Only the lowest commissions make daytrading online feasible. I don’t know how anyone except the most brilliant traders could make much money at all if they had to pay standard Cdn. broker commission fees that easily eat up your profits! For instance, I paid $31 in commissions today daytrading US stocks and ETFs with IB. I made 28 trades (14 round trips). Instead of $31US, Questrade would have charged me well over $300US, 1,000%+ more, for the exact same trades even!
I can understand why Questrade’s Cdn. stock commissions are high – everyone’s are, including IB’s – but I don’t understand why Questrade’s US stock commissions are so uncompetitive compared to IB’s, which presumably makes a profit charging me an average of just over $1 per trade!
I bet they’re doing just fine charging me $1 per mouse click!
-The word “gouging” springs to mind.
typo…my last post should say that IB pays 0.5% (i.e. 1/2 %) interest on cash, not 0.05% as I mistakenly typed, as compared to Questrade’s 0.0% . A sad Questrade is less-than-direct in stating on their site.
Ok, I’ve read through all the reviews of Questrade, and they sound like they have very poor customer service, I work for one of the larger brokerage firms (big 5 banks) and while the charges are a little bit higher I think they definitly pay off with the customer service you get, also, for people worried about interest on cash charges, its why they have money market, you can buy RBC money market for $1000 which has a return of about 2%, or if you dont have $1000, you can buy $100 of TDB164.
Is it me or is Questrade + Questrader website down right now 7:11am on Feb 25!!!
I have only been with questrade for a month and I have already encountered three three major issues. My very first day of trading the buying power was down for hours, they lost my void cheque, thus, delaying a withdraw request and today the server is down! This is all within one month. Also, 9 out of 10 times i can’t get anyone on the phone and I have to rely on the live chat which also can take a very long time.
I’ve been with Questrade for over a year and I’ve never had a serious issue. Every time I’ve contacted customer service, I’ve reached someone quickly who helped me right away. I have a feeling that these investing blogs’ comments seriously over-represent the chance of having something go wrong. People who experience a problem are much more likely to post than people who have good experiences.
Also, a reading of the above posts seems to show a relatively large number of day traders, inexperienced traders, and penny stock traders. These type of traders are all much more likely to experience issues with any trading platform.
All in all, I think Questrade is good choice if you’re looking for a Canadian discount online brokerage.
PS – I’ve experienced more problems with Rogers and Bell, two very large and well-established companies, than I have with Questrade. Customer service is generally pretty lacking over the phone for most organizations.
Jon: Fair enough. I know many fellow bloggers have accounts with Questrade and are happy with it. I’ve noted that elsewhere on the blog that I might stick with Questrade despite the problems if the difference in commissions was very large (say someone paying $5 with Questrade and $30 elsewhere).
But, a proper comparison of Questrade is not with Bell or Rogers. It is with its direct competitors. I’ve had accounts with RBC, TD and E*Trade and nowhere have I encountered as many problems as with Questrade. And I should clarify that I’m not a daytrader and never have bought anything on margin. I pay $10 with a big bank broker and for a $5 difference, Questrade isn’t worth the hassle for me. Your mileage may vary.
I’ve been with Questrade for about 1.5 years now and never had any problems. Sure the Webtrader may have not executed one transaction request some time last year but that was just that one time and it was very brief (about 5 mins). I was a little pissed at the time but came to realzie that things like that happen from time to time.
I remember using a coupon code when signing up that gave me $50 in free trades which for me meant the world so that i wouldnt stress out too much since a lot of my early trades were being done for free.
I will try to find it on the web and post it here for those of you who prolly want to try it out with free trades and see how the whole experience goes. I think that would prolly be the easiest way for people to make up their mind on whether Questrade is good or bad…
I will write back soon if i find the coupon online…
~Anna
Ok, i finally found the coupon.
You get $50 in free trades.
or use this direct link and just signup to get your free $50:
If you’ve ever wanted to find out if Questrade is right for you then here’s your chance. Nothing to lose.
~Anna
Anna, you MUST make sure to input the coupon code: even if you click that link you gave.
You ONLY get the $50 when you input the code in the “Promotional Code” input box when you sign up.
So for those signing up make sure to type in the coupon code: and not just solely rely on the direct link.
Thanks Anna for finding and sharing that offer code! It’s a great find!
Dealing with Questrade is one of the most frustrating experiences in my life. ARGGGGG! I’ll disclose more info once I close my account soon.
Anna. T: where did you hear about that 50 free trades promo?
I just signed up for Questrade 2 weeks ago…but I heard no mention whatsoever of this?
BEWARE OF QUESTRADE’S SHADY ACCOUNTING
PRACTICES
I have had the single worst experience of my entire life with Questrade over the last few days, as I write this MY ACCOUNT IS MISSING $923.45 or 35% of my entire account balance & life savings after 3 CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF ACCOUNT IMBALANCES. I am actively spreading the word of my ordeal through any medium I can until the problem is fixed I have gotten a letter to the editor posted in the Kingston Whig-Standard and am awaiting publication of my letters to the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun and the Globe and Mail. My uncle is one of the webmasters at Craig’s List so I should have a leg up in informing as many people as possible.
I have personally traded stocks, options and funds for 7 years and ETF’s, FOREX and bonds for 5, so I consider myself informed about the online broker business. I am not a wealthy person but I enjoy investing in a ‘hands on’ fashion. I had an account with E*Trade for 6 years with no problems. A few months ago I left them for Questrade because of the cheaper commissions and their favorable consumer ratings.
Up until the morning of March 5, 2009 I had a very good experience with Questrade, I even got my account set up in only 4 business days, which was very impressive!
*Note all figures include commissions and exchange rates at the time of the transaction. Also, I have a TaxFreeSavings account, which means no margin account, no loans, no borrowing, no overdrafts. I can do transactions up to my current cash balance, any more money and it will reject the order because of insufficient funds. I can prove all claims/ figures through screen shots of history and physical account activity forms mailed to me after every day that I traded. With that in mind……
The night of March 4, 2009 at 4:05PM I bought 23 shares of FAZ (an ETF) @ $79.80 USD=$1,840.44 USD (total after trade commission) x 1.27(the exchange rate at the time)=$2337.36 CAD worth of stock in my account + $54.72 CAD in cash left in my account=$2392.08 CAD is my total account balance.
The morning of March 5, 2009 at 9:33AM I sold the same 23 shares of FAZ I carried over from the day before @ $86.86USD=$1992.81 USD (after trade commission) x 1.2785(the rate at the time)=$2547.81 CAD + $54.72 CAD (cash left in account since night before)=$2602.53 CAD total cash in account now. But there was actually $2232.04 CAD showing in my account balance when I checked it after the trade like I always do. That means my account was $370.49 CAD… just like that.
I’m not going to go in to greater detail but the same thing happened the next two days as well taking $165.04 CAD on the morning of March 6,2009 and then again for $396.96 on the morning of March 9, 2009. I suspended my account at that point and stopped trading. They had taken $923.45 CAD by the end of it, or 35% of my life savings (I am still young and busy paying off student loans). I would’ve suspended it after the first day but they assured me it would be fixed and after the second day I was waiting for this manager to call me back, which he failed to do.
Now you would think that in the face of this irrefutable evidence, and the fact that they admit a computer glitch took money through faulty a exchange of currency from a bunch of other people’s Tax Free Savings Accounts over these same days, that they would admit the error. Boy was I wrong, the real fight had just begun as I spent 2 hours and 06 mins. that day (have long distance phone bill to prove it) on the phone to 3 different people at customer service, trading desk, etc. They just tried to explain it away going down a checklist of things;didn’t add in trade commissions (even though the totals I used from webtrader history have them added in), exchange rate (which I took from the forex website), my miscalculations, etc. Each person would say they would “send a report to the back office and someone would follow up with me in the next few days. Guess what, not one of them did, I called again on Friday March 6, 2009 and asked to speak with a manger that didn’t call me back for 4 business days and when he did he brushed me off, even though they admitted “some money was taken from my account and put back”, $181.82 CAD on March 5, 2009. He refused to understand that I sold stock for this price and then my account balance said I had much less then what I sold the stock for, even though this is very simple concept. Robert Chandler is the name of the “manager” I spoke with. He at one point 30 mins. into the conversation said hold on for 5 mins. and pretended to have an audit done on my account, even though another manager told me audits take at least 3-5 business days. Apparently Rob is a superhuman adding computer… either that or a bald faced liar. I called him on the amazingly quick audit he was able to do and he hung up (I have a witness who was also listening to the call), after 45 mins. of denials. I spoke with him a few days later and said he couldn’t bully me into submission, that I wanted a real audit of my account. He told me a real audit is $75 an hour charged to my account. I asked if Questrade was found to be at fault, would the audit be free? He said no the audit would be around $500.00 in total and would not be refunded even if they found that Questrade took money from my account.
I then attempted to go higher then Rob by using this excellent comment post and contacting Emil Vojkollari and Nicholas Roussos who seem to help people on this blog solve problems with Questrade, and guess what? I have left 2 messages for Emil seeking assistance in the matter and 4 for Nicholas asking him for help as well and both HAVE YET TO RETURN ANY OF MY 6 MESSAGES. That is not client support, that is an abomination and I intend to make it my hobby for the next few months until every cent of my $923.45 CAD is returned to me with an apology of mass proportions. The ironic thing is that after my forensic auditor finishes his assessment I can take them to small claims court where if found guilty of taking money from me they would be on the hook for $1000’s to pay for my legal counsel (my dad, who charges $300/an hour) and $1000’s for their own legal counsel plus have to explain the verdict to the IIROC Canadian securities regulatory body and risk losing their retail broker license.
Sorry it took so long to read, but PLEASE, ANYONE WHO DOESN’T ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT WITH QUESTRADE…DON’T, ANYONE THAT HAS AN ACCOUNT ALREADY…CLOSE IT. THIS AGGRAVATION HAS GIVEN MY WIFE AND I WEEKS OF SLEEPLESS NIGHTS AND UNTOLD STRESS. This recession has been hard enough on everyone let alone being taken for 35% of my families entire savings. Questrade are at best a terrible company with horrendous customer service and complaint response, and at worst criminal with gross misconduct on the part of ROBERT CHANDLER. You don’t hang up on someone or lie and say you are doing an “audit” that was magically finished in 10 mins. instead of the standard 3-5 days. The fact that neither Emil nor Nicholas has bothered to return my calls proves that the upper management is also not taking customer’s complaints seriously. It’s sad what this world is coming to sometimes, I hope between the huge ad on Craig’s list and the letter in the Whig-Standard, the letters hopefully in the Tor. Star, Tor. Sun and Globe & Mail: people will recognize the absolutely vile way they have handled me. I was only trying to get my family ahead using a discount broker to save fees, I didn’t deserve this, my wife didn’t deserve this and my 5 month old daughter certainly didn’t deserve this. Shame on you Questrade.
OK the key here poeple here is all the brokers have These problems . Im ok with problem as long as they are tryin to better their service. I have used CIBC, TD, Qtrade and now questrade. you here same stories at all the brokers, i will give questrade the dont have the pocket cibc has some it may take them more time to fix.. Im ok with problems if you can still trade and the account is up to date… you should all track you with on a spreed sheet, to keep a second record so if the is a problem you dont get screwed.
questrade is great if you are an active trader the inclued level 2 quotes and their platform for free if you trade lots. i onlt have 2 problems i wish they had a special rate for activetraders 1.95 to 9.95 a trade for active traders. I make 200 to 500 trade a month 1000 bucks to 3000 a month in trading commissions. It would be nice to se them do more for their active traders.. i also have one other problem is i cant short sell for the first 10 min at the open…
all the brokers have these problems ,questrade is just the lowest hit to my pocket book.
Here is on positve i dont have to much problems shorting stocks with questrade my rejections were 50% high at other brokers. questrade is great and will be the best if the did more for their active traders,, ie lower commissions for active traders. i im a trading club and would get every one to swich over to questrade once they lower the min to 1.95 or .99 min 9.95 max .. once a broker come out with a lower min and has a max I will switch.
mike
Firstly, I had over $80,000 CAD in a cash stock account. I purchased $20,000 of a US ETF. I find out that they “loaned” me the
money and charged me. Then I find out that I didn’t really get to take advantage of the USDCAD appreciation. They did. As an
example, i had “borrowed” $20,000 USD at 1.20 rate for $24,000 CAD. When i sold the ETF the rate was 1.25. Therefore I had
$20,000 * 1.25 outstanding or $25,000 CAD and not the original $24,000 CAD.
If they had converted my own money then i would not have had to pay interest to them and the $1000 appreciation would have been
mine. Their response was “Well we tell you when you are on Hold all the time that we do not exchange money automatically in non
-RRSP accounts.” My response is two fold — Who listens when on hold and Just because you tell m that you are going t steal from
me doesn’t make it right.
The second item was the account closing process. After 12 DAYS and various emails from me and being on Hold for a sum total of
HOURS over the 12 days, they sent me an email telling me that they could not give me my money because they did not have a cheque
on file from me. They just stopped the process with no option for anything else.
Finally got a service rep on the phone. He tells me that the money laundering Act says that they cannot send me my money. I
tell him that FINTRAC does not say that. Questrade opened my account based on electronic signatures and electronic connections
to my bank through a direct deposit. Section 4.8 clearly states http://www.fintrac.gc.ca/publications/guide/Guide6/6E-eng.asp
Cleared cheque or deposit account method
You can use either of the following methods, but you cannot combine them.
* Confirm that a cheque drawn on a deposit account that the individual has with a financial entity has cleared. This means a
cheque that was written by the individual, cashed by the payee and cleared through the individual’s account. It does not include
pre-authorized payments as these are not cheques written by the individual.
* Confirm that the individual has a DEPOSIT account with a financial entity.
Now Questrade used that rule to open my account and take my money but when it comes to giving my money back they wrap themselves
in FINTRAC and say sorry — no money for you.
Just another excuse to delay giving me my money back.
Am I upset– YES. I had an issue with their USDCAD conversion policies which differ from RRSP and non-registered accounts. For
that i pulled my account.
The run around trying to get my own money is what really upset me. 12DAYS and still no money.
@Pete: I don’t see how you can accuse Questrade of “stealing”. First, they make it really clear that the CAD account and USD account are separate and you are responsible for transferring money between them. If they loaned you $20K USD, you owe them $20K in US dollars, not converted Canadian dollars on the day they loaned you money.
I can’t comment on your account opening process. Personally, my account was fully open only *after* I sent them a void cheque. From what I can recall, that was the procedure at other brokers as well.
I was going to open a new account but I stopped short just after reading this. I see here lot of negative comments. If Questrade really likes to get new clients they should post the reply for these complaints. Even if the customer did something wrong, we would like to know what mistake he did so that others should not do the same mistake. It will save questrade from much of the bad publicity. If anyone like me reads these blogs, he will not do the business with the company.
hai canadian capitalist and the readers,
i need ur help. i am new to investing in stock. since the market is bearih i thought of getting into it to invest some money for the long term.
i would be buying some stocks (mostly us listed stocks) .i live in canada and could you please suggest me which online broker i should open an account with to get a fair deal on the commissions and currency conversion.
thanks
Arogya: this is a wicked resource–http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/review-canadian-discount-brokerages.htm
Good starting point.
arogya: Also check out the posts under the “discount brokers” tag here:
http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/category/investing/discount-brokers
thanks patrick and cc for prompt response.
i checked both resources and read thru the blogs.
quite interesting .lot of information. thanks friends.good work.
i did notice that there has been a lot of negative comments about questrade starting 2009. about their customer service.
(infact i did try calling them three times on apr.1/09 during working hrs. but nobody answered the phone).
i have opened an acct .with scotia mcleaod ,because they are my regular bankers, i havenot started any activity there.
i was thinking of questrade or IB. but recent comments about questrade is pretty scary!!
in one of the blogs somebody mentioned about loosing 30% of ur euity with IB because of their auto liquidation rule?? . i don’t understand this. could some one explain me ?
what about sharebuilder from IND direct?
thanks for ur precious time and advise.
sorry ING direct.
ARogya
You will find all of these problem at all brokers,,what i want too is if they are fixing the problem….trading is serious, it all about money so read the fine print people, loosing 30% of you euity means the dude was in stock that where going down and most likey margined ,, and the maintance margin kick in if he held over night.. as for the new one and buy us, etf or stock questrade it the boom cause they dont hit you with a curreny charge cause you have a us and canada margin account ,, and its on the new ones fault that he has tro pay interst cause he never read the fine print,, where it says cause you have 2 accouts (us and one canadian) use must tranfer money back and forth or you get charge intrest.. for ex..you have 10 000 in canadian account well you have 0 us account but because of margin and buyin power the us account uses you canadian dollors as collateral and give you buying powerand margin… now i love the this is the only broken that has this right now.. whats does this mean well when you buy us stock in other broker you get hit with a currency fee when you buy and when you sell cause all account are in canadian dollars unless you open a us dollar trading account.. but where questrade get you if you hold stock and didnt transfer the move from cad account to us account you get charged intrest…
mike
I saw a good Questrade blog site at http://Questrade-coupons.blogspot.com/
worth checking out in case you want to see what promotions Questrade are currently running. I notice they just changed margin rates yesterday. As a customer I can say they are cheap when it comes to trading, but customer service is kind of slow. So if you need customer service help more often try somewhere else, but you will have to pay the price for it maybe $29/trade. As everyone says “You get what you pay for”, more money more service & less money less service.
I hope this helps.
[Ed. note: Please mind your language. You can register your disagreement or displeasure without being disagreeable.]
seriously. It’s the worst customer service ever.
Apparently the IIROC is going to hold a Questrade discipline hearing on April 28th. Will they be shut down?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/IN-THE-MATTER-OF-Questrade-cnw-14842736.html
Notice is hereby given that a hearing will be held before a Hearing Panel of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at Legal Transcript Services, located at 390 Bay Street, 11th Floor, Suite 1102, Toronto, ON at 10:00 a.m. or as soon thereafter as possible, to hear evidence and submissions in the matter of Questrade Inc. (the “Respondent”).
The hearing concerns matters for which the Respondent may be disciplined as a Regulated Person of IIROC, pursuant to Part 10 of IIROC Dealer Member Rule 20.
The hearing concerns allegations that the Respondent:
(a) From December 2006 to the present, advertised margin rates below those prescribed by IDA and IIROC minimum standards despite being advised by regulatory Staff not to do so and has thereby engaged in business conduct unbecoming a Member Firm or Dealer Member contrary to IDA By-law 29.1 and Dealer Member Rule 29.1;
and
(b) From December 2006 to the present, failed to obtain required margin from its clients as required by IDA By-law 17.11 and IIROC Dealer Member Rule 17.11 despite being advised by regulatory Staff to do so and has thereby engaged in business conduct unbecoming a Member Firm or Dealer Member contrary to Association By-law 29.1 and Dealer Member Rule 29.1;
IDA formally initiated the investigation into the Respondent’s conduct on May 14, 2007. The Respondent is currently an IIROC regulated firm.
The hearing is open to the public, unless the Hearing Panel orders otherwise. The Hearing Panel’s decision and reasons will be made available to the public. The Notice of Hearing is available at http://www.iiroc.ca.
DO NOT OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH QUESTRADE!! I initially opened my tfsa account in the begginning of March and my account was incorrectly opened to settle in US currency. It is now half way through April and countless requests to have the issue resolved have lead to no resolution. Im actually attempting to have the issue resolved once again today… keepin my fingers crossed… Do yourself the favour and pass these guys by.
A looooooooong story, short. DON’T OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH QUESTRADE. D.y.u. want more info? send me an email.
End of story.
Please, beware of Questrade – Fraudrate!
A month ago I established with them TFSA account and send 5,000 CAD.
But my negative experience with their customer service alarmed me: long waited time on phone, rudeness of agents, can’t get answers even on simple questions. After last unsatisfactory conversation, I smell a rat and requested close account and send my money back to my bank account, thanks that I did not invested money yet.
And I can’t get my money back!
They use my money as free loan and make any excuse do not return money.
Despite to their promise to make EFT in 3 business days, it’s already two weeks as I try to get my own money.
yeah, Questrade is bad. We all know that.
But in Canada, we have (as always) very few options. All the discount brokers suck here. We have to pick the less evil option.
Is Questrade the one? Maybe. Who knows.
Jack you make a good point. In Canada we have very few options. And why is that? The dumb politicians and their “regulations” of course. They have made it extremely difficult to open up a stock brokerage company…
I’m reminded of the motto of the late champion of liberty Harry Browne: “Government doesn’t work.”
Alan // May 19, 2009 at 11:07 am
I am taking Questrade to court to recoup my $11,000 loss in amargin call. They had my money to cover the margin but depts at Questrade were not conmmunicating well enough. Also I checked IIROC webpage, IIROC had a hearing about Margin issue on 4/28/2009. If anyone have same experience like me, Pls send me email(alanycui*no spam*@yahoo.com).
I’d like to hear more about their incompetence. Maybe we have a class action case and share some information and experience. Thanks a lot.
Alan
Mike Madej, I don’t know your email. Pls send email to alanycui*no spam*@yahoo.com. Thank you!
Questrade is lowest at $4.95 per trade but it comes at a heavy price when it comes to Customer service, also mailing bank draft or certified checks also takes forever to show up in your account, forget about sending personal checks.
Folks,
My experience with Questrade has been awful. I have used their QuestraderWeb and Questrader Pro platforms. I have had nothing but problems with their platforms going off line in the middle of a trade, not being able to log back in and finally being able to contact their help desk when I had these problems was almost impossible. I finally closed my account last month and have decided to move on to a more reputable broker. This company cost me money and frustration.
Stay away….
Just talking to Yang on the QT chat. Very unhelpful. I’m inquiring about how QT charges an extra fee of .001/share for trades executed at the “open” (see note 1 here: http://www.questrade.com/pricing/exchange_ecn_fees.aspx).
So, I’m asking what the definition of “opening trades” is…like is it 9:30:00-9:30:30? Or 9:30:00-:9:31:00? Etc.
At first he or she had no idea what I was talking about, then claimed that there is no definition of “opening trades”, that some clients could be charged this extra fee “after 12 noon”!
We can only echo the negative experiences with Questrade. We were trying to have three accounts transferred to them and the customer service is completely immune to ‘customer service’. They have been the most unhelpful brokerage I have every experienced – by far. I use Trade Freedom owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia and have had no particular issues with them. Questrade has been a battle from the word go – with complete indifference from their customer service – adieu Questrade!
after 7 business days and 3 times of calling in, my new account opening applicaiton has been proecessed in ScotiaiTrade. So I asked them don’t bother, just cancel the application. Now I’m a little hesitate to open an account with any Canadian brokers.
after 7 business days and 3 times of calling in, my new account opening applicaiton has NOT been proecessed in ScotiaiTrade. So I asked them don’t bother, just cancel the application. Now I’m a little hesitate to open an account with any Canadian brokers
okay, I was considering an account with Questrade but there is not a snow balls chance in hell that I would transfer my hard earned $$$cake with this inept group of misfits calling themselves a discount brokerage !!!
From what I’ve read here of the blatant misconduct of withholding funds, not opening accounts on time, overcharging for set up fees, gauging by not paying interest on cash held, unauthorized trades, phone line problems, no customer service reps available while online accounts went down etc, etc, etc.
I have accounts with CIBC and TDWaterhouse. In terms of trade pricing CIBC allows you to buy a package for $395 and you get 50 trades over a year for that price and any additional trades after that are $6.95. I really like that option if you are buying and selling quite a bit. The automated service is not the best and need improvement if you by chance need to pull off a trade over the phone with out using a broker or broker assisted trade.
TDWaterhouse is will cost you more if you trade often around $29 per trade unless you have $100K in your account, then it’s $9.99 TD has a very good automated system if you need to make a trade over the phone. As far as level 2 market depth I’m paying $35 par month for it with TD so it’s not free.
In the end you pay more but get decent service and can be rest assured you can make a trade when you need to and your cash is safe and will be there and can be transferred back and forth from your TD or CIBC bank accounts in a seamless click of a mouse.
In fact I have deposited funds into my TD trading account via a a guaranteed bank draft at my local TDWaterhouse Bank on a Saturday afternoon and have been able to trade Monday morning. That’s the kind of service you need.
I will look into Interactive Brokers – if you are making allot of trades on the US exchanges it seems that is the way to go hands down. In the end I think it is a prudent idea to spread your money around to several brokerages if you have over 100K and that way you can exploit each trading platform for your particular needs and in the end play one brokerage off the other.
This way you as the consumer take back some of the power that these brokerages hold over your money and in effect create competition among these brokerages and better services as they fight over your hard earned $$$Cake
That Bob fella was dead on we Canadians are absolutely being hosed by the banks here in Canada. They only way to fight as consumers is to spread your $$$Cake around and make them fight for it !!! The result will be better service and cheaper rates.
For example I deal with three different banks and have line of credits with all three. If I need a mortgage I make them fight for my business and if they can’t compete I employ the free services of a mortgage broker. It’s off topic a bit but ties into the whole discussion in the end about fees and how the consumer is being screwed !!!
bobby
Here’s a bit of background first.
I have been following stock market movements since at least 1976, but my first real move came along when I correctly calculated the stock market crash of 1987 to within minutes about ten weeks before the crash occurred. Accordingly I took the initiative to influence my family’s financial advisor to shift investments in such a way as to minimize the impact of the 87 crash.
My mum, dad, older brother and sister had no faith in my judgement, so I went about things so discretely that apparently none of them realize the trouble I went to to this day.
I was basically doing the ETF thing long before ETFs were invented, but the trouble is that no one will believe my expertise until sometime after I have explained all of my methods to them.
Now I have got a whole bunch of new methods that I intend to keep to myself for the sake of retaining some sort of trading advantage, and I have got to say that I am a bit bewildered as to why bloggers so often try to give their stock trading tips away to others for free on web sites such as this one.
My methods used to pretty much consist of going in pretty much the exact opposite of the directions or advice of the so called experts who used to write in the Financial Times, but those guys at FT. com seem to have wised up now so that method no longer seems to be particularly useful anymore.
This is the first time that I have ever posted on a financial blog and I am sticking my oar in because I think that I have got something to say that won’t be contrary to my own financial interests.
It pays to be selfish, but for a naturally helpful guy like me, it’s a heck of a lot more difficult than readers might imagine.
I am not pretending to be able to understand what most other bloggers or traders say, but where’s the big so called benefit in Questrade’s $4.95 deal?
If I am getting things right, then if I were to buy 500 shares of some company or other through Questrade at exactly $25 a share I would pay the exact same price that I currently do at RBC trading direct, so where’s the benefit in that?
I suppose I could buy 400 of the same shares and then try to tell myself that I have just saved the princely sum of one dollar, but I don’t know how to delude myself that such a shifting from the RBC would be worth all the bother.
Both the 500 share deal and the 400 share deal would incur similar percentage costs, but I don’t see why I should bother blowing the dust off of my calculator to provide more accurate figures.
What I am asking other bloggers to consider is where is the sense in anyone frequently trading with around $1,000 because it just doesn’t seem likely to me that such risky strategies would be worth my while as a trader.
Another thing that bothers me is so called experts who tell me that they want to protect me from both upside and downside risk.
I try to put my money in as much risk as possible of going up in value, but maybe I have been missing something and getting investments wrong since 1976.
Call me silly if you want, but I thought that the objective was to make money.
It seems to me that Questrade probably gets a lot of trouble and bother from traders who apparently have the opposite objectives to my own.
Mind you, I have never seen the appeal of gambling, so maybe I am missing out on lots of fun.
I was holding onto a stock called the sentry select income fund (SDT.un.to) and it is converting to a mutual fund by August 14th and as result was delisted from the TSX on the Aug 4th and stopped trading. This morning in it’s place I have a stock with the ticker SSDUF.pk which trades OTC and is USD position. Since it’s a USD position I now have a large margin call because of inadequate funds. I contacted Sentry Select and they have told me that SSDUF.pk had nothing to do with their stock but the people at QT don’t seem to care and all they demand is that the margin call be filled. I can’t trade my SDT.un since it doesn’t exist anymore. I’m scared that QT is going to sell this junk that is in my acct in it’s place and cost me a ton of money.
questrade had an error friday aug 7, 09 for premarket orders. In turn a position wasnt added to my account and I have a negative balance in my usd of $14000
i have contacted them numerous times and finally was able to get through to them. they are now reviewing my account for the position, I printed out the history and the numbers do not add up and I am indeed holding a security thats not posted to my account. I am positive i have been paying interest on the amount.
It is truly a disaster. I feel terrible for referring 3 of my friends to this platform.
Questrade is the absolute worst online trading platform in Canada. There trading platform is consistently down, there service is abolutley the worst, they do not answer the phone. If and when they do answer the phone the people working at Questrade lack skill to solve problems and do not do what they said they would do. Everything I am telling you is the truth, if you need an online broker, go to itrade, or RBC, do not use Questrade.
use questrade if you have enough money to burn. Or if you wanna lose your money quick enough. Because when their server down, you can’t send any order or modify any order, and if you try to call their 1888 number you will be on hold forever.
wow, this is a good forum with excellent postings. i was thinking seriously of opening a Questrade account to trade. Now, i can confidently say i won’t open that account anymore. thanks guys
After reading through some of the post here – it is quite disturbing that I had already open an account with Queatrade. I trade forex and opened an account with QTfx – my experience was not as pleasant as it was with other forex brokers that I had accounts with. I find there CSR very tardy in addressing concerns. – Wish I had know all this before.
Any one knows a good Canadian forex broker that you would recommend? Thanks
STAY AWAY!!!
I have bee trying for a month to close an account with them. My SIN is apparently wrong and is thus preventing an ATON transfer. I sent them proper documentation over 3 weeks ago. They told me the changes were made. They lied. They keep on telling me my SIN has been rectified but I have tried placing 3 ATON transfers and they have all been denied for an incorrect SIN.
It has come to my attention through extensive conversation with their supports team -who will never answer the phone, ever- that they have multiple databases, some with my wrong SIN some with a correct SIN.
Bottom line, they don’t change it, and I think it’s on purpose. I can’t transfer out my account until they do.
I am in the midst of filing a grievance with the Ombudsman for Banking and Investment Services.
STAY AWAY!
Well, of all the complaints so few people leave a contact email or any validation whatsoever. Here are a few of my takes:
1) If you do not leave a contact email for your complaint I would consider it to be a false claim from a competitior (this happens). Why would you make a complaint on a forum that you know is monitored by Questrade Customer Service, then fail to give them any means by which to contact you? That gives me the impression that you only wanted others to hear you rather than solve an issue.
It is easy to say that they do not answer phones and how bad a broker they are, but is it possible you are an equally bad or worse client and they are trying to weed out idiots that harrass the phone lines with poorly constructed criticism from people that need to start at 1+1=2
2) Anybody complaining about first in first out rules and thinks the broker sold the wrong position should learn the federal laws involved with trading. If you think that I would just love to hear what you think about taxes if you actually made money.
3) Anybody complaining about stock splits or de-listed stocks, do you understand what that is? Do you realize all brokers would have handled these issues in exactly the same manner? as mandated by federal law.
4) Anybody complaining about exchange rates from CAD to USD does not understand the very basics of finance and they must struggle to count change at the grocery store…try go back to school or just get a job like your mom says.
5) ANY post without an email address should be considered nothing more than hearsay and bad rumors. If you are subject to that type of information and read it as fact then I would recommend that trading is not for you as you will be required to do some of your own thinking to be successful.
6) Why not add a disclosure to your posted complaint? One that states for example you do not work for or act as an agent for any brokerage service? I have actually seen in the past in forums where a poster beats around the bush until he is specifically asked if he was an agent from a different broker, at which point he was legally obligated to disclose he was…but until then he acted much like a dissatisfied customer with complaints similar to those above.
7) Furthermore before you even run a forum on the topic why not add a checkbox that requires people to agree to a set of terms for using the forum? For all you know I might be the CEO of a brokerage firm logging onto the forum in order to spread rumors about a competitor, why not build a ToS agreement that can hold some merit?
I did not even need to sign in to leave comments on this forum nevermind agree to any terms of service whatsoever, and for that reason I cannot believe a single grievance any of you post. This entire web page is useless in my opinion.
Just my opinion though, and notice that I leave an email address so that anybody with information can actually contact me to help rather than allow my comments to snowball among rookie traders.
lol oops mcdougalldoug*no spam*@hotmail.com
Edited: Added *no spam* to discourage email trolls.
Doug – Yes… all the other 125+ people are crazy… Love the Hotmail account. This seems like the writings of desperate Questrade Executive….
Scott – I think Doug may be looking for a job at Questrade … wouldn’t an exec there already have an email account on their server?
@Doug: Ask yourself this question: I have reviews of other discount brokers on this site, so why is it that Questrade is the only one with such a long list of negative comments? If competitors are spreading FUD, it stands to reason that they’d comment on other pages as well. It happens very rarely.
“Why not add a disclosure to your posted complaint? One that states for example you do not work for or act as an agent for any brokerage service?”
… which is lacking in your own post. I take it you don’t work for Questrade because Questrade customer service folks tend to disclose their full name and how to get in touch with them.
I can assure you that I personally encountered the problem I’ve detailed in this post. I can also assure you that it was Questrade’s fault.
my mistake, full disclosure is such that I do not work for nor am I affiliated in any way with any brokerage firm in any way whatsoever.
That was not my point, the point was that most of those complaints seem to be coming from people who do not understand the very basics of investing and if you ask me they had no idea what they were doing, may as well have been a roulette table.
I place no doubt in the story of your experience with questrade, but your story was well spoken, you detailed how you worked with the customer service, and also how your problem was remedied….although not fast enough….and after reading my post again it did not mention your story which was eventually settled
The point was that you sensationalize postings that are barely legible from people complaining about things a broker was required to do by law. People who are going to complain about foreign exchange rates then blame the broker for calculating it and applying the charges should have stayed on Sesame Street a little longer before moving to Wall Street.
The fact is I came here looking for reviews and on the whole I could not find much use for the page. I am trying to select an online broker at the moment but did not find anything on this page that would really affect my decision to trade with Questrade or not to. The fact is the only people who could coherently tell a story seem to have had the conflict resolved, while the other 125 people Mr.Scott refers to cannot spell to save their life.
So in conclusion for the people who seem to like to pick highlights:
1) Yes Canadian Capitalist, you seem to have had a valid problem with Questrade, during which you had trouble with customer service, but your conflict was resolved albeit not in a fashion you thought was acceptable.
2) I was looking for good answers to real questions but found mostly people talking about problems while they don’t even understand what the problem is…useless information.
3) My complaint was not even really a complaint rather a comment on the content of your forum. No place in my message did I mention your original story I have only made comment that you poorly moderate.
4) Now lets hear disclosure form you? You have brought it up again without making any type of statement of your own. Why not tell us if you belong to any affiliate programs? Why not tell us about FinanceAds.ca or your recommended reading section? Do you profit from the sale if I click your link to buy a book? Seems to me like you are hardly an objective point of view.
@Doug: Let’s get this straight: You want me to investigate every comment here, find out what the problem is, check with Questrade what went wrong, then go back and delete the comment if it is unwarranted etc. so that it is more useful for you. Sorry, but you expect too much.
“Why not tell us if you belong to any affiliate programs? Why not tell us about FinanceAds.ca or your recommended reading section? Do you profit from the sale if I click your link to buy a book? Seems to me like you are hardly an objective point of view.”
Check out the FAQ page. I can’t do a Full Disclosure for every one of the over 23,000 comments on this blog.
I don’t really care what you do nor do I “want” you to do anything. You sure seem to take offense to the whole disclosure issue and your FAQ page is far from the full disclosure that you seemed to demand from me even while it is yourself making claims. Where in this world is it considered ethical to offer disclosure to question a claim? In many instances it is ethical and also required by law to offer disclosure.
Again…I just simply noted that the majority of the comments on this page are nonsense and pointed that out in the interest of the very readers you say you serve…or now say you cannot serve outside the FAQ page? I would think then that my post sorting out the bad comments should be welcomed by you.
Its no doubt to me you lost money when a bubble burst, for the mentality of this webpage is in my opinion the sort of thing a bubble is built on in the first place….hype and sensationalism.
You seem to have gotten yourself emotional to the very mention of Questrade, go back and read my first post and no place in it will you find me defending them or pointing out good things about them, only pointing out that many complaints were invalid. Nor did I say I had doubt in your problems with them so I really don’t understand why you took a defensive point of view with me unless it really is something to do with your lack of disclosure.
lol now you got me typing without paying attention…meant to say….In many instances it is ethical and also required by law to offer disclosure when making claims.
The idea that competitors would be spreading FUD about Questrade on an online forum is ridiculous. It is in Questrade’s power to change things, and they should start with their customer service and communications department.
The idea that it does not happen is totally naive in my opinion. Plus that is NOT what I said is happening in this forum…what I said was it is poorly moderated and that these nonsense posts are left to snowball among rookie traders who come for advice. I did not mention disclosure until I was accused of being from Questrade….so whoever said that must also think competitors and reps leave comments?
It bothers me more that the person who claims to be helping so many people will not fully disclose what his relations are to the organizations he reviews.
If my idea is so ridiculous what about the post above that complains he was charged exchange rate while trading in USD? only a complete moron would think they could trade in USD from a Canadian broker without paying exchange rates.
Or how about that other guy who complained that the broker closed positions in the wrong order? Ever hear of the FIFO rule? well he didn’t and his lack of knowledge is surely not the brokers responsibility but the moderator has allowed comments like this to influence others.
Then the moderator has the balls to say he doesnt’ have time to address all the comments on this page but mine was answered in less than an hour? It seems more like I hit a soft spot than anything. He refers me to the FAQ but there is nothing even close to disclosure there.
Furthermore I have found a link on his page which refers to a review done by somebody else….who in that review rates questrade as #1? Please explain that if you can without sounding like YOU work for somebody .
If it is possible for somebody to contradict himself more than it will take more comments from the moderator to prove it.
Canadian Capitalist, no I never said you should investigate every post, but by so prompltly replying to mine you prove that you at least read them all so why on earth would you leave such totally nonsense complaints on your page? Or at least why not comment when they are so obviously wrong so that other rookie traders are not influenced by invalid complaints.
In my opinion you are nothing more than an affiliate program and I could just as easily get truthful opinions about brokers from a used car salesman.
@Doug: Alright, I’ll start with a full disclosure. I am an engineer, I work in the semiconductor industry and I have no affiliation whatsoever (direct or indirect) with any financial firm. I don’t receive any compensation from anyone, directly or indirectly, for writing negative posts for Questrade. For that matter, I haven’t received a single red cent to write any of the 1,200 posts on this blog. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Questrade runs an affiliate program that pays quite well and I choose to not to participate in it because I can’t in good conscience recommend a broker I had poor results with. Regardless, I want Questrade to succeed because competition is healthy — it lowers prices and improves service for retail clients like us even if we have accounts at competitors. Also, this thread is monitored by Questrade CSRs. They write back and ask me to remove invalid comments and if it is warranted I do. If anything, this thread is a headache that I can do without. That it why I take offense when you suggest that I have a hidden agenda here.
You are welcome to point out that some of the comments refer to problems that are really the client’s own fault and you’ll note that I never questioned your right to do so. In fact, check my comments (#62, #92, #99, #108) where I do point out that it is incorrect to blame Questrade for a customer’s fault. I cannot do that for every comment and I feel it is unfair to expect me to.
I responded to your comment because you said every complaint on this page is invalid. I assured you mine is not and simply observed that why is it that Questrade, alone among Canadian discount brokers, has this long list of complaints on a public forum? I couldn’t care less whether you open an account with Questrade or anyone else. In fact, I shouldn’t care what you think of this site but sometimes my emotions get the better of me.
I am sick and tired of being hit by TDW for undiscolsed forex conversion charges in RRSP/TFSA accounts. I thought Questrade was the answer until I read this message board. Is there any other Canadian online broker which allows you to trade US securities in RRSP/TFSA accounts without the conversion fee gouging which TD, RBC, etc engage in ?
My enthusiasm for Questrade has deflated like limp baloon after reading the posts. I am thankful though that I read this board before I called Questrade tommorow morning.
After much thought I have decided to open account with Questrader. My reasoning is that we should encourage small players if we have any serious intentions of not being exploited by oligopolies. Canadian banking and telecom sectors have allowed the oligopolies to form to the detriment of the consumer who is gouged.
I find the commissions structure of big investment banks like TD , RBC, etc grossly unfair for the consumer wanting to trade US securities in RRSP and TFSA accounts. I have been burnt badly by undisclosed commissions on forex transactions within tax assisted accounts….it looks like extortion racket because the consumer has no choice and all big banks seem to be doing it with impunity and mutual collusion.
I am willing to put up with small inconvenience in order to encourage a smaller player which is willing to compete….this is the only way we can save Canadian telecom and banking consumers from exploitation.
Go Questrade!
I tried to open account today. Ran into a problem (actually a bug) in their application for corporate account. The online help could not resolve it asked me to call b/w 9 to 5. Unfortunately, that time does not work for me . Incidentally, I had called in the morning and was to told to open the account online. The complaints about poor customer service appear to be true.
I will try once more and then perhaps give up….and stay with TDW
. Customer service does not leave a warm feeling with me. I hope I am proven wrong soon.
Just that no body thinks that I am lying…given below is the transcript of the chat session. I am still willing to try them out….
—————————-
[Edit: Chat transcript removed on commenter's request]
Moderator….could you please remove my last message (chat transcript). I didn’t mean to put the CSR on spot. It was not his fault. Thanks
I’ve used questrade for years 5+plus and honestly, i’m just waiting for something better so I can get outter there, IB is one of my options besides questrader, maybe optionsexpress.
I’ve experienced most of the above and like i said, we don’t have a lot of options available to us Canadians for a balanced discount broker offering a lot of options for trading/investing
Interesting to see it was over a year ago I posted a comment here complaining about the poor customer service over the phone (I wasn’t a client then and still am not a client). It’s sad to see that since my Jan-09 post, the complaints have only grown more serious and numerous. Even now, I have had a chat window opened for the last 20 minutes to “test” Questrade’s live chat and am still waiting to speak to an agent.
I wanted to start with a small opening balance ($2K) just to buy some shares and hold on to them and couldn’t justify the high commissions charged at the big banks. Just like a year ago, I have decided not to open an account with Questrade. Instead, I am considering thinkorswim (now owned by TD Waterhouse). The downside is you can only trade US stocks and you can only hold a USD account. But the commissions are $9.95 flat and user feedback seems to be quite positive
While I do appreciate that QT offers the Canadian investor the opportunity to save a lot of money on trading costs, especially the investor who doesn’t have $100k to qualify for TDW’s and other online brokers’ discounted rates, the fact remains that customer service remains an issue. And it’s not just the complaints in this thread. Check out other websites and you’ll find the same recurring problems. It’s no wonder why the larger brokerages are in no hurry to cut their fees.
I went through this entire thread on Monday AM, Jan 11, 2010 to see what comments were like wrt Questrade. I was planning to open an account, and then probably transfer several accounts to Questrade. I found the comments typical of many traders/investors that want all the discounts available, often only making a few trades a year, but expecting service like you get with a full-service broker.
I went ahead and opened a TFSA account for test purposes.
The New Account process started at 11:45 Monday, was also funded on Monday, and the account is now up and running and ready to trade as of Wednesday, Jan 13, 17:00 PM. It doesn’t get any better than that, and all electronic! I hope everything else will run as smoothly as this did. So far this is the most professional start-up ever and over the past 15 years I have had multiple accounts with Royal Bank, TD, BMO and TradeFreedom/Scotia and none of those have come close to such no hassle processing. Maybe the transfers will be more complicated but when things go well I believe that is also worth noting.
Dave: ya most people on here are just bitching. Some have legitimate complaints tho.
Re: QTs’ account opening, I agree, it’s the best that I’ve come across. All electronic for most accounts. That’s great cause sending in forms in the mail is a pain in the ass.
I opened my account with Questrade a couple of weeks ago. I like to trade nyse and tsx but some penny stocks too. Well forget those with qt! Ecn fees make buying 20k shares a 29.95 commission – both ends, for a total of near 60 bucks. Both TDW and CIBC don’t charge ecn, and tdw is only 9.95 for active investor and cibc has the investor’s edge package for 7.90 down to 6.95/trade.
Five trades with qt in a week and my average commission with ecn is 18.25.
BTW – After my first mistake with placing a market order on penny stock, I made sure I placed limit order that took quite a while to fill, which is stupid in itself on a volatile stock. Anyways, day later the order fills and I’m still dinged $20 ecn fees. I guess they keep the credit for adding liquidity and ding all their clients for removing. Pretty shoddy, extremely disappointed.
Two accounts for me now – cibc investor’s edge for Canadian and/or penny stocks and IB for everything else. Would have been nice to give the small Canadian company the business.
Pinned: you shouldn’t be charged any ECN fees for limit orders…with one exception. If you have a limit order that gets filled in the opening trade of the day, then you will get dinged.
That must have happened on your limit that you still got charged the 20$ on.
The limit order in question was filled in the afternoon, it was not at market open.
pinned: OK, that is strange then. I think you should ask them and them about that bogus fee and get them to cancel it.
I was here on Jan 13 and mentioned that my experience with Questrade was positive. Since then I transferred one account from another broker to the Questrade account I opened 2 weeks ago and that went very smoothly too.
To be sure I wasn’t kidding myself I placed an option order earlier today, partially to test things, and once I changed the option symbol from the old to the new designator I was filled in about 1 second. So far I couldn’t be more satisfied how smoothly all this has gone.
Lastly Questrade clears through Penson and I don’t anticipate problems from them either. TradeFreedom also used to clear through Penson, until Scotia bought them out and tossed them. I had only one serious problem with Penson and that was a non-qualified option trade on currencies in a registered account. I argued that the trading platform should not have let it go through.
I lost, they won and I had to move it out.
The biggest concern I have now is that Questrade gets bought out too soon and we’ll be back to the situation where the big banks stifle all competition and suck our money out of the registered accounts mafia-style!
I’ve been using Questrade for about a year (two investment accounts and two TFSAs) and haven’t had any problems. Whenever I have a question, I email them and they get back to me pretty quickly. I’m not an active trader, though. Long term investing, with only a few trades a month.
I too switched to Questrade recently. Between my wife and me we have about 600K in stocks and cash with them.
I am less than impressed.
(1) I have only used their webtrader. My style is basically buy and hold, so my approach is pretty simple. Then this morning on February 3, I couldn’t log on to their website when the market was opening. It turn out there were other trading links that I didn’t know about that were still working. I had to go into “myquestrade” to get on line to talk to somebody to find that out. In any case, for their website to be down during market hours is pretty amatuerish. Unacceptable really.
(2) They told me 3 months ago that they were upgrading their phone system. When you phone customer service you are on permahold for extended periods of time. They keep spinning the same bullshit line.
(3) I sent them a post-dated cheque with a covering letter, clearly explaining in BOLD TYPE that the cheque was post-dated. They cashed it anyway. Evidently their back office staff cannot read English.
Spending winter overseas as I do, I expect to be able to access their website, especially during market hours.
I am pissed and when I get back to Canada in the spring will probably switch to Trade Freedom or some other discount outfit.
I am not impressed with Questrade at all.
BTW…does anybody have any experience with Trade Freedom? They told me that with our combined account size, we would have a dedicated customer service phone line.
ref # 168
Well the dedicated customer phone line at TradeFreedom might be 10 minutes on good days, 40 or more on bad days, and I normally give up long before then.
Since TradeFreedom was bought out by Scotia the cost to transfer Can$ to US$ and v.v. on EVERY buy and EVERY sell trade has increased from 40 pips to around 100 pips or about 1% for registered accounts like RRSP, TFSA, LIRA, etc. So now we have to cover 2%, plus commissions just to hit breakeven. Hardly a trader’s paradise and this is a huge negative when it comes to properly managing risk with stops. I can hedge in my forex account at 5 pips, I don’t need this!
I often buy securities in the US market under the US symbol designator, because that’s where ALL the liquidity is. But, if it trades in the Canadian market they will change it and park it in the account under its Canadian symbol designator and the initial price is converted from US to Can $, even when the same symbol can’t get up to 1000 shares a day while it trades
1 to 2,000,000 shares per day in the US.
Furthermore, if I want to trade in or out before Toronto has finished its 4th coffee and decides it’s time to open the door at 9:30 the premarket has often already moved most of what it will move for that day. Most reports come out at 8:30 EST, several earlier, and only a few after 9:30.
And forget trying to reach them to have it converted back to US so it can be sold premarket because that takes you back to the phone problem.
TradeFreedom has a very basic electronic trading platform but it works quite well most of the time. In short, I was quite satisfied at TradeFreedom while they were independent but now they’re just another big bank “discount broker” with all the crap that entails.
For now my biggest concern is that one of these mothers takes out Questrade.
Well I posted some comments on here a few days ago…I’m dealing with QT’s customer service here myself today. The fellow with I’m dealing with is an idiot. He cannot speak english very good. And they screwed up my request. I needed a form filled out by them, and they mailed it back to me blank! Lol, idiots.
Patrick: “He cannot speak english very good”? That’s the pot calling the kettle black! Neither can you by the looks of things.
satisfied: umm, I did a make a grammatical error? English is my native language. I can speak it like a charm lol.
So he said ‘good’ instead of ‘well’. Big deal. Your comment is not really a defense for the immense ineptitude of Questrade.
I wasn’t trying to defend Questrade. If you read my comment again, slowly this time, you may actually notice that there is zero reference in defense of the company other than in my “name”.
I have been following this thread since it began and I can totally understand that many are dissatisfied. I on the other hand place many trades with the company and I have never experienced any of these ineptitudes. I guess I am lucky. Or I guess that the old adage “you can’t please everyone all of the time” has validity in the case of this company and every other company I have ever dealt with. But I do take umbrage to people that bring language or perhaps sometimes race into the equation. What has this got to do with the issue? Perhaps we should be satisfied that AT LEAST the offensive non-English speaking gentleman is sitting in Toronto and not Mumbai or somewhere in the Philippines where other corporations outsource to for cheaper and more pathetic services. So leave out the language issue when moaning and complaining.
This is totally off topic. For that fact I am embarrassed. But I am not embarrassed by pointing out a mistake made in the very language which Patrick is criticizing. And no it’s not a big deal.
Well put and well spoken. You’re quite right and I apologize. I’m currently (and I mean at this moment) trying to close my account with questrade because of a mistake that they made that cost me a chunk of change. Because of that I’m tense and angry with this company at this moment in time. I will post when it is all resolved, whether it is good or bad (I hope the former but fear the latter).
p.s. – I’ve always been told (and usually follow) the rule to never post a message or send an email when you are angry or drunk as you always end up regretting it. I’ll try not to make that mistake again.
satisfied: the point of language is that this person that I’m dealing with is doing a s***-job because he cause he barely understands the language.
@pinned: Did you try contacting Lynn whose contact information is available in the earlier comments? I’m not sure if Lynn is still around but she may be able to help with your problem.
Personally, I ran into problems at Questrade as well. That’s why I’m not with them anymore. But I also know a lot of people who are quite satisfied with Questrade.
No I didn’t contact Lynn, got some other rep. The outcome was as I had feared (actually worse) and my account will be closed as of tomorrow. I am going to give cibc a try as I’m pretty active trader and I like their $395/year deal. Hope it goes better then this experience!
pinned: watch out with cibc, i was looking into them at one point, and if I remember correctly, i noticed that they are not a direct-access broker. Meaning once you place an order it doesn’t going directly onto the exchange.
I think we all know Satisfied QT Customer is QT employed and I find his existence quite amusing, am I alone in this?
“Perhaps we should be satisfied that AT LEAST the offensive non-English speaking gentleman is sitting in Toronto and not Mumbai or somewhere in the Philippines where other corporations outsource to for cheaper and more pathetic services.”
This cracks me up. If the employee in question does not speak well enough to satisfy customer requests, then it makes no difference whether he is located in Toronto, Mumbai or Podunk Village.
Why not call me at my business tomorrow you d*******? I at least own and operate a design and manufacturing concern which supports multiple families. I don’t rely on trading to make my living, and therefore I don’t get all personal when I suck at it and lose money. It’s a choice I make to play, and every bloody Brokerage has it’s good points and bad points. Trading is not for you Mr./Mrs. Dissatisfied. You are a real clever one aren’t you? A really paranoid and assumptive prick. You’re also probably a Liberal. That’s ME being assumptive: How do you like that? My existence IS quite amusing. Thanks to one line-monkeys like you!
Actually I appreciated “pinned”’s reply and I actually felt bad. I didn’t mean to upset him, especially because he is legitimately pissed of at the moment and obviously a bit sensitive. I’ve been there. I do agree though that a lot of the time that English is sadly lacking in the service industry. So in a way, in retrospect, I tend to now want to agree with Patrick’s comments. Sorry Patrick and point taken.
If we are to exclude the outsourcing which is damaging to our economy, I have to agree that there is no excuse for poor language in the service arena. ESPECIALLY since I am an immigrant myself, having been here only 10 years. And hey… thanks for the immigration policies which allow people like myself to come here and make a success of our lives. I do apologize for the countless number of tools that we (yes I am a proud Canadian citizen) let in. If I were to be even more assumptive, perhaps say, like YOU, I would assume that YOU are an immigrant too. Oh yeah, damn. I forgot; WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS. So give a company a break on language issues, and knock the s*** out of them for poor service. Agreed.
Hey, imagine that! An immigrant that’s Conservative.
Oh and Jeremy, I am so happy to have cracked you up. But this is the difference. Remember how many times you bitch and moan about how you get connected with someone overseas when you make a service call? Oh, no! You never do that right? Here’s the difference Mr. Economist; “at least” = “at least it is someone that is sitting locally and getting paid to do a job and pay taxes which contributes to our economy.” Go and read a little bit about how outsourcing negatively affects the economy to further understand what I mean. And sometimes the command of the English language is somewhat acceptable. My reference was to to the affect on the economy…. F*** I feel like I am digging a deeper hole here. But I simply refuse to believe (Yes Mr. Dissatisfied…. even as a NON QT employee) that the English was THAT intolerable. And we should all be used to it by now. We ENCOURAGE and WELCOME multiculturalism and foster enclaves of micro-cultures don’t we? Wow. How un-Canadian of us to be so intolerant. Boo hoo hoo…. Too bad.
Oh, please excuse my English! I meant effect.
Lmao. Don’t hit that keyboard too hard, you could hurt yourself.
A little update on my questrade experience. I did finally get my issues resolved. Still not happy with how it was resolved, and am certainly _very_ unhappy with the level of customer service.
BUT (don’t kick me!) I’ve decided to stay with Questrade at least for now. The devil you know….. Patrick’s advice to look into cibc was very relevant (thank you Patrick!) as it appears they are not a direct access broker. In fact, you can’t even place a short order online, it has to be phoned in. I’ve looked at IB as well and from everything I’ve read their customer service is as bad or worse. Their platform is far superior though. Something I’ll consider down the road. Still no tfsa or rsp though.
FYI, I contacted TD regarding their $7/9.99 active trader pricing. My concern was I didn’t want to pay the ridiculous $30/trade until I hit that magic number of trades. Had a response from them the next day:
“please note that if you can provide us with a current statement from
your other brokerage firm indicating you have accumulated the number of
trades needed to qualify for the active investor rates, we will code your
accounts to have the lower commission rates immediately.”
I cannot say that I am fond of Questrade but I now have some knowledge about how they operate so intend to stay under the radar and try to not get myself into the situation of having to deal with their customer service.
Just remember that you get what you pay for…. if service is important to you look elsewhere.