Comments on: Scotia iTrade Review

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:26:09 +0000

I currently have an account with Itrade. And I am very frustrated with them. Service is terrible
Their forced conversion fees are disgusting. In my TFSA account I am holding US Steel. On paper I have a 19% gain , but in reality on the account it shows that I am making only 11%, which means that 8% is being syphoned by Itrade in fees and comissions, WTF!
So If I would have been making 5%, at the end I would lose 3% with the fees and commissions!!
They only offer US friendly accounts in RRSP accounts, none in LIRA or TFSA. This is because it is way too profitable for them to keep it that way. And on top of that once you sell a security they forcefully convert it back to Canadian dollars at a “reasonable rate”, problem is that also with conversion of currency there is a spread, so you end up getting hit anyways. And they also charge you 120 dollars per year for maintenance of a US friendly RRSP account. What planet is Itrade living in?.
I was looking a few months ago to become more of an active trader, so I was looking at reducing my comissions. So I noticed that CIBC charges 6.95 per trade if your asset level is over 100,000. Currently I have 240,000 in investment assets with Itrade, so I figure I would call to see if they could match it. This arrogant guy Todd had the chutzpah to tell me that they could give me 6.95 with the condition that in the next 3 months I could deposit 50,000 more in my accounts. So he was willing to give me this price for 3 months if I would meet that requirement. WTF!! Buddy what about if you don’t give me that, I go somewhere else!!! I sent an email to a customer service manager 5 months ago with no response this far.
Now, the issue with Flight Desk, which I do not have. What is the big deal about it? they offer it like it is a revolutionary thing for 70 dollars a month if you have less than 250 thousand in assets. Interactive Brokers offers this as a standard platform for free. You only have to pay 6 dollars per month for live data of Canadian stocks. Scotia Itrade should be ashamed for charging this.
I am in the process of switching. I was looking at RBC direct Investing.
If you have over 15000 in total assets they do not charge you any maintenance fees.
They have US friendly accounts in TFSA, RRSP and LIRA, which is good for me. No forced conversion even after you sell the security, in other words funds remain in US dollars
Trades are 9.95 if you hold >50000 in assets or if you make 30 trades per quarter at least.
Scotia Itrade needs a reality check. Sweet soft words from a customer service rep are not enough. Customer loyalty does not mean a thing for these people. I know sometimes change is a pain, but I realized that staying with ITrade is costing me a lot of hard earned money.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:54:04 +0000

I can relate to all the complaints about Itrade.

The customer service people ARE rude and obnoxious, with their favorite solution to flightdesk not working is that there is a problem with the customer’s computer.
Must be the only part of their script they understand!

I have made several complaints to their head office,,all of which were ignored.

Transfering an RRSP from a local ScotiaBank branch took over two weeks, and a huge amount of paperwork. Maybe the taxi they used to transfer the paperwork broke down.

The problem with Itrade is they have a bankers mentality towards customers. Itrade seems to feel they are doing us a favor by letting us be customers. If this poor service continues I will do them one last favor by transfering to another broker.

By: Barry

Barry — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:12:12 +0000

Okay – an Update:
First off – I agree with Dave and Carm – if iTrade is monitoring these complaints and want to actively engage us with solutions – that is great. I’m not into screaming my lungs out in anger at the darkness.

I left some pretty good clues’ about who I am – plus a personal email to iTrade – and today I received a phone call from Nabil. We went through my grievances one by one – and we were able to resolve the outstanding issues, and I was able to give some feedback on what I like – don’t like – and future changes.

I have to admit – that one (main) problem was my own fault (account fell below a level where Flt Desk is free), but that was rectified.

Nabil is gutsy – professional – and most of all – sincerely trying to help.

I will be staying with iTrade – and hope future ‘proposed changes’ – include feedback from people like us.

That sure beats the aggravation of going through an account transfer process – and starting with a new brokerage firm who may not give a ratz arse about whether or not you have problems. At least here I now have a connection with someone who will work with me when I have a problem. And that same person/connection – Nabil – is available to all of you.

Give him a call – it just might help.

Barry.

By: Barry

Barry — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 02:08:28 +0000

Wow – and I thought I was alone in the world. iTrade gets worse with every change – if they had just left it the way it was when they bought out *ETrade. Why did they buy them? To gain accounts which they then proceed to drive away with crappy service and constant incomprhensible changes.

Flt Desk was a small improvement – but such a hassle to configure with old symbols. Current changes of how you view your accounts is kindergarten stuff. CRAP! I could go on and on if I dug into the 50 or so emails I’ve sent over the past couple of years.

And then today – no access to Flt Desk. I know I’ll hit ‘contact us’ and send an email. NOPE – email server ain’t working. WTF !

I’m in the process of considering that pain in the arse process of treansfering my acccts out. Hate to do it, but iTrade and the morons who initiated all these useless changes – don’t deserve my business.

Thanks all for comments on better brokerage houses.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:56:00 +0000

Nabil
Thank you for your response. I do understand that margin rules need to exist and be enforced. The problem I have which you did not address is that the 10% of equity rule includes non-marginable securities. example you have an account with 100K, of which 30K is marginable. So you have to have 10K margin excess to cover the volatility of 30K of securities, as the other 70K will not impact. In fact they decrease risk to Scotia as they could be sold if needed. So if I want to sell a non-marginable security and have 2K sent to me I likely cannot, despite the fact that selling this has had no increase in margin risk! I only borrow against marginable stocks, but the others get tied up.
Also, I can buy the riskiest stock I want with the margin excess all the way until my excess is 1 cent… that adds more risk than a withdrawal… not logical.
So my solution is open a cash account and move my non-margin stocks into it. Now I have a true margin account left behind… and my cash account is not compromised. but all this extra work and paperwork and transfers is completely unnecessary if anyone in iTrade management cared enough to listen to their customers.
I expect most Cdn bank brokers would have similar frustrations but of course you dont know for sure until you try. I recognize that for cheaper commissions you should expect less service and caring, and I get frustrations with my full service brokerage also. But I used to trade in the US with TD Ameritrade and their system really is built for traders, no comparison. I am thinking of trying Interactive Brokers as they are available to Canadians, sad that we dont have Cdn brokers who care to compete when they could with good mgmt.
What Scotia and others dont realize is how much their business is damaged over the long term. My accounts will probably stay open, but have been and will continue to shrink, and my trading activity is way down. Eventually I will probably have just my RSP and TSFA left unless I move them to Questrade, just occasional trades anyways… and 90% plus of my trades will be at Interactive Brokers ( they dont support RSP and TSFA I think). Scotia never had a transfer out, but they lost 90% of an active trader’s business and wont care why.
The new website is an improvement over the old one by quite a bit I will say, the old one was not great. And I think margin interest rates are reasonable. And good to see trailing stops, not sure if the old system had that. The service people can be good, but they are in a badly managed structure. As a Canadian I am sad to see the lack of entrepreneurial spirit in our banking system, they rely on the lack of competition domestically to coast along. If they need more profit they just raise fees or lower service, nothing improved.
thanks!

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 13:22:43 +0000

Customer Service is terrible and a common term used is “call us” is equally useless. Does itrade not understand that in this age and time not everyboday is available 9 5, ever heard the term shift worker?
Nevertheless, Don’t even try to use their online forms, garbage!! and useless!
Made the mistake this January, wanted to add a TSFA trading account to my portfolio, so I called their customer support and was told, no problems, just fill out the on line application and you’ll be all set……Soooo I filled out all the forms to transfer a TSFA account to itrade, apparently, not good enough; but, do you think someone would tell me?? nope, I’ve had to call, email and chase to find out why it was not processed. Each and everytime I contacted someone, I had to explain, and re-explain my situation over and over again. What a waste of time, NEVER had such hard time trying to put money into a bank before. The funny part of it is that to date, I still don’t have the account. Look elsewere people, you’ll get nothing but fustration and confusion when dealing with itrade.

By: Scotia iTRADE

Scotia iTRADE — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:34:28 +0000

@Paul: Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. We take every feedback seriously as it helps us to serve you better. Please allow me to answer your question regarding margin maintenance levels.

Excess margin (or buying power) can be withdrawn as long as the remaining margin excess is 10 percent or more of the remaining equity balance after the drawdown. For our mutual protection, maintenance margins must be maintained at all times to satisfy any possible volatile market activity and to prevent any margin calls after the drawdown. For instance, loan values could change from 70 to 50 percent or drop down to zero if holdings in the portfolio have loan removed; or open buy orders, if filled, could cause a margin call to occur; or the account may have security concentration issues. Our margin drawdown policy has been in place for some time, and terms of our margin accounts can be found in our Terms and Conditions under the Client Account and Margin Agreement section.

We understand that at the time of website and service transition, our customers may have experienced longer than usual wait times. We sincerely appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience related to this transition.

We value your business, and are here to help and answer your questions. Feel free to email me directly at nabil-at-scotiaitrade-dot-com with your questions or concerns.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

-Nabil

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:16:06 +0000

I have been a customer for years and every year think of transferring out due to unresolved service issues. Website etc is okay and can be improved but if you have a problem the service is terrible, frustrating, and can cost you thousands in some situations. Email service is almost non existent, they just say call in. Calling in means a long time on hold to talk to someone who cant help you.
The new site was not ready, as you can no longer take money from a margin account online. So you call in and they have changed the rules. They have an arbitrary 10% of equity amount you have to keep, which does not take into account how much of your account is in non marginable stocks. Totally stupid policy, but that is what you get at Scotia. And nobody is authorized to help the clients with reasonable requests. They will just keep repeating `we have a stupid new policy that we didnt tell you about`.

Nabil, can you explain this arbitrary 10% that is not based on how much margin/risk is being used? Can you explain why the old system had a different calculation and we were not informed? Can you explain why it tales 40 minutes on the phone to get nowhere and you can’t talk to anyone who can explain it?
thanks

It is like dealing with city hall, but worse as they have your funds….

STAY AWAY unless you just buy and hold a little… changing brokers is a massive hassle but I will move to Interactive Brokers I think as some friends have moved and are happy.
I will leave frustrated and hating Scotia, a truly horrible experience and I really try to be a reasonable and polite client.

By: Scotia iTRADE

Scotia iTRADE — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:21:48 +0000

@Joe: We’re sorry to hear that you’re having trouble navigating through our new site.

On the new site, you’ll find the Trade Summary box on the right side of the page under the Accounts > Account Summary tab. Hope this information helps.

If you’ve any questions or suggestions along the way, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Support team at 1.888.872.3388 or e-mail me at nabil-at-scotiaitrade-dot-com.

Thanks,

-Nabil

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:41:16 +0000

Circling the drain at the bottom of the toilet. Just logged into the “new” Scotia Macleod interface for the first time. If anything, basic information such as commission tier etc is even harder to find. What a total piece of trash this site/service is.

Even though moving accounts is such a huge hassle, I this may well be it for me. I’ve long since done all new business elsewhere, based on what I’m seeing so far it’s now time to transfer my last remaining account.

You’d be much better off simply buying BNS (through any other brokerage) and holding it, than attempting to actually use their interface to trade!