E-Trade (now iTrade) Canada Review

Written by FrugalTrader on Jul 19, 2007 filed under Stock Investing

Nobleea, a regular reader here, posted a comment about being a user of E*Trade (now iTrade) Canada. Since I’ve never used E*Trade before, I thought it would be great to get a review from a long time user. Thanks Nobleea!

Frugal Trader asked me to do a review of E*Trade (i-trade), as I am a customer. I will try and follow the same format as he has used for previous brokerage reviews. I have been a customer of E*Trade since 2003, when I deposited a small $1100 cheque to fund my account.

Account types

Like most online brokerages, they offer several account types:

Cash (both US and CAD). This is the basic account for trading stocks and mutual funds.
Registered. For self directed RSP users.
Savings. E*Trade has a Cash Optimizer savings account with a pretty high interest rate. 4.15% at the moment I believe.
Options. For trading and creating options on popular stocks.
Margin. Trading on margin.

The Application Process

The last two accounts are a little bit more complicated. I have had a cash account since 2003 and have just opened a registered account. You can trade US equities and funds in a CAD currency account, but you obviously get hit with the forex (>1% each way) for each trade. You can have both CAD and US cash accounts simultaneously.

Commissions on Equity Trading, there are two price levels:

$19.99/ trade for 1000 shares (2c per share thereafter for shares over $1, $19.99 flat for shares under $1) for accounts with less than 30 trades/quarter or less than $50K in account assets (for US equities it is $19.99 flat regardless of equity price or amount of shares)
$9.99 flat fee/trade for accounts with more than 30 trades in the previous quarter or more than $50K in account assets.
There is no difference in price for limit or market orders. They also offer Trailing Stop Orders which allows you to enter a stop order with a trigger price that changes with the market. E*Trade does dividend reinvestment, but will only purchase whole shares, with the remained being deposited as cash.

Real Time Quotes

Real time quotes are available for US and CAD equities. Real time Level II information is also available on CAD equities (not sure about US equities). This is helpful when you are placing an order to see what the spread is like and if any iceberg orders exist.

Mutual Funds

Access to over 3200 mutual funds. E*Trade charges nothing for mutual fund trades as long as you hold the fund for at least 90 days.
Otherwise, they charge a fee of $38.88 or 1%, whichever is greater. I have not bought any mutual funds through E*Trade.
ETFs are also available.

Funding

You can set up E*Trade as a biller in order to fund your account. This takes 3-5 days for the money to show up in your E*Trade account.
A better option is sign up for the automatic debit system where you can transfer cash back and forth between bank and brokerage in a day. Sometimes in can be done the same day if the timing is right. The good thing is that as soon as you initiate a transfer from your bank account to E*Trade, you can use the money immediately to buy stocks, even if the actual money has not been transferred yet.

Security

E*Trade offers a key fob security device which increases the security of your password by creating a new password every 60 seconds. You enter your regular login and password and then add on the 6 digit security code from the key fob which changes automatically every minute. The key fob is free if you have more than $50K in account assets or $30 if you have less. I received mine a week ago.

Concerns

Broker assisted trades over the phone will cost you extra, $35, I believe. Their telephone operators do not appear to be of the highest caliber, but are generally helpful. I have to exercise some warrants before the end of the month, so we’ll see if they can handle that.

Final Thoughts

E*Trade Canada is good if you qualify for Power E*Trade, which is the cheaper price level once 30 trades/quarter is achieved (or $50K in account assets). Otherwise, there are better deals available. It is best for frequent traders who have a good grasp on what they are doing.
If you are interested in stock trading, check out some of the free stock trading tools that I use.

Thanks again for the review Nobleea. If you guys want to see how E*Trade stacks up against other discount brokerages, check out my Canadian Discount Brokerage Comparison article.

29 Comments, Comment or Ping

1. Daniel M,

I had a account a while back with E-Trade Canada, poor service, runarounds and a rude customer service agent made me decide to close my account and deal with a full service broker.

I am very comfortable dealing online for all my other needs.

Jul 19th, 2007 @ 12:20 pm
2. HalOtis

Thanks for the overview.

I was thinking about switching away from my current online broker. E-Trade Canada doesn’t seem that much better that’s it’s worth the switch.

Jul 19th, 2007 @ 4:25 pm
3. Blain Reinkensmeyer

Etrade is setup definitely for the active trader, they have a hidden fee on their trade commissions if you dont trade enough, kinda lame. BUT, they do have offer some great tools from what I hear and if you are an active trader well than more power to ya!

Jul 23rd, 2007 @ 2:47 am
4. nobleea

Well, I just excercised the warrants I had. It was rather easy, only took 3 minutes over the phone. I guess we’ll see whether they did it right next week!

Jul 23rd, 2007 @ 1:00 pm
6. Nike Dunk Shoes

What I want to know is if the Canadian Etrade account can be funded with US bank ACH.

Oct 14th, 2007 @ 7:49 pm
8. Free RPG Game

No, canadians cant do that with their etrade due to USA stupid laws.

Dec 30th, 2007 @ 4:27 am
9. Doug

Etrade Canada is awful, they will charge you $50 to close an account and $10 just to send you a cheque. Plus if you don’t trade for 3 months, they charge a $25 low activity fee. Beware.

Apr 21st, 2008 @ 6:34 pm
10. FrugalTrader

Doug, they will only charge you the inactivity fee if you have less than $5k balance in your account.

Apr 21st, 2008 @ 7:09 pm
12. dave

I had been an Etrade customer since 2003 when I bought a small stock, not worth very much (ended up being less than $25 value over the last few years), and recently bought a stock worth a few thousand a few months ago. I was shocked to see a my cash account balance -$25, for a quarterly fee! Apparently you need to have over $5000 in assets with them before they waive this fee.

I had asked why they never charged me this over the last 5 years, and their response was “I really don’t know, consider yourself lucky!”. I switched my account and future business over to TD Waterhouse, which has no fees as long as you sign up for e-statements. (of course trading fees apply, but no inactivity fees).

The only reason they never charged me, was because they knew if they had, and my account was not worth anything, I would simply not do future business with them. Shady bastards.

Jul 29th, 2008 @ 7:41 pm
13. Wedding Planner

No, canadians cant do that with their etrade due to USA stupid laws.

Nov 13th, 2008 @ 1:00 am
14. Hans

Stay away…

Uneducated staff, imposible to escalate issues
Hidden fees – what you save in trading commission you will pay in FX and low interest rates
New owners (Scotia) don’t care either

Nov 15th, 2008 @ 2:00 pm
15. Some Guy

E*Trade is very speedy. If you make a max $5K internet payment from a Canadian bank before 1PM, the money “arrives” in your E*Trade account the next business day, regardless of whether you’ve set it up for quick EFT, or not. The down side is, you can trade with the money right away, but you can’t withdraw it back to your bank account until the 10 business day holding period passes. So far, I’m impressed.

Nov 17th, 2008 @ 6:01 pm
16. Thinkingaboutit

Im seeing way to many people complaining about Forex fees for trading US equities. The people who are complaining say they are active traders yet they seem extremely unintelligable. Learn to read before opening an account. I dont see any hidden fees at any brokerage. Yes they are in fine print but its your fault for not reading the fine print. Back to forex fees for us equities. If you trade Us equities just change your account into USD this way you dont get hit with a fee everytime you trade. Before you bash a company and sway people away from them with your comments make sure it wasnt your own stupidity that caused you the problem.

I myself am looking for a new brokerage and im having a tough time. I have over 25k but less than 100k and im looking at Etrade, IB, Tradefreedom, Questrade. Etrade seems the safest in security terms, IB I hate their platform completely, Tradefreedom seems reasonable but they seem amateur for some reason, Questrade cheap commisions but heard way to many problems with them regarding people’s money in account etc etc . I am currently with TDW and was an active trader but i havent traded in about a year. I will be an active trader again but until i do 150 trades a quarter ill be paying $30 fees which is unacceptable. I would love to stay with them but they are unwilling to help me and i will be closing both of my accounts with them all because of this. TO me thats stupid business but hey i dont own a bank.

Nov 18th, 2008 @ 2:36 pm
17. E*Trade problems

Would definetely recommend against E*Trade. There are a lot of hidden fees – low activity, issues cheque, etc., etc. The worst part is that all these fees are not clearly documented so you don;t find out about them until after you have opened an account. I switched to Interactive Brokers and found it much more straigth forward.

Feb 25th, 2009 @ 12:33 pm
18. Smith

I been using e*trade now i*trade canada for a few years. There is a fee charge list and if you plan to invest in US equities its best to have USD account.

I never had a problem with their service provider. Although I have more than 5k invested and did not use them as financial advisors. (called them up one time to correct a mistake in using cdn instead of from my usd account. It was fixed fast. Their system is accurate and pretty secure.)

I found lots of comments are ridiculous. You state one thing yet fail to provide the other thing you had find better and what exactly was wrong with it.

I checked the fee charge list on others if you can find it that is and found itrade to be competitive.

Jun 13th, 2009 @ 10:03 pm
19. StockStalker

For the past couple of months, or so I have been unable to purchase $2-$5 TSX-listed stocks on margin. Would anyone confirm whether $2 stocks are still marginable with iTrade, or is this just fiction and that iTrade forgot to update their margin rules under Help section when they merged with Scotia Investing?

Jun 18th, 2009 @ 2:48 am
20. Ryan

Probably the worst customer service of any of the brokerages I have been with. They lose forms like it is their hobby. They lost my quick transfer application, my father’s account application, my father’s RRSP transfer form, and my roommate’s account application form. You know things are bad when you have to call and get an employee to check if the address written on the website is in face the correct one. I have been with them for about 3 years now and am in the process of closing my account and moving to CIBC Investors Edge.

Jun 22nd, 2009 @ 9:44 pm
21. John

Service has gone WAY downhill since Scotia took over. “Realtime” quotes are actually previous business day end-of-day quotes for anything that trades on NYSE-ARCA. Telephone customer support has gone from E*Trade-Canada-bad to functionally non-existent. Online company updates happen in geologic time, for example, Crescent Point announced conversion from income trust to corporation March 4 2009, executed change July 2 (CPG.UN is now CPG). iTrade is STILL (as of Jul 13) quoting as CPG.UN close of biz July 2 and is un-tradeable in my account.

My suspicion is that when Scotia took over, they did not acquire source code for online programming from E*Trade. Consequently they are now unable to make program upgrades or modifications.

My advice based on personal experience… STEER CLEAR OF iTRADE!!

Jul 13th, 2009 @ 1:46 pm
22. May

I have very bad experience with questrade so I am thinking to open an account with etrade canada. Is this a good company to trade stock? I will follow up to see your comments. Thank you all.

Aug 30th, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
24. HHH

I recently opened scotiaitrade account. The account was opened quickly, however they forgot to transfer the account from my previous broker. When I phoned to inquire about it, first it seemed to them that I didnt send the transfer form to them, but after being placed on hold, they were able to find it in their office. Took another week to transfer over…..the the comission fee. I had over 50 in the account, however, I was given the 19.99 comission fee. Phoned once, they told me this would be corrected for the next day. Two days later, nothing changed so I phoned again and they changed it few hours later…….
As for the easy transfer between bank account, if you want to transfer mony out it aint that easy, takes up to 10 days for the whole process to take place……As for the 100 free trades..they cover only up to 9.99……..lots of fine print and misleading info…………yet have to make a trade…..will update my experience in few weeks……

Oct 4th, 2009 @ 2:47 pm
25. newbie

HHH, ya i called them recently for info. They make it sound good but then there is lots of fine print. They said there is no free 100 trades if you have less than $50,000. So I am still thinking if I should sign up.

Holding my money for 1 week! thats too much. Also, I think there is a min. usage fee right?
I have been told that TOS is very good.

Oct 6th, 2009 @ 8:25 pm
26. GG

lost 1000.00 bucks today because of itrade.

I called and yelled and they wouldn’t help , got 2 free trades.

I was in TNA for 30k, up 400.00 , went to put in my sell order, and the ticket said my account did not exist. 0.00 money in my account 250k gone.

I called yelling, market tanking ! and they said because we’re are in the process of switching over your account to a margin account……more yelling…get it sold over the phone, wanted to charge me a 45.00 fee, more yelling…no charge sir, sorry…. I want 100 free trades, no sir, I’ll give you 2 , hang up…..

no more itrade, switching again to someone else….

Oct 26th, 2009 @ 11:23 pm
27. Newbie

U serious? I have been using them for a month now, and I agree with everyone, their customer service sucks, but here and there u will get a good agent.
Otherwise time will tell if they are really bad, because their platform and everything is fine.

Oct 29th, 2009 @ 6:02 pm
28. Latest Penny Stock Tips

They were pretty bad before and I don’t think I’d chance it with the new outfit since we already moved everything to TD.

Oct 31st, 2009 @ 1:57 am
29. Trader

I am a Trade Freedom customer using the trading platform the Edge, from the time on when Scotia bought Trade Freedom, the service has significantly deteriorated while in the same time Scotia has increased the fees across the board; the latest new fee they implemented is a $30.00 charge for the platform which used to be free with Trade freedom. At this time I am looking for another broker. Any suggestions?

Nov 15th, 2009 @ 5:15 pm