I am not sure where your $250 is coming from…Their site clearly says “No minimum activity levels.”. I did not understand why I had problem withdrawing my cash either :) However, now this problem does not concern me anymore since I no longer have an account with this company :)

”
Please be advised that you will not have sufficient margin after the amount requested to be withdrawn. Kindly adjust the amount to be withdrawn. Your request will be held for 2 business days after which time, if we have not received a response from you, it will be automatically cancelled. An email will be sent to you to confirm that the task has been completed once the cancellation has been executed.
”

I have responded to them with the confirmation that I do not need any margin and I would like to get my money. In response I was told the following:

”
There was no restriction placed on your withdrawal. All withdrawals are processed manually by our back office and you will get a confirmation email once complete.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions.
”

First I was happy to see this kind of answer. However, today I have decided to contact their customer support to confirm that everything is going to be fine with the transfer. After usual 15 minutes of waiting for the answer I was finally able to talk to someone. Here is a brief version of the discussion:

…

me: so, to make it simple – I have requested the withdraw of $1122.99 CAD (which is the CAD balance on my account)

me: if for whatever reason I cannot withdraw this amount, please let me know what amount I can withdraw

[guy]: Please try making a withdrawal of $1,000

me: why? I won’t change the amount unless I hear the valid explanation. And I am not willing to “try” anything

…

[guy]: No I do see that you have sufficient funds available in your account, however one moment while I check with our back office to confirm the reason

…

[guy]: The reason why your request was rejected is because you need to have a positive balance in your account in order to maintain your positions. Your withdrawal will leave your maintenance excess at $0 which is not allowed.

me: ok, then would it be ok to withdraw 1122.98? That will leave the balance of $0.01 :)

[guy]: One moment while I confirm with our back office :)

…

[guy]: You have total margin of about’ the same amount, our back office has indicated that you will be able to withdraw $1,000 without affecting your positions

me: ???????????

[guy]: This is what our back office has indicated as the maximum amount of withdrawal. Although you are correct I see that this is strictly your cash and your positions are all in cash, our back office has indicated that a certain margin must be left in the account for safety reasons. This is just a back office rule. But I completely understand your rationale behind this.

Needless to say, I had about $40 CAD in my E account before selling the 2nd position and everything was just fine. Bottom line: I cannot withdraw my money from questrade and they are telling me that I can “try” to withdraw another amount :) No justification whatsoever – just the “back office” telling me that I can do.

I never borrowed a penny from Questrade and always paid cash for my purchases. The only position I have left with them is a long one, fully paid and having a small profit, actually.

Cannot say I am surprised….but I am still surprised a little bit! :)

[guy]: You have total margin of about’ the same amount, our back office has indicated that you will be able to withdraw $1,000 without affecting your positions

It has, in that it is the same line they have fed me every time I complained about not being able to join them on the phone.

Myself to get around this, I just use their online chat with a csr. That works ok.

They are *always* upgrading their phone system. And when their servers are down, it is *always* due to a high volume of trading on the TSX.

[...] Questrade Review [...]

On the other hand, you will rarely see people post a positive experience or comment. If they did, it sometimes doesn’t seem credible and you wonder if market dollars are not at work.”

In regards to: “I was simply so shocked by the amount of bad reviews that Questrade had been getting over the last few months (years really) on the MDJ site that I simply started looking for an alternative that would not be too expensive. And then went for QTrade simply because it was a bit more expensive but with no complains whatsoever that I could find.”

Just remember that most people have a tendency to post when they are angered, feel cheated and want “the world to know”. As I did myself a few months ago.

On the other hand, you will rarely see people post a positive experience or comment. If they did, it sometimes doesn’t seem credible and you wonder if market dollars are not at work.

I believe the ratio of “negative posts” vs. “positive posts” are severely in the negative favor. So you may want to keep that in mind.

If you trade once in a while, you can probably justify staying with another broker. But if you trade often, this is the cheapest broker in Canada. And for that reason only, I’m willing to tolerate a lot.

Side Note:

I’m a software developer by profession and a trader by passion since I was 12 years old. I’m seriously evaluating starting my own brokerage services. I’ve been talking to lawyers and have been evaluating the start-up costs. So far, costs are relatively reasonable for most U.S. exchanges (ei: Nasdaq, NYSE, etc). If I decide to go for it and I gather enough VC money, maybe some day I’ll be reading complaints about my services :)

But seriously, its still a wet dream right now, but I’ve actively talking to potential investors. Canada needs a lot more competition!!!

Thank you for your reply and input, it is much appreciated.

FrugalTrader, I understand what you mean when you say that each opinion should be taken with “a grain of salt”; I like your site and your style, and over time, even if I never left any comments up to today, I came to trust your opinion and advice. This is why I decided to quote you in my blog, which is something I very seldom do. The fact that you never stood up to defend your opinion of Questrade until today when asked by Gary, is counterbalanced by the fact that you allowed all these awful comments to be published on your site without censuring them. This to me show a willingness to remain honest and to allow people to exercice their free will and own judgement. I guess the only way to work it out really is to try it for myself… but I will give myself some time before I proceed.

To answer you Gary, my opinion on Credential Direct is only based on what I was able to gather on the net, it can be summarized to rather reading people’s opinion on the service they provide, and also by looking at the CD site itself.

It seems that the overall opinion is good, beside the fact that they might have an issue refreshing their online data. Then again it was an isolated case, not a generality so I cannot really make up an opinion on the matter.
I was simply so shocked by the amount of bad reviews that Questrade had been getting over the last few months (years really) on the MDJ site that I simply started looking for an alternative that would not be too expensive. And then went for QTrade simply because it was a bit more expensive but with no complains whatsoever that I could find.

As you can probably realize, I am at a loss right now to see what to do. I will leave the matter to rest until I can see the forest for the tree.

Thank you again.

I had multiple accounts with Questrade for over 2 years. The failure to open the TFSA’s in an efficient manner was the straw that broke the camels back.

At every turn they fu(ked up. I gave them a fair try so don’t try and tell me I am the problem. So far ScotiaMcCleod have been excellent and have exceeded the service I received from Questrade in every department……tell me how they don’t provide better service?

When the supposed competition is so bad that they force existing clients to go back to using a service that cost 6x as much that should tell you that the so called competition is doing the whole industry (discount brokerages) a disservice. It’s why I went back to the big banks and I cannot be the only one.

While Frugal Trader said in a previous post ‘All opinions on the internet should be taken with a grain of salt’ you need to measure the weight of the negative comment vs the positive. On site after site after site you will find the negative massively outweighs any positive comment for Questrade.

The only reason Questrade is still in business is the constant supply of mugs that don’t do their research (myself included) willing to sign up with them. I bet they have the highest client turnover rate in the business.

I also have one thing to say…. GO AWAY QUESTRADE!

And I agree with Frugal Trader’s comment. I myself HAVE had problems with them…but nothing major. So I stay with them. I’ve looked at all the brokers in Canada, and it’ss the best place for me to have my TFSA

I’m not sure if Questrade charges ECN fees when you remove liquidity or not… I’d have to check.

But I only add liquidity so I guess that is why they don’t charge me any extras.

I wish they would do like Interactive Brokers and credit the ECN fees… that would drop my transaction costs significantly.

The only reason I don’t trade with Interactive Brokers (IB) is because I like to do as much day-trading from my RSP, TFSA accounts as to avoid paying the taxman at the end of the year (compounding is the secret to success). Since IB won’t support RSP’s and you must register with a minimum of $10K, they will probably support TFSA accounts next year since the limit will be at $15K for each person.

The IB fees are really competitive, plus you have access to European and Asian markets… really can’t wait.

When I open my account with IB, my business will be spread across 4 (or 5) brokers with Questrade and IB taking the majority of my day-trading business. At least that is what I plan!

Christian Jean: You say you have never been charged more than $9.98. Does that man that Questrade does not charge ECN fees?