[...] the best bet, if someone were to follow the strategies indicated in this book, is to open a Questrade RRSP account which allows the investor to hold US Dollars (which no other Canadian online stock broker [...]

So, applied for TFSA account this year. Not going as well. Transfered money to account more than 2 weeks ago. Still waiting, and waiting….

Usual story. Questrade is cheap, but very slow. I’ll be moving my accounts elsewhere – once I decide where.

I had completed my application online following their instructions and then patiently waited a few days for it to be processed. After I received no status update I sent an email to inquire on the status of my account, a couple days later I was informed that I needed to digitally sign the application form which I had already done and received confirmation that is was completed successfully. I wrote the service rep back and informed him/her that this was already done and also provided the confirmation number. This repeated many, many times, each time I got a generic response back telling me to fill out a form that was already completed, trying to fill it out again was not possible with this system. After it became very obvious that email was not working, I called the service rep, he logged into the account and confirmed that I had indeed signed the form properly and it was likely a ‘glitch’ in their system but everything was ok and my account was to be opened in the next day or two. This came and went when I decided to try the live chat support on the website, this person refused to help telling me my only option at this point was to mail the paper copy in and wait until that was processed. The unfortunate part of this was that I already funded my account as I had thought everything was resolved. I will update everyone on whether I end up getting my money back or getting an account set up. At least I’m still optimistic that it’s one of those two actions.

They are not honouring the promise, this is false advertisement.

Has anybody else who opened an account with Questrade last month got $50 discount on their trade fees?

Please reply.

[...] member will receive $100 in trading credit. If you need someone to refer you, check out my Questrade referral [...]

[...] Questrade is now the ONLY brokerage in Canada to accept USD within an RRSP.  This is a huge advantage because now you can hold USD in your RRSP and reduce those dreaded [...]

Thanks everyone.

My disclaimer is that i’ve never done this, but it should work

I’m scared that the commissions and fees that Questrade charges might be too low to assure good business continuity. It might not be feasible in Canada to charge so low on registered accounts. I’d love to read their business plan and find out how many accounts they have to win just to break even.

There is a reason why big banks charge 75$ annual fees for registered account. It’s because there is a lot of paper work, compliance issues and interaction with government agencies. A lot of this stuff you can’t automate with computers. You need to hire and that’s expensive.

It will be interesting to see if Questrade (and other low cost brokers) can win enough accounts to make banks rethink the annual fees. In the mean time, you get what you pay for.

If it happens, Questrade will have so many clients it will be able to hire more people and service will be smooth. There is huge demand for low cost registered brokerage in Canada. It seems like Questrade is having trouble meeting this demand. But of all the business challenges that exist, “high demand” is a pretty good problem to have.

By the way my account was activated last night. I can finally trade. Total time for account opening: 30 days (19 business days) starting on the date of the 5$ deposit.

Not bad, but not perfect.

Seeing as how they seem to have the best pricing, it would be nice if they could see that they are losing out through sporadic customer service experiences. While it might not fix anything, it certainly wouldn’t hurt, don’t you think?

Legally withdrawal requests are supposed to be processed in 5 business day. After 3 weeks I had the bank manager where I was transferring to call them and send the stuff in again. They told her they I had to contact them. When I contacted them they had no record, yet by that time the bank manager when I was moving it to said she’d sent the request in 3 times. I let Questrade I expected the transfer to be done immediately and I stated that if it wasn’t done I would file a complaint with the securities commission.

It was done and I did file a complaint. I had put in two different transfers and two weeks later one showed up and it was another week before the last one showed. They made me so nervous about having my money there I decided to completely close one account and it has been 5 weeks on that one. They actually did close the account, I have no online access to it anymore, however, they never forwarded the funds to me. I emailed them about 3-4 weeks later and they say my money is sitting in the account. I can no longer get onto the broker, but I filed an electronic transfer as a second attempt to get my money out of there.

It still hasn’t shown up…

I find that part of the problem at Questrade is the fact that the support employees are not given enough information about issues. Their line is always “I will contact Finance and explain the situation” or “I will email Funding and ask”. If they had the power to escalate issues where clients could actually speak to finance, compliance or funding, it would make the problematic situation a lot less frustrating.

edited – please no accusations or insults without justification

Mike

Emil Vojkollari
Client Acquisitions Supervisor

Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380

I completed the application process for a new account with Questrade before Christmas and my account is still not active to this day.

Customer service assured me that opening an account takes on average 2-3 business days but my experience is closer to 20-30 days.

I have my main accounts with a major bank and Interactive Brokers. I was basically opening this new account as a test. I’m glad I didn’t move my main account there. Can anyone afford to have their money lost in space for 30 days?

Mike

Thanks for the mention.