In addition to Questrade, the other online brokerage account that I have is with BMO Investorline. I have both an RRSP account and a non-registered account. BMO Investorline has rave reviews (top ranked bank-owned online broker by Globe and Mail, #1 in customer email responsiveness, and an Ipsos Reid poll stating that they are the best in customer service). Here’s what I think of BMO Investorline:
PROS:
- Really, really easy to use. Easy to access and easy to read format.
- I love the charts and graphs. They also provide S&P top picks, Globeinvestor rankings, detailed quotes, company profiles etc. etc.
- BMO Investorline’s customer service is fantastic. They’re always very polite on the phone, and they get back to you really quickly if you have a message for them by email. They seem very personable.
- You can collect Air Miles when you first sign up for an account.
- Easy peasy to transfer money between BMO investorline and your regular BMO account.
- Easy to transfer USD currency too (which is much harder for Questrade)
- If you transfer your account, they’ll pay up to $200 in transfer out fees
CONS:
- The $9.95 trade is only good if you have over $100,000 in assets (ugh…I don’t even HAVE $100,000 to my name).
- Their GIC and mutual funds need at least $10,000- $15,000 to purchase
- It’s $29 a trade. That’s a big drawback for me.
- They charge you (like most RRSP accounts) $105 for maintaining your RRSP account per year
My take?
I guess BMO Investorline is targeted towards people who have HUGE portfolios. I still like BMO Investorline. Too bad the commission is so high. I would classify myself as more of a swing trader, so I think that the commissions I would incur would eat my portfolio alive. I found that with the RRSP account (it holds ETF’s), I was hesitant to “diversify” my portfolio too much, and use dollar cost averaging because of the high commissions. I think that mutual fund (or TD E-funds) would be better suited for that (dollar cost averaging). Though for that, you just have to make sure the MER’s don’t outweigh the cost of the commissions. Cause then that would be defeating the point.
When I initially signed for the BMO Investorline account, it was when I was escaping Investor’s Group. BMO told me that I should amalgamate my bank accounts with a family member so that the total assets could be $100,000 and then we’d be able to trade for $9.95 a share.
Although that would be nice, the tax implications of amalgamating the assets would be kind of sketchy. So I declined. Maybe one day I’ll be in the “big leagues” (>$100,000 portfolio) and be able to use their $9.95 commissions.
In the meantime, Questrade for me it is.
Do you use BMO Investorline? What do you think of it? What about the other (Big) Bank Online Brokerages?
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BMO investorline is a subpar service at best. I am a active trader and regularly trade MSFT 10,000 share blocks at a time. Sometimes it takes 2 minutes to fill the trade. Not a good service for an active trader.
You’re right Craig, BMO investorline is more for “buy and hold” type investing. With few trades. If you do more frequent trading, I would recommend Questrade. It’s faster that way, and you get real-time quotes. What brokerage do you use, Craig?
You didn’t mention, but there’s a quaterly fee of what I beleive is 20$ to keep the account open and also there’s fees for each transaction you do in the account where the cash is being hold. BMO InvestorLine is not easy to trade on.
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@Sunny Did you mean trading commissions? Yes, there is a $29 commission each time you make a trade… though I haven’t personally had a $20 charge every quarter… I have both a non-registered and a registered BMO Investorline account. I do get charged $105 for the RRSP account though. I find BMO Investorline quite easy to use actually, though they recently changed their appearance and I find it a bit different feeling.
Yes, it was commission. I guess we all have our preferences when it come to platform trading. I use to have RSP broker account with BMO InvestorLine. Doesn’t it bother you to have 2 different access for both account – like you cannot have an eye on the RSP and non registered account at the same time because the 2 accounts are complitely separeted from one of the other. Which I find extremely annoying, in my case.
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@Sunny That’s true Sunny. I think that it’s important to separate the RSP and the non-registered accounts. Questrade does that too. I have a non registered and a TFSA with them. I kind of like it like that- that way you can track your portfolio depending on whether it is a registered or non-registered account.
I’ve been an Investorline user for 12 years and an Active Trader for over a year, currently making over 100 trades a month. My frustration with Investorline is skyrocketing. If you trade penny stocks, run, don’t walk from Investorline. This platform can not accurately record half penny prices. Their third-party Streamer, is buggy and amateurish, and can not record half penny stock prices. I have written repeatedly over the past year and, not only have they done nothing about it, they always make it sound like it’s the first time they’ve heard about it.
@a kim- Sounds like you have had a very frustrating experience to say the least! I haven’t traded penny stocks with Investorline, so I wouldn’t know, but it sounds like a nightmare.
Re escaping Investors Group, I’m trying to do the same, hopefully without too much damage, via Investorline…and with my hard earned RRSP money, what options do I have…with Investorline transfers made in kind, I have to keep the IG Fund…and those made in cash, I lose a bundle in taxes…are there other options?
Gerry
@Gerry- I think it’s best you talk to BMO. I ended up losing the money I lost in Investors Group too. But you’d be losing it slowly if you kept on paying the high MER’s anyways!