I have been a Questrade client for a few years now, so I thought I would write up a Questrade review of my own. Here’s a Questrade promo code to give you $50 in free trades: a1b9d1d9 If you make 10 trades, they’ll refund your $50 in free trades (from what I recall a few years back). I was very very attracted to their $4.95 low commissions. They are a good basic online brokerage. They are ranked #1 in online discount brokerages by Globe and Mail. I just signed up for another account with Questrade- a TFSA account (or tax free trading account). So what do I really think of Questrade? Well, let’s break it down:
Pros
- It won’t cost you an arm and a leg to trade. They don’t charge the typical $29 commission that other online brokerages charge (or GASP: $100 commission fees for full service brokerages).
- It only costs $4.95 up to a max of $9.95 per trade.
- Funding your account is straight forward (if you put in Canadian currency). You just need to set up a “bill payment” from your online banking account- it’ll take 1-3 days.
- They have extended help hours (until 10pm eastern time!) via their Live Chat medium (I personally found live chat faster than waiting to speak to someone on the phone); it’s like “MSN messenger style”
- No annual fees of any sort for RRSP’s… I get charged $105 for “maintaining” my BMO investorline RRSP self-directed trading account. Not really sure what they need to maintain, but that’s another story.
- You just need a minimum of $250 in equity to keep your account in good standing.
- They are the ONLY brokerage in Canada to accept USD in registered accounts. They only charge you $5 per transaction of USD stocks.
- I like how they have “$50 in free trades” offers! (trading for free? that’s even better than $5!) If you enter: youngandthrifty as the promo code, you’ll get $50 in free trades too.
Cons:
- Questrade’s free webtrading platform is a little hard to navigate. I think this is because Questrade is targeted towards real day traders (not just wannabes)
- The layout is really basic and.. frankly, hard on the eyes…. I find the BMO investorline one much more clear, concise, and easy to look at.
- The webtrading platform is a bit wonky sometimes, for example it showed that I had a $23,431 profit when it was actually only $249. I find that it’s wonkier after hours.
- They charge you $3 for paper statements (I know, you save the environment, but I think you have to print it out at home for tax purposes anyways, no?)
- Difficult to fund with US dollars. I just sent my request for a pre-authorized deposit the other day. I heard it takes up to 20 days (?!) They made it sound easy, I just needed to send my signature. I’ll keep you posted on how long it takes.
- Questrade’s quotes and charts are pretty basic. Budget-basic.
- There’s different websites for your trading platform and your account (e.g. fund your account) which can get kind of confusing.
My suggestion?
Questrade is so great in that it only costs $5 a trade. Really, you can’t beat that! It’ll help you to make smaller more frequent trades and not “waiting to cover the cost” of your commission, waiting so long that the stock ends up dropping back down and you end up losing money. Sound familiar?
However, what I don’t like about them is the inconsistency…their customer service in inconsistent (I waited 20 minute by phone and 20 minutes online to speak to someone), their webtrader platform is sometimes “off” on off-trading hours etc. I’ll post about my experience next time. That said, I just signed onto a TFSA account. Lol, what can I say? I’m cheap and thrifty- I like the idea of $4.95 trades.
So, what I do personally is keep two accounts. Questrade and BMO investorline. I like BMO investorline because it’s the easiest to use and their chart analysis is great. I like Questrade because it’s just so cheap. I get the best of both worlds. I hope you enjoyed my Questrade review!
Do you use Questrade? What has been your experience so far?
Great list of pros and cons.
I agree with the harder to use platform
The fees are among the lowest I have seen but the platform is one of the worst. This depends on how many trades you make per year.
Thanks Steve. You’re a Questrader too? =)
That’s true, if you don’t plan to make that many trades, then there isn’t really a point to go with Questrade- might as well go with something that is easy on the eyes.
If you DO make many trades, then I think Questrade is worth it, despite the budget-looking platform. To avoid the confusion, I used the Bloomberg app for my itouch and it tracks how much I’m up or down, thereby avoiding the need to rely on the unreliable platform.
That said, Questrade DOES have a few platforms where you can pay money for. I guess you get what you pay for. =)
Hey Steve,
you know, the QuestraderWEB platform is free/ included, and it’s better than the webtrader platform. At least the + and – are in COLOUR! Not sure if you have checked it out yet. I guess I always just default to “webtrader” because it’s the top tab.
Have you tried moving any money out of questrade since they “upgraded” their websites? It’s been a horrible experience for me. Try contacting customer support and you’ll be on hold for a lot longer than before. Perhaps you should update your review on them and warn people to stay away until all their bugs clear up.
@mike- I have checked out their new website and have tried contacting customer support (I was on hold for a ridiculous amount of time- used the online chat thing and then was on hold for 50 minutes, then called in and got through much quicker). I anticipate these are temporary issues because everyone is probably calling in and asking what their new account number is… I have a post coming up on Friday detailing the new changes. Thanks mike for sharing your opinion
I have not found one person to say that they are satisfied with Questrade & their customer service. This company is THE WORST NIGHTMARE you could imagine – to deal with.
Try calling them – they do not answer for hours
- If you email -they do not answer for days or do not answer at all
- try live chat – most of the time does not work
- eventually if you get someone on the phone – person is plain lying to you or can not help or do not know anything
- THE ARE RUDE AND OBNOXIOUS
BEWARE – STAY AWAY !!!!
@chris- Sounds like you have had a bad experience. I would not recommend emailing them, but I do find that livechat and calling them quite effective. I think with the recent changes to the interface, there have been MANY calls, and higher call volume. Before, I didn’t have to wait too long (maybe 10 minutes max) to speak to someone, but I’m sure it’ll resolve once everyone settles with the new changes. Again, I am okay paying $5 per trade and dealing with a smaller company than paying $29 per trade and dealing with a big bank.
Questrade has mishandled their change over. They refuse to admit that and they say that 2 weeks to wait for a request is acceptable considering the changes being in place. I have reached the threashold for 10$ trades at big banks, I think it is time to move there. Do not go for Questrade if customer service is a priority to you.
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DO NOT SIGN UP WITH QUESTRADE. Here’s why: I currently have a tax free savings account with Questrade and am trying to create an RRSP account by transferring my balance from another broker to Questrade. Well, that was a few months ago and they still haven’t been able to make the switch. I contacted the other broker (TD) and they haven’t even received the required forms yet, after SEVERAL MONTHS. Not only that, they LOST MY ACCOUNT INFORMATION several times in the past 8 weeks. Do yourself a favor, AVOID QUESTRADE
@Dan- Transferring from another brokerage can be a big hassle- I remember it was when I was transferring over myBMOinvestorline stuff. Once it’s done though and things are within Questrade, it’s much easier to transfer between Questrade accounts.
Avoid them for this and a ton of other reasons – they are unreliable, their platforms are full of bugs, which they expect their clients to vet via poor customer service and long waits for online or phone help. Bugs that are reported are not fixed for months, losing trades and cash for clients. Cheap? Hardly. Since when is bad service and losing money cheap? Avoid like the plague, or sign up at your peril
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hey young have you noticed the recent changes to questrade??? they changed thier hours and they now have an inactivity fee!!! but at least that’s for under $5000 account balance
do you think thier going out of bussiness?
Definitely not going out of business. I recommend using their online help function, always had much better luck with that. The inactivity fee is very minor as far as I am concerned (especially relative to fees you could pay elsewhere).