Questrade discount brokerage in Canada has a new referral program where you get $50 worth of trades if you are referred by another customer. The basic program has been around for a while but they have improved the referral process.
Lowest Stock Trading Commissions!
Feel free to use this link or just use “FourPillars” as the referrer when you fill out the application. For other bloggers feel free to sign up for the referral program and of course use “FourPillars” as the referrer ID.
You can see what I wrote a while ago about Questrade here.
Why I like using Questrade for trading stocks and exchange traded funds
I use Questrade for my non-registered leveraged account as well my rrsp and I’m quite happy with them. My attitude about brokers is that their service is a commodity in that they all do the same thing – they convert your money into shares and vice-versa so the only variable as far as I’m concerned is the cost. As a low cost investor I want the lowest fees and for my situation, Questrade has the lowest fees.
Questrade also deals with mutual funds -they will rebate up to 1% of the management fee back to the investor. Read more about the Questrade mutual fund rebate.
The minimum to open an account is $1000. The minimum to keep an account active is only $250.
My suggestions on which discount broker to use:
If you are looking to do a lot of rrsp “wash trades” then Questrade and TDW are your best bet. A wash trade is when you sell a US$ security in your rrsp, it gets converted to CDN$ (and you pay a currency conversion on it), and then you buy a US$ security and you pay the currency conversion again. They do not charge for the conversions in this case.
If you are looking for a discount broker that offers a lot of extras like fancy graphs and research then you should stick with the big banks. But consider that for $29/trade (if you don’t have $100k) you are paying a $24 premium per trade for that extra research, bells, whistles etc. Even if you only do 10 trades per year that’s $240 per year. There is a lot of research available for free on the internet and $240 will buy quite a bit of the paid research (or a lot of beer).
If you are looking for more information on mutual funds, index funds and ETFs then sign up for a Morningstar free account. Morningstar is the industry leader in investment information.
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Also have you looked into ShareOwner? I’m thinking of opening and RRSP account with them, any thoughts?
Hi KK – I think ShareOwner is a pretty good place to buy stocks. They have low fees which is good.
Some of the drawbacks are that they do pooled purchases so you don’t buy in real time and they have a limited number of stocks available. I don’t think you could buy ETFs for example.
The good things are low fees and they do drips on fractional shares.
Dividend Guy did a pretty good post on why he likes them – http://www.thedividendguyblog.com/pre-screened-securities-through-your-broker/
Thanks for the linkback Mike!
Bad recommendation. I signed up and tried ‘Questrade’.
1) Customer service is non-existant. Phone number constantly gives busy signals and when it doesn’t, NO ONE PICKS UP.
2) Server is always down. In fact, it’s down again today (their trading server).
I think this is a fly by night company, I’ll be pulling my services ASAP! Caveat emptor, you truely get what you pay for!
It’s not a “bad recommendation” if I’m happy with their brokerage service.
I’ve never experienced any issues with the call centre or their server.
Mike
Mike,
I have no complaints with Questrade either. It’s too bad I jumped the gun on signing up though. There were plenty of referrers (such as yourself) that I could have used but unfortunately I signed up about a month before this post (and a similar one from MDJ).
That’s ok Telly – I didn’t really expect to get any referrals but you never know!
I do have one complaint about their record keeping system in that it’s mostly in US$ and a couple of my securities don’t have prices. However I’m hopeful they will fix that.
Mike
Dear Kim,
I read your comments on Four Pillars’ blog regarding Questrade’s client service and the trading platform, and would like to address your concerns.
First, client service: we are constantly improving our client service to meet anticipated needs, however there are times when a market event can trigger a significant increase in calls. If you get a busy signal, I would recommend you try our convenient online live help service. You will be able to track your place in the queue and projected wait time.
Second, the platform: I understand your frustration about the platform being down. This is a situation that occurs with every single broker. We are working on this issue and hope to have a solution in 2008.
Finally, I’d like to allay your concerns about the reliability of Questrade. In the eight years since we were founded, we have become the brokerage of choice for thousands of Canadians. Clients come for the low fees, but stay for the service. Kim, please contact me directly, and I will do my best to fix any outstanding issues you may have.
Best regards,
Emil Vojkollari
Client Acquisitions Supervisor
Web: http://www.questrade.com
Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
Fax: (416) 227-0078
I have been with Questrade since October 2007 and I would consider this brokerage choice one of my worst. The reasons being
1/ zero customer service- forget the phone number unless you want to wait in line for 3 hours or so.
2/ The internet support is pretty much useless. They can’t help you on anything major.
3/ They have a cheap system called penson online that gives the history of your account. Less I talk about this the better. I can’t even figure out why I am paying interest or how much I owe as money borrowed on margins so that I can pay it off.
4/ I was told that there is no annual fee promptly on the phone but there was no information that if I chose web streaming account or something like that I would be charged $20 every month. I knew it after three moths after they took $60 out. My whole complaint is that there is no info or training to use their complex system and it works to their advantage because you are the looser. I guess customer service being non existent is for the same reason.
All in all if you want mysterious charges coming on your account and not having anybody to talk to then choose questrade.
Hi Questrade – thanks for the comment.
I’m sorry to hear your experience was not very good. I agree the Penson record keeping system is not that great but from what I understand, most if not all of the independent discount brokerages use it. In my opinion that’s part of what you get for the low commissions.
I’ve never had a problem with the phone – maybe a two minute wait at the very most?
As far as the platform goes – the “web trader” platform is the free one and I’ll guess it’s probably the simplest. Usually the more expensive platforms are for traders who need more functionality and hence are more complicated. I would keep on them to get that money refunded if you thought you were using the free one. Talk to Emil – he is a bit higher up there.
Mike
I completed an application and opened a Questrade account in September ‘07. After waiting more than 2 weeks, I finally called their office to check on the status of my account. I was told, “Just wait- we will contact you when everything is complete. The people in the back office are working your account”. I waited several more days and, again, called their office and was told the same thing. After about a month, I called and was told that my account had been approved and I just needed to FUND the account. So, I wired in $50,000 to my account. Over the next 3-4 weeks, I went through more aggravation with no final opening of my account, even though they had $50,000 of my money. I can still remember that horrible account number that I will take to my grave. The ones answering the phones all sounded like they were 20-year olds and I they would NEVER forward my call to the “back office” so I could speak to an adult about my account. I started trying to use their chat service and it was the same thing- “just wait”. After making at least 20 phone calls and chatting more than a dozen times, I went nuts on the phone and told them that I wanted to speak to one of the adults in the “back office” immediately. My call was FINALLY forwarded to the office of compliance. The person in compliance told me that my account had long been denied because I didn’t have a Canadian address, and that no one should have told me to fund my account. Of course, at that point, I only wanted my money sent back to my back account. I gave him my banking details and waited several days, but no money ever went into my bank account. Again, I started calling and chatting. After about 2 more weeks, one of the 20-year olds passed my call back to the person in compliance. I told him that if he didn’t have my money wired out within 24 hours back to my account, I was going to contact the Canadian authorities with all the details of this whole 2 1/2 month debacle. I don’t ever want to hear the name “Questrade” again. The worst customer service you will ever encounter.
Jeff – As you are fully aware, your situation was extremely unique. We regret that we were unable to service you. However, we respect your privacy and will not discuss any further details in this blog.
- Lynn Suderman
Communications Manager
Questrade
I used to work there. Horrible experience…
Definitely no response from Human Resource, as they never had a moment to listen to employees concern. No wonder the turnover rate is so high. I think HR department should really ask themselves why the turnover rate is so high? is there anything they can improve to make employee happy?
I just wish I get my tax slips 2007 that never arrived.
hello.
Andre W can you tell us if the customer service is that bad from what you see??
Hey jeff and Lynn,
It appears jeff situation is very unique, but i am going through something similar. I have been waiting to get money back from questrade since the end of january. I have contacted my bank and they have sent several requests for questrade to send the money back. They won’t answer my banks phone calls. My bank has escalated the matter but questrade has still not returned any calls. I believe legal action is going to take place soon.
Hi Brent,
We received two requests from your bank. We replied to the first on February 20th, authorizing your request. We have a fax receipt referencing the successful transmission of the authorization. We received a 2nd request from your bank yesterday. We faxed them again.
While the error was not specifically Questrade’s in this instance, your frustration at the situation in general is understandable. I hope the transfer is now resolved to your satisfaction. If you have further queries, I recommend you use live help available on our website. Our client services specialists are trained to solve this kind of issue.
Lynn Suderman
Communications Manager
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for the quick response. Just for your knowledge, several calls were placed to questrade, from myself and my bank. This situation should have been resolved in a more timely fashion.
I opened an account about 3 months ago and had my work courier a cheque into my RRSP account. After waiting for a couple of weeks I called support and was told that nothing had arrived. I waited 3 more days and called again and was told the same thing, so I called my works payroll and was told that the payment had been couriered approximately 14 days previously and had been signed for by Questrade. I called Questrade back immediately and provided them the tracking number and was told that they were going to look into it. Received a call back the following day to find out that the check had been “misplaced”, at which point I became furious and told them they had 24 hours to find it or I was going to the reported at the Globe and Mail who wrote the positive article about them. Fotunately they were able to locate the cheque but it took them another 3 days to fund my account. My initial impression of their processes is not favourable. The other thing that lacks is customer service. There have been at least two occasions where I have been on hold for over 20 minutes, that to me is really poor. At these levels of service I am shocked that they are voted #1.
i openend my account 2 months ago. So far, i do not have any problem. Customer service is great. The response was fast and very knowledgable. The platform is excellent.
Thanks.
Questrade’s Incompetence
causes
financial loss for investor
Late June 26 2008 I funded a Questrade account after extensively familiarizing myself with the Questrader Pro demo as well as consulting with ‘new customer service’ when questions arose.
Starting to trade on July 1.08, using the Life Questrade Pro Platform, I executed more than 100 trades as a day trader / swing trader to date.
In absence of a comprehensive Questrade manual showing rules and regulations pertaining to its policies and trading platform, calls to customer service were needed to clarify discrepancies inherent in the life versus the demo platform.
Unfortunately, I received as many contradicting information as there were agents I spoke with; requiring additional calls asking for verification from a supervisor. Andrew has to be mentioned as most professional, helpful, willing, competent and customer service oriented .
Nonetheless, reaching the “life” customer service department involved extensive waiting periods and when finally connected the respective, presumably knowledgeable ‘life account holder agent’ often needed to consult someone else to get an answer to the question; i.e. clarifying after hours trading to execute an order set off many contradicting instructions by XXX,, XXX, XXX, XXX and XXX whereby the latter fortunately does chose to get help instead of spouting unqualified misinformation which fails when followed.
Some of the issues are the number of decimals allowed to enter, excessively long time lapses to fill market orders despite direct access, limit orders do rarely appear on level 2 queue view, commission amounts charged are shown at 2x the amount incurred, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. and on and on.
Aside from these shortcomings, one is hopeful will iron itself out after learning Questrade’s intricacies in the most inefficient manner, Questrade’s ineptitude and lack of concern for the client does also prompt a heavy monetary loss to the user of Questrade as shown below:
On July 22.08 I closed one of several same symbol long positions which were accumulated over several days. The trading platform however, closed a position other than the one selected by me which had shown a gain when closed out at that time. Instead a significant loss occurred when the system chose a different position of the same symbol acquired at a different price than the one I had selected.
I called Questrade immediately following the incident. After 15 minutes on hold, I was informed by XXX?, / XXXa? that Questrade’s policy does not allow for account holder selection of positions to be closed out of multiple same symbol positions, but the system selects automatically the first in first out position if several positions have been accumulated over several days.
Conversely, if all of several same symbol positions are accumulated during the same day , the last position acquired is the first one out upon closing/covering one of the positions held.
I accepted that information as a lesson learned, after confirming that I had not overlooked that crucial information in Questrade’s 70 page info/disclaimer material. Instead I was advised by XXX/XXX? that it was my responsibility to call in for obtaining such information prior to doing the trade because Questrade is a discount broker.
With this information in mind, on July 29, 2008 at 14.08 hours, I covered that day’s last acquired position held as one of several same symbol positions acquired during the morning of July 29.08. That particular position showed a gain of $148.73 .
This gain, added to a $557.23 gain closed earlier that morning in other symbols’ positions, would result in a total gain of $705.96 before commissions.
Instead, the arbitrary Questrade system selection presented me with a loss of $254.11 because the trading platform system covered a different position which was not the last position opened and thus had a different price and therefore was creating a loss. Consequently, my gain for the day to 14:09:36 hours was reduced from the earlier gained $557.23 to $303.12.
In addition, my unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue in several phone calls to customer service resulted in repeated disconnections, more than 13 minutes waiting periods on hold and refusal by agent XXX to connect me to a supervisor.
Instead, rude, rushed and unfriendly, he tried to convince me that only a paper, but no real loss had occurred.
He assured me he had now adjusted the account to eliminate the loss occurred. When I asked him how the result is shown so that I can see it in my trading account, he answered that he is not an IT programmer and thus, does not know how the computer did it.
I was/am unable to detect any changes made, my losses remain the same as prior to my call to Questrade and are reflected at closing of the markets.
XXX, agent at the trade desk, and later agent XXX, assured me the account would be adjusted at end of the trading day because current attempts made by them failed for technical reasons unbeknownst to them.
During my 1 and ¾ hours occupied with the phone ordeal and frustration, my other positions could not be closed out at 14:15 hours which would have resulted in a small gain; instead, an additional loss of $ 1120.57 occurred for a total loss of a minimum of $1374.68 at the end of the trading day.
Furthermore, the unresolved issue prevented me from re-acting to market performance during the remaining 1 ½ hours of trading, disabling the opportunity to re-gain some of the previous weeks’ losses.
Questade’s agents remarked they are very sorry about what happened. I requested several times to be connected to a manager or supervisor and asked for a call back, I AM STILL WAITING TO BE CONTACTED.
Related documentation is available.
HP – I edited out the employee names from your comment except for Andrew (who I agree is quite excellent).
Mike
I have bad experience with questrade,do not use this company.I use FourPillars as refer and opened my account at April,2008.I have contacted this company many times,until now, I still did not get my $50 rebate. I use estatement, they still charge your some email confirmation fee. It is ridiculous.
I strongly recommend you donot use this company,I will quit using this company soon.
you get what you pay for. As i’m writing this, questrade’s QuestraderPro is still down…it’s been down more than 3 hours just when the market nose dived…tried calling their #, but it’s always busy signals….tried talking on the web chat..but they can’t do anything..can’t help place any trades!…all they do is…oh we are sorry …we are sorry..I’m switching..considering the losses i’ve incurred for one trade…i’m lossing all the advantages of the cheap commission..you get what you pay for….i’m switching
I have had several issues with Quest Trade and also find it my WORST choice for a broker, my buddy who refered me has also came to the same conclusion and has now switched
1) When I was first refered my buddy made them sound great, I called and asked how to go about the referal process and was advised that I had to open an account FIRST then call them after I had opened it, I called them and they then told me that I had to advise them of the referal BEFORE I opened the account, I sent an email to the customer servie asking why I was told to open my account first when I was refered and got a rather nasty response “Our process is quite simple, you must advise us before you open your account” I still have this email on file.
2) I have had several issues with the Streamling Live and have called multiple times to advise them of the issue (my watch list was duplicating over top of other stocks on my list) this problem was NEVER resolved after my several follow up calls/emails, I then began to have more issues where it was telling me “You are not permitted to use this platform” or something like that even though I was PAYING for that service, I called the supervisor and a week later called him back when I STILL had the issue and then requested he call me back to let me know what was goign on….he told me he’d call me by the end of the day….I never got a phone call and the issue was never rectified…I cancelled my streamling live.
3)As some have stated their phone wait time is outrageous, and takes forever so I chose to communicate through email’s mainly but even then I was not getting responses
4) I had emailed thme after waiting for quite some time on the phone, I had an inquiry about something on my account that I was unclear of, after 3 months of sending emails I finally waited long enough to talk to a Supervisor, who told me that I had a Negative US Currency and they were charging me interest on it, 3 months I had been trying ti figure this out, I then asked him to transfer it all to Canadian which he said he’d do but I’d be short X amount of $. I deposited more then enough of what he said I’d be short and find out a couple weeks later I STILl have a negative US Currency, but no the full amount) he didn’t transfer it all into Canadian, I asked to speak with him and the customer service rep told me he was too busy and that he was told to tell me he’s take care of it. I was then charged interest on that amount and my account now has a negative Canadian Balance.
I asked the Suervisor who higher I could speak to about my issues as I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere, and was told that there was no one higher then Him that I could speak to….I have now opened an account with another Broker who for the time Being seems to care (thinkorswim)
If you check out Questrade on the BetterBusiness Bureau they have an “Unsatisfactory” rating I have attached the link so you can see complaints that have been filed @
http://mwco.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=160&bbb=0107&firm=1158199
Questrade is the WORST broker ever.
1) Process corporate action for me and did not consult me or notify me for the corporate action which led to losses
2) Different message from representatives all the time. One representative told me if i buy US stock, they will automatically buy US$ for me. Two months later, I was being charge interest because they did not buy the US$ for me and I am investing in the US stock with margin.
3) Stupid system. I want nothing to do with Questrade so I close my account. Guess what, they told me i have to fund a deficit of 20 cent US$. I already made a payment to cover all the US$ I owe due to inconsistent messages i get from representatives and now after i close my account they still want to bug me for a 20 cents charges because their system magically come up with 20 cents deficit?
So depress with this company. I’m switching to Interactive Broker now!
I would have to concur with those who say that you get what you pay for with this company. I was very excited to open their new TFSA, however the excitement quickly turned to disappointment and then frustration.
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.
I wish I had read this site before I tried to open a TFSA account. Sent everything in on Jan 7 and have followed up [sending id again because they supposedly "couldn't find" the first email].
They owe me another call right now. I’m not optimistic.
Will be going to higher authorities if this is not solved in the next 2 days.
I have nothing bad to say about this company, so far I have gotten what I paid for. I Started an application, and funded my account a few days later and in less than a week and a half I was trading. You get what you pay for, meaning research and read their faqs! READ READ READ!!! If you do not inform yourself you will have problems! As for the customer who said they were being charged interest for not converting there CAD funds to US funds, their faqs state very clearly how this works. Most of the problems here I find can be easily explained in their online faqs. I have also used there live help chat function about 8 times and have recieved decent help and answers to my question within 5 minutes. All in all…. if your needy, go to anothing broker and pay for it.
Finally got some attention from an alert fellow named Chris. Received my log in info and my TFSA [TFTA!] is now open. Have placed my first few orders and it seems straightforward.
Steve’s advice is good: Read, read, read!
Questrade is inundated with new accounts right now (TFTAs) and needs to strengthen its organization, but it looks like things are working out.
Anyone on this site defending this company has to be a company stooge. My attempt to open an account over the past several weeks has been one of the worst customer experiences of my life. Believe me it is not worth the money you will save.
I think it is pretty rude of you to disregard any positive comments. I hate to say this…. but… you are not the only person on the planet… your comments are not the only right ones….. etc….. If anybody has any questions about my experience with the company etc, please feel free to contact me.
A few comments about questrade. The set-up was easy. Especially with the online signing of documents. Funding was fast/easy. Finally got all set up ready to trade a few days ago. Tried to buy three stocks last week, all market orders on frequently traded stocks. NONE FILLED at all! Isn’t this supposed to be almost instant! Very disappointed so far. Any more issues like this and I am out. Also can some one give more info. on the whole buying US stocks with a CDN account. What exactly are the issues to watch for? BTW. the online help chat is always instant…unlike the phone. (they never even returned my call after leaving a mesage
A – I don’t understand how the orders weren’t filled. Was there a limit on them?
Wow, am I ever glad I read this blog. I was in the process of filling out application forms to open two accounts with Questrade today, but have decided against it now. I guess it will take time for them to build an infrastructure to support their volumes. Customer service is important to me, so I’ll swallow the higher trading fees for better service, support and reliability anyday.
I am glad to read this blog too before I sign up today for a TFSA stock account. I have to think logically here. With the supper low trade fee, this company is supposed to be a big winner compared to other brokers. However, for years, I have not heard of this company until now. It means it’s not popular among traders. The true negative feedbacks here are the reasons that hold it back. I better stay away from the company.
I wish I visited this blog before I decided to place my trades with Questrade. Like many others above, I had no idea that I was placing my trades on margin because the conversion from CDN to USD wasn’t done automatically. Traders beware! I find that this is extremely misleading, especially for beginners trying to get used to the system.
As a result, I received margin calls with extremely short notice (ie; less than a day). I tried my best in covering the call by sending my proof of payment by the stated deadline, but apparently when they received it they said it was too late because they operate in Eastern time (however, they did not specify EST specifically in their email!) The customer rep. had poor attitude went on to put the blame on me by saying that such things are implied. I am very mad about this, because why should it be the customer’s fault when their is a serious lack of clarity on Questrade’s part?
As a result of this, my shares were liquidated and I have lost thousands on my portfolio (the share price of my liquidated positions jumped back up 30-40% the next 2 days). On top of that, I was charged $30 commission each time they liquidated my position. I understand there’s the terms and conditions, but I feel that there are many traps that can be avoided if things were made clear from the first place.
There was another occasion when my account was suspended for no reason. I did not receive any notice or explanation, and as a result I was unable to sell my shares at a profit and was forced to sell later at a loss.
Situations like this happen way too often for me to consider it a coincidence. I am not confident that Questrade is protecting the interests of its clients. I will undoubtedly speak with my school’s finance club over Questrade’s pitfalls, because I do not want anymore of my fellow mates to pay such a high price for this lesson!
I’m suprised by all this feedback that Questrade hasn’t attempted to improve their service by any means…..I have been trying to obtain some information on my account and have been in Que for over 40mins…then it began ringing and ringing as it was putting me through then just went’ to a busy signal….now I’m on hold again….very fustrating!!
I posted other issues with them months ago, yet like I said nothing has been done to improve any of their service, or attitude.
I’m going to switch compains ASAP…..
>>does anyone have a recamondations for brokers when trading on the TSX?
I’m currently using Thinkorswim for the NYSE which they have **GREAT** customer service, But unfortunally they are not trading on the TSX yet. I get answers immediatly and have never been given the run around…I had one problem and it was resolved in a matter of hours with deepest appoligizes for the inconvience (have never received that from Quest, they seem to place blame on the ‘customer’)
I recently became a new Questrade customer. So far i personally like their service. It gives me what i want in a Discount Broker.
I am not a high-flying, bigtime dealing trader and so Questrade is good for me. I dont trade much and so having no hidden fees (like inactivity) was very important to me, alongside the cheap cost for trades ($4.95).
So far i like them alot!
~Rosana
I am useing Questrade and every day, I hate it more and more.
today Thursday I am getting the tick update but no ask and bid prices, so I cant trade
I find there is a real bad lag it the time the trade is made until the time the P/L shows, and if I try to trade before the P/L shows, even throught the bid/ask price has changed , it trades me out at by purchase price.
If I tarde 1000 share it buys and sells them twice
first 900 then 100
if I trade 500 it does the same
fisrt 400 then 100 is this so Quest trade can charge me twice for every trade, the 4.95 is really 10.00
the charts are really bad they lagg and are useless
I am a daytrader who is trying out Questrades Demo account before I committ
I would like to hear from someone who is using their live platforms
My concern is that there is a major delay between the Ticker tape and the account box.
Because I day trade the delay is no good. I am told by Questrade that there is no delay on the live version. I am not talking about the 15 min delay, but the delay between the ticker and the account box.
Anyone using the live , I would like to hear from as I dont trust Questrade
Murray, the live version is live and there is no delay. I watched the ticker go from 15.14 to 15.15 then back to 15.14 within a few seconds and my sell at 15.15 was executed exactly at that moment. The trades seem to be executed in a timely fashion like on any other trading platform.
I’ve had an account with Questrade for about a month and I like being able to buy and sell without thinking about the transaction costs because they are so low that they don’t have any real influence on my trades. I feel free to trade and not worry about the broker taking a $20-$70 cut every time.
The web site does not give much info and is not designed very well or intuitively, but it gets the job done.
Questrade is the worst company I have ever seen. They have a very messy management system and bad customer services. It took more than one month to open an investment account.
Last yeat, I tried to open an investment account with them. I provided all documents they required very clearly and mailed the initial fund to them. After one month my new account was still not openned yet. I email to different people whom suppose to help me to open an new account, live chat with their support people, and called to talk with them on the phone. They told me that my account was openned and approved. All I have to do is to wait for the welcome mail from them. After more than one month waiting and so many talking with them, I still could not get my account openned. Finally I called and talked with one of their supervisor to ask an explination. He told me it was their internal management system mistake. he can open a new account for me immediately.
Timing and accurate are very important facts in stock treading, but they have such a massy system that delay and generate wrong information for their customer. After such a long delay and getting so many wrong information with their people, I do not trust this company any more. I would not put my hard working money into such a inefficient company. Therefore, I have to asked their supervisor to close my account and refund all the money I mailed to them, and told him that questrade is the worst company I have ever seen in my life.
It took me so much time and energy to go through a simple opening account procedure, and finally it did not work for me at all. There are so many good companies over there to worth my trust. I want to write my bad experience here to tell you be careful with them!
I’m very unhappy with them- their server is apparently down and the only way I could find out about this was calling one of their numbers, and pressing “0″ quickly to get to a menu. None of the options led to a real person, however I picked a random extension (435) which worked, and the lady informed me that their server is down.
This is not the type of problem other companies have- I am thinking I might need to change brokers.
My experience with Questrade is extremely similar to those whom have already posted negative experiences. I have had an account with them for over a year now and at first I decided I could accept the diabolical customer service to get the low cost trades but I can’t take it anymore. I’m switching my accounts out to a higher priced competitor…..at this point anyone will be better than Questrade.
I’ve been with them for about 2 years and haven’t had any major problems ; nothing like what I’ve read above. I don’t trade regularly so the no inactive fees, no minimum deposits (at the time) and low trades attracted me to them. Someone mentioned that they charge double commission if they sell their order in two lots; not the case as I have sold multiple lots with just the one commission (unless it is spread over two days). Earlier this year I opened a TFSA and all I had to do is send the papers in as they already had my picture ID on file. I used to deal with Ameritrade before they got bought out. I still have an account with a major bank but to get any preferred pricing, you need to do alot of trades. For what I need, it works.