Who is Questrade?
Questrade discount brokerage is an independent (not owned by a bank) brokerage which has been in business since 1999. Their office is in Toronto, but anyone who is a resident of Canada can trade with them.
Good things about Questrade
- Cheap, cheap trades. $4.95 trading fees for trades with 495 shares or less – maximum $9.95 fees for trades with more shares. ETFs can be bought for free!
- Ability to hold US$ in rrsp account. If you sell a US$ security in a rrsp – almost every other broker charges 1% ore more to switch it to CDN$ and then another 1%+ to go back to US$.
- Good trading platform. I only used the free platform (Webtrader) and I really liked it. It is very simple and doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that other platforms have. Real time quotes is the only feature I need.
- Excellent service. I had no problems setting up accounts and doing trades, moving money etc. They have an online chat function which I never used but apparently is pretty good. I either phoned (very quick response) or sent email. Both methods worked fine for me.
- No account fees whatsoever.
- Low balances. Minimum account balance to open an account is $1000 and you only need $250 to keep an account open.
- All account types available. Open, RRSP, RESP, RRIF – you name it, they have it.
- Mutual funds – they will rebate up to 1% of the management fee back to the investor. Read more about the Questrade mutual fund rebate.
If you would like to compare all the different Canadian discount brokerages, check out the Canadian discount brokerage comparison.
Promo code to get $50
Get $50 in trading fees when you sign up with Questrade. Click on the banner below to get started or use the code “dc988dd9” to get the free trading commissions.