[vi123]

Hi everyone. I'm moving our investment accounts to RBC Direct Investing over the next week or so. It's a decent size portfolio so they have already offered to pay all transfer costs and give us 20 free trades. I guess we'll also qualify for 'Royal Circle' membership so there won't be any maintenance fees.

My question is: what else should we be asking for? This is our best moment to negotiate, just before we move the account over. So we'll probably never have the same leverage again.

I looked at their list of fees here but nothing really applies to us -- http://www.rbcdirectinvesting.com/RBC:-C0nhawYUA8BDwD6ysMAAAAF/commissions-fees-schedule.html.

We'll also be doing very few trades so getting slightly cheaper trading fees is not that exciting.

I'm thinking there might be other features that I could get them to add to the account. Level 2 quotes perhaps?

Edited to add:
I just remembered that we are being charged USD 1.12 for every deposit into our business USD chequing account. There are 30+ transactions per month so we're actually paying around USD 35 per month on a pretty consistent basis.

Is this something that they might waive/reduce?

 

[Beaver101]

^ How long are your 20 free trades good for, 60/90 days or a year? Ask/re-negotiate for a year.

 

[vi123]

^ How long is your 20 free trades good for?

Not sure, I'll find out. We won't be trading much so ideally it would be a few months.

 

[jargey3000]

you can't buy Mawer Funds through RBC ..... just sayin' .....

 

[vi123]

you can't buy Mawer Funds through RBC ..... just sayin' .....

MERs of 1% and over? I think I can live without

 

[Sampson]

I find the leverage you have with the bank (I hold an RBC Royal Circle also) is pretty low when you are opening up a discount brokerage account. They won't make any money from you...
If you are also moving debt over, in the form of a mortgage or LOC, this will give you much more negotiating power.

 

[vi123]

I find the leverage you have with the bank (I hold an RBC Royal Circle also) is pretty low when you are opening up a discount brokerage account. They won't make any money from you...
If you are also moving debt over, in the form of a mortgage or LOC, this will give you much more negotiating power.

Good info, thanks.

I should have mentioned this, but we'll also be opening a new personal account and 2 credit cards with them at the same time.

I have been looking through their site today and I think we should be asking for free VIP banking on the personal side.

 

[humble_pie]

My question is: what else should we be asking for? This is our best moment to negotiate, just before we move the account over ...

Level 2 quotes perhaps?

Edited to add:
I just remembered that we are being charged USD 1.12 for every deposit into our business USD chequing account. There are 30+ transactions per month so we're actually paying around USD 35 per month on a pretty consistent basis.

Is this something that they might waive/reduce?

perhaps i'm naiive but i find those $1.12 charges for USD deposits to be bizarre. Unless you are depositing CAD into a USD account? but why would you be doing that?

in addition a fixed 1.12 fee per deposit does not sound like an FX fee.

with very few transactions, i'm not sure how level II quotes would help you.

i feel it would be reasonable to request that 1) they find a way to stop charging you any fee on your regular USD deposits; & 2) they grant a full year extension for your free trade allocation of 20 commissions.

on the surface it may seem like asking for a lot, but one cannot fail to notice that all the brokers are offering little perks here & there to attract new clients & even, in some cases, to keep existing clients.

they seem to be waiting for the client to fill in exactly what it is that he or she would be pleased to receive. Most of these little gifts seem to be worth $200 or less, so clients can price their requests somewhere in this ball park.

idk, am promoting christmas at the brokers? a happy yule to everyone & don't forget to look under the tree for a package with your name on it, ho ho ho.

 

[vi123]

perhaps i'm naiive but i find those $1.12 charges for USD deposits to be bizarre. Unless you are depositing CAD into a USD account? but why would you be doing that?

Here is the account: http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/commercial/accounts/bus-deposit.html. You can see the $1.12 listed in the Fees section.

We are sending USD into a USD account, so it is extremely annoying to get charged like this. The money is coming from our Paypal account, which gets emptied daily.

This is probably the main thing that I'll try to get waived.

 

[humble_pie]

how unfortunate.

have you asked at Tangerine or TD, how they work USD business accounts?

overall, i do think the brokers as a community are sprinkling around more little giftlettes than usual, this holiday season. Good luck with finding the package that has your name on it.

 

[OhGreatGuru]

Transaction fees are common with business accounts. RBC charges a similar fee for their $CDN variable pricing account. In $CDN there are accounts with other price options such as fixed fee. I have no idea if RBC's fees are competitive with other $US business accounts.

What were you being charged by your previous financial institution, or were you getting away with using a personal account for business?

PS. I doubt that you would get a break on your business account fees because of your RBC DI personal investments. They are quite separate product lines.

 

[vi123]

OK so I have been looking around the various bank websites and found some deals that I will try to get RBC to match.

USD banking
A division of First West Credit Union is offering a good deal on USD business chequing accounts. Its a $5 monthly fee and unlimited deposits. I'm currently paying ~$35 for around 30 deposits, so this is much better. https://www.envisionfinancial.ca/Business/Bank/ChequingAccounts/USDollarBusinessChequing/

Investing
Scotia is offering $500 or 500 free trades.

 

[humble_pie]

Transaction fees are common with business accounts

so i see, at least at roybank. What bad news.

i'm used to tangerine, which has no fees for deposits or withdrawals in business accounts whether CAD or USD. However, there are specific protocols that have to be followed. I have no idea whether incoming electronic deposits from PayPal would work at tangerine, the OP would have to pursue the matter.

it's also true that bank & broker divisions at all banks are wholly separate. Sometimes one division that is more willing to offer "rewards" can compensate for a grievance that a client may feel about another division ... a bit like option trading ... a little call here plus a little put there ...

on the whole, i find the santa packages that are beginning to appear at brokers this holiday season are worth up to $200 for regular accounts. I'd describe a "regular" account as higher than one might expect - up to several million $$ if it is not an active trading account.

 

[Beaver101]

OK so I have been looking around the various bank websites and found some deals that I will try to get RBC to match.

USD banking
A division of First West Credit Union is offering a good deal on USD business chequing accounts. Its a $5 monthly fee and unlimited deposits. I'm currently paying ~$35 for around 30 deposits, so this is much better. https://www.envisionfinancial.ca/Business/Bank/ChequingAccounts/USDollarBusinessChequing/

Investing
Scotia is offering $500 or 500 free trades.

+

... We'll also be doing very few trades so getting slightly cheaper trading fees is not that exciting.

... in this case, getting 500 trades won't do much for you and neither Level 2 Quote service. And not sure if they'll give you $20 in lieu of 20 free trades so might as well go for the longest time to use up your 20 trades and other goodies that other posters have suggested. Good luck.

 

[vi123]

+
... in this case, getting 500 trades won't do much for you and neither Level 2 Quote service. And not sure if they'll give you $20 in lieu of 20 free trades so might as well go for the longest time to use up your 20 trades and other goodies that other posters have suggested. Good luck.

Yes, I'll be trying to get them to match the $500 cash that Scotia is offering. Or at least something close to that.

I'm seeing RBC this morning and will update this thread on how it goes.

 

[humble_pie]

re the business deposits, perhaps find out if paypal can pay electronically into a tangerine business account? if the e-connection works, tangerine would have zero fees ...

re the $500 cash for a new brokerage account, i don't know scotia's terms but gut feeling tells me this is for either heavy traders (you say you are an extremely light trader) or else it's for the mega-million $$ accounts (which indeed you might be)

 

[vi123]

re the business deposits, perhaps find out if paypal can pay electronically into a tangerine business account? if the e-connection works, tangerine would have zero fees ...

For some reason RBC is the only Canadian institution where you can direct USD funds from a Paypal account. That's because they have a US routing number that you can use. This is fairly well documented in forums and elsewhere. There are probably workarounds, for example opening a US-domiciled USD account and then transferring to a Canadian-domiciled USD account. But I want to keep it simple if possible. The Tangerine account definitely won't work, which is a real shame!

re the $500 cash for a new brokerage account, i don't know scotia's terms but gut feeling tells me this is for either heavy traders (you say you are an extremely light trader) or else it's for the mega-million $$ accounts (which indeed you might be)

It's for accounts with $250,000 plus - http://www.scotiabank.com/itrade/en/0,,9297,00.html

 

[humble_pie]

For some reason RBC is the only Canadian institution where you can direct USD funds from a Paypal account. That's because they have a US routing number that you can use

this rings a bell, doesn't it have something to do with a branch roybank maintains somewhere in the US southeast? some state like west virginia, georgia maybe?

It's for accounts with $250,000 plus - http://www.scotiabank.com/itrade/en/0,,9297,00.html

great, $500 for a $250k account w few trades? gift packages under the christmas tree are looking better & better. Even the TD has started to pay, they want their lost clients to come home.

 

[RBull]

^It's Georgia. I don't use paypal though.

I have a US acct set up.

vi123, be sure to get a quote from RBC Insurance, as a Royal Circle member when yours is due. Members get a group rate, and in my case it is much better than anything else I can find.

 

[vi123]

Update: met RBC just before lunch today. They gave us 20 free trades per account for transferring our investment portfolio. There's no time limit on them. We have 6 accounts including all our TFSAs etc, so it's really decent signing up bonus.

Apparently, as we have a larger account, we'll qualify for 6.95 trades too.

Thanks to all for the helpful advice on this thread.