Questrade or Qtrade ?

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. What is not good about RBC DI? Commission cost or? They offer very type of account, online fixed income including GIC purchases, etc. The only thing I never liked when I was there.... is no convenient way to move money in and out of RBC DI without a Royal Bank bank account - one reason I left.

Personally, I'd never be with an independent with the size of my assets but that is me. I make maybe 3-5 trades per year and they are always in the $15-50k range.

I signed up to both but I thought Qtrade was going to be slightly more difficult. I ended up cancelling the Qtrade after a few weeks - I never transferred any money in. I was planning to do some ETF purchases and they're free at Questrade to purchase and Qtrade offers 100 ETFs free to purchase and only 1 that I was looking to purchase was on their list. Otherwise I think it was around $7 or $10 to purchase ETFs. I find that Questrade had better fees and seems to have only slightly less hoops to jump through than Qtrade did. It's hard to say which one is better. That might depend on the types of products you're planning to buy and frequency. So far I'm happy with Questrade. They have an online chat that is usually faster than getting through on their phone lines when I've had questions to ask.

Qtrade gets the top rating from G&M's Rob Carrick this year if that means anything to you. It's the ninth time in the last twelve years it has been number one on the Globe's review. I have an account with them and I am very satisfied with their service. The largest portion of my investments are at TDDI.

Sharon2000 said:

Which online brokerage is better ? I do have an account with RBC DI but its not that good.

Click to expand...

I'm still with QTrade just in case I resume trading ... which is not likely. I hold a >$25K 1 yr GIC (2.35% just renewed) with them to keep the accounts open and avoid the admin fee. What I really liked about QTrade was say I decided make a $20K buy ... no need to have the $$s there, just submit a transfer request from the outside account to the trading account, wait a few seconds, and you're good to go ... and trades were very fast, never any problems. I recommend QTrade when asked, mention the admin fee/limit, and say others I know used Questrade. Off topic: I also keep the account open for future GICs from different providers for CDIC reasons.

I have had accounts at RBC DI and Qtrade for years and prefer Qtrade. I am very happy with Qtrade's trading platform, trade execution & customer service.

For fixed income trades, Qtrade uses a Alternative Trading System, which gives the vastly better pricing for individual bond purchases/sales when compared with the Over-The Counter trading platform used by RBC DI.

Was with Q trade but when I changed F/I's I switched to Credential which I don't like. Now, Credential and Qtrade are merging and will use the Qtrade platform. Can't wait.

I like Questrade. I think its a great option for anyone below 300k and not buying penny stocks.

It really depends on what you want though. Free ETFs are huge for me.

Sharon2000 said:

Which online brokerage is better ? I do have an account with RBC DI but its not that good.

Click to expand...

I was at RBC DI and I quite liked their system - plus as a RBC client RBC will bend over to help you.....

I left RBC because I wanted to buy Mawer funds and they wouldn't sell them to me. I went to Questrade and ended up not liking the platform and then went to Q-Trade. I like Q-Trade more than Questrade - both true free market brokerage houses.

If RBC would sell Mawer and a few other discount funds I would move back to RBC.... but alas I don't want them pinning me to RBC/PHN funds.