[bds]

I have been reading the forum for a while and noticed that many people trade with TD Waterhouse. I am currently with Questrade and I bank with TD. I am happy with Questrade but am considering switching over to TD for my investments as well. I like the simplicity of having everything in one place and have good things about TDW.

-If I switch I will have over 50,000 with them so I believe I am eligible for the cheaper commission fee ($9.99)
-I make <10 trades/month
-I have a TFSA, RRSP and non-reg account with Questrade

Has anyone used both?
What do you like about each?
Is it worth the slightly higher commission?

Thanks.

 

[Potato]

I like TD, and I generally recommend them... however, that's because I feel their interface and support team are more newbie-friendly (plus e-series). But if you're already over the Questrade learning curve and you're happy with them I don't see a compelling reason to switch. It's up to you if the benefit of having everything in one place is worth the higher commissions.

 

[slacker]

I used to be with TDWH. But two things drove me away to Questrade.

1. No native support for USD in RRSP
2. USD dividends in RRSP will silently suffer TD's steep 1.5% foreign conversion fee.

 

[SpendLessEarnMore]

I used to be with TDWH. But two things drove me away to Questrade.

1. No native support for USD in RRSP
2. USD dividends in RRSP will silently suffer TD's steep 1.5% foreign conversion fee.

I'm currently with TDWH and extremely happy with their service. I'll still keep my TDWH brokerage account but still going to open a Questrade account just for adding U.S. stocks to my RRSP portfolio.

 

[kcowan]

There was a time when I would have recommended TDWH but no more. Their service has gone downhill markedly in recent years. You have to do a little work but you get rewarded for it. When you get to the stage that the extra work is not worth the savings then consolidate.

 

[fatcat]

yes, i think they do a very good job
i don't trade very much though
if i traded a lot i might look elsewhere
but they have generally been very good

i do have issues with their site though
they need to do a better job of offering tools to help you track and manage your investments

 

[gibor365]

I have accounts with both TDW and CIBC Investor Edge and not planning to swittch all either way...just trying to take advantage of the best features of every dis. brokerage

 

[wendi1]

All my stuff was with TDW, but I switched when they made a big mess of my husband's accounts.

They were in limbo (no trading possible) for over a year, and everyone we spoke to there said there was nothing wrong. I lost my temper with their telephone support, and moved everything to BMO. Which has USD accounts.

 

[uptoolate]

I used to be with TDWH. But two things drove me away to Questrade.

1. No native support for USD in RRSP
2. USD dividends in RRSP will silently suffer TD's steep 1.5% foreign conversion fee.

+1

I'm with TDW and am not entirely unhappy. Somethings can be a bit trying in terms of getting accounts set up and making transfers but I have no reason to expect that any other service would be better. If I was starting again though and I knew where I would be now, I wouldn't go with TD because of the lack of USD support for RRSP and the result penalty on US dividends. On the other hand, in the beginning, it was great to have access to their e-series mutual funds.

 

[humble_pie]

bds if you were to divide your accounts so that rrsp would stay with Questrade in order to keep the USD dual-currency capability, while all other accounts would transfer to TDDI ... would you be above the 50k threshhold at tddi that permits $9.99 commissions?

also on the subject of USD dividends in tddi rrsp:

1) they are reforming, i am convinced of that, albeit at the snail's pace one might expect of a bureaucracy. TDDI has said that a new patch scheduled to start 31 dec/13 will wash USD DRIP dividends in rrsp, ie FX fees on those dividends will cease. We shall have to see what we shall see, though.

2) the big green has also said that regular USD dividends in rrsp - ie those coming from US stocks or USD etfs - will *not* be altered at the present time. In other words, these dividends will still be subject to FX fees.

3) this is the exact point where i would like to see the big green pushed. If they can patch DRIP dividends to wash with no FX fee, why aren't they patching all USD dividends to wash with no FX fee? land's sakes, the clients are wildly unhappy with what's going on. Why don't the big nobs at TDDI pull themselves together after all these years & start doing the Right Thing?

 

[slacker]

The way I see it. Questrade is commonly seen as the underdog of discount brokerages. Bad reputation, horrible service, etc.

But how can the underdog do better than the big green on such basic offering as supporting USD in RRSP and TFSA?

This whole, "we don't support USD in RRSP" is archaic, and stems from the bad old days, when there were lots of restrictions on RRSP. That was a long long time ago, please get with the present, and offer native support for USD investments.

No washing.

No hacks.

No having to call TD after a trade or else will be charged on ridiculous currency conversion fee.

No silent 1.5% currency conversion charge on dividends, drips.

Please just make it work as well as Questrade. Not asking a lot here.

 

[humble_pie]

slacker i've written a lot on this issue in the past but in case there is a newcomer or 2 on this thread, here we go again.

this is what i always say:

the vast majority of canadian brokers are using a legacy mainframe leased from IBM called the ISM System. This was built for US brokers during the previous century. Maybe 40-45 years ago.

ISM is why the vast majority of canadian brokers do not, cannot, will not offer USD RRSPs.

apparently ISM cannot be overwritten so that a canadian dual-currency registered platform with full USD capability can be built upon it.

the handful of canadian brokers who do offer USD rrsp (bmo, questrade, roybank etc) are using rival mainframes, for example ADP.

it's useless for people to keep on battering TDDI. More than any other broker, the big green has led in inventing workarounds to help clients in registered accounts *not* pay FX fees on equity buy/sell transactions.

the remaining big issue is FX fees on USD dividends in tddi rrsp. Right now, the issue goes like this: How can We Encourage TDDI to Improve the Situation.

the most glaring need is for 100% of USD dividends to be converted to CAD at spot rates imho.

recently TDDI said it's creating a patch to wash USD DRIP dividends in rrsp. I for one think the numero uno critical issue right now is persuading the TD to wash *all* USD dividends in rrsp, not just the DRIPs.

 

[slacker]

Indeed humbie, and I thank you for sharing your knowledge. I'm not certain where else I can get this calibre of information, other than this forum.

The way that I have attempted to persuade TD to get a move on, is by moving all my money to Questrade. That was about 3 years ago.

Once TD has native support for USD, I will strongly consider moving back. I had pretty good experience with TD.

 

[humble_pie]

slacker nice to hear from you. I actually think that ex-clients who have voted with their feet - ie have walked their rrsps out the big green door & over to a broker that offers USD rrsp - are sending an excellent & appropriate message.

however, very recently there have been signs that the dam is starting to break up. It might be november but a few spring-thaw-type cracks have appeared. They might have something to do with the new TDDI chief, he's from Q-trade where they already have a USD rrsp so he's lived through the storm & they say he appears to be very progressive.

i think that now is the time for every rrsp client at tddi - big client, little client, it doesn't matter - to step forward & demand an end to FX fees on all USD dividends in rrsp.

hint: probably a waste of time to argue this by phone with a licensed representative. Instead, write by email to the TDDI customer service group. First, develop a rough idea of what your annual USD dividends in rrsp amount to; perhaps add an exact example of a USD dividend that will be paid to you soon. Then ask that all these dividends be converted into CAD with no exchange fee whatsoever, now & henceforward, world without end.

ask that your message be sent to the Manager of Client Complaint Resolution. Ask that they respond to acknowledge that your message was, indeed, forwarded to this individual.

if you have access to your tddi regional call centre manager or a tddi regional vice-president, be sure to email him or her as well.

in all contacts, clients could explain how seriously they feel that the time has come to move RRSP to a broker that is not going to profit from their hard-earned retirement savings accounts by charging foreign exchange fees on some of the income.

(back to slacker again) i for one think that a message to the TD complaint resolution manager, along the lines of what you've just written above, would be highly effective, if you would have the time. Good luck with it!

 

[james4beach]

I use a couple brokers and TD Waterhouse is one of them. I agree that their service has gotten worse over the last few years (there are generally longer telephone wait times now). Their fee structure is pretty competitive I think, once you're at the $10 per trade level. Generally speaking though I'm still happy with TDW and do a lot of business with them.

You might want to keep more than one brokerage account open, assuming it's not costing you anything such as inactivity fees. One reason for two brokerages is with bond trading or trading anything else over-the-counter (eg GICs), which means it's basically you trading against the broker. Since the broker is giving you a quote and you don't have an open market, you could be getting horrible prices. OTC is typically where brokers screw clients. So it's useful to check quotes from several competing brokerages -- and make them compete against each other, telling one that their price isn't good enough.

A second reason for a second broker is for redundancy or backup in high risk trades. This is probably only a concern for short term speculators. Say you go long a stock and the next day you really need to close that position. But brokerage A web site is down or the phone systems are congested. You could simply go to brokerage B and create an offsetting (short) position resulting no zero net exposure. Later you resolve the positions by closing both.

 

[uptoolate]

Thanks for the update humble. It is good to know that there may be some progress. It is too bad that they will move on stocks and not ETFs yet. I am beyond my stock trading days and just accumulate more and more in VTI, VXUS and the like. It is a pain in the butt and even moreso as I manage my mom's money at RBC and guess what - no issues - as you know. I understand that there are legacy issues but.... hopefully they get it fixed by the time I retire. I'll have much more time on my hands at that point and it will be easier to find the time and energy to move.

 

[Jungle]

We switched from tdw to questrade but always had a non reg at questrade since 2007. Questrade customer service has improved 10 fold where as tdw has gotten worse. I can't bet bothered dealing with tdw anymore and so glad we switched. They even rebated one transfer fee and gave me 10 free trades that don't expire.

Now you can buy free etfs so I see no advantage with eseries anymore.

Plus questrade has live chat which I really like too.

Another plus to questrade is the referral bonuses. I had $70 cash deposited for a referral which took me 2 mins. They screwed up as drip request once and gave me 25 cash as compensation. Not bad service if you ask me.

Questrade is ahead with a lot of this stuff including the free iPad I type this post on I received when I switched on promotion. Saved me $370 from buying one!

 

[recklessrick]

I've only every used TDWH and am very happy. I don't bank there but I wanted them for the e-series funds. I find their phone support to be quite good and their web interface lets me do what I need to be a passive investor. I don't care about graphing my performance every week or something like that so their feature-lacking web broker interface is just fine with me. The fees suck in the RRSP accounts until you have 25k in an rrsp account, that's not too bad.

All in all, I'm happy with them.

 

[Eclectic12]

... Now you can buy free etfs so I see no advantage with eseries anymore ...

I can see the advantage being able to buy ETFs free and then pay one commission to sell, when comparing against buying ETFs at a different brokerage where both buy & sell costs a commission.

The last I'd seen posted - one could buy/sell the eSeries commission free for both buy & sell so assuming the comparison is a similar eSeries versus a similar ETF, I'd expect there to be a commission advantage.

... or did I miss something?


Cheers

 

[humble_pie]

the principal concern i have & have always had with privately owned discount brokerage houses is that we don't know anything about the capitalization of the firm. We don't know who their banks are & we don't know anything about their bank relationships.

a facile answer would be So-what-there's-always-the-CIPF-my-accounts-are-insured-up-to-$1,000.000.

except that in a worst case scenario, there won't be any Canadian Investors Protection Fund. It's not a fund that exists today as a separate entity. It's only the ability of the broker community to raise money by special assessment to its members.

the CIPF was designed to bail out an individual firm here or there that might go under. In a global financial collapse, even a canadian chartered bank might fail. In such a dire scenario, many minor financial houses including marginal brokers will fail. Surviving brokerages will not be able to pay any special assessments & the CIPF will become a forgotten ghost of history.

my reckoning is that a broker subsidiary of a chartered bank would likely have a better chance of survival in a global meltdown.

i do think it's fair to say that questrade service has improved. They deserve full credit for that.

i don't think it's fair or accurate to say that tddi service has diminished. Apart from the no-USD-rrsp, which has now become the poster bad child & whipping-boy for most of the canadian broker industry, what's to complain about at td? afaik they have good resources, flawless trade execution, staff are well-trained, competent, responsible.

maybe the big green could get into offering tablets & phones though :tongue-new: