Avoid Questrade At ALL COST

[bandana]

Another quick update. Questrade actually claims that they cannot return my funds as the account has not been opened. They need to complete the account process before my funds can be refunded. They promised me the account would be open today, now they are saying next week.

I am actually starting to worry that they have in fact lost/stolen my funds. Does anyone know what organization in Canad, equivalent to the SEC I should contact in Canada to open an investigation against Questrade?

While I have many MANY misgivings about Questrade, prompting my departure from them, I highly doubt it would be possible for any money to be lost/stolen. Just keep copies of transfer records etc. You might have to jump through hoops, wade your way through contradictory information imparted by CSRs and such, but you will (eventually) get your money back.

[Optionplay]

Like many others here, I have had a horrible experience with Questrade. I "opened" an RESP account for my daughter on January 14th and transferred a few thousand dollars to Questrade. That was the last I have seen of my funds.

My account still show as Incomplete and I have waited on hold for hours on at least 5 occasions to be told that my account will be opened "this week" yet I still do not have an active account and have no idea where my funds are.

At this point their systems are so messed up that it is like burning your money, avoid them and pay the extra brokerage costs from a reputable provider.

I agree was with qwestrade for years you go to online help and they make you wait for half hr or more sometimes.
Then when you chat with them they are garbage will never recommend them again

[adamtheman]

I'm with TDW and it wasn't much better setting up this account either. So maybe it's not just Questrade, maybe it is all the red tape around opening a trading account in this post-9/11 world? Once I got my account setup with TDW however it has been a piece of cake. Anytime I switch to a new service no matter what it is, I always phone their customer support line and see how long the wait is. 1+ hours is ridiculous and I would never join a company that has a phone wait that long. Max I think is acceptable is 10 minutes, after that I begin to get angry. The worst experience I ever had was with a cell phone company, I called and waited 45 minutes only to have someone from india pick up with "THE" strongest accent I have ever heard. So deep and so strong I couldn't understand him at all, and had to eventually just give up.

[ilove]

I've had no problems with Questrade. Sucks for the OP, because I think he/she's closer to the exception rather than the norm. Their website has a chat feature which you can use to connect with a live agent. Took me less than 5 minutes once. Hope everything works out, OP.

[Infrared]

I've had no problems with Questrade. Sucks for the OP, because I think he/she's closer to the exception rather than the norm. Their website has a chat feature which you can use to connect with a live agent. Took me less than 5 minutes once. Hope everything works out, OP.

have to admit, Questrade customer service improved a lot since then. i used their live chat a couple of times and it was fast and good (they were able to resolve/explain my problems)
seems like they just weren't prepared enough to changes back then.

[punisher101]

No major problems on Questrade. Hold times on Questrade are atrocious - same story for several years.

[adamtheman]

lol I just saw how old this thread is... bumped by a 1 poster. Guess someone hates questrade.

[Allen32]

lol I just saw how old this thread is... bumped by a 1 poster. Guess someone hates questrade.

Bump again

Here is my unhappy customer story...

I have had nothing but nightmares with everything I do at Questrade lately. It all started well with margin trading in US & CDN and I never really had any issues. Seeing that things were good and trades on the cheap side I decided to entrust my TFSA contributions for my wife & I in 2011. That's when the problems started... Still to this day, March 2012, zero of my 2011 contributions have been recorded with CRA (over 1 year). I have simply given up after phone calls, emails, reports generated & the BS excuses they keep giving me. They did'nt believe me on anything and expected me to call the CRA on their behalf! Huh? What a nightmare that is still unresolved. No idea if they will ever report our contributions. These will be cashed out in December of this year without a doubt and moved to my TDW account.

Being a little naive and trusting, I also signed up for direct withdrawals and purchase of Claymore ETF's on a monthly basis. Well, that really started off on the wrong foot when they deducted 2 securities payments/purchase correctly but my third was 3x (!!!) the requested amount. I was lucky that I had the funds to cover it in my originating account but it took 2 deduction cycles (read $900 taken) to correct the problem and 3 weeks for them to actually send my money back. The onus was on me to prove they had actually taken the money, they had not purchased the securities on my behalf and for me to involve my bank in the process! It was brutal arguing with them constantly over a two week period.

Anyway, there is more but I digress... I am really happy with TDW and moved all my business there. They have been absolutely amazing for customer service, accuracy of request processing and just fantastic to deal with overall. Trading execution is noticeably faster for buy & sell requests. In my opinion, it is well worth the $9.99 per trade for the type of long term investor that I am. Let my experiences be a lesson to others.

[513263337]

They still can't get the T5008 annual trading summary to us. They promised last Friday and then said mid this week and then said by end of this week now says next week.

[pchi]

Does TDW have real time quotes like Questrade for no extra fee for real time platforms??

I like Questrade cuz they give me real time quotes instead of the 15 min delay.

[boyoflondon]

Does TDW have real time quotes like Questrade for no extra fee for real time platforms??

I like Questrade cuz they give me real time quotes instead of the 15 min delay.

Real time quotes should be free with any broker, period! TD Ameritrade in the states gives you free streaming quotes on their website and their platforms, unless you are a "professional" user (registered with the SEC).

[lewin00]

They still can't get the T5008 annual trading summary to us. They promised last Friday and then said mid this week and then said by end of this week now says next week.

T5's neither. They're blaming Pension Financial Services, who do some of their back end stuff. Pretty sure CRA rules say those need to be mailed or made available by the end of February. That's the last form I need to file my taxes so it's a little irritating.

[java]

T5's neither. They're blaming Pension Financial Services, who do some of their back end stuff. Pretty sure CRA rules say those need to be mailed or made available by the end of February. That's the last form I need to file my taxes so it's a little irritating.

Glad to hear it isn't just my T5 that is missing... I was going to do the on-line chat thing today and ask what's up, I'll give it another week I guess.

[java]

Never mind just got an email. Questrade t5 is up

[lewin00]

Never mind just got an email. Questrade t5 is up

Ugh, but only for some securities. I got one for RY dividends but anything more complicated (ETF, REIT) is "still being calculated".