Questrade
Without any doubt,
Questrade is one of the top three providers of online brokerage services. The first thing to impress a visitor on their extremely user-friendly website is the fast variety of different user accounts that the company has on offer. Customers can choose between fifteen different accounts, including individual and joint accounts, informal trust accounts,
tax free savings accounts, and
registered retirement savings plans. In addition, the client can register with Questrade as a formal trust, investment club, corporation, partnership or as a sole proprietor. Individual investment accounts are opened under one name while joint accounts are owned by 2 or more account holders. Informal trusts refer to accounts that are opened in the name of account holders but have third parties as beneficiaries. TFSA accounts allow
Canadian citizens and residents to earn tax-free income from
investments. Of the organizational accounts, corporation accounts are held by corporations while formal trusts are legal entities formed by trust agreements. The trust contains assets that are administered by a trustee and for the benefit of one or more persons.
Most Canadian families use
Questrade to open registered retirement savings plans or tax free savings accounts. Indeed, Questrade is the right choice for you, if you want to start online trading with a small initial deposit, low trading commissions and no annual fees. If you choose Questrade’s $4.95 for 495 shares commission option, you can take advantage of free data feeds, best price for every trade, and no activity thresholds or minimum balance to qualify. Although there are no explicitly stated annual or monthly fees, the following charges may apply: a surcharge of $25 is applicable to all executions placed by phone in addition to the standard commission rate. There are extra commission charges for orders filled over multiple days. It is fairly easy to open up a Questrade account, and it usually takes them just one business day to process your application. You can always turn to one of their customer service operators through the live chat option, should any questions arise during the application process.
Questrade’s free WebTrader Basic option has a user-friendly interface, but the real time charts are available only for stocks traded in US dollars. The ones traded in Canadian dollars show up with a delay of about fifteen minutes. The company has developed some more expensive investment platforms for more aggressive investors with higher level of risk tolerance.
Bear in mind that you must think twice before placing an order during your trading session. Once placed, the order cannot be altered and therefore, you will need to cancel it and order the stock again. But this is an infinitesimal draw-back for a brokerage house that is proud to offer its clients the lowest cost TFSA account
available in Canada. The company is also the only brokerage in the country that accepts USD deposits in their registered retirement savings plan.
Although some Questrade subscribers have voiced complaints over the slow costumer assistance on the part of the company, such slowly resolved cases are an exception rather than a rule; therefore, they can hardly mar the otherwise impeccable image of Questrade.