FIRECracker and I have been using Questrade as our brokerage for many years now and for most of that time, it’s been the undisputed king of the Canadian discount brokerage market.
That being said, we’ve also watched the rise of upstart Toronto-based fintech WealthSimple with much interest. They started off as a slick robo-advisor platform and have since branched out to tax software, crypto, and now DIY investing.
This expansion has been driven by two strategies: Aggressive cutting of trading commissions/fees on their self-directed investing platform and generous transfer offers to entice people over to come over to their platform.
While I’ve never seriously considered moving my accounts to WealthSimple (it would be a TON of paperwork that I don’t have time for anymore), I will always appreciate WealthSimple’s contribution to the Canadian low-cost brokerage scene because they’ve forced other companies to become more competitive.
Questrade used to offer free buying of stocks and ETFs (you had to pay to sell), but now they’ve eliminated trading commissions completely on stocks, ETF’s, and even some options. Exchange fees appear to have gone away as well, which has basically dropped the fees I pay to manage my portfolio down to almost $0. It still costs $9.95 to perform a Norbert’s Gambit, but I do those maybe once or twice a year, so the cost is miniscule.
They’ve also started running cash-back promotions as well, one of which is running right now.
4% Cashback
This current offer is for up to 4% cashback on amounts that you transfer into Questrade.
Right now, this is the most generous transfer promotion running, so if you’re thinking about using Questrade, now is the time to do it. Here’s how it works.
This offer is available to new and existing Questrade clients, so you don’t have to be a completely new user to sign up. The sign up process is a little different for each, though.
For new clients (or existing clients opening up a new account), you have to use the code QT4CASHBACK when you open the account. If you already have an account, you can still activate this offer by clicking on the “Rewards” tab to the left of your Questrade dashboard (looks like a gift box).
There are some stars and asterisks. The baseline cashback offer is 1% for registered accounts, 2% for non-registered. These bonuses double up when you are transferring $10,000 each for 3 separate Questrade accounts, one of which has to be non-registered. For example, if you transfer at least $10,000 each in an RRSP, TFSA, and non-registered account, your cashbacks would double to 2% for the registered accounts and 4% for the non-registered.
You should also know that there is a maximum cap to the amount of cashback that you can earn. This cap is $10,000 for the registered accounts, and $10,000 for the non-registered accounts. This means that there’s a total potential cashback of $20,000, and would require you to transfer $500,000 in registered assets and $250,000 in non-registered.
For more details on this offer (and to review the fine print), here’s Questrade’s page on it.
If you were thinking of switching, now is a great opportunity to do it, as this is the most generous transfer offer I’ve seen to date, and it’s with a company I trust and have had great experiences with, which is why I wrote our Investment Workshop using Questrade as the brokerage platform. Offer is available until Feb 2.
If you do, please use our affiliate link to open an account so we can keep writing this blog and keeping all the information on it free. That would be awesome.
Have you taken advantage of any of these cashback transfer offers recently? How was your experience? Let’s hear it in the comments below!
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