Questrade Reviews 

I've been with Questrade for years. I've hated it for years, but have been too lazy to change so far.

Pros:
1) fees for stock trades are on the low side in Canada
2) customer service reps are generally competent and kind.

Cons:
1) their website / trading platform sucks. It really looks like they hired a newly graduated web designer, took their rough notes, and just ran with it. the site layout is garbage. pertinent information scattered over way too many tabs. it's just clunky garbage...
2) inconsistent on its automated options exercise: sometimes it automatically exercises your options, preventing you from capturing last-minute market moves on expiration day. But other times, it doesn't automatically do this, so you couldnt even rely on it if you wanted to
3) related to #2, there is no "fully manual" mode. there is always some layer of "nanny" instead of offering an "expert mode" with full control. in particular, I have asked several times if there were a way to disable the automatic option exercise, but was told they couldn't. this has cost me $$$ in lost profits...
4) mobile apps suck. they have their old app "Questrade" and their new app "Edgemobile." The Questrade app is just as clunky as their desktop platform but I prefer it to Edgemobile, which tries to make things look sexier, but with even worse functionality

I'm going to finish my application to a different platform... Screw Questrade. Seriously, there have to be better brokers out there than this clown show...

EDIT: Well... I just had my first bad experience with customer service. When QT owes you money (referral, transfer fee refund, etc) you have to be ready to fight as they'll do everything they can to not pay you. Kinda sad actually. Makes me wanna change platform now.

I've been using Questrade for 2-3 years now. I'm using multiple of their products and I am very pleased. Customer service was amazing every time I needed help moving my accounts from a different bank.

I started investing with Questrade and I found out their app is really easy to use for a beginner like I was.

Wife and I are both investors. I use WS and my wife is on Questrade. Questrade has made so many questionable changes over the decade that the interface and the service received have been eroding year over year. It is at the point where I'm in the process of transferring out of Questrade and moving my wife's accounts to WealthSimple, where the interface is cleaner, way more simple and the customer service is far superior.

A few of my issues with Questrade:
1) The UI is a complete mess. (App and browser interfaces). The UI seems designed to purposefully confuse and therefor forces you to spend more time on the UI in order to do simple things. TD, QTrade and WS have much more user friendly UIs. I can get information on various accounts with a mere glance, without the need to go through a dozen navigations. Not so with Questrade.
2) The Margin account interface is made to accidentally make you spend from the margin instead of limiting yourself to cash in account. QT made it so that it is impossible to turn off accidentally buying on margin. In fact, if you have $1000 cash, the UI might report that you have $11,000.00 in purchasing power. To me, it seems like this is done in a way as to attempt to trick you to accidentally buy on margin.
3) Their customer service is laughable. I really should publicly release some of the absurd audio conversations I've had with them.
4) Because email verification cannot be turned off and is 100% forced as an option, if your PC is compromised, the compromiser can simply select 'email' for confirmation code method and from there, have full access to your QT account. Yeah....
5) For certain things, there is a merry-go-round with paperwork. Fill paperwork, submit paperwork, paperwork is accepted and a year later, have to redo paperwork. Year after year after year. I do not have any such problem, with the exact same accounts types at other institutions.
5) They have idiotic graphs that might look nice but have zero context. To be fair, WS also has these.
6) Lack of simplicity. You are thrown into screen after screen of unwanted data/numbers to try to find what you're looking for.
7) A few years ago, I wanted to open a QT LIRA for myself. Since I'm French, my I.D. reads a little different due to French people using a slightly different naming convention 40+ years ago. QT Tried to convince me that my middle initial is my actual name; I was incapable of convincing them otherwise. QT Is the *only* financial institution (out of several) that has tried to school me on what my name is. Passport, 3 physical banks, 2 online banks, 1 credit union and 2 discount brokerages have never given me this problem. I gave up since QT was only willing to open my LIRA account under my middle initial as my first name. The potential, legal ramifications of this terrified me.
8) They will not give you your tax paperwork until the very last day that the Canadian government demands it by. All other financial institutions (several of them) have filed the paperwork a month+ ahead of time, whereas Questrade cannot and will not do so until the very last day (even if you call them). Therefor, I cannot file my taxes early since it is being held up by Questrade and Questrade alone. I've complained about this year after year with no resolution or change. In other words, I file my taxes 3 to 4 weeks later than I want to because Questrade's policy is to drag their feet to the very last second.

I'm of the belief that Questrade has lost their way; I'm of the opinion that they actually don't care about the customer experience. What they do care about is making the process convoluted and more difficult in order to have people on their app for longer periods of time and to accidentally spend on margin. On the customer service side, they've become a bureaucratic nightmare.

As much as I tried to like QT, I simply cannot recommend them. I'm at wits end with them. It has been a multi-year, repeatedly unpleasant experience. Why would I chose constant, stressful experiences when I can deal with other companies and be happy and stress free? Time to move along and go to a company that (seemingly) seems to care about their customers.

What a horrible company to deal with, ultra keen to get you to deposit cash and open an account. Ultra slow to pay out. If you convert funds they will charge 1.5% on the fee, might as well use a credit card.

When you convert funds the money leaves your account immediately and the converted funds don't show up for days.

The trades used to be cheap, but you pay more in poor service and exorbitant fees for every other service.

Read the reviews and believe them, from my personal experience they are true

This is the worst platform to invest your money. I say this by my heart. I invested total of $12000, and could only withdraw $11180, cause majority of the part went into fees and conversion fees. Please read the terms and fees structure.

Horrible customer service!!! An account transfer is supposed to take 10-20 days and it have take 1.5 month. After chatting with a customer experience agent that have been completely useless, he told me it would take another 10-20 days for the money to be transferred. I told him I was extremely dissatisfied and he did not care AT ALL. I regret not going with Wealthsimple.

extremely POOR network. It doesn't connect to the internet once log in. always reconnected and eventually never connected when I wanted to purchase or Buy the stock using this platform.

I am a Senior. Never bought stocks ever until 2 years ago. Invested $20K in a stock through QT. It was a US company. Like the old days I put them aside and left them. Turns out Quest Trade does not take a 100% of the stock price out of your account to pay for the stock (conversion from Can$ to US$). They lend you the difference and charge crazy interest and fees. i had no idea. Lucky I checked my stocks recently only to find I have lost almost half my money to Quest Trade, They know they are doing this to older or first time stock traders making huge money. I can not believe the Canadian Gov lets them away with this....

I have been trying for 8 months to get my money back. There is always just one more ‘little thing’ to fix before everything is ok.

I don’t understand how this company is considered legit.

Alice Z (onboarding specialist) was so very helpful! Helped me open my first TFSA and transfer all the funds from another account which was a timely process, she is very kind, has lots of patience, and has great customer service! I commend her!

The platform itself is good but the back office is horrible. They will tell you everything is good to go, then another person will tell you they need something else. it took me 4 weeks and hours of calls to get my account opened and 5-7 times submitting & resubmitting forms that were already submitted (correctly). It's as though it's your first time ever contacting them each and every time you reach out. Absolutely brutal. Find another platform.

I have used Questrade for the last 4 years, and thought it seemed a rather smooth and simple trading experience. I made a large initial investment/deposit, and have periodically added funds, though have not sold many holdings. I have since found the platform to be rather predatory in regards to display and receivership of interest and margin account policies. I have a margin account, though ensured I always had adequate funds in the account as to never borrow or leverage my investment. Over the years I kept finding my cash amount seemed to drop and at times go into the negative. Both the app and website are set to show your "combined amount in CAD" The next option is to show your "combined in USD" There is 2 options you can click further over that simply say CAD or USD. I had always had a positive value showing in the first 2 options, and had never clicked the simple CAD or USD options. In spite of this, I was continually being charged interest. I would put a thousand dollars into my account to ensure this would not happen again. I would check my combined cash in CAD or combined cash in USD and would see a large positive balance, so left my account to grow and pay dividends over the last year. Upon logging in today, I found I again had a negative balance in spite having left it with more than 1 thousand dollars cash a year ago. Transaction history showed I had been paying approximately $200USD a month in interest. I could not figure out why this was happening. After calling in again I learned that my deposits had been in CAD, where as I had bought stocks in USD. I actually had more than $26,000CAD in my account, but had an even greater USD negative balance. In a margin with Questrade account the USD negative balance is held separately and interest had been being charged for the last 4 years, compounding monthly at a predatory 18% rate, though in the same account Questrade held $26000CAD, and in both options to look at combined CAD or combined USD it showed a positive cash balance. I never received any email, letter, message, or call about this. I will be closing all Questrade accounts, and feel like this policy of CAD and USD holdings being completely separate should be much more easy to see and understand.

When you complete a trade to buy an investment the funds from your account are removed instantly. However, when there is dividend paid on existing holdings they are very slow in depositing the dividends/cash to your account, I assume they are investing my dividends in a short term investment vehicle . When you reach out to the customer service team they give some bogus excuse that they have to validate the pay out. Don't believe them??

Stay far away from Questrade, they are very overpriced charging trading fees of 11.95 us dollars for a credit spread and calls, puts. Advance trades cost 15.95 (iron, butterfly, etc). Also, you have to pay to close your trades at the same price. They have terrible fees just to day trade. 4.95 us to buy shares remember when you close the trade its 4.95 again to close it. If they want people to stay, charge less on fees. Yes they will answer questions fast but they will not change their overpriced fees. Go to MOOMOO or WEbull which are a lot cheaper. Trading is about making money, NOT getting robbed by your Broker. One other thing: the market opens 7:30am in Calgary but you can't trade until 7:45, if you need to close a trade right away you will not be able to and this may cause you to lose money. It's already hard enough for a retail trader in this game, therefore losing another 15 min can be detrimental. Trust me I have lost hundreds of dollars in the first 15 min of the opening market. This is BS Questrade, do better. Retailers are already at a disadvantage due to not being able to play the before and after market plus hedge fund insider trading going on. You need to change your fees plus time and let the retailer investor have a fighting chance.

I have been using questrade for many years now. I have transferred a few accounts there and I like having everything consolidated. For non-residents it's a good place to keep your TFSA since they will give the tax receipt you need.
Their customer service is quick to respond. I have never had an issue. I plan on using Questrade for all my trading needs in the future.

Service is awful. Transactions are always complicated. Charged me $150 to ge tmy money out. Hidden costs everywhere. Stay away.

I'll tell you why they have such a low rating. I've had a self-directed account for a few years now and quite happy with the platform as a trading tool. Then I received a physical stock certificate as partial compensation for work I had done for a traded company, so I went on to their website to see what I needed to do to fund my account with the physical stock. It was simple to find - simply sign the back and send it into out offices via courier, or come down to the office in Toronto and submit it there. So I decided it would be worth the drive to take care of this investment asap.
After driving 90 minutes I arrived at the offices and was greeted by three smiling associates that proceed to tell me that they no longer accept physical stock certificates. They even suggested that I was wrong - it says right on the website that they no longer accept stock certificates. I was asked to have a seat as I was now completely frustrated with the lack of simple problem solving going on here. The "New Accounts Rep", then came over with his laptop to show me that the website said they can't accept stock, so I proceeded to show him where it DOES say, "simply drop off the certificate... fee of $300, 10-15 days, etc, etc." Their response? "Well it says we don't take it on other parts of the website..." Now, I'm pissed.
I've taken 3 hours of my day to come and do what your own website says I have to to get this done. I'm told I'm wrong, sorry you wasted your time, and there is nobody, or nothing we can do to change it. Can't a reasonable person expect that a finance company's website is kept up to date when it comes to something as important as funding your account? Well they didn't, they don't, and I wouldn't trust my money with a company that puts zero effort into customer care. I am actively looking to move my account to a company that at least backs up what it says in public. Save your money. To coin their phrase - It's Time To Switch.

I am an older retired investor and moved my money to Questrade for the income generating stage of a portfolio lifecycle. I am now moving all of my wife’s and my accounts back to the brokerage I left after 2 years of frustration, withdrawal fees, a platform that hardly works and an IT support team that has only two solutions to every problem…. Try turning your computer on and off ( what? Are we in elementary school?) or Try switching browsers ( really? You are a specialist Online Brokerage and only some browsers work with your platform?) neither of which help in the least.
If you love Chatbots and canned email responses to help inquires, love to be left on hold or be spontaneously logged out of the platform while you are using it, then Questrade is for you.
Case in point is the canned reply to my review. See Malcolm’s review of March 4 2024 and the identical Questrade response.
In the end this review did elicit a call from Questrade offering any help I needed. Sadly it was too little too late as I have move our money to another brokerage. To be clear though, the patient woman in the other end of the phone really had nothing to offer my litany of complaints you see above other than silence and sympathy. Nothing has changed folks. My opinion of Questrade as a bumbling semi functional brokerage remains the same. Don’t invest with them. And if you are, move. It’s not as hard as you think.

I invested #10,000 in low risk TFSA which even I na standard bank would have accrued interest over 2 years. I never made any interest or investment returns on the TFSA over 2-3 years and finally got out (even though it took 3-4 months even to withdraw my money which of course, according to them was "lower",than the amount I first tried to withdraw due to their incompetence to simply close my account. I should have simply put my money in TFS in a normal bank!

I tried to transfer money into my questrade account and they demanded that I provide the details of the bank that the money was being transfered from.

They don't have that right. I'm not sending them statements or corporation docs for a company that isn't registered with questrade.

Then when you question them, they say for privacy reasons it can only be discussed in certain ways and criteria must be met.

VERY UNETHICAL, and making unreasonable demands. Stay away.