Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Getting an Registered Trading Account

Awhile back I posted that I wanted to open a Registered Trading account for RRSPs.  I finally decided to go with Questrade because of the low trading fees.  I don't need anything fancy so the cost won out.

 

Right now I am at the point where everything is set up and I just need to fund the account.  This you can do by making a bill payment from your online banking.  However, I wanted to transfer some of my existing RRSP.  The website was clear on if or how I could do that so I've been trying to call them.  Yesterday, I was on hold but I had to hang up because I had to run to a meeting.  Today the number has stopped working all together.  Instead of the automated answering system that comes up to direct your calls, it just keeps ringing until I get a busy signal.

 

I am not impressed.  I don't need a lot of attention.  I don't mind being on hold the few times I have to speak to someone.  However, not being reachable is not acceptable.  So when I do reach them eventually I am telling them to throw away my application for an account.

 

I think I'm going to try iTRADE.  The trade commissions are alright.  Dad has an account with them and I've seen some good IPO offerings on their IPO center.

3 comments:

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com said...

Let me know how iTrade pans out.

I haven't looked into them, but Questrade came highly recommend to me from other investing-focused Canadian blogs.

Anonymous said...

I also experienced bad service from Questrade. I ended up closing my account as well.

Four Pillars said...

You can fund the account either from your bank account, a cheque or a transfer (T2033) from another rrsp. So the answer is yes.

Just fill in the transfer form, send it to Questrade and then they will take care of it from there. It will probably take a couple of weeks since they have to process the form and send it to your current institution - then your current institution has to send the money to Questrade.