Questrade VS Qtrade: Two Titans Meet

Qtrade and Questrade are two well-known online brokers. In fact, many people confuse them, as if two boxers in the same ring were wearing same color tracksuits. We examine these two online brokers in more detail today in order to determine a potential winner.

How much do Qtrade and Questrade cost?

Let’s talk about costs! Their names start with the same letter, and neither belongs to the bigwigs of the Canadian banking industry. Qtrade and Questrade allow you to build a portfolio at a low cost. However, other brokers like National Bank Direct Brokerage, Wealthsimple Trade and Disnat (Desjardins) offer free transactions.

From the outset, Questrade is banking on a more advantageous pricing structure than Qtrade. Questrade charges only a penny ($0.01) per share for stocks, for a minimum commission of $4.95, and a maximum of $9.95 per transaction. The purchase of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is free. However, beware: they charge the traditional ETF commission at the time of sale, which is the same as for stocks.

Qtrade charges a fixed commission of $8.75 per transaction for equities, but there is over 100 Canadian and US-listed ETFs you can trade free of charge, including the iShares Core Equity ETF Portfolio (XEQT) and the Vanguard ESG U.S. Corporate Bond ETF (VCEB), for example. If you belong to the Investor Plus category, making 150 trades or more per quarter or having at least $500,000 in assets, you get a rebate. Most trades will cost $6.95 instead of $8.75.

The Qtrade $25 account maintenance fee can be waived if your balance is at least $25,000 or if you schedule monthly contributions of $100 or more, for instance. There are also fees for certain withdrawals and for registered accounts that cannot be waived. For example, you’ll have to pay to use the Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP) for your down payment or to withdraw money from your TFSA.

Questrade VS Qtrade: Which has the greatest strikeforce?

Qtrade has a very good reputation. It is constantly in “continuous improvement” mode. It’s considered to be at the top of its class. The quality of its customer service is particularly noteworthy, while Questrade’s industry track record shows that a little patience is sometimes required in this area.

Questrade VS Qtrade: Their Achilles heel

Unfortunately, these online brokers are not perfect. Here are a few weaknesses we’ve identified.

With Qtrade, the less active investors need to pay close attention to the current fee structure in the aim of avoiding the quarterly fixed fee, which is easy enough to avoid. With Questrade, the novice investor risks getting lost in a range of trading platforms (and information) that are not necessarily user-friendly.

In both cases, their fee structure is not competitive with those of National Bank Direct Brokerage, Disnat and Wealthsimple Trade. Their fees are also subdivided into different categories, which isn’t ideal for users’ ease of understanding. No investor wants to end up with a bill they didn’t see coming!

Questrade VS Qtrade: Final thoughts

With Qtrade, you can buy or sell up to 100 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at no cost. That’s a considerable advantage over Questrade (which charges fees when you sell ETFs). If you want to invest globally at no cost, without paying commissions, Qtrade stands out. For its free ETF trading and easy-to-use platform, I prefer Qtrade.

This article is the shortened version of an article originally published on Hardbacon.ca by Dominique Lamy under the title Questrade VS Qtrade: Two Titans Meet.