Introduction

We at FairSharePlan.com decided to do a Questrade review after digging in for some investigation due to all the buzz that we'd been hearing around them.

What we found was the folks at Questrade are simply opening a serious can of whoop-ass on the financial services industry in Canada.

We're not going to get deeply into the nuts and bolts of the Questrade software platforms as they’ve got videos and even free play accounts so that you can try them out for yourselves. Their business is only online, that’s their focus, so be sure that their software and systems are top-notch and comparable with competitors.

What we ARE GOING to focus on are all of the other reasons we found as to why you’d want to consider opening an account with them.

We've also put together a step-by-step video to guide you through the account opening process.

Account Opening Guide

What's the easiest way to open an account?

Opening a financial/banking account always seems to be a bit of a process. While Questrade has done a commendable job at making things smooth there are still several paths, some much easier than others, to getting it done.

 

We've created a video that walks you through the account opening process step-by-step via the easiest path to save you time and frustration. You can follow along with it as you actually go through the process of completing your application online. Easy!

 

It seems very fashionable these days for financial industry companies to offer some sort of welcome bonus to new customers. Questrade has a "$50 in free trades" offer, so we'll definitely want to take advantage of that!

 

To get started, click on the banner below to take advantage of their offer of $50 in free trades for new accounts. It will bring up the account opening page in a new window of your browser so you'll be able to refer back to this page for instructions while filling out your account application in the new window.

 

Get $50 in free trades.

Click here to open an account with $50 in free trades

 

After you've clicked the above link, follow the video below as it guides you through the process of completing the application.

 

The Review

Can I get help and support from Questrade?

There are always several options to get help with Questrade depending simply upon which is most convenient for you. They have downloadable guides available their systems if you like reading manuals. If you have specific questions, there’s a database of online frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) if you’d like to dig up answers for yourself. If you’d like personal help you can get Live Help via onscreen chat or by emailing them. You can also contact them via telephone by calling them or by scheduling a specific callback time to have them phone you. It’s been our experience that their response time (via chat and direct phone calls) has been very responsive.

Can I see my account performance and easily manage it?

myQuestrade is like dashboard of your account status. It allows you to quickly see an overview of your account and its balances, current positions both in a table and as a graphical chart, see historical performance of your account in charts and graphs, download account statements, and enter mutual fund orders.

 

Check out their Quick Reference Guide here as it's got a lot of snazzy screenshots that will make it all clear.

Can I trust Questrade?

Let’s step back and look at the big picture: trust.

 

Questrade has been around since 1999 and is now one of Canada’s fastest growing online brokerages. They’ve also won three consecutive Best Managed Company awards.

In response these awards, they've put together a little video of "What We Believe." Of course it hints of some marketing rah-rah, but it does perhaps capture the essence of the culture they promote within the company that elevates them to this level of success.

 

 

Questrade, Inc. is a member firm of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). The CIPF provides coverage to Questrade clients for up to CAD $1 million per account.

 

To help protect against hackers trying to login to your account, they’ve implemented several solid features. If you attempt to log in from a different computer than usual, they will ask you for answers to your personal security questions in addition to your password. After five unsuccessful login attempts, your account is locked for 15 minutes. They also encourage strong password use by making it 12-16 characters and a combination of lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers and symbols.

What is the Questrade software like?

A big improvement over past generations of platforms, Questrade now has the IQ suite of applications that should work for you no matter what type of device you have: IQ Web for your desktop computer, for mobile devices there’s IQ Mobile, IQ Edge with advance functionality of interest to active and pro traders, and IQ Essential for tablets and other situations that don’t fit into the other versions.

 

Rather than me boring you by describing all of the features, just check out Questrade's info. page here and watch demo videos, download Quick Guides, or sign up for a play account.

Conclusions

Take the bull by the horns!

In a landscape once dominated by offerings from the big banks, it's nice to see some competition raising the bar. With free ETFs and low commissions, Questrade has some solid selling points. Others may be trying to compete by advertising comparable features, but when you dig deeper you find that they often fall short of what Questrade's offer is. For example, with free ETF offerings, competitions fine print might reveal they are offering only a small subset of ETFs for free.

 

It seems that Questrade has grown up a lot in the past years to mature into a serious alternative. Competition, stay on your toes, because the can of whoop-ass that's been opened looks like it's topped up full.

 

If you're ready to take the bull by the horns, be sure to take advantage of Questrade's $50 in free trades special offer and our step-by-step video guide for accounting opening.

 

 

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