Questrade Fees and Accounts Details Review
Canadian broker Questrade offers competitive trading fees and charges. We have prepared a review of Questrade fees for trading stocks, options, forex, and bonds as well as withdrawal fees. Also will learn Questrade account minimum and other conditions to consider.
Questrade is Canada’s leading discount brokerage firm. Questrade touts itself as a “self-directed investing pricing” platform. It allows investors to trade in stock, options, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Forex, contracts for difference (CFD), and many different equities.
There are several factors to consider when selecting a brokerage firm like Questrade. Some of these include customer service, safety, products, research tools, account opening, and fees. However, fees are often the most important consideration.
Questrade fees and commissions are generally low, and they promise full transparency so customers know exactly what they’re paying for.
Questrade a Cheap Broker?
By all indications and by their own statements, Questrade is a cheap broker. However, only Canadian citizens and residents can take advantage of the platform. Moreover, clients residing outside Canada are unable to access Questrade Portfolio IQ accounts.
For instance, Questrade has no hidden fees and waives fees for account opening and other transactions.
No fees are charged for tax-free saving accounts. Other Canadian brokers charge approximately $50 CAD for equivalent accounts.
Compared to other Canadian brokers, low trading fees are in the range of $4.95 to a maximum of $9.95 for stock trades.
No account opening fees
No annual registered retirement savings plans (RRSP) or tax-free savings accounts (TFSA) account fees
ETF’s can be purchased for free
Its Advanced Data Packages are $89.95 CAD for the Canadian package and $89.95 USD for the U.S. package.
Questrade Stock and ETF Fees
Questrade security offerings cover a variety of assets classes. Questrade trades come with two pricing options: Standard pricing and active trader pricing.
Buy | Sell | |
---|---|---|
US Stocks |
$0.01/share (min. $4.95 to max. $9.95) |
$0.01/share (min. $4.95 to max. $9.95) |
Canadian Stocks |
Same as above |
Same as above |
ETFs |
Free |
$0.01/share (min. $4.95 to max. $9.95) |
European Stocks |
The fees are built into the spread, 1 pip is the average spread cost during peak trading hours |
|
Bonds and GICs |
Free commission with a minimum $5,000.00 purchase |
|
The pricing on stock and ETF fees are more transparent on Questrade than on Interactive Brokers. Unlike Questrade, Interactive Brokers employs tiered pricing for stocks and ETFs. Interactive Brokers tiered pricing structure represents the low broker commission that the platform charges you.
The objective of tiered pricing is to make commissions much lower for high-volume trades.
In contrast, Questrade has significantly lower costs. It generally offers a very affordable fee structure for trading stocks, options, and more.
Questrade also has zero account fees, no inactivity fees, no fees to buy ETFs. In summary, Interactive Brokers can’t compete with Questrade’s overall cost.
Questrade Options and Futures Fees
Questrade doesn’t currently offer futures trading. Compared to other trades and securities available on Questrade, Options trading is more expensive.
Base Fee | Contract | |
---|---|---|
Options Trade |
$9.95 open and close |
+$1.00/contract |
Options (Exercise/Assignment) |
$24.95 |
|
Futures |
N/A |
N/A |
Options
Questrade is somewhat of a discount for options, charging only $59.95 for 50 contracts. In the case of Covered call options of 500 shares plus 5 contracts, the commission fee is $19.95.
In the case of Interactive Brokers, with regards to options trading, they offer fixed and tiered commissions depending on the region. As with other securities, Interactive Brokers’ tiered plan aims to decrease commission based on the volume of the trades.
Conversely, the fixed plan charges a single flat rate.
Questrade Forex Fees
Questrade provides competitive forex pricing for over 110 currency pairs. Under normal market conditions, Questrade has target spreads of as low as 0.8 pips.
List of currency pairs
Currency pairs | Target Spread |
---|---|
USD/CAD |
2.5 |
EUR/USD |
1.9 |
USD/JPY |
1.9 |
Questrade offers forex spreads as low as 0.08 pips.
Bonds and Mutual Funds fees
Questrade may charge you fees if you withdraw funds early.
Buy | Sell | |
---|---|---|
Mutual Fund |
$9.95/trade |
$9.95/trade |
Mutual Fund Rebates Processing Fee |
$29.95/month |
|
Bonds and GICs |
Free commission with a minimum $5,000.00 purchase |
|
CFD Spreads
Questrade provides several contracts for difference (CFD) for several stocks, commodities, and indexes.
List of stock CFDs
Country | Commission |
---|---|
Canada |
1¢/share (min. CAD 9.95) |
United States |
1¢/share (min. USD 9.95) |
United Kingdom |
0.10% of trade value (min. GBP 11.95) |
List of index CFDs
Products | Target Spread |
---|---|
US500/SPX500 |
0.5 |
US Tech 100 NAS |
1.5 |
US30 Wall Street |
3 |
Questrade tends to provide spreads as low as 0.08 pips. Questrade stock spreads are 1 cent per share, while Interactive Brokers are variable, starting around 0.003 per share.
Questrade Non-Trading Fees
Examples of non-trading fees include withdrawal and inactivity fees. Questrade doesn’t have any inactivity or withdrawal fees but it has a deposit fee.
Interactive Brokers generally doesn’t charge any inactivity fee except on its Broker Client Accounts. However, this amount is negligible: It only applies a $1.00 inactivity fee to accounts having a Net Liquidation Value of less than USD 1000.
Interactive Broker requires a $10,000 (or non-USD equivalent) upfront deposit for the first 8 months of a Broker account. However, starting from the 9 months, this figure drops to $2,000 per month (or non-USD equivalent).
In the case of proprietary trading group accounts like Trading Group Masters, minimum deposits remain $10,000 (or non-USD equivalent) for the entire duration of the account.
What are Questrade Financing Rates?
Questrade financing is only available to margin account holders. This gives them the option to borrow funds to invest for a fee.
Though Questrade advertises its financing rates on its website, these fees are subject to change. Moreover, the interest rate varies depending on the loan amount.
These are Questrade’s financing rates as they currently stand:
CAD Prime (as of April 29, 2020): 2.45%
USD Prime (as of April 29, 2020): 3.25%
What is the Questrade account Minimum?
The minimum deposit at Questrade is $1,000. This is the initial deposit amount a trader will need to transfer from their bank to their brokerage account.
How to Get Rebate For any Trade with Questrade
How to earn more with best Forex cashback rebateThe easiest way to save on brokerage fees with Questrade is to obtain bonuses in the form of rebates from Traders Union. These bonuses are provided when you perform some specified transactions on the Traders Union platform.
So, if you want to receive compensation against the spread on all transactions made in the Forex market on Questrade, do the following: register as a user on the Traders Union website, then simply open an account using the Traders Union’s referral link.
Now, these compensation payments are equally made on profitable trades and those that closed on a loss. You need to ensure you conscientiously follow the process described above since the rebates are only available to those who follow the scheme.
Top 5 Questrade Reviews
-
Comment
Questrade is an unreliable broker! Fraud for traders! I ran into problems with withdrawing funds, I wanted to withdraw profits and it all started. Questrade has very bad conditions, your positions can be closed at any time.
-
Comment
Fraudsters! It is impossible to get them to understand why profitable trades end up making losses! This is a kitchen, money is not withdrawn to the market, and if you have earned, they have lost this amount. They are all on a scam. Same. They can close the opening of a position at any time, while the reason is not called. They constantly have technical problems. Don't even think about contacting them!
-
Comment
I wasn't thrilled that Questrade offered a custom terminal. However, I had to put up with it, because Metatrader is not here. In principle, the IQ Edge platform turned out to be not as bad as I expected. It has all the basic tools for conducting high-quality technical analysis, and it is also convenient to use. The interface is not overloaded with unnecessary windows, widgets and buttons - everything is to the point. The minimum spread for EURUSD is about 1 pip, but the average value is closer to 2 pip. The choice of currencies is huge. You can trade with financial leverage, but the maximum level is 1:20. I deposited money on the balance from the card. Came within a few hours, but had to pay a commission of 5%. I think the bank held it.
-
Comment
After starting work with Questrade, I realized that Canadians can play more than hockey. The trading platform is developed at the highest level, MetaTrader 4 is not suitable for it! There are no slippages, gaps, or other crap that interferes with making a profit. Questrade has a complete set of necessary tools and is easy to use. In addition to currencies, you can make transactions with CFDs and precious metals. The broker also offers stock market trading and separate terminals are available for this. But I am interested only in Forex trading.
-
Comment
I advise those who cannot decide on the choice of a broker to go to questrade.com. It provides open access to information about trading conditions, commission fees, financial instruments, and account types offered by the broker. To save time, each section has a list of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). So that there is no doubt about the decency of Questrade, you can familiarize yourself with the official documents, which are available in PDF format. I have been a client of the company for several years, and there have been no complaints during my cooperation.
FAQs
Is Questrade good for beginners?
Questrade’s ease of use is a huge winner for beginners. This user-friendliness permeates its channels, apps, website, and entire platform. It provides requisite educational tutorials that help navigate users through the trading platform.
Is Questrade good in Canada?
Questrade is exclusive to Canada and offers the country access to managed portfolios and multiple pricing options.Questrade provides a wide several of account types to cater to Canadian investors.
Is your money safe with Questrade?
Pretty much, yes. First, Questrade has strong oversight and it’s regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. In addition, the brokerage platform is also a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.
In the unlikely event of insolvency, this protection fund provides up to $10 million in protection per account.
Moreover, Questrade holds approximately $25 billion in customer assets. Also, the company will reimburse 100% of losses related to unauthorized account transactions
Team that worked on the article
Alamin Morshed is a contributor at Traders Union. He specializes in writing articles for businesses who want to improve their Google search rankings to compete with their competition.
Over the past four years, Alamin has been working independently and through online employment platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr, and also contributing to some reputable blogs. His goal is to balance informative content and provide an entertaining read to his readers.
His motto is: I can dream or I can do—I choose action.
Johnathan M. is a U.S.-based writer and investor, a contributor to the Traders Union website. His two primary areas of expertise include finance and investing (specifically, forex and commodity trading) and religion/spirituality/meditation.
His experience includes writing articles for Investopedia.com, being the head writer for the Steve Pomeranz Show, a personal finance radio program on NPR. Johnathan is also an active currency (forex) trader, with over 20 years of investing experience.
Mirjan Hipolito is a journalist and news editor at Traders Union. She is an expert crypto writer with five years of experience in the financial markets. Her specialties are daily market news, price predictions, and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). Mirjan is a cryptocurrency and stock trader. This deep understanding of the finance sector allows her to create informative and engaging content that helps readers easily navigate the complexities of the crypto world.