Canadians, Which Brokerage do you use?

[longlake95]

CIBC investors edge…. Lousy service - mediocre platform…. Low trade cost. $6.95 per trade. I have been thinking about switching to get better service.

 

ICU….tell me about Scotia private banking…. I you don’t mind….

[longlake95]

Okay, thanks. 

[Spooky]

For anyone using Questrade I just found out they automatically opted everyone into a securities lending program where they can lend out your securities to short sellers etc. Needless to say I am pretty pissed they did this without me opting in.

[Monsieur_dee]

On 12/8/2025 at 3:58 PM, Spooky said:

For anyone using Questrade I just found out they automatically opted everyone into a securities lending program where they can lend out your securities to short sellers etc. Needless to say I am pretty pissed they did this without me opting in.

I double checked my account. Not opted in. Where are you seeing this ?

 

Thanks 

[mcliu]

On 10/25/2025 at 9:43 PM, ICUMD said:

Main portfolio is with Scotia iTrade. Have a secondary portfolio with UBS and registered portfolio with RBC. 

 

Have private banking with both RBC and Scotia.

 

Scotia private banking service has been incredible.  RBC kinda useless and TD so pointless I've now closed by investment accounts with them. 

 

RBC does have the nicest online trading platform tho.

 

What makes Scotia's PB better than RBC?

[Spooky]

11 hours ago, Monsieur_dee said:

I double checked my account. Not opted in. Where are you seeing this ?

 

Thanks 

 

That's good. I found out because I received some interest income from some lent securities and I opted out right away.

[ICUMD]

14 hours ago, mcliu said:

What makes Scotia's PB better than RBC?

Responsiveness and low friction with transactions.  I have various lines of credit that no other bank aside from Scotia PB would offer.

[mcliu]

5 hours ago, ICUMD said:

Responsiveness and low friction with transactions.  I have various lines of credit that no other bank aside from Scotia PB would offer.

Thanks. Do you still need to go into the branch or can everything be done through the banker?

[MungerWunger]

Not completely related but TD Direct Investing has a special deal going on right now. I believe the maximum reward is $ 5000 CAD:

 

For a limited time only, transfer $10,000 or more to TD Direct Investing and get up to 2% cash back.

Edited December 11, 2025 by MungerWunger

[ICUMD]

1 hour ago, mcliu said:

Thanks. Do you still need to go into the branch or can everything be done through the banker?

Never met by bankers in person as they live in a different city.  All email and phone call. 

[ValueNation]

I've had main investing accounts with BMO Investorline for many years. They tried to get me to sign up for the Advice Direct service, which seemed relatively useless to me for several thousand a year, so I passed. During that process found out that they would give me private banking access for free, so have signed up for this, but not had very good service thus far.

 

Other accounts with Scotia iTrade and TD - not as impressed with the platforms, but maybe I'm just used to Investorline.

[bargainman]

Years ago if you were outside of Canada (in USA) you were not allowed to have a broker in Canada.  Does anybody know if this is still the case?

[Parsad]

Anyone using TD today in Canada?  They are having major problems with their trading desk on like the biggest day of the year.  

 

I've been on hold for 2 hours trying to find out if my online trades went through or not, as they are not updating properly.  Have no idea what has happened today with the account!

 

Cheers!

[roundball100]

On 12/8/2025 at 3:58 PM, Spooky said:

For anyone using Questrade I just found out they automatically opted everyone into a securities lending program where they can lend out your securities to short sellers etc. Needless to say I am pretty pissed they did this without me opting in.

Some years ago, when there was all that action going on about FFH being shorted in an attempt to damage the company, I recall discovering that the brokerage I was using (one of the big 5 Canadian bank's direct investing platforms IIRC) automatically opted you into having your shares potentially lent out (without compensating or notifying you) if the account was a margin account, but not if it was a cash (i.e., non-margin) account. That caused me to switch to a non-margin account, out of principle as much as fear of what might happen if my shares were lent out and then something catastrophic happened beyond the brokerage's control.