This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/gmecanada by /u/Qleap_realm on 2023-08-02 18:16:20.

I recently posted on r/questrade about a situation that made me very angry concerning their data fee structures and policies.

I wanted to follow-up after a few talks with customer services about it. Came here to vent. I’m in the process of taking all my remaining shares out of tfsa and buying shares directly through Computershare because fuck brokers. They are all the same.

A few years back, it seems I had opted in their data IQ for 89,95$ per month. Back then I was trading high volume so I didn’t pay this fee. As a result, this never rang a bell to me when actively managing my account. I then decided to stop day trading and gradually removed my assets from my margin account. This data fee continued to be charged monthly in my margin account until November, when my balance hit 250$.

In November 2022, the data IQ fee package was automatically changed to be charged on my TFSA account. Over the past few months, I was charged over 1000$ in fees in my TFSA. I realized it when they sent me a margin call in a tax-free account.

I called to understand what happened and they told me it was part of their policy to move the billing when the margin account hits 250$.

They offered me to refund the month of July, but they said this would be considered as a contribution in my TFSA. Then it rang a bell. The fees I had paid all this time was eating up my TFSA. They were considered as a loss, not a withdrawal. This means I lost 1000$ of my contribution space. I’ll withdraw all my money, but I’ll never get this 1000$ back.

I tried to explain that it was wrong to automatically change the billing account for a tax-free saving account, slowly eating up my contribution space, but they wouldn’t hear it.

I asked the person I talked to several times to talk to a director at questrade, and they told me the courtesy refund of one month was the final decision and I couldn’t talk to anyone.

There was nothing more I can do directly with them, and the only option is a lawsuit.

Am I the only one to think this is wrong ?

This is just another drop in the bucket, brokers are not trustworthy, and definitely not on the side of the working class. I thought questrade was different, but they are driven by the same greed that infected the whole system. I hope more and more people understand this and take their shares out of this rigged game.

May all of you patiently waiting for justice be blessed. Time is up.

DRS is a silent revolution.