Canadian Online Brokerage Review – Virtual Brokers

[Dennis]

Data fee is not mandatory. I didn’t buy any data plan and if I don’t trade or trade among free trade ETF list, I don’t pay no commission. Not even a cent.

[Johnathon]

Virtual Brokers is a scam. If you want to withdraw fund from the account, it will take several weeks to process. It doesn’t post the dividend i am supposed to receive the end of last year in my account. I have sent them email, and they don’t even bother to reply. It’s a scam.

[Peter]

Stay away from Virtual Brokers. After 1 month and several emails and phone calls, dividends received are still not in the account. Cash transfer made into the account almost a month ago still not in the account. All they can say is that they are behind in their work, but I’m still out a couple of thousand dollars. Been waiting almost a month for a cash transfer out of the account. It seems like once they have your money, they won’t give it back to you. The few bucks you save on commissions is lost other ways.

[Darren]

I have had absolutely no problems with Virtual Brokers. I have been receiving my dividend payments with no problems. Cash transfer into the account took around 4 days.

I have contacted them a couple times concerning: opening the account, trading platform questions, and about their new mobile app soon to be available. Each time I was able to get customer service quickly and they answered all my questions perfectly.

[Sam]

ive tried to open an account with VB and they haven’t bothered responding to my emails for a month straight. Should I bother exerting this much effort to be their customer? They don’t even bother replying me , I’ve followed up 3 times. I can’t afford to pay the $30 one way comission on TD 🙁

[Denise]

I am also thinking about transferring to Virtual Brokers after horrific experience with Questrade’s new platform. I believe Virtual Brokers are quite overwhelmed right now with all the customer transfers from OptionsXpress, but they seem helpful enough in my correspondence with them, although a bit slow. They pointed out their #1 rating with the Globe & Mail article in Nov/12 (I think that was the magazine issue) so that’s positive. Some of the posts here are causing me to have second thoughts. I just hate to transfer over if they’re no better than what I’m dealing with at Questrade. It’s such a hassle to move accounts. Does anyone else have experience with Virtual Brokers?

[Rick]

I’ve joined the long and patient queue of would-be Virtual Brokers customers. It seems that since they came No. 1 in the Globe & Mail’s 2012 broker’s survey and took on the Options Xpress customers in Canada that they’re completely overwhelmed. Comments here and elsewhere on the net over the last 2 to 3 months have been universally negative.

Their communications are abysmal. They don’t make excuses for delays, they just don’t answer e-mail. According to other posters, getting them on the phone is hopeless.

I’ll stick with my saga and see how long it takes for them to get my account activated, but I’m already unhappy and I’m not even a customer yet!

If you’re thinking of transferring, maybe give them 6 months or a year. I’m betting they get knocked off the Globe & Mail’s throne in 2013.

[Tommy]

Got a couple of questions.

-I noticed that VB’s commission structure per equity trade is $6.49 or $0.99 on the “99” plan. Is anyone eligible to be on the “99” plan, regardless of account size or trading frequency?

-How much does VB charge each time you transfer money out of an “All-in-one” account?

-Is Questrade really all that bad? I have a friend who has been with them for two years with no problems. He enjoys the 3.33x leverage they offer (vs. 2x at VB), as well as $4.99 flat commission.

Thanks

[Sparx_AdminKeymaster]

Hey Tommy,

According to Virtual Brokers anyone is eligible for “The 99” commission structure regardless of account size or trading frequency. Also withdrawing funds via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) is free.

Regarding your question about Questrade, ask yourself what is important to you when trading. Do you trade often and need to contain your costs? Is reliability of the system essential? There are outages and customer service issues no matter which brokerage you’re with. Try out whoever you think will meet your needs best.

[Tim]

I’ve been with VB for a few years now and am about to switch back to TDW. I got charged a $100 commission yesterday on an ETF buy while under their free ETF commission structure. After talking to several of their reps on the phone they told me to send an email to support. They replied and told me they would reimburse in 60 days. So I have to wait 60 days to get my money back because they screwed up? And this isn’t the first time they’ve overcharged me commissions, and every time I have to call and complain and wait months for a refund. They think because they have a 99 cent commission structure no one will leave, but it makes no difference when you’re trading over 1000 shares (which is the bulk of my trading). Their streaming data fees are also high, $35 plus extra for each exchange you want. I’m paying over $40 and all I get is TSX level 1. I also haven’t been able to place an order in my RESP account all month because it’s all messed up since their transfer of accounts from Penson. It still doesn’t work even after several phones calls to get it corrected. They also rip you off with US currency conversions and won’t allow you to do Norbert’s Gambit. Don’t waste your time with them.

[Author]

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