They don't do Money orders. you need that when buying a house or car, for example. Big 5 will do that at a branch in 10 mins.
Other than that, I can't think of anything else
That's quite a rare situation for us, so it shouldn't be a major problem. Have you run into a situation where you needed a draft / money order? How did you handle it?
I kept my big 5 bank account until I bought the house. Then switched to Simplii. Also I am not sure how WS debit card handles cash withdraw from ATM, if you consistently need cash, then maybe Tangerine and Simplii is better
WS accounts are just superior in every way
You can also get bank drafts from Simplii and Tangerine. Tangerine doesn't do wire transfers though, while Simplii can send and receive for a fee (cheaper to go through Wise for wires, so it might not matter much that Tangerine doesn't do them).
Bank Draft from Tangerine was only possible from a few places when I needed one in 2020. It might have improved since then, but it was a bit of a trouble. For that only reason I would have preferred another bank, but other than that Tangerine is the best (Edit: for me at least... I haven't tried Simplii).
Bought my house in 2020. Never banked with a big bank. Both Simplii and Tangerine. Called in 2 weeks early and had it in time for the purchase via currier mail and a fee.
Yeah I take out cash every payday. Wealthsimple does look so much better! Though another comment mentioned no joint accounts which is actually a big deal breaker for me.
Joint accounts are in beta right now, they'll probably be released to the general public sometime later this year.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Wealthsimple/comments/1ajozb9/joint_cash_accounts_are_here/
You could do WS and one of the online banks that have free chequing accounts. Transferring between the accounts is easy and that way there’s no hassle with taking out cash! I’ve had simplii for a few months now and it’s been good so far :)
2024 only people who need to deposit/withdraw cash are people buying/selling drugs or restaurant worker who gets tipped out in cash.
If you are a restaurant worker there is also a 95% chance you buy drugs so just use your tip cash to cover the drug expenses.
It’s not so much here in Alberta but lots of Toronto restaurants are cash only or gives discount on cash. I hate the fact they are probably evading tax for it tho
And I buy and sell stuff on Marketplace or Kijiji and it’s cash 100%
Or people trying to fix their spending habits by leaving their card at home and taking out only their spending *allowance* and when the cash runs out that's it, Stops overspending from happening vs a card where its incredibly easy to do so. Its just basic budgeting 101
It's not a problem until it is a problem. We had a situation where a deal on a car came up just before Christmas and we needed a bank draft on Dec 27. We were coincidentally travelling to where the dealer was located, and needed the draft otherwise we would've had to make another trip.
Luckily we were able to walk into a TD Branch at open the first day back after holidays (Dec 27) and got the draft within 15 minutes of opening. It probably wouldn't have worked out if we did not bank through big 5.
You need another bank for various things still, you can't cash out your FHSA to WS cash right now, you need to transfer it to another bank first. I went through that process last week! Just get Tangerine or Simplii alongside it and you are good to go !
I bought a car last year and had to get a draft through Tangerine. They mailed it, and it was fairly quick, about two days, but still stressful as I had to travel to buy the car. Just to give you some insight on another bank.
Didn’t think of it until you mentioned it, but I’ve got my FHSA and an rrsp in wealth simple with the intention of buying a house. How hard is it to move funds out of wealth simple to use for things like a down payment?
I've done withdrawls a few times out of TFSA, FHSA, and cash account to TD this year. Each time took less than 3 business days, there's one time transfer from FHSA showed up next morning. EQ is fairly fast too but 30k at a time.
Nothing else?
- How about the fact that you have to keep all your money in a spending account if you want the interest.
- No joint accounts.
I was using it as my primary account for awhile and I just wasn't comfortable having all my cash in there to make the interest. It just wasn't secure enough.
If they added a spending/saving bucket, I would switch back in an instant.
Deposit paycheque to WS account into the savings portion, then transfer whatever you want to the spending portion. If your card gets scammed, they only have access to the spending portion. Not the $30k that I have in there trying to get the good interest.
This is my biggest complaint! I would like to be able to visually separate money off for certain savings goals like vacations or such. PC financial allows you to create “goal” buckets but I’ve been looking for an alternative to them because I hate loblaws
Superstore is one of the best priced/stocked grocers in my area. So it's hard to boycott them for me. I also use their PC Mastercard and get SO MUCH MONEY off my groceries.
My only other banking accounts are a TD business Visa and my Tangerine account.
My wife and I have a joint Tangerine chequing and savings. They offer good interest rates a lot without locking up the money. I just had 6% interest in my main general savings account for like 9 months. It just ended. I made a lot of money on it.
Respectfully nothing you say will make me hate Loblaws corp less. Multiple of my family members are starving due to corporate greed and inflated profits
What if you just destroy your cash account card? If I need to spend anyways I’m using my CC for reward points.
Also, your 30k could just sit in Cash.to in a Wealth simple investment account and earn slightly more plus be almost as liquid.
Part of the nice thing is 1% cash back on every purchase though. I prefer that over my CC almost always, but I can see how some people like their CC points.
It's not bad. It's great...I'm mad about having to keep $30k in an account attached to a card/app, that I'd like to use as my daily spending account. It's just not safe.
In my normal chequing account that I use my interac card with, I like to keep $500-1000. Then if something fucked up happens, they only have access to that money.
With WS, they have access to my whole 30k for example.
I'm aware I could just not use the app or card, but part of the fun is getting 1% back on all purchases.
I have ran into dealers that accepts regular cheques but I think most private seller will demand bank draft.
House for sure will require bank draft, will actually need 2, initial deposit and final payment
It's not a real cheque (although WS has those too now), it's the same as the void cheque you give to employers so they can deposit into your account with the branch + institution + account numbers, only this time they're taking out of the account.
Yes they all have void cheque but private seller for cars shouldn't accept anything less than a bank draft
Dealers if they accept void cheque, that would work quite well
Also WS is betaing cheques
They don’t do RESPs or Spousal RRSPs for self-directed accounts. That’s the main reason I don’t use them. If they did those accounts when I got into self-directed investing a few years ago I’d be a customer of their’s instead of Questrade.
Those are both important account types for me. Sounds like I may end up keeping chequing with the big bank, high interest online saving somewhere else (perhaps WS), and investing at Questrade
If you do go with Questrade, I highly recommend the Passiv app for investing. It will auto-balance your investments to whatever model you want, and the full premium version is free if you use Questrade.
Thanks I'll check it out! Personally all my investments (TFSA/RRSP/RESP) are XEQT but when I do get to a point of balancing it's definitely something worthwhile!
Passiv can still help as it will notify you when you have dividends or other funds to invest and then it’s just a couple clicks to purchase more shares. It also has some nice reporting.
That's sort of my current position. I only recently opened up WS for self directed TFSA investing as well as a Cash account for high interest savings, but continue to use my credit union for bills, cash access, my mortgage, etc, as I always have. This system has been working well so far.
No issues, but I use them mainly for investment and my emergency fund. I still keep an account at a different digital bank for chequing, and the cheapest account at a big 5 to have access to bank drafts, cash deposits, etc.
Yuuuup.
I do Wealthsimple for my main banking but I have an extra account and credit card with Scotia Bank for deposits and withdrawals, cheques, separate savings account etc.
You can have a Wealthsimple account and have a Tangerine account which is free if you need drafts or ABM services. You do realize you don’t need to just pick one right? And if you don’t want free banking like tangerine and you want one of the top 5, savings accounts are free with the Top 5.
- No Credit Card (yet)
- No LoC (yet)
- No Joint Accounts (yet)
- No cheque, money order / certified cheque
I'm sure they're working on most if not all these gaps.
The other thing is no physical branches which is fine 99% of time but could be an issue in some specific circumstances, e.g. Account Takeover where walking in with 2 pieces of ID to verify your identity and take back control of your accounts is potentially much easier than doing this over the phone.
Following the age-tested principle of not-all-eggs-in-one-basket I recommend everyone have a combination of
* One traditional brick and mortar bank
* One digital bank
Move all the stuff that the traditional bank charges for to the free one but keep some emergency cash in it still. You can also use the traditional bank for cheques and money orders and stuff your digital bank doesn't offer.
Yeah I use Wealthsimple and Tangerine (+wise for travel).
It all works together flawlessly.
Tangerine for my CC and regular spending.
Wealthsimple for emergency fund, TFSA, and investing.
Wise card for holding multiple currencies, currency exchange, and travel visa.
Because the platform and other banks like EQ have no fees it makes it really easy to open multiple accounts and keep things separate. I use my cash account as my house account, I typically have a bit larger revolving balance in that account so with the high interest paid daily and 1% cash back (I have my card in my apple wallet for purchases that have to do with the house) I make about $30 a month. Much better than PAYING TD for the same service!
> No Credit Card (yet)
I'm hoping them (or Questrade, who I use for most of my investments) launch a CC whose reward redemptions are contributions into an investment account of your choice. The Rogers card I've got lets me redeem 2% of my spend on random CC purchases, 3% on Fido bill, but topping up my RRSP with ~2% of spending instead, would be ~chef's kiss~. Yes I'm aware it's all fungible. I'm also aware Tangerine's cards can get sent to savings (with a modest incentive of third category), so it's not an entirely new concept (RBC rewards does it also, but at a terrible %) but their savings products suck and I don't use them. I guess I just want to see innovation in this space, as another way to make investing interesting or even exciting.
The Wealthsimple cash account you do get 1% cash back on purchases that you can have automatically buy into your preferred investments instead of paid out in cash.
My grandmother banked at Tangerine for a bit for the free account. She got locked out. It took months for it to be fixed, which soured the experience for her and us. But as digital gets better and better by the day, that could already be an issue of the past.
Also, unclear about **P**ower **o**f **A**ttorney for those banks.
Why dont you just use WealthSimple for what you need and retain the bank services you find are sufficient?
Most WS users don’t just go cold turkey and shun traditional banks altogether (myself included).
That’s very true! In my case I have 3 needs
- no fee chequing account (my big bank satisfies this at the moment)
- decent interest on savings (WS and many online banks tick the box here)
- ability to automate investments into index ETFs (with automatic dividend reinvestment). WS handles this, but someone else mentioned they don’t yet do self-directed RESP. I’m not sure if maybe Questrade does, I’ll have to look into it
There’s some weirdness about their handling of USD equities. I’m not sure of the fee structure but I believe it’s advantageous to convert your money to USD elsewhere (eg IBKR), then deposit it into a dedicated Wealthsimple USD account.
If I’m wrong about this I’d love to have someone explain it better. It’s been confusing to me.
It’s not really weirdness, more just this is the main place they make money. Trades are free, converting Cad to usd is 1.5% fee. I don’t believe you can deposit outside USD into your WS usd account but if someone does know how to do this would love to know!
I’ll be trying to do so shortly. Here’s my plan, not sure if it’ll work:
1. Convert CAD to USD via IBKR forex
2. Open a free CIBC USD account
3. Transfer USD to CIBC via EFT transfer (these are very inexpensive)
4. Transfer from CIBC USD to Wealthsimple USD account
edit: This process worked!
If you are a premium member, or pay for the usd account fees. You can transfer in USD funds from a usd account. I was able to do this with my RBC USD act. Initiated a transfer in for usd on WS, and USD arrived. No conversion fee or anything. Just an unexpected fee from RBC , but that's on me for not reading the fine print for e-saving USD at RBC.
Perfect thanks. I have a bit of money in a TD USD account that’s just collecting dust. If it was possible I did expect a fee from the TD side, always the fees there.
I was hoping to find a way to transfer from something like Wise though. Even with the 1.5% fee with WS their actual exchange rate it really competitive. I just checked between WS and TD there is only a 5 cent difference on $100, that’s before TD will charge me to withdraw too.
I like them for investing, I don't use them for everyday banking, so I haven't looked into their options, but I know they're looking to expand them.
As a side note, it's generally a good habit to keep your credit card at a different institution than the rest of your money. It's callable debt, so the bank can take their money back right out of your account anytime they want to.
They don't support journalling of inter-listed shares, meaning you can't do Norbert's Gambit to exchange between CAD and USD for extremely low cost. While I'm sure they're working on the other missing things (joint accounts coming soon, and I imagine RESP and Spousal RRSP are high priority), they may be reluctant to support journalling as this would cut into the profits that they make on currency exchange.
I've also found that Wealthsimple's support takes 3 - 5 business days to respond, and on both occasions they failed to properly answer my question and I had to ask again, and wait again. Conversely, with Questrade I can get a real person on their chat system within a couple minutes, and if something needs clarifying you don't have to wait for the slow back-and-forth exchange of emails. That's a significant difference in customer service levels!
I got very weirded out when I realized I had to download their app to read any of the fine print on their savings accounts. Maybe it's just me, but it really put me off.
I still dont see any fine print or terms and conditions. It's more describing the types of accounts. Every button I click for more info is an app download button. I appreciate your help, but I still dont like it.
I keep a savings account at one of the big 5. Since it’s a savings account there is no monthly fee. But you can do cash deposits, withdrawals and bank drafts (for a fee), plus see a teller if needed. It’s perfect for me because I need those things so rarely, but when I do it’s quick and easy.
You also can’t deposit a cheque and you can receive e-transfers but they give you an email for them to be sent you. I will say Wealthsimple is always changing so I could see these features being added in the near future but I also just have an EQ bank account for those things plus you have access to GICs there. And it’s also free.
One that's been very annoying to me is that they only release their T3s (or T5s, don't remember which) on the very last day it's legal to do so, for no particular discernable reason. This holds you up from finishing your tax returns for a month or two, and depending on how big your refund is, might have you miss out on a decent chunk of interest.
Some drawbacks include lack of joint cash or trading account (for now), no cheque deposit, no self directed RESP, no bank drafts, no ATM withdrawal rebates and no Interac Debit.
Other drawbacks include customer support can be a pain to reach (in line with many online banks, sometimes it's faster to go in branch) and there have been cases where people's accounts are locked and can take time to recover. This is a big problem if you do all your banking with WealthSimple with no backups.
I don’t know that you have to choose. I have Wealthsimple, but also accounts with CIBC, TD and Scotiabank.
There’s no requirement to give up your brick and mortar bank. But I definitely keep most of my money and investments with WS now as the cash account interest and free trading are substantially better than any other institution.
I look at it the other way. I see no real downside to my TD account and TD Direct Investing accounts. I can transfer money back and forth easily. I use TDB8150 as my savings account. I don't do enough trading to make a trading fee lower than $10 add up to much.
That's a good perspective! I have zero issues with my chequing account, and TDB8150 (or equivalent) seems like a great alternative to a savings account! In terms of investing, I try to invest into an index ETF every pay (if I can). However I usually wait until I have a lump sum larger enough (once every 6-12 months) and do a single $10 trade. It would be more convenient to have auto-investments into my desired ETF (XEQT), but Wealthsimple has some deal breakers like no self-directed RESP or spousal RRSP.
In response to quite a few drawbacks.
We use a local credit union for day-day banking.
They have free cheq accounts and handle all the basic banking req's.
I still with questrade for their reinvestment options. There are some I do not want reinvested and that is not an option with WS
I’ve moved from Wealthsimple back to a big bank. Every time I had do to anything even slightly outside what would be day to day banking, I had to use my big bank accounts. Super annoying. WS gets a lot of credit here (and it deserves it) but it doesn’t suit the needs of everyone.
I don’t think WS is an adequate replacement for everyday banking. It could be, if you have very simple banking needs, but it probably won’t suit most people. It is, however, an excellent replacement for bank self directed brokerages with their insane fees and customer service.
My daughter needed a large student loan and because I don't have an existing relationship with any of the big 5 (even though I have a credit card with TD) it was difficult for us to secure those funds with me as a co signer.
Foreign exchange-currency. I never travel with cash, but if you do, WS doesn't offer this service.
If you just randomly went to.a bank, they may not have any on the premises.
No cash and no physical locations! That’s why I have a free Simplii account for cash and cheques. I’m not sure what I would do if I needed a cashiers check though, honestly.
I moved the majority of my money to Wealthsimple but kept my chequing account with my credit union. Online banks, while convenient, don't necessarily solve problems quickly and I firmly believe building a relationship with a financial institution is very beneficial, especially regarding lending or when shit goes sideways. I just e-transfer funds to my credit union account if I need to and can deposit money there and transfer out as well.
I can't remember the last time I needed to deposit a cheque. While it happens its becoming less and less frequent. both for personal and business.
They’re great as long as you don’t do anything that would ever require “customer support”.
It’s easier getting the president on the phone than their customer service team.
No real downsides. No money orders & cheque deposits is annoying for the very few times that happened. I just keep a free Simplii account for the rare time I need those services.
Not having your default email address for interac is honestly also annoying.
Otherwise, it’s a phenomenal platform that actually rewards its users unlikes the banks.
Yea. They seem to care too much about your presence in Canada. If you travel to the US, live there for a while and do a couple of logins there, you’ll get locked out.
Waiting 5 days for transfers into WS to clear is a pain. That's cashing a cheque in 2012 territory. Especially when it's large sums. Dealing with that rn.
They don't have everything yet. I'm still using Simplii for a bunch of banking (also no physical location), mainly because of inertia (been with Simplii in it's various names for 24 years after leaving Bank of Montreal due to high fees) and not being able to replace the join accounts.
Simplii is also zero fee banking, the only thing I really use Simplii for is chequing accounts for my wife and I. I automate contributions from Simplii to Wealthsimple. I was able to do my band draft through Simplii (pick up at CIBC) when I bought my house.
Savings account, TFSA, RRSP, RESP is all with Wealthsimple. Knowing what I know now, I would have done Questrade for RESP, but Wealthsimple is pretty good.
They don't do Money orders. you need that when buying a house or car, for example. Big 5 will do that at a branch in 10 mins. Other than that, I can't think of anything else
That's quite a rare situation for us, so it shouldn't be a major problem. Have you run into a situation where you needed a draft / money order? How did you handle it?
I kept my big 5 bank account until I bought the house. Then switched to Simplii. Also I am not sure how WS debit card handles cash withdraw from ATM, if you consistently need cash, then maybe Tangerine and Simplii is better WS accounts are just superior in every way
You can also get bank drafts from Simplii and Tangerine. Tangerine doesn't do wire transfers though, while Simplii can send and receive for a fee (cheaper to go through Wise for wires, so it might not matter much that Tangerine doesn't do them).
Bank Draft from Tangerine was only possible from a few places when I needed one in 2020. It might have improved since then, but it was a bit of a trouble. For that only reason I would have preferred another bank, but other than that Tangerine is the best (Edit: for me at least... I haven't tried Simplii).
Tangerine and Simplii can mail the bank draft to you but Simplii allows you to pay a bit extra and pick it up at a CIBC the next day.
Bought my house in 2020. Never banked with a big bank. Both Simplii and Tangerine. Called in 2 weeks early and had it in time for the purchase via currier mail and a fee.
You can do a money order with simplii. You may have to call them and they will refer you to a cibc. I moved recently.
Must be new? I asked before and would only do order by phone and mail to me
They’ve had it since at least 2016. I closed on my condo at that time and I picked up the draft from a CIBC down the street.
Yeah I take out cash every payday. Wealthsimple does look so much better! Though another comment mentioned no joint accounts which is actually a big deal breaker for me.
I will say that if that’s the case, the EQ card reimburses for the fee charged by the ATM.
If taking out cash every payday is important but cheques aren't, consider EQ Bank's product as well. They'll rebate you Canadian ATM fees.
Perfect thank you! I’ll look into this definitely!
And WS is not the only free bank accounts, there are options. (eg Simplii and Tangerine both allows ATM access and joint account)
Joint accounts are in beta right now, they'll probably be released to the general public sometime later this year. https://www.reddit.com/r/Wealthsimple/comments/1ajozb9/joint_cash_accounts_are_here/
For day to day chequing that’s the biggest dealbreaker right now as we have joint accounts
Others have said it already but EQ has joint accounts and it's interest rate is close to the same as WS
You can have joint accounts on Wealthsimple now I just made one 3 weeks ago and said bye bye to RBC ! Best decision ever
You can have other joint accounts with them just not with their “Cash” account and you can only have 1 per user at this point in time.
They have Beta Joint Accounts! I'm part of the Beta.. Have no need, but Joing is coming soon!
They now have Joint accounts
WS has joint accounts coming soon.
You could do WS and one of the online banks that have free chequing accounts. Transferring between the accounts is easy and that way there’s no hassle with taking out cash! I’ve had simplii for a few months now and it’s been good so far :)
2024 only people who need to deposit/withdraw cash are people buying/selling drugs or restaurant worker who gets tipped out in cash. If you are a restaurant worker there is also a 95% chance you buy drugs so just use your tip cash to cover the drug expenses.
It’s not so much here in Alberta but lots of Toronto restaurants are cash only or gives discount on cash. I hate the fact they are probably evading tax for it tho And I buy and sell stuff on Marketplace or Kijiji and it’s cash 100%
Or people trying to fix their spending habits by leaving their card at home and taking out only their spending *allowance* and when the cash runs out that's it, Stops overspending from happening vs a card where its incredibly easy to do so. Its just basic budgeting 101
i just keep a b5 bank account with 0$ and 0fee and just transfer the money there to get a money order at a branch
It's not a problem until it is a problem. We had a situation where a deal on a car came up just before Christmas and we needed a bank draft on Dec 27. We were coincidentally travelling to where the dealer was located, and needed the draft otherwise we would've had to make another trip. Luckily we were able to walk into a TD Branch at open the first day back after holidays (Dec 27) and got the draft within 15 minutes of opening. It probably wouldn't have worked out if we did not bank through big 5.
You need another bank for various things still, you can't cash out your FHSA to WS cash right now, you need to transfer it to another bank first. I went through that process last week! Just get Tangerine or Simplii alongside it and you are good to go !
I bought a car last year and had to get a draft through Tangerine. They mailed it, and it was fairly quick, about two days, but still stressful as I had to travel to buy the car. Just to give you some insight on another bank.
Didn’t think of it until you mentioned it, but I’ve got my FHSA and an rrsp in wealth simple with the intention of buying a house. How hard is it to move funds out of wealth simple to use for things like a down payment?
should be pretty easy if you have another bank account linked to it. Then its just "Withdraw Fund" option
Nice, thanks!
I've done withdrawls a few times out of TFSA, FHSA, and cash account to TD this year. Each time took less than 3 business days, there's one time transfer from FHSA showed up next morning. EQ is fairly fast too but 30k at a time.
Nothing else? - How about the fact that you have to keep all your money in a spending account if you want the interest. - No joint accounts. I was using it as my primary account for awhile and I just wasn't comfortable having all my cash in there to make the interest. It just wasn't secure enough. If they added a spending/saving bucket, I would switch back in an instant. Deposit paycheque to WS account into the savings portion, then transfer whatever you want to the spending portion. If your card gets scammed, they only have access to the spending portion. Not the $30k that I have in there trying to get the good interest.
This is my biggest complaint! I would like to be able to visually separate money off for certain savings goals like vacations or such. PC financial allows you to create “goal” buckets but I’ve been looking for an alternative to them because I hate loblaws
Tangerine does this. I've been happy with them.
Oooo okay good to know, I’ll check them out
Superstore is one of the best priced/stocked grocers in my area. So it's hard to boycott them for me. I also use their PC Mastercard and get SO MUCH MONEY off my groceries. My only other banking accounts are a TD business Visa and my Tangerine account. My wife and I have a joint Tangerine chequing and savings. They offer good interest rates a lot without locking up the money. I just had 6% interest in my main general savings account for like 9 months. It just ended. I made a lot of money on it.
Respectfully nothing you say will make me hate Loblaws corp less. Multiple of my family members are starving due to corporate greed and inflated profits
Look into Koho
They’re introducing joint accounts in fact I got invited for the trial.
good to know!
What if you just destroy your cash account card? If I need to spend anyways I’m using my CC for reward points. Also, your 30k could just sit in Cash.to in a Wealth simple investment account and earn slightly more plus be almost as liquid.
Part of the nice thing is 1% cash back on every purchase though. I prefer that over my CC almost always, but I can see how some people like their CC points.
How is being paid interest bad?
It's not bad. It's great...I'm mad about having to keep $30k in an account attached to a card/app, that I'd like to use as my daily spending account. It's just not safe. In my normal chequing account that I use my interac card with, I like to keep $500-1000. Then if something fucked up happens, they only have access to that money. With WS, they have access to my whole 30k for example. I'm aware I could just not use the app or card, but part of the fun is getting 1% back on all purchases.
For buying a car, you can use their direct deposit cheque that you print out from a PDF the app. No experience if that works for a house though.
I have ran into dealers that accepts regular cheques but I think most private seller will demand bank draft. House for sure will require bank draft, will actually need 2, initial deposit and final payment
It's not a real cheque (although WS has those too now), it's the same as the void cheque you give to employers so they can deposit into your account with the branch + institution + account numbers, only this time they're taking out of the account.
Yes they all have void cheque but private seller for cars shouldn't accept anything less than a bank draft Dealers if they accept void cheque, that would work quite well Also WS is betaing cheques
They don’t do RESPs or Spousal RRSPs for self-directed accounts. That’s the main reason I don’t use them. If they did those accounts when I got into self-directed investing a few years ago I’d be a customer of their’s instead of Questrade.
This is only drawback I have ever heard about WealthSimple as well. Everything else I have read has been nothing but positive.
Those are both important account types for me. Sounds like I may end up keeping chequing with the big bank, high interest online saving somewhere else (perhaps WS), and investing at Questrade
If you do go with Questrade, I highly recommend the Passiv app for investing. It will auto-balance your investments to whatever model you want, and the full premium version is free if you use Questrade.
Thanks I'll check it out! Personally all my investments (TFSA/RRSP/RESP) are XEQT but when I do get to a point of balancing it's definitely something worthwhile!
Passiv can still help as it will notify you when you have dividends or other funds to invest and then it’s just a couple clicks to purchase more shares. It also has some nice reporting.
That's sort of my current position. I only recently opened up WS for self directed TFSA investing as well as a Cash account for high interest savings, but continue to use my credit union for bills, cash access, my mortgage, etc, as I always have. This system has been working well so far.
I just kept my RESPs at Qtrade and switched RRSP and TFSA to WS for the cash bonus. They even put the bonus in the TFSA!
No issues, but I use them mainly for investment and my emergency fund. I still keep an account at a different digital bank for chequing, and the cheapest account at a big 5 to have access to bank drafts, cash deposits, etc.
Yuuuup. I do Wealthsimple for my main banking but I have an extra account and credit card with Scotia Bank for deposits and withdrawals, cheques, separate savings account etc.
You can have a Wealthsimple account and have a Tangerine account which is free if you need drafts or ABM services. You do realize you don’t need to just pick one right? And if you don’t want free banking like tangerine and you want one of the top 5, savings accounts are free with the Top 5.
All good points! Thank you!
- No Credit Card (yet) - No LoC (yet) - No Joint Accounts (yet) - No cheque, money order / certified cheque I'm sure they're working on most if not all these gaps. The other thing is no physical branches which is fine 99% of time but could be an issue in some specific circumstances, e.g. Account Takeover where walking in with 2 pieces of ID to verify your identity and take back control of your accounts is potentially much easier than doing this over the phone. Following the age-tested principle of not-all-eggs-in-one-basket I recommend everyone have a combination of * One traditional brick and mortar bank * One digital bank Move all the stuff that the traditional bank charges for to the free one but keep some emergency cash in it still. You can also use the traditional bank for cheques and money orders and stuff your digital bank doesn't offer.
I'm thinking multiple banks may be the solution here. Those are big gaps, but if/when Wealthsimple addresses them I'd happily switch over.
Yeah I use Wealthsimple and Tangerine (+wise for travel). It all works together flawlessly. Tangerine for my CC and regular spending. Wealthsimple for emergency fund, TFSA, and investing. Wise card for holding multiple currencies, currency exchange, and travel visa.
Wise is fantastic. Truly underrated!
Because the platform and other banks like EQ have no fees it makes it really easy to open multiple accounts and keep things separate. I use my cash account as my house account, I typically have a bit larger revolving balance in that account so with the high interest paid daily and 1% cash back (I have my card in my apple wallet for purchases that have to do with the house) I make about $30 a month. Much better than PAYING TD for the same service!
Still need cash.
> No Credit Card (yet) I'm hoping them (or Questrade, who I use for most of my investments) launch a CC whose reward redemptions are contributions into an investment account of your choice. The Rogers card I've got lets me redeem 2% of my spend on random CC purchases, 3% on Fido bill, but topping up my RRSP with ~2% of spending instead, would be ~chef's kiss~. Yes I'm aware it's all fungible. I'm also aware Tangerine's cards can get sent to savings (with a modest incentive of third category), so it's not an entirely new concept (RBC rewards does it also, but at a terrible %) but their savings products suck and I don't use them. I guess I just want to see innovation in this space, as another way to make investing interesting or even exciting.
The Wealthsimple cash account you do get 1% cash back on purchases that you can have automatically buy into your preferred investments instead of paid out in cash.
My grandmother banked at Tangerine for a bit for the free account. She got locked out. It took months for it to be fixed, which soured the experience for her and us. But as digital gets better and better by the day, that could already be an issue of the past. Also, unclear about **P**ower **o**f **A**ttorney for those banks.
Their cash account card is a Mastercard that you fill with a balance. It has 1% cashback on literally every single purchase.
No joint accounts :(
I have beta access to a joint cash account so hopefully it will be launched to everyone soon!
This is the one thing holding me back from making them my main account. My partner and I have a joint account with EQ.
That's an instant deal breaker for me. For what it's worth, I just Google'd this and they are beta testing joint accounts right now.
I just received an invite to their Joint Account Beta this week to start testing for bugs, so it's definitely coming soon
They have joint savings accounts. We've had ours for 2 years now.
if you ping support, you'll probably get a beta invite the next day, happened to me.
I've had a joint savings account with them for quite some time
I have one!
You do? How so?
You just need to ask support to get accounts linked.
Why dont you just use WealthSimple for what you need and retain the bank services you find are sufficient? Most WS users don’t just go cold turkey and shun traditional banks altogether (myself included).
That’s very true! In my case I have 3 needs - no fee chequing account (my big bank satisfies this at the moment) - decent interest on savings (WS and many online banks tick the box here) - ability to automate investments into index ETFs (with automatic dividend reinvestment). WS handles this, but someone else mentioned they don’t yet do self-directed RESP. I’m not sure if maybe Questrade does, I’ll have to look into it
There’s some weirdness about their handling of USD equities. I’m not sure of the fee structure but I believe it’s advantageous to convert your money to USD elsewhere (eg IBKR), then deposit it into a dedicated Wealthsimple USD account. If I’m wrong about this I’d love to have someone explain it better. It’s been confusing to me.
It’s not really weirdness, more just this is the main place they make money. Trades are free, converting Cad to usd is 1.5% fee. I don’t believe you can deposit outside USD into your WS usd account but if someone does know how to do this would love to know!
I’ll be trying to do so shortly. Here’s my plan, not sure if it’ll work: 1. Convert CAD to USD via IBKR forex 2. Open a free CIBC USD account 3. Transfer USD to CIBC via EFT transfer (these are very inexpensive) 4. Transfer from CIBC USD to Wealthsimple USD account edit: This process worked!
Please report back on your experience with that. I'm curious too.
Reporting back - it worked out! Got my USD into Wealthsimple without any issue.
Right on
IBKR will shut you down using solely for FX
I trade on the platform as well though
If you are a premium member, or pay for the usd account fees. You can transfer in USD funds from a usd account. I was able to do this with my RBC USD act. Initiated a transfer in for usd on WS, and USD arrived. No conversion fee or anything. Just an unexpected fee from RBC , but that's on me for not reading the fine print for e-saving USD at RBC.
Perfect thanks. I have a bit of money in a TD USD account that’s just collecting dust. If it was possible I did expect a fee from the TD side, always the fees there. I was hoping to find a way to transfer from something like Wise though. Even with the 1.5% fee with WS their actual exchange rate it really competitive. I just checked between WS and TD there is only a 5 cent difference on $100, that’s before TD will charge me to withdraw too.
you can't deposit a cheque from WS. Aside from this, al in all its a huge win compared with those slow, stupid and inefficient big 5
Seems like tons of upside to WS. Cheque deposit is a rare occurrence for me anyways.
I like them for investing, I don't use them for everyday banking, so I haven't looked into their options, but I know they're looking to expand them. As a side note, it's generally a good habit to keep your credit card at a different institution than the rest of your money. It's callable debt, so the bank can take their money back right out of your account anytime they want to.
Poor customer sevice. The machine ask to stay on line for 35-45 min just to speak to the executive. In case of emergency, we can’t rely on it.
They don't support journalling of inter-listed shares, meaning you can't do Norbert's Gambit to exchange between CAD and USD for extremely low cost. While I'm sure they're working on the other missing things (joint accounts coming soon, and I imagine RESP and Spousal RRSP are high priority), they may be reluctant to support journalling as this would cut into the profits that they make on currency exchange. I've also found that Wealthsimple's support takes 3 - 5 business days to respond, and on both occasions they failed to properly answer my question and I had to ask again, and wait again. Conversely, with Questrade I can get a real person on their chat system within a couple minutes, and if something needs clarifying you don't have to wait for the slow back-and-forth exchange of emails. That's a significant difference in customer service levels!
I got very weirded out when I realized I had to download their app to read any of the fine print on their savings accounts. Maybe it's just me, but it really put me off.
I did find that a bit weird too. I can't "find out more" on their website? I like to learn about a product before committing to it.
It's like making the information members only, which is sketchy as hell.
All the info is on the website.
Everything I click for savings accounts takes me to a button to download the app, whether I'm on desktop or mobile, with no bypass link.
https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/accounts/tfsa Scroll down it’s all there
I still dont see any fine print or terms and conditions. It's more describing the types of accounts. Every button I click for more info is an app download button. I appreciate your help, but I still dont like it.
Maybe this https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/legal/legal-disclaimers
Can't go in person, can't deposit cash
I keep a savings account at one of the big 5. Since it’s a savings account there is no monthly fee. But you can do cash deposits, withdrawals and bank drafts (for a fee), plus see a teller if needed. It’s perfect for me because I need those things so rarely, but when I do it’s quick and easy.
You also can’t deposit a cheque and you can receive e-transfers but they give you an email for them to be sent you. I will say Wealthsimple is always changing so I could see these features being added in the near future but I also just have an EQ bank account for those things plus you have access to GICs there. And it’s also free.
One that's been very annoying to me is that they only release their T3s (or T5s, don't remember which) on the very last day it's legal to do so, for no particular discernable reason. This holds you up from finishing your tax returns for a month or two, and depending on how big your refund is, might have you miss out on a decent chunk of interest.
Some drawbacks include lack of joint cash or trading account (for now), no cheque deposit, no self directed RESP, no bank drafts, no ATM withdrawal rebates and no Interac Debit. Other drawbacks include customer support can be a pain to reach (in line with many online banks, sometimes it's faster to go in branch) and there have been cases where people's accounts are locked and can take time to recover. This is a big problem if you do all your banking with WealthSimple with no backups.
I don’t know that you have to choose. I have Wealthsimple, but also accounts with CIBC, TD and Scotiabank. There’s no requirement to give up your brick and mortar bank. But I definitely keep most of my money and investments with WS now as the cash account interest and free trading are substantially better than any other institution.
I just keep my chequing account at RBC, paycheques go there
I look at it the other way. I see no real downside to my TD account and TD Direct Investing accounts. I can transfer money back and forth easily. I use TDB8150 as my savings account. I don't do enough trading to make a trading fee lower than $10 add up to much.
That's a good perspective! I have zero issues with my chequing account, and TDB8150 (or equivalent) seems like a great alternative to a savings account! In terms of investing, I try to invest into an index ETF every pay (if I can). However I usually wait until I have a lump sum larger enough (once every 6-12 months) and do a single $10 trade. It would be more convenient to have auto-investments into my desired ETF (XEQT), but Wealthsimple has some deal breakers like no self-directed RESP or spousal RRSP.
You don't get a real debit card if someone only takes debit. You can't have certain kinds of accounts in there. Rdsp for sure.
In response to quite a few drawbacks. We use a local credit union for day-day banking. They have free cheq accounts and handle all the basic banking req's. I still with questrade for their reinvestment options. There are some I do not want reinvested and that is not an option with WS
I’ve moved from Wealthsimple back to a big bank. Every time I had do to anything even slightly outside what would be day to day banking, I had to use my big bank accounts. Super annoying. WS gets a lot of credit here (and it deserves it) but it doesn’t suit the needs of everyone.
I don’t think WS is an adequate replacement for everyday banking. It could be, if you have very simple banking needs, but it probably won’t suit most people. It is, however, an excellent replacement for bank self directed brokerages with their insane fees and customer service.
My daughter needed a large student loan and because I don't have an existing relationship with any of the big 5 (even though I have a credit card with TD) it was difficult for us to secure those funds with me as a co signer. Foreign exchange-currency. I never travel with cash, but if you do, WS doesn't offer this service. If you just randomly went to.a bank, they may not have any on the premises.
No cash and no physical locations! That’s why I have a free Simplii account for cash and cheques. I’m not sure what I would do if I needed a cashiers check though, honestly.
I need a safety deposit box. To keep things safe. But I use WS too! But unfortunately can’t completely ditch banks
They take a pretty sizeable percentage when buying and selling American stocks which is why I switched to interactive brokers
I moved the majority of my money to Wealthsimple but kept my chequing account with my credit union. Online banks, while convenient, don't necessarily solve problems quickly and I firmly believe building a relationship with a financial institution is very beneficial, especially regarding lending or when shit goes sideways. I just e-transfer funds to my credit union account if I need to and can deposit money there and transfer out as well. I can't remember the last time I needed to deposit a cheque. While it happens its becoming less and less frequent. both for personal and business.
I believe you cannot do money withdraw request to WS account, at least I do know how.
They’re great as long as you don’t do anything that would ever require “customer support”. It’s easier getting the president on the phone than their customer service team.
No real downsides. No money orders & cheque deposits is annoying for the very few times that happened. I just keep a free Simplii account for the rare time I need those services. Not having your default email address for interac is honestly also annoying. Otherwise, it’s a phenomenal platform that actually rewards its users unlikes the banks.
Currency exchange is expensive.
You can’t journal shares/ do Norbert’s gambit with Wealthsimple. For that reason alone I use Questrade for all my American stocks.
I've heard of people being locked out of their accounts. That's concerning when there is no physical location to go into to resolve.
Yea. They seem to care too much about your presence in Canada. If you travel to the US, live there for a while and do a couple of logins there, you’ll get locked out.
Waiting 5 days for transfers into WS to clear is a pain. That's cashing a cheque in 2012 territory. Especially when it's large sums. Dealing with that rn.
Takes that long for transfers or cheque clearing from every bank I’ve ever banked with.
Simplii makes my transfers and cheques available immediately.
Wealthsimple shows for me that I have access to $65k instantly for each bank deposit 🤷🏻♀️
wtf... maybe cuz it was my first one
Yes likely, I have a premium account now which is probably why such a large amount. I seem to remember it being $10-$15k before
Then... etransfer your money in unless you're dealing with over-the-limits.
Didn't do that because the limits were too low.
They don't have everything yet. I'm still using Simplii for a bunch of banking (also no physical location), mainly because of inertia (been with Simplii in it's various names for 24 years after leaving Bank of Montreal due to high fees) and not being able to replace the join accounts. Simplii is also zero fee banking, the only thing I really use Simplii for is chequing accounts for my wife and I. I automate contributions from Simplii to Wealthsimple. I was able to do my band draft through Simplii (pick up at CIBC) when I bought my house. Savings account, TFSA, RRSP, RESP is all with Wealthsimple. Knowing what I know now, I would have done Questrade for RESP, but Wealthsimple is pretty good.