Wealthsimple review 2023
This Toronto-based fintech continues to attract Canadian investors with its low-fee robo-advisor, discount brokerage and money management services.
This Toronto-based fintech continues to attract Canadian investors with its low-fee robo-advisor, discount brokerage and money management services.
Photo by Helena Lopes from Unsplash
Since launching in 2014, Wealthsimple has developed a strong reputation for offering online, easy-to-use, low-fee financial services. It’s come a long way since its humble beginnings exclusively as a robo-advisor (now known as Invest, having branched out its services to include a discount brokerage (formerly its own app called Wealthsimple Trade), spending and saving accounts with a prepaid rewards debit card (Cash), and an online tax filing service (Wealthsimple Tax). Which, if any, of these services are right for you? Here’s what you need to know about investing or trading with Wealthsimple, including its various product offerings, how it works, and their associated fees.
If you’ve used Wealthsimple in the past or used some of its products, know that while Invest, Trade and Cash were offered under separate apps, they’re now all part of just one Wealthsimple app—which has made the user experience more convenient. Only Wealthsimple Tax maintains a separate app/platform.
Open a Wealthsimple Invest account*
Both Wealthsimple Invest and Wealthsimple Trade are excellent low-fee investment options. Choosing between the two services comes down to three factors:
If you aren’t interested in choosing your own investments, Invest is Wealthsimple’s robo-advisor, and it could be the way to go for you. Once you create an account, you’ll be recommended with one of three diversified portfolios of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on suitability factors such as your financial goals and risk tolerance.
Recently, it launched a high interest savings portfolio, which currently yields about 4.38%. It’s an ETF that parks money in high interest savings accounts with Canadian banks.
With the robo-advisor option—also known as “managed investing”—pretty much everything is on autopilot once you fund your account. You can set up pre-authorized transfers to invest on a regular basis.
You should know, though, even if you want to alter or tweak your portfolio in any way, you won’t be able to do this. If your aim is to pay as little as possible in fees and you’d like to choose your own ETFs, stocks and/or want to invest in cryptocurrency, Trade may be better for you.
Wealthsimple Invest charges two types of fees:
Wealthsimple Trade’s fees depend on the type of investments you choose:
The one exception to stock and ETF fees with Wealthsimple is a 1.5% foreign exchange conversion fee for investing in U.S. equities. That’s because you can only hold Canadian currency in your account under the basic plan. You can avoid this fee by subscribing to the “plus plan” for $10 a month, which lets you hold U.S. dollars in your account.
Read our reviews for Wealthsimple Invest and Wealthsimple Trade below for more information about their fees and services in general.
A technology-driven, easy-to-use, and low-cost investment service launched in 2014–has three main offerings. Here’s a look at each.
The robo-advisor service from Wealthsimple is ideal for novice investors or those who are not comfortable managing their own investment portfolio. The algorithm recommends a portfolio for you based on your financial goals and risk tolerance.
Clients spend a few minutes answering questions online about their comfort level with risk, age and investment goals. Your answers determine which portfolio is recommended: Conservative, balanced or growth. There are also SRI and Halal investment options, as noted above. Recently, Wealthsimple has added two more options: a high interest savings portfolio (yielding 4.38%) and a private credit fund which targets a yield of 9%.
You can put your investments into many different types of accounts, including registered, such as RRSPs, TFSAs, RESPs, non-registered accounts and more.
In terms of cost, Wealthsimple Invest’s fees are as follows:
So, depending on the size of your portfolio and the types of ETFs you hold, the total fees could range from about 0.5% to 1% per year—calculated daily and charged monthly.
What does that look like? You’d pay about $250 to $500 in annual fees for a $50,000 portfolio.
Open a Wealthsimple Invest account* >
For those who want to lower the costs of investing even further—and who are also interested in building their own portfolios with select ETFs, stocks and cryptocurrencies—Wealthsimple’s discount brokerage service is an appealing option. That’s because all its ETF and stock purchases, sales and trades are free of charge. (You still pay the management fees, or MERs, on ETF holdings, as explained above.) Crypto trades and purchases include a price spread (1.5% to 2% per transaction), but there are no extra fees on top of that, and there’s no fee to deposit or withdraw coins.
Wealthsimple clients make their transactions online using a mobile app and can hold their portfolios in four account types: personal (non-registered), TFSA, RRSP and crypto.
Canadian investors using this service can buy ETFs and stocks listed on the NYSE, NASDAQ, TSX, TSX-V, Cboe and CSE exchanges. There are also limited securities available on the BATS Exchange.
On the plus side, fractional shares are available through Wealthsimple Trade, which makes it easy to purchase stocks even with relatively small amounts of money. And from a cost perspective, free trades are hard to beat, given that some other discount brokerages charge up to $10 a transaction.
Wealthsimple says earnings come primarily from a 1.5% currency exchange fee, which includes a spread, charged on Canadian-to-U.S. dollar conversions (and vice-versa). The currency conversion is necessary when trading U.S.-listed securities in the basic account.
Alternatively, there’s a premium $10-per-month plan, called Wealthsimple Trade Plus, which lets you hold U.S. currency in your RRSP, TFSA or personal account. With its Plus account, in addition to commission-free trading, you’ll be able to buy and sell U.S. stocks without the worry of foreign exchange (FX) fees.
Open a Wealthsimple Trade account* >
Wealthsimple Cash is a spending and saving service with a cash-back rewards Mastercard. It provides a secure way to send and receive money with no account or transaction fees and no exchange fees on foreign transactions (aside from the currency conversion itself). You can send or receive up to $5,000 per day, with no limit on the number of transactions and no security questions (you’ll get two-factor authentication for added security).
Additionally, apart from using Interac to transfer money, you can use Cash to send and receive money from other people on the app, by simply sharing your unique handle with them. Unlike some other services for sending and receiving money, Wealthsimple Cash doesn’t require a phone number or email address, so you don’t need to give out your personal information.
You can get a Wealthsimple Cash Mastercard in digital (on your phone) and physical form (in your wallet). With this card, you can make everyday purchases and withdraw funds from ATMs. And what’s more? You earn 1% cash back in the asset of your choosing: stocks, crypto, or cash. The card is essentially a prepaid/secured Mastercard card, so you can use it online or in stores wherever Mastercard is accepted. It is compatible with Apple and Google Pay.
You Cash account is available on the Wealthsimple app and is quick and easy to setup. You’ll have access to a virtual Wealthsimple card immediately, and a physical card will be mailed to you.
Making Wealthsimple’s Cash offer even more attractive is a 4% interest rate currently being offered for deposits of over $100,000—and this isn’t a promotional rate. Funds in a Wealthsimple Cash account are protected by the Canadian Insurance Deposit Corporation (CDIC) up to specified limits. You can even get free cash for inviting your friends to use the app.
Wealthsimple is an online Canadian financial services provider that offers a suite of low-fee and easy-to-use products including investing, trading, spending and saving. Its suite of services includes a robo-advisor that offers beginners—or investors who prefer to be hands-off with their investments—a choice of three investment portfolios to suit their risk tolerance and financial goals. For DIY investors and traders who want to be hands on with their investments, Wealthsimple offers a discount online brokerage on which investors can trade stocks, ETFs and options. To sweeten the deal for customers, they now also offer spending and saving accounts (Wealthsimple Cash), with a cash back debit card.
Millennial entrepreneur and self-described “boring investor” Michael Katchen launched Wealthsimple in September 2014 as a low-cost, low-effort approach to investing. Since then, CEO Katchen has seen his company transform from a humble Toronto start-up to the largest online-only financial services company in Canada, with more than 2 million clients, $15 billion in assets under management and an international office in New York.
Wealthsimple is primarily owned by Power Corporation of Canada, under the subsidiary Power Financial. The nearly 100-year-old international management and holding company has over $470 billion in assets, including Power Financial, IGM and Pargesa and focuses on insurance, retirement, wealth management and investment businesses, including a portfolio of alternative asset investment platforms. Described as a “Canadian financial giant,” Power Financial also has majority stakes in Great-West Lifeco and Portag3.
The short answer is: Yes. But it’s important that your money be invested in a way that suits your financial goals and risk tolerance. And that’s the case with whichever investment service you choose. Wealthsimple is built to cater to a wide set of clients, so if you don’t need that one-on-one care, but want a simple way to create and build a portfolio with little to no maintenance, then it could be for you.
Another positive: Your Wealthsimple investment accounts are eligible for protection by the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF), meaning that if Wealthsimple Investments Inc. goes out of business, securities and cash missing from those accounts (not market losses) are eligible for up to $1 million in losses per account type. Wealthsimple Investments Inc. is a member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada.
Wealthsimple is best known for its robo-advisor service, which is a “set-it-and-forget-it” service of low-fee portfolios built using ETFs called Invest. (It was its own app called Wealthsimple Invest, but now can be accessed on the Wealthsimple app under Invest.)
In a nutshell, most ETFs allow you to invest your money across an entire market—such as Canadian stocks, US stocks, high yield bonds, Canadian real estate investment trusts (REITs), etc.—instead of trying to pick and choose the winning companies in each market.
In this way, Wealthsimple provides an easy solution for clients to diversify their portfolios and earn decent returns on their investments over the long term, while taking on the amount of risk that’s appropriate for their investment goals and time horizon.
The company’s other main offerings include a discount brokerage. Again, Wealthsimple Trade is no longer a separate app, but is called Trade. It is a service that allows DIY investors to purchase stocks, ETFs, options and cryptocurrency; and Wealthsimple Cash, which includes spending accounts, saving accounts and a cash back debit card that lets you send, spend or receive money instantly with no fees and 1% back in stock, crypto, or cash on all purchases.
(See above for how each of these services works—and how much they cost).
Wealthsimple clearly makes it easy to invest, trade and manage your cash, with no required minimum amounts, no transaction fees, no trading fees, a user-friendly website and app, and human experts available to help at any time.
There are, however, a few considerations to keep in mind:
Wealthsimple clearly makes it easy to invest, trade and manage your money, with no required minimum amounts, no transaction fees, no trading fees, a user-friendly website and app, and real-life experts available to help.
There are, however, a few considerations to keep in mind:
For Wealthsimple Cash, the no-fee aspect (including no exchange fees on foreign transactions) and 1% back in stock, crypto, or cash on all purchases is appealing. And would-be investors who might otherwise endlessly procrastinate on setting up a portfolio will benefit big-time from Wealthsimple’s robo-advisor service. Investing in a diversified portfolio of low-fee ETFs has historically returned more than bank interest over the long term and is a simple and effective way to keep the purchasing power of your savings from being eroded by inflation.
Similarly, DIY investors who want to buy and trade ETFs and stocks will undoubtedly save money on fees with their commission-free trading service.
On the other hand, managed portfolio clients with larger portfolios may want to consider other robo-advisors that may offer lower fees, and DIY investors who want more investment and account options may consider other discount brokers.
But there’s no question Wealthsimple has a lot going for it.
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Wealthsimpletrade is great, but they do have one major flaw, and for me it’s to big to ignore. There deposit of funds. Takes way to long, 6 days it took and this has happened on different occasions with them. Even though I’ve emailed them on this they keep saying it’s 2-3 days. The confirmation email that they send out that there is a deposit happening says 3-days. When you read it it gives you a date saying when the deposit is available and you do the math it’s 5-days. So to me they don’t have a handle on this deposit of funds.
By the end of day-6 the funds finally showed up in my account. That to me is way to long of a transfer. In these days and times of technology it should only be a day at tops.
There are tons of issues with WealthSimple Trade. I will refrain from listing them here and instead will just share my own nerve racking experience. I consider myself as a knowledgeable trader/investor and have used a number of platforms/brokers available in Canada in the past.
I thought I knew, well in advance, what I was getting myself into with WealthSimple when I decided to set up account with them. My plan was to use the app as an order taker (that is what it is good for) with limit orders and trading leveraged etf’s on CAD markets only (this is to achieve 0% fee trades). During the month of May I was accumulating a position in HGD (CAD 2x leveraged gold miners bear etf). On Monday, May 25, the etf went through a reverse split. So, for every 2 shares held 1 share will be issued instead and price adjustments are made to reflect it. Usually, with any other broker I have used in the past such position will reflect the change automatically pretty much the same day the change took place. Apparently, this is not how WealthSimple operates. On Monday, May 25, when i logged into my account to check on my position and to verify that the change was applied my position was show as N/A. I called WealthSimple to inquire about this situation and to find out how soon I will have updated position available to me. Well, i was absolutely gobsmacked to learn that apparently it takes 3-5 business days for their clearing broker to readjust the position. I have tried to escalate this issue with them, but had no success. Can you imagine being “forcefully” locked in a trade for 3-5 business days while your ticker is trading and you have no way of getting out of that trade? The trade is not halted. I did everything as per my research and trading plan and hit my target to sell for profit. Today is Wednesday, May 27, I am watching how my profits are disappearing and there is nothing I can do about this. If this matter is not resolved immediately I might even experience a loss on my trade. Ironically, they still offer that same repriced etf available to trade, but my position is locked until their clearing brokers make adjustment.
Once my situation is resolved I am definitely closing my account with them. I would rather pay a fee per trade than go through this nonsense ever again. I guess it just, once again, confirms the saying that “there is no free cheese”.
A few problems faced are:
-the app doesn’t have a smart contract option
– the historic data shows no values in the graph
wealthsimple’s system has a severe delay when you set and cancel auto-deposit, and they don’t even email you when they transfer money from my bank after you cancel the auto-deposit. this happened to me and caused me a $49 penalty charged by my bank. I have to say their system is obviously flawed and misleading.
Stay away….
Better to pay a fee and get professionalisms and service.
I was working with my wife to get her RRSP away from a very restrictive high fee account at a bank so we triggered a transfer and the app said it was going to take 2 months so she canceled. Via a ticket wealthsimple confirmed it was canceled and we called the bank to suspend the action.
Wealthsimple did the transfer anyways and 26k of our money is in limbo.
The agent at wealth simple did nothing to help but our bank has launched an investigation and is moving working to help where the can and have reassured my wife.
My wife is afraid to invest and will never invest again with huge Damage to her investor confidence.
The moral of the store is pay your fees because when things go bad a bank will have your back.
Article missed two key Cons for WealthSimple:
-Deposit processing time takes longer than other brokerages. When you make a deposit to Wealthsimple manually, it takes up to 3 business days for the deposit to appear in your account to be used for investments. Consequently, with a brokerage like Questrade, after your initial deposit ANY deposit you make will be processed and ready the next business day prior to market open, typically.
I see other commenters have said it taken even longer than 3 business days- this is abhorrent. No other brokerage takes nearly as long.
-NO OPTIONS TRADING. WealthSimple does NOT serve stock options in any way, shape, or form, and does NOT plan to add such trading to their services.
I am not sure about the comment regarding Wealthsimple Trade and the 1.5% US$ conversion fee making it too expensive to use.
Doesn’t every Bank and brokerage firm charge a fee or spread on US$ exchanges ? If you are buying and holding a US investment for the long term, I’m not sure that this fee will have much impact on investment returns.
My experience so far with Wealthsimple has been terrible so far. I applied for a trade account, registered for a trade account, was accepted with a trade account, but because I used my computer to fund my account – they started a Wealthsimple invest account for me, and deposit all my money into a robo fund that I didn’t ask for. When I asked for help, they did confirm that I applied for a trade account, but because I used my computer (and not the app) to fund my account (I do this for security reasons) my money was put into a robo investment.
I can’t transfer that money into my trade account and would need to withdraw the amount (and loose my TFSA amount and get charged a fee).
So be very careful on how you use or fund your account or Wealthsimple will decide what to do with your money without your consent.
Does it take long for the funds to clear? Yes. But once the money is in the account it’s free to trade! People complaining about the time are are just trying to get in and get out on a quick tip. If the money goes in for a longer term investment, then dividends can be used to buy single shares and increase your portfolio at no extra cost. Think of it as a DRIP for all your shares at no cost! 1.5% exchange rate? No problem! Buying a single $50 share costs $.75 to buy…much cheaper than the $10 and exchange rate at my discount broker.
I want to close my account and NO i do not want to making telephone call to speak with agent and beg for closing!!! This should be simple procedure. Wealthsimple is making this really complicated!
Wanted to try out Wealthsimple. While this may turn out to be a profitable experience and a pleasant ride based on all the positive reviews I have seen, my first two weeks has been a time wasting and frustrating experience. The overall website is not clear enough about the functioning of the two main products, Trade and Invest. I wound up with a Trade account and before I discovered that I did not need another self-managed trade account I had sent $10000 there for a try out. It will take me 2 weeks to get the $ back into my bank account. Meanwhile I transferred another $10000 into a newly opened Invest Account a week ago and it has taken that long to get an intake interview to decide on a portfolio including time thereafter to actually invest my initial deposit into an ETF portfolio. But even today I am told by CS its invested but it doesn’t yet show in my online account APP . Snailspace in a fast moving financial world. Loss of use of $20000 for way too long So far this company rates a 2 out 10 with me.
If you check their website, Wealthsimple is NOT a member of IIROC OR CIPF.
Hi Marie,
According to their website, they are a member through their affiliated custodial broker: https://help.wealthsimple.com/hc/en-ca/articles/115000327707-Is-my-money-insured-What-would-happen-to-my-account-if-Wealthsimple-went-out-of-business-
Thanks for reading!
Wealthsimple claimed to be free commission, but that’s a lie, i am using two different brokers, actually wealthsimple is more expensive that IB, i have the live data and always observing the confirmed price from wealthsimple is at least 1 cent higher when you buy and one cent less when you sell, i don’t see any advantage to use it, not free actually, the only way to find out is when you look at the live data.
Could I set up informal trust accounts for my 5 granchildren (all under 18) Example account name ‘my name in trust for grandchild’.
Due to the large volume of comments we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond directly to each one. We invite you to email your question to [email protected], where it will be considered for a future response by one of our expert columnists. For personal advice, we suggest consulting with your financial institution or a qualified advisor.
There is a reason why their slogan is “Get rich slow” lol.
This article provides clear idea for the new people of blogging,
that really how to do blogging and site-building.
WS is sneaky. Their exchange rate is horrible compare to other banks and on top of that they add 1.5% conversion fee. Be very careful, WS is actually the most expensive broker I’ve ever been. Avoid!
DIY investors who want more options in the types of investments and accounts available to them should check out other discount brokers*. Does this mean the selection of stocks is small? Is it possible to trade options? If yes, are the costs on those options also 0? I had a nasty wake up call when some options had been assigned…the fees were about $35-$50 per contract!…I was completely unaware. I had taken an options course with HSBC and was never made aware of that side of it! Lost about $700 in one day that I had not anticipated.
Also, is there US and CDN trading in a TFSA account? and is it possible to keep US trades proceeds in US dollars, or do you have to convert to CDN each time, and lose on bank’s spread on exchange?
Due to the large volume of comments we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond directly to each one. We invite you to email your question to [email protected], where it will be considered for a future response by one of our expert columnists. For personal advice, we suggest consulting with your financial institution or a qualified advisor.
For someone like myself that wants a simple way to make some RRSP contributions maximizibg my risk level and a trade account that allows me to trade shares with very easily, in small amounts as I have some disposable income. I really like it and would recommend.
It was wild the other day a glitch increased certain shares to double so I wanted to capitalize and withdraw my sudden fortune. In fortuneatly it reset itself to the correct amounts and everything was honkeydorey.
After my first week I’m up 79%
Wish I would of started sooner. Upwards and onwards.
They are still in their trail period, avoid them till they are fully launched, else you’ll loose money. As Wealthsimple is focus towards beginners and the false claims and application problems can affect your experience in trading (stocks,crypto,etc) when you’re just starting. I should’ve read the reviews before, and now that I have it’s a must avoid as per early 2021.
I couldn’t find wealthsimple under the cipf Members directory .
Extremely long delays in bank transfers to Wealthsimple.
It took 7 business days for $300 transfer. Most of class A stocks are not listed, very limited trading options.
There is absolutely no benefit in the 0% commission as the service is very poor. Exchange rate is not at par as compared to other financial institutions.
I don’t think the comments above are correct. I have an account with WS, and I didn’t have an issue with them. The transaction is transparent and it is a subsidiary of the really large financial corporation.
They are trying to improve themselves very hard, and to build up a reputation like RobinHood in the US with the investment from its parent company, Power Corporation. They can’t commit any fraud like the comments above.
Problems with investing with Wealthsimple.,
1) outside of long transfer times, if you decide that after you receive a transfer to your account you wish to send money elsewhere, they hold the cash for 5 days…sounds like your cashing a cheque for deposit.
2) do not buy any US equities on this platform, you will get a double hit to any profit you made…FX 1.5% on buy and 1.5% on sell…this can be very costly to a daytime trader.
3) beware of a 15 minute time delay on pricing…you’ll have to go to another website to find out what is the real price of your purchase. Not sure why that is but assume they are not paying for live fed like everyone else.
4) Platform is very simple no pun intended …needs a lot of work.
So basically look at what you need as an investor then decide on this simple restrictive platform before investing.
Happy with Wealthsimple Trade.
– it is very easy to use. website and mobile app is straight forward.
– you cant beat – zero $0.00 commission fee, no maintenance fee and no minimum deposit. better edge compare to bank’s DIY investing platform.
– it has protection up to 1 million incase company went out of business. If you are thinking of investing less than 1M your money 100% safe. Wealthsimple is own by POW Power Corporation of Canada. One of my reason to trust weslthsimple. I own POW stock in my portfolio sitting at 63% profit. How i wish, i hear their trading app/platform sooner.
– people complain about their conversion fee rate. zero commision fee saved us money already. If you get lucky and invested to a high profitable stock, these conversion fees will be almost nothing.
– not sure if everyone is aware TFSA is mean for investing. Tax free up to certain contribution. TFSA account is not meant for “Day trading”.
– charts are simple as well; which is the same for most bank platforms. we can always download other trading chart apps or websites then just do your buy and sell in wealthsimpletrade.
overall its a great DIY portfolio building app especially with people who like to start with small amount of money. I hope they continue develop their website or mobile app like “etoro” where beginners have exposure to all markets in one platform such as stocks (US, CAN, Euro markets) / forex / bitcoin / commodities / indices and copytrading.
Woderful job Wealthsimple. It help me to enter in the stock market in the beginning days because of commission free unlimited trades with no any deposit limits. Nowadays i am strongly established as a daytrader in the market. Its 100% credit goes to Wealthsimple. Without Wealthsimple, my journey in the stock market was completely impossible. Its the best friend for new inversters like me. Thanks again Wealthsimple.
How is tax optimization a con?
I have been using Wealthsimple for almost 10 months now. It’s great. I wish this was around when I was younger. I’m up 98%+ all time. I have never invested in my life before this.
Two thumbs up.
Stay Away !!
Trying to deal with WS is a challenge, I am in the “WS Black” category. Here are some of the issues:
Talk: You cannot just pick up the phone and talk to someone, the wait time is “1-day”, and it automatically drops your call in 30 minutes.
Consultation: You can’t setup a call unless invited, the appointment can be 3 to 7 days in the future.
Chats: You can be waiting in the queue for hours, pray what your turns come that they don’t drop you from the chat, and no other activities (answer a voice call etc.) that can potentially drop your chat from the queue.
Cash position can be held in your account for WEEKS without it being invested.
I am pulling my investments out, hopefully, their services will improve.
Feel free to reach out to me by “reply”, I am happy to share my encounters.
If anyone is reading this – this is a warning.
Stay away from Wealth Simple.
Their long transfer times, unresponsive customer service, and lack of concern for their clients is atrocious. You’ll spend waste more time fretting over your money and where it is than actually earning through their horrible service.
Still waiting for them to find the money they “lost” 3 months ago.
3 months. 3 months and the issue still isn’t resolved.
I’m new to this whole stock market business and with some guidance from someone with much more experience, I’m doing well.
I’m a small starter and this app has been ‘simple’ for me. My initial deposit took 3 days but every other deposit (up to 250) is readily accessible to invest with immediately. If I was to deposit 1k+, I don’t think 3 days is unreasonable (and no, it didn’t take longer than that for any subsequent deposits).
I haven’t paid attention to the exchange portion of the US stocks I’ve invested in, so I’m unable to verify the comments I’ve read. I will now check though, at least for my own knowledge…
Wealthsimple- violates your rights and Canada’s laws
Wealthsimple has acquired Simple Tax – and everything went downhill! Simple Tax was a straightforward way to file federal taxes, and I always paid (it was voluntary) for the service. Now with Wealthsimple trying to harvest my data and push their products I’m sorry I’m stuck with this pushy organization whose ads dominate my tax filing and whose spam now flows to my inbox. The spam, by the way, is ILLEGAL as there is no Unsubscribe option in their mailings – a violation of Canadian law. I wrote to them to stop, but got no answer. So here I am, trying to comply with Canada’s laws by using a company that violates them. Do yourself a favour – avoid these snakes!
Yup. I only just joined WS recently. Thought I’d play around last couple of months. Watched my $650 grow a little, decided to deposit a little more. Bamm!! What do ya know? I was down $75 instantly!! Exactly the time I transferred more money to the account! Had about $250 in the crypto trade too, but decided to pull out of there. Got my money back pretty quickly with that. But, not with the WS invest account!
I’m waiting for my withdrawal back to my bank…it’s been well over a week now. Plus, they are still holding another little chunk they say I can’t withdrawal even though it’s within the timeframe allowed. They are shuffling our investments to make their money while they still have it, and leave us with less than what we invested!
Thought I’d try WS out as opposed to other big institutions, but it’s a sham. And, just as I’ve heard all along, it’s true, it takes forever for tansfers from or to your bank, and the trading app, the invest app, and even if you use the website, it’s garbage! There’s no “real time” they show so you can control your trades! I was considering using WS to buy stocks in companies I am interested and believe in, but they lost me in under just one month. Bad platform, bad practices.
I noticed WS sure puts alot of investment in their advertising of its products on TV and elsewhere, perhaps they should invest more of that in customer service. Went to the help page. What do I get? Not a real person to be had out there in WS-LAND, that’s for sure! I’m OUT!!
This app is garbage. I’ve tried multiple times to add money and it always locks me out. Now it’s got all my personal information and I don’t know how to delete it. Do you want your SIN out there to be hacked? I wanted to make some money, and the terrible user interface and uselessness of the app has cost me thousands of dollars in missed opportunities.
Hello everyone i have been scammed by online Forex Trade platform which i don’t really know when to start recovering my funds with them…
I was thinking of transferring my LIF and RRIF from IG Wealth Management, and opening a TFSA with Wealthsimple. However, I now find they are both owned by Power Corp. I should have watched my account more closely the last 10 years instead of relying on my IG investment advisor. I’m leaving IG because after investing 60% in growth McKenzie funds and 40% in income investments, my return is negligible. My 5 year average return as in the last 6 years has consistently been about 1%. I should have done my homework. Too bad I’m a slow learner. But at least I know now that I will seek out someone other than Wealthsimple. No warm fuzzies from all the bad reviews.
I am disappointed with WealthSimple. I told them that capital preservation is my top priority but they have eroded 7% of my capital in just over a year. Not good.
I find the service they offer pretty good, at least for someone new to trading. The app is a different story, though. Some of the issues include: 5-10 second lag for most inputs, for me it doesn’t load any values when the market opens at 9:30 (spike in traffic, maybe?) and all I see are the names of my holdings with no amounts or percentages. When values have loaded they are out of sync with each other which requires a separate platform like Yahoo Finance to accurately track price movements.
The CS is 50/50, I find. Some live agents are fantastic, while others are as intuitive as the virtual agents, which will likely enrage anyone with money on the line.
Conclusion:
WS has some really good perks, but the functionality of the app is so abysmal those perks don’t really mean much as you can’t bloody take advantage of them.
If they cleaned the app up a bit, maybe let another development team have a go at it, it’d be a very good choice (for beginners).
How objective is this assessment when MoneySense receives payment by promoting WS signup? Is this also why this article is posted regularly? As well, why are the reader comments on the pros and cons not incorporated into the article when it is updated, particularly when the same type of comments are provided repeatedly?