TD Waterhouse Discount Brokerage (Canada) has announced that it will lower the standard flat rate commission fee for buy and sell orders from $29 down to $9.99 for clients with household assets of at least $50,000. Changes take effect on November 4th, 2010.
Previously, clients had to hold at least $100,000 in assets at Waterhouse to be eligible for the $9.99 trades. But as consumer advocate and finance columnist Ellen Roseman has pointed out, with the newly competitive environment in online trading and with many clients’ portfolios having been cut down to size during the financial crisis, TD Waterhouse may have realized that it too needs to become more competitive on the commissions front.
New Fees at TD Waterhouse Brokerage
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The “catch” if there is one is that the $9.99 applies only to online and automated telephone trades. You must also be enrolled in e-services, i.e., you must receive your statements online as well. Frankly, it’s a fine trade off and incentive for going paperless and saving on human resources more generally.
Strictly speaking, fees haven’t been lowered, but the asset ceiling for qualifying for the lower rates has. This is a welcome change. It will now take you half as much time to accumulate enough assets to qualify for these cheaper trades.
Why TD Waterhouse still hasn’t matched for Canadians the deals it gives its clients south of the border, though – that’s a great question and one I hope won’t always have to be asked. Whose bank is this, anyway?
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I have gotten two stories on this The Bank says you qualify because of your powerline , mortgages RRSP but Waterhouse says you need to have 50000 in cash in your Waterhouse account it is separate from your holdings at the bank.
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