eNorthern Shuts Down - Questrade Takes Over

Canadian, DRIPs, brokers July 10th, 2008

It’s too bad, because eNorthern had really cheap prices on share certificates, which is one of the reasons I was interested in them in the first place.  Only $20.00.  I’m not sure why, but now eNorthern is closing its “doors” to new business.  Here’s what they posted on their site, if you click on “Open A New Account” (why they don’t just put it on the homepage, I’m not sure).

Notice from eNorthern:

“On or about August 1, 2008, eNorthern will wind up its online discount brokerage business.  To maintain uninterrupted access to your trading account, Questrade, Inc., a Toronto-based securities firm, will assume the role of your online broker on or about August 1, 2008.  Questrade is a member of IIROC (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada), CIPF (Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and a participating organization of the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange and the Montreal Exchange. Questrade also offers unique services such as the $4.95 stock trade and USD in RSP. For more information on Questrade, please visit www.questrade.com.

Your account will be automatically transferred to Questrade on or about August 1, 2008. In order to trade in your new Questrade account, you will need to complete and sign Questrade’s account opening documentation. Questrade will provide you with further details on this transfer after July 15, 2008.  If you do not want to transfer your account to Questrade you must inform eNorthern in writing by July 30, 2008 or inform Questrade in writing thereafter by August 31, 2008 and your account will be transferred to another brokerage without charge.  Questrade wants your transition to be as seamless as possible. Questrade has set up a special customer service team for eNorthern clients to answer any questions that you may have regarding the transition. To speak to a dedicated Questrade representative, please call 1.888.QUEST.66 (1.888.783.7866) or go to Questrade’s website to email or start a chat. To speak to an eNorthern representative please call 1-888-829-7929.  Questrade looks forward to serving all your trading needs.”

Questrade Certificate Prices Outrageously High

I keep going on about these certificate prices because they’re one of the ways you can enrol yourself in a DRIP.  Buy a share, then have it certificated.  But the certificate prices at Questrade are something like $300.  It’s like they’re really trying to discourage it for some reason - saving paper?  I doubt it.

I have my own reasons for not following the switch over to Questrade, however.  I’ve read a lot of negative word-of-mouth about their brokerage service.  Enough that I don’t want to try it.  You can always try to convince me otherwise, though.  Right now it looks like I just wouldn’t need them.  I’d go with TradeFreedom before Questrade.  What about you?  Are you really disappointed with this move by eNorthern?  I didn’t have a big account there, anyway, so it’s not going to be a real problem for me to move it out.

One less discount broker in Canada… making some of the others look even more attractive.

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Insider’s Look at Canadian ShareOwner

Canadian, brokers May 27th, 2008

If you’re a buy-and-hold investor like me, Canadian ShareOwner is perfect for you. Here are some reasons why - in addition to other great things about ShareOwner. I’ve mentioned some of these in an earlier post, but I’d like to clarify a few things and emphasize others.


Excellent Customer Service: I had to call them various times about opening my account and getting set up trading. Each time, the person on the other end was quick, helpful, and understood what I needed. No problems. They’ll walk you through stuff online. I think they’re still a relatively small firm, so take advantage of this personal treatment!

Easy Online Trading Platform: Yes, it’s simple, but you’ve already done your research. You know what stocks you want to buy. If you need a real-time quote from somewhere, just leave another browser window open to TD Waterhouse or BMO InvestorLine.

You can “Co-Op” Trade or You can Trade Immediately: Most people might think of Canadian ShareOwner as a “co-op.” This is misleading, because they do regular trades as well. These “immediate” trades command the regular commission rate (for the big banks in Canada) of $29/trade.

The “Co-op” Trade is Just Like Any Other Trade: it just happens on a certain date. The trade is still 100% yours. There’s no real pooling of money or anything. For buy-and-hold investors, the fixed trade dates won’t matter so much. You’re probably in it for the dividends anyway, like me.

Dividends automatically reinvested to four decimal places: this right here is what makes Canadian ShareOwner stand out from all the other brokers. Not only will they automatically reinvest your dividends (you don’t have to set it up to do so), but they reinvest even on fractional amounts. If your dividend is $3.63 and the shares costs $10 each, they’ll still put that $3.63 back into your stock where it will contribute to future earnings like a snowball.

Only $9 to buy and no initial deposit needed: Unlike TradeFreedom and other brokers that require initial deposits of $1000, you don’t need anything to set up an account at Canadian ShareOwner except your ID and a cheque for as low as $1.00 (to verify your identity). Can’t beat this if your networth is still lower than the 50 or 100K the big banks want before they’ll let you trade cheaply.

Anyone else want to share stories about ShareOwner or your other favourite discount broker(s)? It would be useful to hear from friends south of the border here.  Zecco looks good, but I can’t take advantage of it as a Canadian.

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The Benefits of Canadian ShareOwner

brokers May 22nd, 2008

Recently I spent quite a while searching for the right discount broker. I already had an account at one of the “Big 5″ (in Canada, that’s RY, TD, BMO, CM, BNS), but I was looking for a cheaper way to get into exchange-traded funds, especially since I wasn’t going to be investing huge lump sums at a time. Well, I found that Canadian ShareOwner met all my needs. Here’s why you might want to check them out too:

  • -no trading minimums/ inactivity fees
  • -no account opening minimum or fee
  • -free, automatic dividend reinvestment on each security
  • -$9 commission for single buys or $36 commission for as many buys as you want
  • -option to cancel individual reinvestments to re-route dividends into your cash balance. eg., If you own EnCana, you can choose to take the dividends in cash in quarter one and let them reinvest again in quarter two. You do this online, on a case-by-case basis. The default option will always be to have your dividends reinvested.
  • -the only Canadian discount broker that automatically reinvests FRACTIONAL AMOUNTS up to four decimal places. So you don’t have to wait until your dividends are large enough to buy whole shares outright, either.
  • -they sell ETFs. This means you can DRIP ETFs here!
  • -they sell U.S. and Canadian stocks
  • -easy, simple, reliable online account/trading interface
  • -great customer service (sometimes with long wait-times, though)

Having said this, there are a few drawbacks. But let me be clear: as the title of this post indicates, I fully recommend using Canadian ShareOwner. The benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.


Drawbacks include:

  • -only a select amount of securities available for purchase (but there are still many, and all of the more commonly traded ones)
  • -securities are purchased on a set timetable only
  • -there’s a $107 fee for removing your account: transferring whole share amts to another broker (usually the other broker will pay this fee)
  • -I’m told there’s also a $19 fee for cashing out what’s left of each stock (i.e., the fractional amount) and sending you a cheque for it. Can anyone confirm this?
  • -ordering certificates costs $40.00 (eNorthern is cheapest for this at $20.00)

Is Canadian ShareOwner for you?

YES, if:

-you have lower income and/or lower net worth (below $50,000)
-you don’t want to make an initial deposit of $1000 just to open your account
-you want the benefits of full dividend reinvestment (i.e., not just on whole shares)
-you’re already used to DRIPPING and you don’t mind investing on a predetermined schedule.

NO, if:

-you’re willing to plop down a $1000 initial deposit and pay an extra 95 cents per trade (if so, you should check out TradeFreedom)
-you have enough income to be a more active trader and qualify for the active trader discounts at the big bank brokerages
-you have enough net worth ($50,000-$100,000) to qualify for the high net worth discounts at the big bank brokerages and brokers like E*Trade

At the very least, if you’re Canadian, you should check it out. If anyone has any other experiences they’d like to share about ShareOwner, let me know. Especially concerning closing and moving your account somewhere else.

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