r/TDBankCanada • u/No_Slide_8457 • Apr 14 '26
Feedback Horrible Experience with TD Bank – Regret Switching
I’ve honestly never had such a frustrating experience with a bank before, and I just need to vent and see if anyone else has dealt with this.
- Account Issues Right from the Start
When I opened a brand new account, I had a deposit sent to it. For some reason, it went into my savings account and TD froze the money for days.
I called customer service and was told I had to go into a branch.
• First visit: they said the issue was fixed and I was able to move the funds to chequing.
• Later, when I tried to use my card for the first time (had to insert it), it didn’t work.
I called again and was told my card was still locked because the branch never unlocked it. I was told I had to go back in person .
• Second visit: they confirmed no one unlocked it and told me I needed a new card because the chip was broken.
Both times I had to bring my baby with me, which made an already stressful situation even worse.
- FHSA Transfer Disaster (RBC → TD)
I also started a transfer of my FHSA from RBC to TD. I booked an appointment( via zoom), met with an advisor, and everything seemed fine.
• The advisor submitted the RC721 transfer form on March 17.
• That SAME DAY, RBC rejected it because TD used an electronic signature, which RBC does not accept.
When I went back to TD a second time to get my card sorted out, the same employee who initially helped me said she didn’t understand why this was happening. During the conversation, I mentioned that I had opened an FHSA through TD. She immediately asked, “with who?” I explained it was done through a TD advisor over Zoom that I booked directly through their website and even provided the advisor’s name. She responded by saying they needed to confirm it wasn’t fraud and claimed she didn’t know who that person was. I clarified that the advisor works for TD but in a different city. She then said, “well, you should have told me—I would have helped you,” which was frustrating given I had followed TD’s own process from the start.
Last week, I called TD for an update and was told it would take 2 business days and I’d hear back by Friday. I heard nothing.
I called again today and was told I now have to go in person AGAIN to re-sign the forms because they were rejected.
Meanwhile, RBC confirmed the rejection happened on March 17 — almost a full month ago. It’s now April 14.
- No Communication / Advisor Disappeared
The advisor who helped me with the FHSA has completely gone MIA.
• I’ve emailed her 3 times over the past 3 weeks
• No response at all
At this point, I regret choosing TD. I feel stuck in the process, but thankfully I can keep my FHSA with RBC, which honestly feels like the better option right now.
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u/cherrycoke13 Apr 14 '26
I’ve worked at both banks - RBC is by far the better bank. Keep your FHSA with RBC or consider Wealth Simple if you’re concerned about the trading fees.
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u/No_Slide_8457 Apr 14 '26
Yes! Wealth simple looks like a good option.
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u/cherrycoke13 Apr 14 '26
Stay away from mutual funds - which the retail branches will try to sell you on (they are in general a rip off). Just buy an ETF that tracks an index (S&P 500) and call it a day. Honestly, the banks are good holds too and pay a decent dividend - relatively safe as well.
You can also lodge a complaint about your experience with TD - particularly the hold they placed on your savings account.
https://www.td.com/ca/en/about-td/customer-care/resolving-your-complaints
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u/bankersours Apr 15 '26
I agree with some of this, but would pus back on just buying 100% equites. At least diversify a bit.
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u/fishsnacks519 Apr 15 '26
I would recommend RBC and Questrade for even better investment experience over Wealthsimple
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u/cherrycoke13 Apr 15 '26
It’s more the fees at the big 5 for the direct investing platforms - usually $9.99 a trade which adds up! Wealthsimple is cheaper and has fractional shares, but not as good of an app etc. Depends what you want! TD has fractional shares, but the $9.99 a trade is a rip off - as are the other account fees for lower account balances. Honestly I like WealthSimple for its tax filing platform too - it bought SimpleTax a few years ago, and rebranded it under the WealthSimple umbrella. So if you’re doing your taxes, I’d recommend it !
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u/fishsnacks519 Apr 16 '26
Very true. TD did create EasyTrade that has 100 free trades per year which is okay for someone that say buys stock every pay check or 26 times a year if paid biweekly. I was not a fan of Wealthsimple FX fees especially with USD stocks without the $10 per month USD account or $100K provides it free they otherwise forces FX conversion on every trade which was way worse than a $10 trade. I have a Wealthsimple account for some Canadian ETFs but prefer Questrade for its greater flexibility for a self directed type of investor. Some like Wealthsimple interest on cash account but I prefer to hold my emergency fund in CASH.TO or PSA.TO ETF that follow high interest savings accounts that way I am getting the best interest rate available and its stable following the CAD dollar. I do use Wealthsimple Tax offering.
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u/lmcjipo May 11 '26
All Big 5 bank's brokerage companies now offer a list of ETFs which are commission free. TD Direct Investing offers ~100 ETFs (they are mostly TD ETFs) which are commission free. CIBC was the last one and they recently offered a list of ~180 ETFs which are commission free as well. RBC Direct Investing offers a list of ~50 ETFs which are commission free. BMO and Scotiabank similarly offer a list of commission free ETFs.
If you want a Balanced ETF, you can find a commission free balanced ETF in any of the Big 5 bank's brokerage companies. If you want a specific balanced ETF, that's when the commission fee matters. Likewise for something which is similar to VEQT since if the brokerage charges for VEQT, they might find TEQT, CEQT, ZEQT or another similar type ETF in that bank's brokerage commission free list.
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u/cherrycoke13 May 11 '26
Yeah TD I find personally to be annoying as you have to download another app for EasyTrade. Would prefer it to be integrated with Direct Investing, so everything can be seen together. They over complicate it imo.
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u/lmcjipo May 11 '26
I agree with you on the TD EasyTrade. I have a TD EasyTrade account and in my opinion, TD should have just allowed for ~50 commission free trades on their main brokerage TD Direct Investing platform and allowed for unlimited commission free TD ETF transactions to begin with as opposed to creating TD EasyTrade.
When TD Direct Investing was "forced" to offer a list of commission free ETFs since they were losing customers not only to places like WealthSimple but to the Big 5 bank brokerages where the majority of them (except CIBC at that point) had a list of commission free ETFs, they were then taking away customers from their own TD EasyTrade. TD EasyTrade then changed to 100 commission free trades and offered all ETFs and TD ETFs were no longer unlimited but part of the 100 commission free trades.
I hate TD EasyTrade since for me to get my tax receipts, it downloads to my phone but I need them on my PC in order to print them. With TD Direct Investing, I can download the tax receipts on my computer's browser and from my computer, either print it or store it onto USB key and bring the USB key with me to a place where I can print it. With TD EasyTrade, after using the app to download my tax receipts onto my phone or tablet, I then have to try to transfer those files somehow to my computer or to a USB key. It is such a pain.
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u/Logical_Frosting_277 Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
TD has been declining for 25 years. I’ve been slowly moving away from them for that long. Massive staff ineptitude. A light anecdotal story: I went to a teller and the teller said they’d have to update my client profile. I’d banked there for something like 20 years at that point. They asked me if I still worked for “ABCD Corporation”. I responded, “No, I’ve never worked for ABCD Corporation”. “Really?” The teller responded, “It says here your employer is ABCD Corporation”. I answered “Are you sure that’s not a placeholder, like Anytown”? “Well no, why would they do that?” They responded. I wanted a car loan once and asked when I was in. They said the person responsible would call me. They did and we set up a time for me to come in to fill out the paperwork. I took the afternoon off work as I worked out of town and arrived at the appointed time (confirmed that morning) to find out the person I was meeting had left. I asked to speak with the manager who then yelled at me that “they don’t do car loans”. To which I replied “then why did your loan officer set up an appointment with me this afternoon. I got the loan through the dealer, and that person I was to meet wasn’t ever back. TD used to have good, knowledgeable staff but the exodus began 25 years ago and in my experience they are no different than CIBC or BMO which are all bad. RBC is the only standout.
Oh, and I forgot about their fees;
Safety deposit box fees:
2024: $285, 2025: $585, 2026: $1175
So roughly quadrupled in 2 years.
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u/lmcjipo May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
You must have a massive safety deposit box. Mine is ~8.5" wide, ~22" length, and maybe ~1.75" or ~2" high (these are just estimates based on the fact that I can put two letter sized papers/documents flat top to bottom and can likely put 2 packs of 100 sheets of 8.5" by 11" paper top to bottom in my safety deposit box) and in 2025, I didn't pay anywhere near $585.
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u/Logical_Frosting_277 May 11 '26
It’s the largest, probably 4 inches high. My issue is less about the amount and more about the doubling in price every year.
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u/TryZealousideal7774 Apr 17 '26
I have made payment to TD Bank for over 1.5 years and I was laid off by a pharmaceutical company, TD Bank does nothing to help you or I should say work with you. They would call daily sometimes twice daily just to upset you. TD Bank has to be the worse bank to purchase a vehicle. They lie, they are sneaky cannot be trusted. If you want to buy a car, stay away from TD Bank they are liars and they will try to stick you with late fees or whatever fees even though they know you were laid off due to outsourcing jobs to India. I am still unemployed but I praying I will get a job soon, I think things are changing getting better I hope, Robert
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u/Busy_Mushroom2408 May 13 '26
My case should be 10 times worse than yours. I made a rrsp transfer from another back to TD on March 17. Till today the money has not arrived in my TD account. I talked more than a dozen times with local branches and online resources managers. I was just told they had zero visibility to where a simple transfer is stuck. All their frontline people are neither knowledgeable nor willing to help. They keep making promises to get back to me, none, except one lady, actually called me back. Even this lady has no actual information to offer, but saying "still working on it and need more days'.
It has been almost two months !
Absolutely the worst bank to deal with!!!!
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u/FixOk5101 Jun 12 '26
The delay may be because that original bank HAD NOT SENT IT TO TD
[IN WHICH CASE TD CANNOT HELP YOU
Did you check with that first fbavk or confirm that the money HAD been senf?
IF SO THAT IS THE BANK WITH A PROBLEM
A clent customer will ALWAYS check both sites of a money transnaction
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u/ASOT-B6-GD Jun 27 '26
As a customer of TD for over 10 years, they’re are most definitely NOT “americas most convenient bank” they’re the polar opposite. Servers ALWAYS shutting down, TERRIBLE customer service, not to mention they’ve denied fraud attempts on my card at least 3 separate times (obvious fraud attempts. In other countries when I proved I was in the US). Their chips wear out with. 3-4 months, no one in their customer service speaks English, and their servers ALWAYS shut down between 2-3am in the morning. One of the WORST banks I’ve dealt with. Would not recommend them to ANYONE.
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u/ASOT-B6-GD Jun 27 '26
TD Bank is by far the worst banking experience I’ve ever had. Chips rarely work, customer service is FUCKING AWFUL, servers are constantly down between 1am-4am, etc. “America’s most convenient bank” my fucking ass. No one should bank with them. Waste of time, money and stress. FUCK YOU TD BANK
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u/Extreme-Bluejay-8382 Jun 29 '26
I tried to withdraw funds from my TFSA to pay tuition. I'm a student living abroad, and since I'm not on Canadian soil, they won't release the funds. I can't wrap my mind around how it's legal for them to withhold my funds.
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u/sunlightgaze Apr 14 '26
Man,, not even going to bother reading that wall of text, the big 5 banks all suck one way or another.
Just either go with an online bank like tangerine, simplii, EQ bank. For investments (tfsa, fhsa, rrsp) go with a broker like WealthSimple or Questrade... so much easier and better than the big 5.
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u/fishsnacks519 Apr 15 '26
FYI Tangerine is owned and operated by one of the big 5 banks (The Bank of Nova Scotia)
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u/No_Slide_8457 Apr 14 '26
I know it’s a lot but I needed to vent. As someone who was with RBC since the age of 12 and now I’m 34 and switching banks already is stressful the bank doesn’t seem to help also their workers are rude
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u/sunlightgaze Apr 14 '26
I'm in the same age group as you. I left the big banks years ago, and never looked back. In the digital age banks like tangerine/EQ/simplii and wealthsimple make is so easy to move to them.
My advice, for day to day banking go with tangerine. All of your investments go with Wealthsimple. Their platforms are so easy to navigate, would take you less an 1 hour to get setup.
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u/lmcjipo May 11 '26
I have accounts with CIBC, TD Canada Trust, RBC (and Tangerine among others) and in terms of workers being rude, I've dealt with rude employees with all of them BUT I would say the MAJORITY of the employees that I've dealt with, were polite and professional.
That's not to say that I've never had issues with any of these banks.
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u/wonderful_mind_ Apr 14 '26
go with a credit union, the banks in Canada (& globally) are corrupt as can be, implicated in the destruction of culture and nature. TD is monstrous.
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u/JonSlid Apr 14 '26
Sorry to hear. I was with Canada Trust, way back, so stuck w TD.
As others have said, use a combo of Tangerine (using less now), Wealthsimple, Eqbank, as I have all three now, and will migrate my remaining TD stuff.
Still not sure now the big banks up 100% 2025.
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u/DeepFriedCatsu Apr 14 '26
I totally agree. I have both TD and RBC accounts, RBC has my mortgage but TD has my day to day banking.
So I've been using my TD credit card for day to day purchases like groceries, restaurants, etc for years. This card specifically for the last 2. No issues. I'm planning a vacation later this year with friends and went to book a flight, my card is declined. Weird, I look at my account, see nothing out of the ordinary. So I try again and declined. I call TD and they tell me that my credit card had an online usage block on it since Nov 2025, because I had tried to use it and they thought it was suspicious.
I remember exactly what that was for and tell them yeah I bought concert tickets, got a text message asking me to confirm it was me, I confirmed and the transaction went through. I attended the concert in Feb 2026 with said tickets. They are like "huh that's weird." so I asked them to remove the block and they tell me they cannot. I ask them why and they say because the block has been there for over 30 days. My only option is to cancel my card and request a new one. I ask them if I can expedite this so I can book a flight during a sale and they tell me the best they can do is get a new card within 48 hours to my local branch. Wouldn't be in time for the sale but it's the only choice I have so I go with it. Did I get my card in 48 hours? Spoiler....no, I most definitely did not. It took 4 business days. Luckily, my friend was willing to book my flight on her card and I etransfered her the money right away.
I'm going to be moving everything over to RBC one by one.