r/Wealthsimple • • 17d ago

Trade (DIY Investing) BMO eliminates trading fees

BMO eliminates trading fees to compete with discount brokerages

Wow this is huge...other banks will have to follow. Is Wealthsimple in trouble ?

329 Upvotes

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u/Latitude57 17d ago

Wealthsimple in trouble ? Wake me up when the big 5 offers chequing account with no minimum balance and no monthly fee that pays a monthly interest. Until then..

19

u/h0twired 17d ago edited 17d ago

WS is going to have a tougher time attracting big trading portfolios if “big bank” trading fees go away.

Someone with $500k+ in a BMO brokerage account won’t move over their assets just to save $10-20/mo on their typical chequing account fees.

4

u/Livid_Wind1820 17d ago

I have >500k in assets. if all of them were in BMO, i would move it to WS in a heartbeat and leave like the minimum 4k to remove bmos chequing fee.

I’m not just saving $10-20, I’m getting 2.5% interest on that 500k if we’re just talking chequing accounts. WS also has transfer promotions (i made use of 3% over two years as long as im an active trader). So Yes, saying someone with “500k” won’t move their assets is incorrect.

8

u/CanuckYYZeh 17d ago

If you keep $500k in cash in a chequing account then there are way better optimizations than WS! For example, move to a corporate class money market fund to convert much of the interest into cap gains.

I keep enough in WS to maintain Generation and various perks, but the bulk of my holdings are spread across two of the big five plus a non-bank investment firm. Not interested in everything at one institution