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TD Direct Investing review

TD Direct Investing review: Are the high fees worth it?

Colin Graves

By Colin Graves

🗓️

Updated: September 03, 2024

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Our take

The Globe and Mail recently named TD Direct Investing Canada’s Top Digital Brokerage1, for the second straight year.

On one hand, it’s easy to see why. Its regular trading platform, WebBroker, is intuitive and easy to use, and offers quick access to loads of information, including analytical tools and market reports. And with the recent addition of fractional shares, TD Direct Investing continues to improve. 

But with a premium experience comes a premium price. And that’s the biggest drawback of TD Direct Investing.

With brokerages, such as Questrade and Wealthsimple, offering commission-free trades and no account fees, it’s difficult for newer investors or those with smaller accounts to justify paying TD Direct Investing’s high fees.

For this reason, we can’t recommend it for beginners, or anyone who is fee-conscious.   

Who TD Direct Investing is for

TD Direct Investing is best suited for seasoned investors and active traders willing to pay higher fees for access to a premium trading platform, including a powerful advanced trading dashboard and top-notch market research tools. It’s also ideal for existing TD clients who want the ability to manage their entire financial picture — banking, mortgage and investments — under one roof. 

Young investors just starting out will be better off with TD Easy Trade (more on that later), or other lower-cost options, such as Wealthsimple or Questrade. 

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Available TD Direct Investing accounts

TD Direct Investing supports the following account types: 

Cash and Margin accounts can be held as single, joint, or corporate, and you can hold Canadian and US currency in any TD Direct Investing account.

Unfortunately, First Home Savings Accounts (FHSAs) are not yet supported. 

Pros and cons

Pros

Pros

  • Modern and intuitive trading platform

  • Top-notch market research tools

  • Now supports fractional shares

  • Several order types

  • Fully integrated mobile app

Cons

Cons

  • High trading and account fees

  • $25 quarterly account fee (waivable)

  • No live chat support

  • No demo accounts for practice

TD Direct Investing fees and commissions

If low trading fees are a top priority, you won’t like what you see with TD Direct Investing. As with the other big bank brokerages, TD charges close to $10 per trade for stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), along with account fees on some account types, unless you maintain a minimum balance. On a positive note, there are no trading fees for mutual funds and fixed income products. 

Here’s a breakdown of TD Direct Investing fees: 

Standard pricing

  • Canadian and US stock and ETF trades: $9.99
  • Fractional shares: $1.99 for trades less than a share
  • Canadian and US options: $9.99 + $1.25 per contract
  • Mutual funds: $0
  • Fixed-income (Bonds, GICs, T-Bills, etc.): $0

Active trader pricing (150+ trades/quarter)

  • Canadian and US stocks: $7.00 
  • Canadian and US options: $7.00 + $1.25 per contract

Other notable fees

  • Account maintenance fee: $25/quarter (waived for household accounts with assets of $15,000 and over) 
  • Transfer out (partial or full): $150
  • Stop payment: $12.50
  • Non-sufficient funds: $48.00 
  • Outgoing wire payments: $30-$80
  • Incoming wire payment: $17.50 
  • Refund or replacement of lost or stolen draft: $10.00

TD Direct Investing trading platforms

TD Direct Investing offers four trading platforms to cater to investors of all experience levels. 

WebBroker

WebBroker is TD's standard trading platform, but it’s packed with enough features and information to satisfy most investors. You can personalize your homepage, get live real-time snap quotes, place several advanced order types and access market and analyst research from TD Securities, Morningstar and more. 

TD app

The TD app allows investors to trade on the go. I like that it’s fully integrated with WebBroker, and that you can easily manage alerts and watchlists. As with the other trading platforms, it also supports fractional shares. The app is available for download on both iOS and Android devices. It has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on the App Store and 4.1 out of 5 stars on Google Play. 

Advanced Dashboard

Advanced Dashboard is designed for active traders. Unlike WebBroker, it offers full customization, streaming market data and has even more market research capability, including financial statements, earnings estimates and ratio analysis. 

TD Active Trader

TD Active Trader is a specialized platform designed for active US options traders. It offers advanced order types with Advanced Buying Power Calculations, multi-leg options strategies (up to four legs), and advanced market research, including over 100+ technical studies, an earnings analyzer, and company fundamentals tools. 

TD Easy Trade

TD Easy Trade is a separate mobile trading platform offered by TD Direct Investing. It’s designed specifically for new investors looking for a simple, low-cost trading solution. The platform offers 50 free trades each year, along with unlimited TD ETF trades. 

TD Easy Trade was launched in 2022, and in my opinion, is clearly TD’s attempt to compete with other low-cost apps, such as Wealthsimple, that have been wooing young investors for several years. And for the most part, it’s a solid alternative to Wealthsimple, as long as you can stay within the 50 trades per year. As well, fractional share trading was introduced to the platform in August 2024. 

A big downside is that you can only trade TD ETFs, so dedicated ETF investors will be better off with Wealthsimple or another platform. 

Research and education

TD Direct Investing offers extensive market research and educational tools throughout its platforms. You can even access the latest educational videos right from the TD app.

Note: TD Direct Investing does not offer demo or practice accounts.

Valuable knowledge from trusted experts in 30 minute segments — a nice lunch break activity.

Customer service and support

The TD Direct Investing website features a help centre where you can watch educational videos and get answers to common questions. If you still require assistance, it offers live telephone support between 10am and 7pm ET, Monday to Friday (excluding some holidays). 

You can speak with a licensed representative or receive technical support. 

As a big bank brokerage, you also have the option of visiting a TD branch. If a staff member cannot answer your question, they can dial into TD Direct Investing with you. 

Unfortunately, there is no live chat feature on the website, and I could not locate a customer support email address. That said, in my experience as a customer for over 15 years, I have found its telephone support to be generally helpful and responsive. 

I perused several Reddit and Quora threads to get a sense of what customers are saying about TD Direct Investing, including its customer service. Overall, the comments were positive, except when it came to fees.

I came across several complaints about the $9.99 trading fees, with many users mentioning that they had moved to Questrade or Wealthsimple because of these fees. 

A few mentioned that they put up with TDs high fees because they like keeping their banking and investments under one roof, and that they manage the fees by purchasing stock and ETFs in larger quantities. 

What I like and don’t like about TD Direct Investing

I’ve held accounts with several online brokerages over the years, including TD Direct Investing. Of the ones I have used, it has offered the best trading platform. For example, I find WebBroker more intuitive and easier to navigate than RBC Direct Investing, and I like TD’s mobile app more than the one from Questrade. However, like many investors, I don’t like the high trading fees. 

In the past, I accumulated smaller amounts of money in TD e-series funds (which have low fees and are commission-free) before purchasing ETFs in larger amounts. These days, I stick to trades of $2,000 or more, but, if I was investing smaller amounts, I would likely move to a lower-cost platform. 

How TD Direct Investing compares

TD Easy Trade vs. TD Direct Investing

TD Easy Trade is a mobile-only trading platform offered by TD Direct Investing. It’s geared to newer investors looking for a simple way to place trades. There are no monthly fees or account minimums, and your first 50 trades each year are commission-free. You also have access to unlimited TD ETF trades, and as of August 2024, you can now trade fractional shares. 

While Easy Trade is limited in its functionality — you can only trade individual stocks and TD ETFs — if you’re just getting started, this is the way to go. As your portfolio grows and you become more experienced, you can always graduate to the TD Direct Investing platform. 

Questrade vs. TD Direct Investing

Questrade is Canada’s largest independent brokerage. It holds one major advantage over TD Direct Investing — lower fees. Questrade not charge any account fees, and it offers unlimited, commission-free ETF purchases, and stock trades as low as $4.95 (vs. $9.99 for TD). 

TD Direct Investing’s market research capabilities are superior to Questrade’s, and it now supports fractional shares — Questrade does not. If you’re an active trader with a substantial portfolio or are an existing TD banking client, you might feel that TD Direct Investing is worth the extra cost. However, if you’re primarily an ETF investor or are generally fee-conscious, then Questrade is the better choice. 

Wealthsimple vs. TD Direct Investing

Wealthsimple is perhaps best known as being Canada’s leading robo-advisor. However, they also offer self-directed stock and ETF investing. Like Questrade, they beat TD Direct Investing on fees. Wealthsimple offers thousands of commission-free stocks and ETFs. It also offers fractional shares — in fact, Wealthsimple was the first Canadian brokerage to introduce fractional trades. 

That said, Wealthsimple’s trading platform has much less to offer than TD Direct Investing. For example, Wealthsimple only supports three order types: Market, Limit and Stop-Limit. TD offers up to seven order types on its regular trading platform. TDs market research and educational tools are also vastly superior, and give you easy access to daily reports, sector and technical analysis, analyst ratings, all within a couple of mouse clicks.  

Overall, Wealthsimple is the better choice for new investors and the closest TD alternative isn’t Direct Investing, but TD Easy Trade. 

TD Direct Investing promotion

TD Direct Investing is currently offering a 1% cash back promotion to new customers who open an account before October 31, 2024, and transfer a minimum of $10,000 in qualifying deposits within the first two months. 

Anyone eligible for the 1% cash back offer will also receive 100 free trades. The maximum cash back rewards is $10,000 and you must maintain the assets in your account for a full six months after the funding deadline. 

Eligible account types include Cash (individual or joint), Margin (individual or joint), RRSP and TFSA. 

TD Direct Investing contact information

To our knowledge, TD Direct Investing does not offer email or live chat support (it does have a chat bot for answers to simple questions). However, customers are encouraged to contact them by telephone at the following numbers: 

TD Direct Investing: 1-800-465-5463 

TD Easy Trade: 1-877-250-2588

Here’s a tip: If you’re located in Canada, you can experience reduced wait times by initiating your phone call through the TD app (iOS or Android). Simply login on your mobile device, scroll down, and select “Contact Us” from the main menu, then select “Call Us”, and finally, “TD Direct Investing.” 

Representatives are available Monday to Friday from 7am to 10pm ET. You can also provide customer feedback anytime via this online form. 

TD Direct Investing eligibility criteria

While eligibility varies depending on the type of account you wish to open, generally, you must be of the age of majority for the province in which you live, have a Social Insurance Number, have one piece of government-issued ID and be able to provide a personal email address. Note that certain account types have limitations for non-Canadian residents.   

How to open a TD Direct Investing account in Canada

You can open a TD Direct Investing account online or in-person by visiting a TD branch. Note that only individual cash, margin, TFSA and RRSP accounts can be opened online. 

Here are the basic steps to open an account online: 

  1. 1.

    From the TD Direct Investing home page, select “Open An Account.”

  2. 2.

    Select the type of account you wish to open, e.g. Cash, TFSA, etc. (If applicable, you’ll be asked if you want to add options trading to your account). 

  3. 3.

    You’ll be provided with the required account documents. Once you have read the documentation, hit “Continue.” 

  4. 4.

    Enter your personal details, including your name, date of birth, SIN and citizenship. 

From here, you’ll be asked to provide other information, including your phone number, address and email address, and be guided through the remainder of the account opening process. 

I recently helped my youngest daughter open a TFSA account. The entire process took about 10 minutes, and the account was activated within about one business day. 

Funding your account

Once open, TD Direct Investing provides several options for you to fund your account. Existing TD clients can transfer funds quickly via TD EasyWeb online banking or mobile app, or you can choose from the following:  

  • From other banks via Interac eTransfer (Cash or Margin accounts only)
  • Online bill payment (set up TD Direct Investing as the payee) 
  • In person at a TD Branch 
  • Transfer from another brokerage account (TD will waive the transfer fees up to $150)

FAQs

  • What is TD Direct Investing?

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    TD Direct Investing is the online brokerage arm of TD Bank Financial Group, Canada’s second largest bank with almost $2 trillion in assets. Investors can trade stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, GICs, fixed-income investments and more with TD Direct Investing.

  • How do I buy a GIC with TD Direct Investing?

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    You can order GICs through WebBroker Monday to Friday between 9am and 4pm ET. To do so, click the Buy and Sell tab from the top menu bar in WebBroker. From there, select the GICs tab and follow the instructions before confirming your order.

  • Can I open a TD Direct Investing account online?

    +

    Individual cash, margin, TFSA and RRSP accounts, and TD Easy Trade accounts can be opened online. Joint and corporate accounts, and all other account types must be opened in-person by visiting a TD Branch.

  • Does TD Direct Investing allow after hours trading?

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    Extended hours trading is available, but only for Limit orders on US exchanges. You can do so between 8am and 9:20am ET (before the market opens) and between 4pm and 7pm ET (after the markets close).

  • Does TD Direct Investing charge for ETF buying and selling?

    +

    Yes. TD Direct Investing charges a standard trading fee of $9.99 for ETF trades. Active traders can qualify for active trader pricing.

Colin Graves Freelance Writer

Colin Graves is a Winnipeg-based financial writer and editor whose work has been featured in publications such as Time, MoneySense, MapleMoney, Retire Happy, The College Investor, and more. Before becoming a full-time writer, Colin was a bank manager for over 15 years.

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