Regulatory scrutiny has nothing to do with this.

Kasper665 said
WS decided to partner with an elon company. That's not media hype.

Add that with their recent plan to enter into the prediction market and I'm out.

IMO, WS is now the tesla of Canadian financial institutions.

Nice work WS! /s.  

With you 100%. Initially, I was impressed by what WS was attempting to challenge the established banking order and offer a no-fee foreign exchange option . It seems, to build a client and deposit base to attract investors/purchaser/IPO, WS has resorted to gimmicks and glitter. Crypto, partnering with Musk et al, lack of transparency, unicorn credit cards – I'm out and have withdrawn all my cash and investment account holdings.
WS apparently prides itself in not holding a banking licence. Canadians are fortunate to have alternatives offering modern digital investing, banking and credit alternatives [including some without fx service charges] that are not opposed to regulatory scrutiny.

Add that with their recent plan to enter into the prediction market and I'm out.

IMO, WS is now the tesla of Canadian financial institutions.

Nice work WS! /s.

There will be something to click in the X app. If an X app user clicks it, the Wealthsimple app comes up and shows the stock. One can then place a trade in the Wealthsimple app. No different than a link or ad on some influencer's web page that navigates to an Amazon page to order a promoted item.

Wealthsimple explains how it actually works in How Smart Cashtags on X are directed to Wealthsimple:

Can I trade directly inside X?

No. X is just the entry point. Tapping a ticker simply removes the friction of opening a new app and searching for the stock yourself. All trading and account activity happens entirely within Wealthsimple.

I have no skin in this game, but I thought I'd share.

Dean

Making me REALLY uncomfortable. Not just because they are trying to earn profits off people being stupid. That part is fine; every FI does it. I am concerned about potential vulnerabilities and information flows stemming from this partnership.

KamWest said
…

If I charge a travel package for 4 people and it has medical insurance etc, are all 4 travelers covered or is it just the card holder.
…

Depends on who the four people are. Could be no medical coverage if none of them is the cardholder, cardholder's spouse, or a dependent, unmarried child living in the same household.

See the Certificate of insurance.

If I charge a travel package for 4 people and it has medical insurance etc, are all 4 travelers covered or is it just the card holder.

Same with baggage claims, car rental insurance etc.

Are all persons covered for this service or just the card holder.

Technically even the airport lounges

Anyone have experience with this?

Zero commission is a thing at Questrade and NB, possibly others. Big banks stopped charging on selected key products. So its not just that. I am Gen X, don’t actively trade and they didn’t get to >100bn in assets by attracting nominal amounts.

How they present their data is one of my major issues with TDDI. I have to go through each of my gazillion accounts individually, and its way too cumbersome each time.

With WS at the end of the month I get everything downloaded to my Google Sheet in the right format with distributions and transactions from all accounts taking their rightful place. And it takes just a few clicks. Took a bit of effort to set it all up but wasn’t particularly difficult either. Questrade lets you see and download transaction data across accounts as well, so its not unique to WS.

Not sure about actual statements, but they certainly let you download all the content in spreadsheet format.

mordko said
Match offers and IPads have been offered by several (most?) other FIs. WS is still growing much faster.

Transfer charges will be banned in 2026 which is going to be a substantial financial benefit to WS vis-a-vis big 5.

Hi, where u see the new transfer charges being banned for brokerages ?

WS charging zero dollar commission is a big attractive factor for a lot of gen Z etc, which are actively trading / investing very nominal amount.

One area I continue to complain about is the inability to download a copy of the full monthly statement in other format other than pdf...

everhopeful said
The real test is going to be how much loyalty WS can have. It is easy to gain assets when doing match offers or handing out iPhones or Macs, etc but when those offers dry up how many will stick around?

To their credit, WS doesn't even charge to transfer registered investments out (yet, unlike $150 with practically everyone else) but there will be a point in which Power Corp focuses less on growth and more on income.  

It's the features that makes the difference, for instance...

Simplii keeps stripping, no credit card notifications, takes 2 days when you pay Simplii Visa to come out of account. Manual mail in cheque to attach account etc.

WS, everything just works, I pay the Visa and in 2 seconds it's actually paid. I can claim my Visa rewards at any time and deposit to any account. I get a failed notification if someone uses the wrong expiry date charging my card.

The list with WS just keeps going, so yes it's nice to have the perks but the features will keep me there.

WS has slowly become my main bank and I was noting that to myself the other day.

That said I am generational but not confident enough to give them all my money. Smart people will always spread into multiple financial institutions.

Transfer charges will be banned in 2026 which is going to be a substantial financial benefit to WS vis-a-vis big 5.

I think they designed a nice environment for their customers. Makes it hard to leave once you are hooked. This is the first year clients started using WS as their main chequing/credit account which makes it harder to leave. And they do reward us for sticking around

Also, WS will be adding more services faster as they have just got another cash injection. I think they’ll be fine as long as service standards can be maintained with such fast growth. That’s the main risk, imho. Also, interesting to see if Questrade can provide stronger competition now that they are a bank.

To their credit, WS doesn't even charge to transfer registered investments out (yet, unlike $150 with practically everyone else) but there will be a point in which Power Corp focuses less on growth and more on income.