Getting rid of TD Waterhouse ASAP

Earlier this week – before my shift got change – I manage to take care of my RRSP portfolio. I didn’t have too much time so far to pay attention to what I hold inside my RRSP. I want to transfer the money I hold at Manulife inside my RRSP broker account so I can get more for my money. That’s the most major part behind the project. However, I began my RRSP portfolio management by selling the mutual funds hold at TD Canada Trust. I had a bit more than 1 100$ that I was holding in the 9 best mutual funds of TD Canada Trust: TD Canadian Bond, TD Monthly Income, TD Emerging Markets, TD Energy, TD Precious Metals, TD Latin American Growth, TD Entertainment and Communications, TD Dividend Growth and TD U.S. Mid-Cap Growth.

All of the following had management fees around 2%, if not sometime exceeding the 2%. And that being for all of the 9 funds. A reader once wrote that having 100$ or so invested in all of those funds was not that of a good idea because of the management fees. At the time, I didn’t care too much about RRSP section of my portfolio, but now, it’s time for a major transformation. I had been able to do well with my non registered portfolio. I can do the same with my RRSP. Currently, my RRSP portfolio worth around 40 000$. It’s quite some money and my money deserved better than just mutual funds and segregated funds of Manuvie. Regarding my segregated funds, I don’t know yet if they can be sell because they are more like insurance mutual funds kind of. It’s something I need to look into. I will probably leave what I have at the CIBC at the CIBC. But when it comes to the investment hold at the RBC, I would be interested in doing something better with the thousands of dollars.

Part of my RRSP portfolio is hold inside my broker account. I had been able to generate a profit of more than 3 000$ on an initial investment of 19 000$ (around). My investment in Sprott Canadian Equity Fund, Claymore Gold Bullion ETF (CGL), EnCana Corporation (ECA) and Emera Incorporated (EMA) had been quite successful. I am happy with those gains. I may be able to generate a couple of thousands of dollars out of the 21 000$ left. That’s what I am looking for. Now that I am mostly schedule during the night shift, I will have all the time in the world to search for my options.

This being said, I began my RRSP management by selling the mutual funds hold at TD Canada Trust. I call on a day that the TMX was gaining points. And I call before 4pm. That’s really important to call on a good day (where the TMX marks points) and to call before the end of the trading day. Basically how it work when dealing with the sale of mutual funds, you never really know what will be the value of the sale. But if you do it on a good trading day and call before 4pm, your almost sure that you’ll be making a profit. Another trick being to take a look at the value of the major holdings of the mutual funds but personally, I never proceed that way. I go with the big scheme. The TMX is gaining points and the situation seem to remain stable until, let’s say 3:30pm? Than, I call at 3:30pm or around. And voila, that’s how to make big bucks out of mutual funds. Seem to be simple? Well, with the French representative of TD Canada Trust I had to deal with, it wasn’t that simple.

When I call, I explain to the mutual funds representative of TD that I wanted to sell my RRSP mutual funds to get the cash and get it transfer into my RRSP account at TD Waterhouse. A real basic simple request. I want the cash, and keep it inside the RRSP please. But the representative argues about my order.

The mutual funds representative said he could sell the mutual funds, but wanted to reinvest the money inside one of those stupid money market funds. And it’s not what I wanted. I own a RRSP banking account at TD. What I wanted is the money generate from the sell to be deposit inside my RRSP banking account and when the money would had appeared in the account, I would had go at the TD Waterhouse branch located at the Eaton Centre to complete the form for my internal transfer. I had did that before for a GIC, so I knew how the whole thing was working. But the TD Canada Trust representative didn’t want to hear anything. He was a real dumb French Quebecker and didn’t want to obey me. He never explained to me why the money was going to get reinvested inside a money market fund. I didn’t want of a money market fund, I wanted the money to be deposit in cash inside my RRSP banking account. I hold more than 140k at TD, I want things to be done my way. I don’t want to argue with anyone, especially some dumb Quebeckers.

The transaction wasn’t performed the way I wanted and the representative was really rude. Later on during the day, I call TD Canada Trust once again to find out more. I ask one more time to the second person I spoke too, another stupid French representative – why the money had been transferred inside a money market fund when I simply wanted the money inside my RRSP banking account. He told me that the previous agent had done his job, that it was the most reasonable way to proceed because it was going to make it faster for the transfer. Like wow, how come the fist rep did not told me that? But most of all, it’s not what me, as a customer, I had requested.

I am tired of those disrespectful Quebeckers who are not willing to respect my orders. And the price to pay for that is huge because whenever it’s possible, I am going to transfer everything I have at TD Waterhouse at some other place. Why should I continue paying 9.99$ per trade with TD Waterhouse in those conditions while I can pay only 4.99$ in commission fee with CIBC? Explain to me. Please.

Ok, you’ll say to yourself, this is a problem with TD Canada Trust, not TD Waterhouse. Well wait, you didn’t hear about the whole story. I am not done yet.

As promise by TD, money was quickly transferred into the money market fund inside my RRSP. Perfect. In the morning just before hitting to work, I visited the TD Waterhouse office located at the Eaton Centre and just like before, I received a very bad service. Most of the staff working at the TD Waterhouse Eaton Centre location barely knows what they are doing. Most of them never invested through TD Waterhouse, they were not TD Waterhouse users before being employed by TD Waterhouse. I can easily tell that because it shows on their way they handle customer requests. I can only talk about my own experience of course, but when I open my account at TD Waterhouse at the Eaton Centre 3 years ago, I fill out the papers work and nothing – absolutely nothing – had been giving to me as information. I simply got some brochure through the mail and a letter requesting 2 pieces of ID. Which was really strange because the IDs had been giving at the Eaton Centre when I first show up to open my broker account. What did the rep had done with my Ids at the Eaton Centre, I don’t have a single clue. But for sure, those poor Quebeckers don’t know how to work their ass.

I got another problem with TD Waterhouse when I open my margin account – always at the Eaton Centre. Nothing of the transformation had been explained to me and I had to deal with a bunch of complications all by myself: DRIP annulations that needed to be register again, dividend I was receiving that were not appearing in my new margin account, commission fees up to 29$ even while I qualified for 9.99$, etc... Switching from a cash broker account to a margin account had been a pain at TD Waterhouse. I had to spend hours over the phone with TD Waterhouse. Basically, since the early beginning, I got big problems with TD Waterhouse because of their incompetent Quebec staff members.

And the problems persist on date of today. Following the reception of the money market fund in my RRSP at TD Canada Trust, I pass by TD Waterhouse – Eaton Centre to get the money transfer into my RRSP broker account. I knew how that part work because I had done it before. I needed a form. But strangely, the TD Waterhouse representative I spoke to at the Eaton Centre did not know what I was talking about. She gave me a number and requested me to call. It was the 514 TD Waterhouse number. I call TD Waterhouse, explaining the situation. I got a confirmation of what I already knew, I needed to complete a form in order to get the transfer completed. So I went back to the same TD Waterhouse representative at the Eaton Centre, and I explain to her what she needed to do. The poor woman was a complete idiot. As an excuse, she told she was working there since a month and a half only. Very not impressive. She had to call TD Waterhouse to know what to do. I finally got the form completed but it took me an hour. Last time, for the GIC transfer, it only took me 10 minutes, at most.

TD Presidents and Vice-Presidents are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars to manage their business and here is the result. Horrible customer service. I don’t trust TD anymore as a bank and as a broker and I plan to FLUSH them as soon as I can. I am going to switch of broker to make them understand that I am the boss and this is the price to pay for not obeying me and being disrespectful. Quebeckers, BACK OFF.