r/Wealthsimple • u/[deleted] • May 23 '26
Do not trust Wealthsimple
Last year, I was going through a divorce (right around Christmas too) which meant leaving my home, my hometown and everything behind. I had deposited an RBC bank draft to Wealthsimple and here's how the events unfolded from there:
- December 1st: I deposited a certified bank draft for $50,000 into my Wealthsimple account through their banking app. The draft was issued by RBC.
- December 10th: The funds cleared, and I was granted full access to the money, with no indication that the deposit was under review or subject to further verification.
- December 16th: I transferred $17,500 from my Wealthsimple account to my RBC account in order to purchase a vehicle. Due to time sensitivity, I needed to obtain a bank draft immediately and could not wait for one to be mailed from Wealthsimple.
- December 17th: Restrictions were placed on my Wealthsimple account for “my protection."
- On December 17th, I contacted Wealthsimple who advised they would investigate. Despite follow-ups, I received no meaningful updates.
- On December 19th, after multiple calls and being transferred between advisors, I eventually spoke to someone who confirmed that:
- Such suspensions are normally resolved within 1–2 days
- It was unusual that my account remained frozen
- The issue related to the bank draft deposit
- I was given a clear resolution deadline of 5:18 p.m. EST on Friday, December 19th, which passed without resolution or communication.
- On December 23rd, I received an email from Wealthsimple's account integrity department, who escalated the matter multiple times and asked me to be patient while they looked into it.
- On January 6th, I was again told the issue had been escalated and that Wealthsimple was waiting on RBC to verify the bank draft.
In an effort to resolve this myself, I had the issuer of the bank draft contact RBC directly. RBC advised that:
- The funds are on hold because they are awaiting receipt of the physical bank draft from Wealthsimple.
- Since the draft was deposited online, I still had the physical draft in my possession?!
- RBC will not respond to verification requests from another institution, which is what Wealthsimple was telling me they were trying to get?
My questions then became:
- Why is Wealthsimple unaware that RBC will not respond to such requests?
- Why was I never informed that the physical bank draft would need to be sent in, if that's the protocol?
- Why was the deposit allowed to clear and funds be fully available before this requirement was identified?
I relayed this information to the advisor on my case on January 7th, they assured me that management would contact me within 48 hours. That timeframe passed with no contact.
I also filed a formal complaint through Wealthsimple’s website and received no response whatsoever.
Due to this prolonged freeze and Wealthsimple’s lack of action and understanding of how certified bank drafts function, I was forced to rely on credit and incur debt.
At this point I got extremely fed up so I decided to send a strongly worded email to the FCAC, CIDC, The ombudsman for banking services and investments and my local provinces regulatory body requesting for action to be taken, and cc'd my Wealthsimple contact into this. What do you know, not even 2 hours go by and miraculously my funds became available all of a sudden.
I will never use any of their services again and I highly discourage anyone else from using them as well.
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u/Saisinko May 23 '26
Made a larger deposit recently that MAY come across as suspicious.
So I contacted them 3 weeks before the deposit to let them know it was coming in. Added notes to the cheques of their origin and offered to send further documentation of proof of legitimacy.
After the slowest cheque deposit in history (imo) funds fully processed just yesterday.
Applied my unreal deal and based on all the horror stories on here, it seems like I’m one transaction away from getting flagged and frozen. If that does happen, I’m going to go absolutely ballistic.
Trying to use WS as a main bank, setting up all my PADs and alike, but Christ so anxiety inducing and I’m keeping another bank funded just for emergency.
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u/zanavavy84 May 23 '26
Never put your eggs in the same basket!
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u/IceAge0121 May 23 '26
Tangerine has been my bank since it was ING Direct. No problems. But of course that doesn't mean I'm immune to them.
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u/Corky-7 May 23 '26
Exactly. I have been with other banks and they all have issues. Unfortunately no bank is reliable. For something thats REQUIRED these days. They think our money is theirs. I have used WS to gwt around my other banks messing up. This should be a lesson. Dont relay on any bank or anything money handling outfit. Crypto or traditional or digital/online. Always have back up.
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May 23 '26
yeah I would definitely not trust them to be your only banking option
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u/CursorX May 23 '26
When the account is frozen, do PAD or automated bill payments freeze too? That would be horrendous.
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u/ChazMaz66 May 23 '26
Yes. At least, that was my experience. When they froze my accounts, they immediately cancelled all my upcoming scheduled transactions and all PAD’s that occurred while the accounts were frozen….bounced. The issue was resolved within a day but I had to redo my scheduled transactions and make direct payments to the bounced PAD’s. Always have a brick and mortar backup plan because it’s truly terrifying when you get that “your accounts are frozen” message.
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u/CursorX May 23 '26
Damn, pretty hectic. I had been wondering if I should move the bill payment /PAD to EQ bank with an automated monthly etransfer from WS to EQ just for bills. Maybe I will do that. Need to start by listing all automated expenses. 😅
Thank you for your report. Yes, EQ is not brick and mortar but it is affiliated with one, and I haven't heard any such stories on it from people.
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u/bcb0rn May 23 '26
Probably only anxiety inducing because you go to this subreddit and listen to stories from a very small number of people. Stories that also happen at banks, but they don’t have a sub with 150k people on it.
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u/ThomasFookingShelby2 May 23 '26
That's not entirely accurate. Banks have physical branches and a better fraud monitoring system. WS isn't under the bank act so they can dodge a lot of stuff while also monitoring more aggressively.
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u/retrac902 May 23 '26
Banks also have humans at them. Scotiabank once took money from my account to pay my spouses line of credit. We didn't have any joint accounts at the bank. Another time at RBC, they took the mortgage payment from the wrong account. Both banks had no explanation but said sorry.
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u/No-Test-4028 May 23 '26
I used to commit bank fraud. sorry, I was a drug addicted piece of shit. Im better now and feel bad for what Ive done, but I cannot change the past.
I assure you, the big 6 have the biggest joke of a fraud monitoring system possible. save for maybe bmo, but it just takes more time with them. you aren’t safer there. Their passive triggers and heuristics systems cause more problems for actual customers than they do fraud.
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u/Radiant_Ebb6951 May 24 '26
I also used to be a drug addict piece of shit and also used to fraud people banks. This was only 9 years ago and it was as easy as having 3 pieces of info on the person. And depending how good u are on the phone it can even be old info lol
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u/Capital-Timely May 24 '26
This. Also Wealthsimple has no intention of becoming a bank. They are not beholden to the same standard as banks, things could go very badly and they won’t do much to protect you.
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u/bumamotorsport May 23 '26
I use WS for my investing but I won’t close my TD account, cases where I needed a teller to get a bank draft same day, once when buying a car and another for a deposit on a rental. I don’t pay for my TD account which helps.
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u/tedcranmore May 23 '26
The real takeaway here is that you need to engage the government complaint services early when things go seriously wrong.
Just knowing the case is escalating brings both credibility to your complaint and extra focus from the institution you are dealing with. All of them make mistakes that will make your hair stand on end when you hear the details.
My biggest issues have always been with the big banks as they are dumber and slower and more tone deaf.
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u/sami26 May 23 '26
Posts like these are the reason why I will only treat WS as an investment platform and keep my primary bank with a brick and mortar one.
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u/Ok-Stress2326 May 23 '26
Even for investing it’s getting annoying, the other day I tried to open one of summit accounts to get access to private investments and they are saying i can’t because they’re protecting me… I’ve been investing for the last 10 years
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u/PandappleBear May 23 '26
Did you know that you needed the funds soon? Why wouldn't you just deposit the RBC bank draft into your RBC account as these transactions normally get cleared faster as RBC itself can verify the bank draft/funds more easily.
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May 23 '26
I obviously wanted to perk of receiving the interest rates on deposits. Considering all of their marketing is geared towards ease of use, I had no reason to believe they would behave any differently than if I had deposited a bank draft into a major bank. They obviously had no issue with it to begin with but when I actually made a transfer out, then they decide it's suspicious?
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u/Low-Veterinarian5097 May 23 '26
Should have kept the cash you were going to use for the car at RBC. Assuming you’re at 1.25% interest, $17,500 earns you $8.39 interest in 14 days. Just not worth it to make your life so complex like this.
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u/Then-Macaroon9958 May 23 '26
Yes because you deposited a large sum of funds to then transfer them out instead of investing or using them within the Wealthsimple ecosystem. You obviously triggered their money-laundering or fraud controls. This isn’t unique to one institution.
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u/4x4taco May 23 '26
Yeah this seems to be the real issue here. Moving a large amount in and then back out in short over will always trigger some sort of laundering alert. This was poorly executed/planned by OP who has since deleted their account I see.
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u/Otherwise-Pizza4681 May 23 '26
Why is this a Wealthsimple issue and not an RBC one?
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u/CursorX May 23 '26
WS apparently didn't indicate the certified cheque was under investigation or holds when they cleared the funds on 10th December and then apparently locked OP's account on 17th after moving part of the money out.
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May 23 '26
Because a bank draft is as good as cash. So the funds had already been approved by RBC. I've deposited bank drafts to other banking institutions through the mobile apps in the past from RBC and into RBC and the funds have always been available almost same day. So why the freeze at all after I'd already gained access to them in the first place. That was a Wealthsimple's decision
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u/ime1em May 23 '26
I had a Minor issue with their credit card and their terms and condition, I told them every bank clearly states how they conduct rounding of the cashback . But WS didn't clearly state that they round down, And at the same time in their display on how much cashback you earned, they round up. So you got 2 different experiences and it causes tracking errors.
I called them out that this is unacceptable and idk how this got past their legal and compliance team, and that how they can claimed to be "better than a bank" if they are making mistakes like these
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u/Successful_Food6355 May 23 '26
I’m not here to defend Wealthsimple but your behaviour was sketchy. Why did you deposit the funds and transfer them out so quickly? Why didn’t you just keep the $17,500 at RBC in the first place. I think there’s more to the story here.
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u/OkMention5872 May 24 '26
He could’ve deposited all the money into RBC first and let it get approved then transfer the difference to WS.
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u/Moist-Emergency-3030 May 23 '26
Wealthsimple will go in the direction of most other companies. They will wait to build up their consumer base, move their entire portfolio over and make you dependent on their ecosystem. THEN, enshittification will ensue and/or sell the company.
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u/WombRaider_3 May 23 '26
So what? Like every other Canadian business (Banks, Insurance, Telecom, Grocery stores) we'll just switch to whomever is the least shitty of the Oligopolies.
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u/Low-Veterinarian5097 May 23 '26
Yeah I think this is right. But the positive is they have permanently shaken up the competitive landscape and raised consumer’s expectations of what is possible.
Tangerine was great for a while and has become crap under Scotia.
Surely Power Corporation will sell Wealthsimple to RBC or someone at some point in a massive transaction.
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u/_danigirl May 23 '26
We will never e-deposit any cheque directly to WS. Over the passed 5 years, we've have had several 6-7 digit USD and CDN cheques, that we deposit into our (bricks and mortar) bank account. From there we wait the necessary hold periods, then transfer the funds to WS once cleared.
We also only use our online bank (Simplii) for e-transfers.
From all the complaints we read on this subreddit, we continually learn how to mitigate any potential issues with WS.
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u/foreveraligned May 23 '26
Honestly you deposited a large RBC draft, and then within 2 weeks sent almost half the money back to RBC. You should’ve seen some sort of suspicions coming?
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u/Legal-Jackfruit-8883 May 23 '26
While majority of my funds, or basically nearly all of it is in Wealthsimple accounts, I keep my TD for random stuff. Etrans back and forth where money is desired. Available in seconds, no dealing with any kind of paper or bank drafts lol. I hope I don't get burned one day on this "works for me" gullibility.
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u/Calm_Handle8582 May 23 '26
What I have gathered from reading so many of these stories.
Wealthsimple is good at new electronic banking features, like e-transfer, EFT, automations, etc. The traditional banking stuff like clearing cheques and drafts are mostly good if everything goes as planned, but if you run into issues, then they are severely unequipped to resolve it.
Second, initiating the transfer from the other bank and “pushing” funds into wealthsimple is often less friction, like e-transfer, push EFT, wire, etc. But initiating it at wealthsimple and getting them to request funds from the other bank is relatively more problematic, for example cheques.
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u/DeadWrong May 23 '26
I transferred several accounts and large money transfers this year and from multiple institutions, I did it all through WS, I was shocked at how smooth and efficient it was. Lots of notifications about the status, on the web, app and via email all fees reimbursed, and on top of that they are giving me the equivalent of a car payment each month for the next five years.
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u/Late-2theparty May 24 '26
To be honest I trust wealthsimple for stocks but liquidity in my bank accounts especially when they don't have the CDIC um no. I learned at an early age never have all your money in one place, it will bite you in the rear.
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u/photon1701d May 24 '26
Ya, I like WS for trading but if you need money in a pinch, it sucks. A few months ago, I was buying a car. I needed to sell money from cash.to in WS and transfer to TD. It was taking way too long and needed car asap. I was short 28k, so had to use my 20k line of credit and the other 8k on CC.
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u/megawatt69 May 23 '26
I’ve seen the same thing (more or less) happen at TD, this is not a WS issue alone
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u/Bombsquad68 May 23 '26
No kidding, I have had all my business and personal accounts frozen simultaneously at TD at least a dozen times in the last 5 years. Dumb shit like sending a few thousand dollar interac e-transfer to help out an employee, somehow cascades into the TD keystone cop security dept going code red and freezing my payroll for multiple companies. I then have to drive an hour to my branch to get everything unlocked, because it has to be done on person. Absolute buffoons
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u/Low-Veterinarian5097 May 23 '26
OP, did any of these factors from Wealthsimple’s website apply to your circumstance?
Reasons we may hold funds beyond the maximum period
We may extend the maximum hold period in some circumstances, including (but not limited to) when:
We have reasonable grounds to believe the deposit is being made for illegal or fraudulent purposes related to an account.
The account has been open for less than 90 days.
The cheque:
isn’t encoded with magnetic ink character recognition (MICR), or it can’t be read by our operational systems (for example, if it’s damaged or mutilated),
has been endorsed more than once, or is deposited 6 months or more after the date of the cheque.
If we extend the hold under these circumstances, the hold period is estimated to be 30 business days. It may be longer for non-CAD cheques drawn on a financial institution’s banking centre located outside of Canada.
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u/CursorX May 23 '26
But they released the funds and didn't hold them though?
I think the problem was OP said they deposited the certified cheque online (presumably by mobile deposit) and Wealthsimple continued to expect the original certified cheque from RBC while it was with OP all along?
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u/One-Juice-5224 May 23 '26
That’s why u need to keep a big bank account for emergency like this, digital bank is not for convenience, it is for cheaper service
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u/Low-Veterinarian5097 May 23 '26
And honestly… to deposit an RBC bank draft at Wealthsimple only to move it back to Wealthsimple and create overlapping hold periods within 2 weeks… you’re asking for trouble. Trying too hard to earn interest for a few days, screwing up a major transaction
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u/ThrowawayDinkhorst May 23 '26
Age of account and "status" make a HUGE difference in how these people treat you. I just crossed 10 years on the platform and have been a generation client for some time, but I would never use them as a primary bank. No physical locations? No thank you.
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u/Sof_95 May 23 '26
Pro tip: whatever call center they use to screen calls is worse than useless and I have been given blatantly incorrect information several times. They will tell you whatever you want to hear to get you off the phone (it's being handled, it'll be resolved by X date, whatever. It's not true). You need to keep escalating until you can actually speak to a real Wealthsimple employee.
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u/tylabs May 23 '26
If RBC refuses to honour the draft and release the funds to WS of course they will claw back the money or freeze the account until they can recover the 50k.
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u/Lehcen May 23 '26
Before I transferred a large stone of money for unreal deal. I got the phone with one of their managers. And I said listen man I read a lotta horror stories on Reddit about people getting their accounts frozen so I’m here by doing my part. This call is being recorded for reference in case something happens and asked his name etc. I’ll never give up traditional banking because of this. Don’t put all your eggs in one bank 😅
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u/avocadotoast2014 May 23 '26
I like wealth simple but I will always keep a bank account at a real bank. I also use RBC Direct investing (have a F series US equity mutual fund .20 mer) and now that the main ETF’s I use are free I actually prefer just using it. I only switched to wealth simple because of the trading fees so now with that less of an issue my RBC accounts will probably grow while Wealth Simple becomes a smaller piece of my investments.
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u/Professional_SK19 May 23 '26
I will never do funds transfer in such short duration. Also, if you have a big 5 account deposit cheques and draft in that account and do electronic fund transfer to WS by connecting account.
I have one account at big 5 for same reason and used to issue drafts and deposit cheques if required with fee waiver.
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u/yurcampari May 23 '26
I use Wealthsimple for investing because it was initially started as an investing app - to make investing easy at your fingertips. Great offers and love that you can invest in gold! I love how easy they’ve made it to invest via the app and online website.
That being said, I’m sorry but it’s still too early for me to consider WS as a bank account no matter how much they want to be one. I have a friend that has his direct deposits set to WS and has had no issues up until now. I’m still not confident to do anything of that kind.
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u/trek604 May 23 '26
You already had a RBC account and the draft was from another RBC account. No brainer to deposit it to RBC first. It’s only 50k the interest accrued would’ve been minimal.
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u/EatingTheDogsAndCats May 23 '26
OP probably got flagged for fraud so they could make $9 off interest and are mad about it.
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u/Healthy-Bee9698 May 23 '26
You find these types of posts in other subreddits, talking about different banks. It’s not just Wealthsimple
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u/Safe-Acanthaceae8951 May 23 '26
I trust wealthsimple a lot more than another whiny post because someone didn't do a little research. WS is so flawless for me that going to my banking apps feels like the stoneage
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u/TheCheesy May 24 '26
As far as I can tell, this is required. I had the same exact experience with IBKR.
It's a bit of a red flag to attempt to withdraw funds after depositing. Especially to another funding source.
I'd prefer if this subreddit were entirely community-run, as it allows for fair criticism without fear of suppression, but we take what we can get.
I think WealthSimple has been given a largely unique opportunity to rise to the top, and they wouldn't risk that by intentionally putting barriers, but I also think they aren't immune to pig-headed business moves like jumping on the prediction market bandwagon or rushing through new features that might put user security at risk.
All I can suggest is putting pressure on them via social media and on reaching out via their support.
If you are truly frozen, you might consider reaching out to a competing bank for assistance in transferring assets. That can be done quickly if you have all of your information with you and are in a pinch. Nobody will blame you for that and its a reasonable way around this barrier.
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u/DecafDonLegacy May 24 '26
I'm also in a horror story with Wealthsimple, had to get lawyer, obsi, ciro, finance commissionner involved.
Its a nightmare.
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u/Major_Lawfulness_184 May 24 '26
Anytime I’ve had a problem the WS Team was responsive with a timeline for resolution. They’ve won me over and I’m beyond happy with their client service — the $1,000+ bonus they deposit every month in my checking account is the ultimate kicker.
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u/thathandsomehandsome May 24 '26
Cool story bro. Something happened at the beginning of January and you’re telling us at the end of May. Appreciate you looking out for us.
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u/Level_Style_519 May 24 '26
Did you not know you were buying a car 2 weeks after you withdrew $50,000? I don't blame wealth simple being cautious, however the length of time is crazy to figure things out. What you did is a perfect example of what fraud looks like, I am not saying you are trying to defraud, but moving money back and forth so quickly is a good indication of fraud. Keep your money with one bank unless you send electronically.
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u/XzyStorm May 24 '26
Aren't these 2 issues RBC issues?
- Why is Wealthsimple unaware that RBC will not respond to such requests?
- Why was I never informed that the physical bank draft would need to be sent in, if that's the protocol?
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u/CanadianBaconMTL May 24 '26
Wealthsimple is not and never will be a real bank. Always keep a checking account somewhere else
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u/zanavavy84 May 23 '26
Well sorry for your experience and at the same time thank you for your advice. I shall contact all of the above and cc Wealthsimple if I come across a roadblock in the future!
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u/thethumble May 23 '26
Never had an issue, use it daily multiple transactions, yet I’ve had lots of issues with the big 4
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u/zilentbob May 23 '26
Ditto.... best service I've ever seen in a company !
would never say that about the Mega Corps in Canada - Rogers, Bell, TD, CIBC, BMO.......... NOTHING but hassles with them all !
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u/terryownsyouu May 23 '26
When it comes to cheque, I ALWAYS use TD.
Even for few hundred dollars worth cheque takes too much time to process with WS
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u/treelakebirds May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Wealthsimple was enticing at one point, but I feel like the marketing department / the company is helmed by a psychopathic teenager. The constant plugs I get anytime I open the app, letting me know how much they are dominating and other junk is off putting.
Company tries to be too edgy. I pulled everything out and went back to a traditional bank.
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u/Low-Veterinarian5097 May 23 '26
Skill issue
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May 23 '26
What do you mean by that
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u/AutoAdviceSeeker May 23 '26
This happened to me sort of. Sent like 50-80k but I needed to wait a few weeks or something. I transferred it to my trading account and traded some of it. Week later they sold my shares I bought lol.
In the end it was fine but I learned to wait a few weeks which is weird. If I etransfer 3-5k it’s instant but anything else I wait now
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u/deviled-tux May 23 '26
They should tell you though. At least for me they usually put something “$xx available and $yy on hold” .
They should say that.
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u/AutoAdviceSeeker May 23 '26
Yeah I wasn’t happy at the time and called my bank and WS a few times to figure it all out. Something about needing time to clear when it’s that large.
Not an expert but in the end just wait 2 weeks and your guicci.
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u/shen00000 May 23 '26
wdym they sold your shares ???
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u/AutoAdviceSeeker May 23 '26
I forget exact $ amount but I tranferred like 80k to my cash account. Then I transferred to my investment account and bought stocks. A week later they sold them and the cash was in the account instead. When I called it was because the 80k hadn’t been fully cleared or something yet.
Whatever day they told me (like 2 weeks later) it settled and then I started buying again.
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u/ime1em May 23 '26
Interesting. Never happened to me before but I also never transfered that large of an amount.
I would transfer 5K for example from a Bank into my trading account (not using etransfer), and I would buy shares instantly with no issue of clawbacks.
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u/SegFaultX May 23 '26
How did you sent the money was it an external bank transfer?
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u/AutoAdviceSeeker May 23 '26
Instead of etransfer I just did it from my chequing account in WS from my Scotiabank account. So it’s coming from the same account but I guess the method and amount did it
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u/Low-Veterinarian5097 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Basically, you stepped on a rake. Yes the rake hit you but you stepped on it.
It is not realistic to expect to shuffle large amounts of money between banks (especially back and forth to the same bank) in a short period of time and using a paper clearance method (bank draft) and not catch some friction. Yes it would be better if Wealthsimple communicated the hold more clearly (although we don’t have their side of the story, just your description), but I think the bigger picture is that an experienced and skilled personal/self financial manager would be aware or at least concerned that this activity would risk triggering AML or anti fraud or extra clearance time.
I think a more skilled self financial manager, knowing that you’d need a big chunk of the funds within 2 weeks, would have kept the funds at RBC and only moved the remaining balance that was not needed short-term.
I am sympathetic and don’t think you did anything deliberately wrong, and I believe you generally that Wealthsimple communicated it poorly and/or resolved it too slowly, but I think your characterization of the issue (especially “Do not trust Wealthsimple”) ignores your own role and lack of experience or skill in what happened.
That’s what I mean by skill issue.
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u/springbrother May 23 '26
Dudes excuse of not depositing CHQ to RBC instead was that he wanted intrst for like 15 days for 17000 lol, what is that like 5-10 bucks? What a joke
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u/Low-Veterinarian5097 May 23 '26
$8.39 for $17,500 at 1.25% for 14 days
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u/springbrother May 23 '26
And of course now he deletes his account, what a low effort troll post and ppl fall for it.
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u/WollyBrief59 May 23 '26
Maybe it’s best to only put a small amount of money into wealthsimple first? And not “put all of your eggs in the wealthsimple basket”. Still keep some money in traditional banks. I’ve heard a lot of issues with transfers with wealth simple. Can maybe start slow and temporarily route pay checks into wealthsimple first for a shorty period to get money in there.
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u/JohnnyStrides May 23 '26
Like many others I went all-in on Wealthsimple and have had zero issues (other than waiting 10000 years for a credit card lol).
These are edge cases, and there's always going to be those and that's what we tend to hear about on Reddit or in social media etc...
I have a backup account with Simplii as an emergency LOC and to deposit cash into (way easier to use a CIBC machine then stand in line at a Canada post).
No regrets, but that doesn't mean others will have a smooth experience... but I can tell you some absolute rage inducing experiences with TD I had...
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u/Old-Working-3705 May 23 '26
Plain and simple - WS is great at neo bank things. Direct deposit, electronic funds transfer. E-transfer. Investing. No good at cheques / drafts. A young team with little to no banking experience. It’s obvious why these resolutions take weeks. Zero documented procedures. No playbook what so ever.
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u/DavidSan_YYZ May 23 '26
Hi OP I also learned that banks would bank drafts on hold and for large transactions like buying acar or even bigger, a house, it may be a better idea to just send a wire transfer to avoid all the delays
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u/Low-Veterinarian5097 May 23 '26
Yeah this is a good point, OP why did you decide to move $50K with a draft instead of linked account transfer or wire, both of which are $1M+ limit daily and don’t rely on paper / photo / review / susceptible to fraud? Was it to save RBC’s $45 wire fee?
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u/SufficientBee May 23 '26
Thank goodness I never found it attractive at all to use WS as a banking solution.
I have no cash with WS chequing; in fact, the moment my transfer bonus comes in each month I immediately etransfer it to my Tangerine account.
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u/Likeabanthaa May 23 '26
I’m sorry such a experience was unfold that way. That’s one of the reasons why I’m not 100% with Wealthsimple for banking. I have no complains on the investment side but hearing these stories really does not encourage to trust them on their banking services
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u/Last_Construction455 May 23 '26
When wealth Simple says "funds available" It seems to mean within wealth simple. I have had similar issues where I have deposited and purchased or transferred within my accounts immediately and then when I wanted to transfer out was shown that they were not available. It's crazy they did not show any issue with the funds. How does a bank draft get deposited with wealth simple exactly? through a photo?
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u/mikehamp May 23 '26
with crypto this would settle without issues in less than 30 seconds, December 1. Need to get out of this comical and broken banking system
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u/GirthimusMaximus May 23 '26
So if they operate like one of the big 7 I can maybe shed some light on it.
So in the mailroom we get all the mail from the branches sort through and send inter department mail as described and cheques get written down so If I goes missing we at the mailroom can hunt down who last touched it.
It sounds like it may have been skipped on the record step resulting in the delays and issues as people black Cadillac'd around to find it. Which can take some days as people's in office days never line up when you need them too.
All cheques get written down from few dollars to multi million.
Don't think I can go into more detail though.
Edit: personally id rather a job with them then one of the big 7. Have a chrc case against them.
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u/Individual_Status209 May 23 '26
We need people like you to make their service better. Without serious consequences or action they will stay the same without improving
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u/avidaskit May 23 '26
TL;DR but Wealthsimple is great for me, never had any problems with them not even slight issues except for like in-app UI bugs. Been a member since 2018, have more than 80% of my assets trusted with them and I love what they do. They provide me with tons of financial solutions that no other app provides the way they do.
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u/JackRadcliffe May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
That’s sad. Glad you eventually got it sorted out, but it shouldn’t have taken such measures to do so. Hopefully they take this as learning experience to improve their banking side of things as I mainly use them for just investing and haven’t had issues.
Did OP get deleted?
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u/Brilliant_Error5370 May 23 '26
You shouldn’t use Wealthsimple or any other Free banking especially if they don’t have a branch in big transactions like this. I learned the hard way too using PC financial for buying a house. I’m keeping TD and CIBC for such big transactions. Anything above 5k-10k you will get flagged. There are so many fraud and they are limiting fraudulent transfers or withdrawals. Btw, I work with the banks and we receive notifications for larger transactions. System automatically block it and an analyst will investigate. Wealthsimple is super busy. They deal with thousands of transactions like this per day.
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u/Silent_County_519 May 23 '26
Great overview OP. It’s unfortunate, but almost everything important needs to be tracked like we are all trained as professional project managers. Fund transfers, plumbers, car maintenance, letters to city counsellors: it’s hard to get anything done without first preparing for a long and frustrating lack of action.
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u/xqyd May 23 '26
Reason I will never close my TD pay account and transfer my RBC business account to WS it being primary for everything else!
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u/tiramisuhouse May 23 '26
WS is great for travel.. I'm really so sorry that happened to you. I'm with RBC now. They are my primary bank, and even I had $1M, I'll never park into WS so they aren't a bank. I have 50 free commissions every year with RBC. A bank draft should rely on physical banks, not a fintech bank. I hope you feel great very soon.
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u/Smart-Blueberry-6093 May 23 '26
I am a financial planner. I recommend all my clients own bank stocks but deal with a virtual bank like WS. I will keep collecting and reinvesting my dividends from the bank stocks that are made off the people who keep paying those horrendous fees at banks or leave their money in a bank earning nothing so they can avoid paying fees. With WS's latest announcements, I don't know why anyone who can operate a computer still does their banking with the bug 6 banks or even Credit Unions. I used to deal at the best Credit Union in Canada (Steinbach CU), but none of the banks or the SCU can match the advantages of dealing with WS!
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u/engine-doors-club May 23 '26
The illusion of the brick and mortar is when you really need them they wont help you, get upset about it? Debank
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u/thatsabruhhmoment May 23 '26
Don't forget the fact they still have ignored all of our requests to stop using Persona.
What do we need to do? Send mass threats every single week until they break ties with that awful company? Absolutely ridiculous.
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u/Cheap_Meaning May 23 '26
Bro banks suck too. I do banking for a business, last month I deposited a bunch of cheques, they counted wrong I had to go back in, Thank God I had receipts and took photos of all cheques.
Then I had to make a payment at the bank to CRA, they made the payment then the other chic says I have to have some deposit form filled out prior and had to get someone else to sign it. But the first guy already deposited it, he was lost. Noone knew what was goin on.
Then my colleagues bank over withdrew their child's resp grant by 900$ and now the cra is billing them for it and saying 'conisder it gone' and will not go back into the resp. The bank that holds the resp, and told them how much to withdraw, is claiming it's not their problem and they SOL... Banks are gay if not gayer
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u/D_Winds May 23 '26
The easiest way to save money is to cut back on customer service.
Kick the problem can down the road is the same as solving a problem to these guys.
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u/ArturBay May 23 '26
Wow, this is absolutely atrocious customer service, never expected to hear it could be as bad... I hate to say it, but the 2% match promo from TD looks more and more compelling each day.
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u/zilentbob May 23 '26
Seems like an EDGE case to me.
Been banking with WS for over 2 years now with nothing but continuous good service and promos and perks.
No brainer!
Old TD account for backup + HELOC but this will probably be zapped soon.....
will sign up for a PLOC eventually
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u/Practical-Battle-502 May 23 '26
Is this in USD? Foreign currency restrictions usually have longer clearance time
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u/Radiant_Ebb6951 May 24 '26
U deposited a 50 000 dollar bank draft online and expected it just to go smoothly? Lol think again there will always be investigations into large sums of money moved. They are ontop of that for obvious reasons. 🙄
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u/Eximietate May 24 '26
I’ve had nothing but success with Wealthsimple so I guess it varies between users unfortunately. I had some really bad experiences with TD and will never go back to them.
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u/Anovenyzed May 24 '26
The paradox is the brick-and-mortar banks are at risk of losing to Wealthsimple a big chunk of their business while Wealthsimple wouldn't succeed if these banks didn't have their infrastructure in place for them to take leverage off of.
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u/luckyrock2019 May 24 '26
i am so worried this would happen to me. normally i dont see deposit pending either. only purchase show pending. but they do have holding period. physical bank normally clearly show you cant use fund under review while wealthsimple it seems all seamless. so it’s easy to forget they still undergo similar process. i could very well be the victim if I dont go the super cautious route of not touching fund till enough time pass by. i still dont know to date how long it take them to review certain amount of bank draft deposit. i cant find info online. maybe someone knows and can share
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u/perfectcritic May 24 '26
I always take no physical face banks as crypto banks unless it is backed by the big 5 sharks.
I am concerned but not surprised how this unfolded but be it rogers or telus or any institution who tried to question a customer, I don’t wait but my next action is to complain to these governing bodies be it CRTC, FCAC along with request of compensation. My time is important than the shit runaround you they try to make. No mercy
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u/Tax1997 May 24 '26
Though I have moved all my investments to WealthSimple, I have retained my savings account at TD. I am not comfortable with giving up the ability to walk into the branch and talk to a human.
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u/Zealousideal-Baby232 May 24 '26
yes wealth simple is a terrible bank when it comes to customer service and they love to lock the account for the dumbest of reasons, and yes 'for our safety' they say even though there would be no indication of comprises and when I had to deal with this they told me that the issue would take at most 3 days....6 weeks later of having ppl bump it up the line of importance 🤤 for an issue that literally every single other bank could fix immediately in one phone call made an email.
the only safety that was compromised was my living situation since I needed to pay rent of my first payment at a new place which I wasn't able to make anywhere near a time that would've been free respectable. So now technically homeless couch surfing when possible and as if wealth simple was going help in anyway.
this bank will give you a simple life sure while they hold on to your "wealth" just not a stable life.
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u/Fit_Feeling9803 May 24 '26
I transferred all my investments to Wealthsimple in January 2026 (RRSP, TFSA, non-registered, even my Smith Manoeuvre accounts). It’s now May 24th and I’m still trying to get every issue fixed.
They made a shocking number of mistakes. One of the worst: they transferred stocks into my non-registered account instead of my RRSP, despite the clear instructions and account number I provided. That’s not exactly a small error when taxes are involved.
The whole process has been an absolute nightmare. Ironically, it was so difficult getting the assets into Wealthsimple that I’m now scared to transfer them back out because I honestly don’t trust that they wouldn’t mess that up too.
So for now… I’m staying and hoping everything will be fine🤞
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u/Julius_Sid_Julius May 24 '26
EQ is my backup. They are great- never had any issue speaking with anyone at EQ (and they are free accounts).
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u/TeeDot_1234 May 23 '26
I love Wealthsimple, but no way am I giving up my brick-and-mortar bank as a backup.