What seems to be normal nowadays is to have online brokers write cheques to investors in an attempt to attract new money. I wrote about Wealthsimple’s latest offer yesterday, and now I see that QTrade is the latest broker to try to entice investors to move their money. I’ve been a QTrade client for many years (you can read my take on them here), but this year moved most of my holdings to Questrade¹ (my take here).

Anyway, the maximum possible free money you can earn is $2000 with this latest QTrade promotion. All the details are captured here, and the fine print is found here.

I’ll save you the trouble, the details as I see them:

• To be eligible, you can be a new or existing client, but you have to open a new account²³ with QTrade before November 30, 2025 using the promo code QTRADE2025⁴
• Fund your account⁵ before the end of the year to be eligible for your free money
  • 5% matching on the first $15k (total possible: $750)
  • 1% matching on the next $125k (total possible: $1250)
  • No matching after that (i.e. the total reward is capped at $2000)
• Keep your money there until December 31, 2026 and get paid in a lump sum in February 2027⁶.
• If you’re also a new client, you get free trades⁷ until the end of the year

Comparing Wealthsimple’s latest offer to QTrade’s offer might be fun. In the table below, I’m ignoring the margin account bonus offered by Wealthsimple and the impact of free trades offered by QTrade⁸.

If you move…	Wealthsimple Bonus	QTrade Bonus	Winner
$15k	$09	$75010	QTrade
$25k	$250	$850	QTrade
$50k	$500	$1200	QTrade
$100k	$1000	$1600	QTrade
$150k	$1500	$200011	QTrade
$200k	$2000	$2000	Wealthsimple12
>$200k	1% of amount, up to $20k	$2000	Wealthsimple

QTrade’s offer is the clear winner for amounts up to $200k, but Wealthsimple wins if you’ve got more loose change. One big difference is how fast you get your hands on the bonus money. Wealthsimple starts paying out 1/12 of your bonus 60 days after the money lands, whereas QTrade makes you wait a whole year (and then some) before giving you the money.

As a certified cheapskate, I’m always happy to take advantage of free money, and more and more providers¹³ seem to be taking this route in an effort to attract new customers. It’s a good time to be a DIY investor!

1. To take advantage of THEIR free money offer, naturally ↩︎
2. My interpretation of the Ts and Cs is that opening multiple accounts will NOT increase your ability to collect free money. The limit is $2000 per client, across all new accounts opened by that client ↩︎
3. There’s no restrictions that I see on the type of account. QTrade provides all of the ones you might care about: TFSAs, RRSPs, RRIFs, RESPs, non-registered. They also support USD accounts. ↩︎
4. Speaking as a current QTrade client, opening a new account takes only a minute or two. I would expect it take a little longer for a new client, but this step needn’t dissuade you. ↩︎
5. Has to be “net new” money, so my thought of shifting from one account to another isn’t eligible. Darn. ↩︎
6. Paying out bonuses month by month seems to be a more common way of doing this, but to each his own I guess. ↩︎
7. Most of the ETFs I care about are included in QTrade’s “Free to Trade” list ↩︎
8. And the time value of money. ↩︎
9. Wealthsimple requires minimum $25k before paying out ↩︎
10. 5% for the first 15k, 1% after that ↩︎
11. QTrade’s bonus cap is $2k which kicks in at $140k ↩︎
12. Because Wealthsimple pays out faster than QTrade does ↩︎
13. WeBull and moomoo (not making those names up, promise), two new providers on the scene, also have promotions. ↩︎