Category: Cheapskates

Chasing Free Money with Wealthsimple

RobH3 Comments

As I’ve been alluding, my relationship with QTrade is coming to an end. It would have ended back in March 2025 when I moved the majority of my holdings to Questrade, but having an active RRIF can make things a bit more complicated when it comes to changing your online broker.

Anyway, the plan all along was to move the last of my QTrade holdings — 4 RRIF accounts: 2 for me, 2 for my spouse — to Questrade around now, after most of the RRIF payments for 2025 have been taken care of1.

But then Wealthsimple came around and decided to throw free money on the table2. And they even helpfully extended the registration deadline — multiple times — to make it even easier. Now, I know I preach about simplifying your arrangements in retirement to make it easier on your heirs, but hear me out….

Because of a problem with my DPSP, (another cautionary tale for those who are considering retirement), I already had a RRIF with Wealthsimple (and a nice shiny MacBook Air) as a reward for my troubles. If I wanted to keep my MacBook, I had to keep my money with Wealthsimple3 until January 2026, so that RRIF wasn’t going anywhere…I reasoned I wasn’t really making things more complicated. I’m going from using three brokers to using two, so that’s clearly an improvement.

Moving accounts from another provider to Wealthsimple, like many things Wealthsimple does, is totally digital, and very, very easy to accomplish. All that was needed was the account number and a recent statement from my sending broker, and that was it. I think it took all of 10 minutes to get the ball rolling. No printers. No pictures. No pens. Just clicks and swipes.

And even better is Wealthsimple’s super-clear status indicator, visible in the app or when using the web:

How clear is that? Of course, one could complain about how it could possibly take a month for things to move along (I know I did), but it’s stuff like this that makes me realize how far ahead of the competition Wealthsimple is when it comes to serving their clients.

What’s more, the transfer finished *way* ahead of schedule, being fully complete on November 8th, around 2 weeks after initiating the request. And, to make things even more pleasant, Wealthsimple has already reimbursed me the $150 plus GST that QTrade charged me for moving the account — no need for me to provide “proof” — the industry standard is well known to all, including, lately, the federal government.

I’ll provide an update once the free money starts rolling in. I have to update my workflows on how I get paid, since it’ll be a new world starting in January!

  1. I take RRIF payments monthly to make it more like a salary. And to avoid large stock sales all at once, since getting paid means selling assets. ↩︎
  2. I wonder if the gravy train in this space will end — read more about my thoughts on that here ↩︎
  3. The catch with free money (or free gifts) from brokers always involves keeping your money intact with them for some non-trivial amount of time. 12 months and 24 months are both pretty common. No big deal to me, I intend to stay retired a lot longer than that. ↩︎

News: Canadian Financial Summit Starts TOMORROW!

RobH1 Comment

I haven’t myself attended this summit before, but it appears to have a very strong lineup and interesting topics. And, good for the cheapskates among us, free if you watch the prerecorded content up to 48h after it’s posted.

It kicks off tomorrow with my hero, David Chilton, aka The Wealthy Barber. Also featured, another great speaker (who I thought was retired), Rob Carrick.

Register over at https://canadianfinancialsummit.com. Hurry! If you don’t watch the videos over the next few days, the only way to get access to the content is to buy an all-access pass.

News: Norbert’s Gambit Tracking Update

RobH2 Comments

If you have no idea what Norbert’s Gambit is, it’s a way to cheaply convert USD/CAD in your online brokerage account. Most brokers support it1.

Because I hold a lot of USD assets in my retirement savings, and since I live and spend most of my money in Canada, I need a way cheaply convert to Canadian funds in my RRIF. So last week, I had to convert some of my AOA holdings into XGRO holdings and so I updated the log I’m keeping. So far, I’ve done the Gambit three times this year, and twice I’ve lucked out on the FX rate changes and actually made money2 on the transaction.

  1. And many people expect Wealthsimple to join this club soon. ↩︎
  2. What I mean: if the funds had converted instantaneously with no fees rather than waiting around for the 3-5 business days for the Gambit to complete, I would have received LESS money than by using the Gambit. Over time, I expect this will even out, but right now I’m about $55 CAD ahead. ↩︎

Credit Card Cheapskate

RobH1 Comment

I try to take advantage of free money whenever it is tossed my way. (You will have seen this demonstrated by my chasing of free money from online brokers). A recent visit to Costco triggered a credit card assessment exercise, something I haven’t done for a while. The staffer at Costco suggested that given my affinity for shopping at Costco, perhaps a Costco Mastercard would be a better fit for me?

My current household1 go-to credit card2 is a fee-based cashback Mastercard from CIBC3. I chose this card some time ago because I got tired of points-based cards and their infuriating habit of changing the rules/exchange rates/partners with little notice (I think I had an Aeroplan card at some point and could never seem to book the flights I wanted). The card we use is pretty simple — get cash back with any purchase, no limit, but the percentage of cash one gets back changes as one spends. It starts low (0.5%), then climbs higher and higher (1%, 1.5% and 2%) before hitting a cap and setting all purchases thereafter to 1% cashback4.

Anyway, the Costco card was more complicated, giving various cashback incentives depending on what I bought and where. I ran some numbers5 and yes, without making any changes to my habits, I could get more cash back than I was getting, but it wasn’t a lot more…I could improve the windfall by changing my shopping habits (e.g. buy gas at Costco) but at this point the thought of standing in queues for gasoline felt like unpleasant work and laziness set in.

But the exercise got me wondering…am I really using the best credit card?

It didn’t take long for me to uncover Rogers red Mastercards6, which come in two flavours: the basic and the “World Elite” for those with higher income. These cards look rather interesting:

  • No fees
  • Either 1% (basic) or 1.5%(World Elite) cashback on everything, increasing to 2% cashback if you use a Rogers service of some kind
  • No charge for additional cards
  • A 1.5x multiplier to your cashback if you use your cashback to pay for Rogers services
  • 2% cashback on US dollar transactions, increasing to 3%7 if you have a Rogers service8

What’s more, I’ve been noticing my Bell Fibe service bundle (internet, TV, home phone) getting more expensive with each passing month.

And so, my next cheapskate project is taking shape:

  • Apply for the Rogers card — done October 3rd, took only a few minutes
  • Get my hands on the card — received October 9th9
  • Switch from Bell to Rogers — I did the opposite a little over 2 years ago…It’s mildly painful, but very short lived, especially compared to the long drawn-out affair of switching online brokers. — executed October 9, installation pending
  • Switch preauthorized credit card transactions: numerous charities, Bell bill, Fizz bill, newspapers, Apple Pay… — I think I got them all as of October 10.
  • Cancel my “for fee” CIBC card10
  • Collect more free money
  • Do happy dance

  1. My wife and I both have cards linked to the same account so we both get rewarded for using the cards. ↩︎
  2. And close to 100% of my transactions are paid using credit — only the barber and bike shop I frequent are paid using debit. I don’t run balances on my credit card, ever. ↩︎
  3. This one: https://www.cibc.com/content/dam/personal_banking/credit_cards/agreements_and_insurance/dwe-mc-benguide-en.pdf ↩︎
  4. I didn’t actually remember this tiered model previously, maybe the card changed at some point? I dunno. ↩︎
  5. I actually downloaded all household credit card transactions for the last 12 months. ↩︎
  6. Offered by Rogers Bank, which I didn’t know was a thing… ↩︎
  7. Which wipes out the 2.5% foreign exchange charge, and then some. ↩︎
  8. There’s other travel insurance benefits tied to the World Elite version but I hold an annual travel policy with a third party provider that includes cancellation insurance for any reason. ↩︎
  9. So one problem I see is that the default credit limit is awfully low; unless I can up the limit in the not too distant future, I’ll have to rely on a 2nd card some months… ↩︎
  10. I try to stay with at most two credit cards. Given my Costco habit, having a Mastercard as one of them is mandatory. ↩︎

News: Wealthsimple ends cashback on prepaid Mastercard

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Wealthsimple’s prepaid Mastercard (aka the Cash Card) has stopped offering cashback on purchases, effective October 2nd, 2025. Don’t confuse this with Wealthsimple’s Visa card, which is an actual credit card, and still offers a nice 2% cashback reward.

I’ve been a fan of Wealthsimple’s prepaid Mastercard for a while now. I wrote about it over here. My favourite feature of this prepaid Mastercard is that it does not charge the usual 1.5% foreign exchange fees most other credit cards bury in their transaction costs.

The demise of the 1% bonus isn’t a deal-breaker for me but it was nice while it lasted. The card is also noteworthy because it permits ATM access globally with no fees. This isn’t a feature I’ve used, but it might be of interest.

I signed up for the waitlist for Wealthsimple’s Visa card when it was released, but the rollout has been v-e-r-y slow, and I’m still waiting for that to materialize1. Once I get my hands on one, I will have no incentive to use the prepaid card since the Visa card also offers no-charge foreign exchange AND 2% cashback on all purchases. That’s a great deal.

  1. About every third post on Reddit’s Wealthsimple sub is complaining about the slow rollout. ↩︎