RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

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adrian2
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by adrian2 »

If you use Quicken, just set up 3 (sub-)accounts at RBC.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by Benchwarmer »

adrian2 wrote:If you use Quicken, just set up 3 (sub-)accounts at RBC.
That's what I am doing now, but it's not perfect. For example, at month end I have to prorate the interest income from the RBC Savings Account fund, and each of the 3 components (equities, FI & cash) may have different amounts and for different durations. And sometimes if the interest rate changes (as it recently did), then it becomes more of a hassle. But absent actual sub-accounts, this may be the best I can do.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

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Benchwarmer wrote:That's what I am doing now, but it's not perfect. For example, at month end I have to prorate the interest income from the RBC Savings Account fund, and each of the 3 components (equities, FI & cash) may have different amounts and for different durations. And sometimes if the interest rate changes (as it recently did), then it becomes more of a hassle. But absent actual sub-accounts, this may be the best I can do.
That seems to be a lot of work for very little gain (or in my opinion, no gain). Why does it matter what the cash is from, or targeted too? All that really matters is what your equities and FI holdings are at any given time, with Cash filling up the rest of the container. If equities are a bit light due to an asset sale, you simply draw from cash to fill it back up when you buy something.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

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AltaRed wrote:
Benchwarmer wrote:That's what I am doing now, but it's not perfect. For example, at month end I have to prorate the interest income from the RBC Savings Account fund, and each of the 3 components (equities, FI & cash) may have different amounts and for different durations. And sometimes if the interest rate changes (as it recently did), then it becomes more of a hassle. But absent actual sub-accounts, this may be the best I can do.
That seems to be a lot of work for very little gain (or in my opinion, no gain). Why does it matter what the cash is from, or targeted too? All that really matters is what your equities and FI holdings are at any given time, with Cash filling up the rest of the container. If equities are a bit light due to an asset sale, you simply draw from cash to fill it back up when you buy something.
My approach is to have 1/3 each in equities, FI and cash on a contribution basis, with no re-balancing. Theoretically there is a firewall between the 3 categories, so nothing flows between them.

If my approach is 1/3 each on a current value basis, it would make things a lot simpler, but that implies re-balancing. I don't want to punish the asset class that out-performs (whatever it may be), and subsidize the ones that under-perform. For example, on a contribution basis it is 33-33-33, but on a current value basis equities has perform so well in the last 6 years that the ratio is probably 60-20-20.

I use market timing for equities, so it is conceivable that at some point in the future, I will be selling all my stocks. So monthly interest earned may not always be small.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by IdOp »

May you could create another, separate, account that tracks the true RBC HISA exactly, and within your other sub-accounts create a cash-like security that earns no interest and holds the proceeds of stock sales, etc. This would be less work than trying to pro-rate interest, and as long as interest rates are low it might be good enough for re-balancing purposes. Just an idea, nothing is perfect and it might not meet your needs either.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by pmj »

RBC DI has 4 different C$ HISAs, and one US$ HISA - http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/products/isa/ - so why not keep each portfolio's cash in a different HISA?
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by Benchwarmer »

pmj wrote:RBC DI has 4 different C$ HISAs, and one US$ HISA - http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/products/isa/ - so why not keep each portfolio's cash in a different HISA?
Thanks, I will look further into this.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by SkaSka »

Ugh I recently opened a RBC DI TFSA account and there has been some mix up.

When I filled in the account transfer application to move my TFSA at TD DI, there was only space to fill out the account number and no space for US and Canadian subaccounts. I assumed that by just putting in the account number was indication enough I wanted the entire TFSA account transferred over.

Nope.

Somehow, RBC arbitrarily chose the Canadian subaccount to transfer over and not the US subaccount. TD DI confirmed that there was no transfer initiation on the US subaccount :evil:

Now I face 2 account transfer fees of $135, for a net charge of $135 (this transfer from TD DI to RBC DI was going to be free because the total TFSA value of the account was over $15,000 which makes it eligible for reimbursement by RBC).

Anyone have experience with this? I get a feeling I am going to be on the phone with customer support a lot arguing that this is their screw up and that they should cover the second $135 fee.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by adrian2 »

SkaSka wrote:Ugh I recently opened a RBC DI TFSA account and there has been some mix up.

[...]

Anyone have experience with this? I get a feeling I am going to be on the phone with customer support a lot arguing that this is their screw up and that they should cover the second $135 fee.
Why would you have agreed to pay even one $135 fee for a TFSA transfer, when you could have redeemed all holdings (in cash or in kind) to a non-registered account in late December and contributed to RBC in early January?
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by SkaSka »

adrian2 wrote:
SkaSka wrote:Ugh I recently opened a RBC DI TFSA account and there has been some mix up.

[...]

Anyone have experience with this? I get a feeling I am going to be on the phone with customer support a lot arguing that this is their screw up and that they should cover the second $135 fee.
Why would you have agreed to pay even one $135 fee for a TFSA transfer, when you could have redeemed all holdings (in cash or in kind) to a non-registered account in late December and contributed to RBC in early January?
I figured since they reimburse the $135 fee if transferring in over $15k, it was going to be a smooth process to transition to RBC now for free.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by aloe »

A terrible experience. I think everyone should journal everything in the US sub-account over to the Canadian one before attempting to transfer.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by SkaSka »

So, disregard (for now) what I wrote above as I was able to get a hold of more competent customer support reps, both from RBCDI and TDDI, and they ensured me that the transfer of both accounts was placed and that I should only be getting charged 1 account transfer fee (which will get reimbursed by RBCDI).

The 2 previous RBCDI CSR and 1 previous TDDI CSR before these competent reps gave me opposing and confusing answers.

Moral of the story is that YMMV with CSR at both RBCDI and TDDI and to call a few times if you have any issues to ensure you are getting the proper answer.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by qasimodo »

SkaSka wrote:Moral of the story is that YMMV with CSR at both RBCDI and TDDI and to call a few times if you have any issues to ensure you are getting the proper answer.

Unfortunately you can never be sure that the "right answer" actually gets implemented.

(In my experience, when it takes some effort to find someone with the right answer you have to hope they can complete the process themselves. Otherwise down the road someone with the wrong answer may have the last word)
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

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The value of the 2021 RRB in my June statement is wrong and not corrected by the index ratio. RBCDI has been contacted.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by Shakespeare »

The new signon page is active today.

Added: signon via banking. The Direct Investing pages, once you get to them, are the same.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by AltaRed »

I like the new Banking online page a lot better. Clean and less cluttered. PCF went through an ovehaul recently as well and cleaned it up some, but not nearly as dramatically as RBC.

Added: I made the decision to leave RBC DI entirely with a move of my RRSP over to Scotia iTrade (Scotia being my primary bank and home of most other accounts).
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by Ken »

AltaRed wrote:I made the decision to leave RBC DI entirely with a move of my RRSP over to Scotia iTrade (Scotia being my primary bank and home of most other accounts).
I am surprised you did that unless you have no USD in your RRSP. I have exactly the same situation... RRSP at RBC but most of my other banking at Scotia. I will never move my RRSP to Scotia until they support actual USD sub-accounts in RRSPs.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

AltaRed wrote:I like the new Banking online page a lot better. Clean and less cluttered.
I'd started a topic, RBC Online banking getting a makeover, for the banking site changes so that it wouldn't clutter/cause drift in the discount brokerage discussion.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

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Ken wrote:
AltaRed wrote:I made the decision to leave RBC DI entirely with a move of my RRSP over to Scotia iTrade (Scotia being my primary bank and home of most other accounts).
I am surprised you did that unless you have no USD in your RRSP. I have exactly the same situation... RRSP at RBC but most of my other banking at Scotia. I will never move my RRSP to Scotia until they support actual USD sub-accounts in RRSPs.
I know iTrade doesn't support actual USD sub-accounts, but I have no need for a USD side in my RSP (very small part of my portfolio). I decided to consolidate my business into 2 brokerages (BMO IL and iTrade) and iTrade usually offers the best rates and range of issuers for GICs.

My original move to RBC DI was years ago when they had that wonderful 1% bribe. Since I don't bank with RBC, my RSP was sort of a stranded asset.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

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Has anyone done a Norbert's Gambit with the RBC iPhone or Android app? CAD to USD. I'm wondering if it works.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

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FYI, just helped the kidlet open an RBC Direct Investing account. We went to a branch and met with an advisor. We went through all the paperwork and there was no mention of fees. The advisor was surprised (or was playing dumb) when I informed him that with a monthly $100 preauthorized transfer into Direct Investing that the fees would be waived. I told him where to find that info under frequently asked questions on the website. Just goes to show that doing one's homework pays off. We have set up the preauthorized monthly transfer and switched regular checking accounts to take advantage of a multi-product rebate that leaves the kidlet with no fees at all at Royal Bank. Will have to cough up $10 per trade with Direct Investing.

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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

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2 yen wrote:FYI, just helped the kidlet open an RBC Direct Investing account. We went to a branch and met with an advisor. We went through all the paperwork and there was no mention of fees. The advisor was surprised (or was playing dumb) when I informed him that with a monthly $100 preauthorized transfer into Direct Investing that the fees would be waived. I told him where to find that info under frequently asked questions on the website. Just goes to show that doing one's homework pays off. We have set up the preauthorized monthly transfer and switched regular checking accounts to take advantage of a multi-product rebate that leaves the kidlet with no fees at all at Royal Bank. Will have to cough up $10 per trade with Direct Investing.

2 yen
$10.00 A TRADE. In the good old days I recall paying a couple of hundred per trade.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

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Thegipper wrote:
2 yen wrote:FYI, just helped the kidlet open an RBC Direct Investing account. We went to a branch and met with an advisor. We went through all the paperwork and there was no mention of fees. The advisor was surprised (or was playing dumb) when I informed him that with a monthly $100 preauthorized transfer into Direct Investing that the fees would be waived. I told him where to find that info under frequently asked questions on the website. Just goes to show that doing one's homework pays off. We have set up the preauthorized monthly transfer and switched regular checking accounts to take advantage of a multi-product rebate that leaves the kidlet with no fees at all at Royal Bank. Will have to cough up $10 per trade with Direct Investing.

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$10.00 A TRADE. In the good old days I recall paying a couple of hundred per trade.
Yeah, really. We've got it pretty good now.

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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

Post by IdOp »

The "Activity History" page is showing no content for me today. Other pages I used work. Firefox and SeaMonkey (latest versions). I tried clearing the site's cookies but no help. Is anyone else having this problem too?

Update (Sept 8 evening): Long story short: I cleared firefox' cache and it worked again.
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Re: RBC Direct Investing (formerly Action Direct) experience

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For over a week now I have been unable to view documents to be able to prepare things for tax time. Is it just me?
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