RBC Direct Investing Reviews 31

They are systematically borderline dishonest/greedy, and unresponsive to concerns.

They sold me on 100 free trades to get me to sign up, then sneakily started charging for trades. When I called them they told me the 100 free trades expire after two years, which I was not told at signup and doesn't make sense in terms of it costing them anymore, it is just a money grab and a deceitful one at that.

They refused to correct the unconsented taking of my money. Chat on their app bugged up, didn't message me back. Call cut out after 45 minutes on the phone, they didn't call me back. And yet they come to me trying to get me to take a line of credit and other products.

Far inferior to other banks I've dealt with.

i migrated from HSBC to this company in the year 2024, Over the years the service has been below average and inconsistent . i have been unable to withdraw my money and close down my account. Even #Quick Help... has been the best alternative, They assure quality service and steady pay.

Very disappointing experience with RBC Direct Investing.

I went in person to a Royal Bank branch to open an FHSA. The advisor directed me to RBC Direct Investing, telling me it would be simple to manage. I therefore opened an account and deposited $8,000 at the end of the year, followed by another $8,000 at the beginning of the next year.

When it came time to file my taxes, I realized that my money had generated no returns. I contacted RBC Direct Investing multiple times. I was always able to speak to someone, but I was never given clear explanations, I was simply told that the account was “self-directed,” without being told what to do or how to invest my money.

As a beginner, I expected at least minimal guidance. As a result, my $16,000 remained completely inactive for nearly two years, generating no returns at all.

I eventually decided to transfer my funds elsewhere with the help of a broker. To my surprise, the transferred amount was $15,827.54, as RBC Direct Investing withheld $172.46 in transfer-out fees ($150 + taxes). Despite the lack of service and guidance, these fees were applied without any consideration.

I believe I was poorly advised from the start. The branch advisor should never have directed me to RBC Direct Investing without clearly explaining that it is a fully self-directed account with no support. This is frankly unacceptable.

In summary:
• No clear explanations, only that the account was “self-directed”
• No support for a beginner client
• $16,000 left inactive for nearly two years
• Transfer-out fees charged despite the lack of service

I strongly do not recommend RBC Direct Investing if you require even minimal guidance.

Their platform is good, but their help isn't. They have a complete inability to fix minor administrative errors like my middle name being included on my wife's spousal RRSP. This didn't allow me to contribute in kind to her RRSP

When i first started investing with them, everything appeared to be honest. Then, with the assurance that everything would restart later, the regulations were altered, pushing my account negative and requesting that i add more money. When i eventually collected the part of the funds, my bid to renew my investment was rejected. I felt totally duped and i switched to #plan2prosper after quitting rbc's game. They constantly deliver on payout and don't hide behind formalities.

RBC lock my investment accounts for trading and not able to tell me when the account can be unlocked!

My accounts was migrated from HSBC in early 2024 as they bought HSBC Canada. They kept on telling me there is nothing I need to do for the account migration. 18 months later, they send message to my wife asked here to contact RBC. But we were travelling for months and not able to check e-mail.

Few days ago, they locked our accounts for trading. After contact them, they sent document for "account opening" of our accounts that already used over 18 months! We filled up the documents and send it back electronically on the same day. I called them today to check when can I do the trading. Then answer is "they DON"T know".

If you like to avoid lost caused by "bank's operational quality and unfriendly rules", may be RBC direct investing is the one you should NOT to use.

The Worst!
Customer service experience: 0/10
Credibility: 0/10
Platform: 0/10
Fees & commissions: 0/10
Paperwork: 0/10
They try to rob you off by all means

I have been an RBC Banking Client for 60 years and an RBC Direct Inverting client for about 15. I am in the process of moving all my accounts away (and they don't seem to care). Setting up and managing the basic accounts were fine as long as you are not looking for margin/option trading or if you don't have any issues. As soon as either of these occurs you run into the bureaucratic wall that are RBC processes. Things as simple as adding beneficiaries to accounts take weeks to accomplish and usually require multiple calls. Their ability to enable these processes online is poor at best and filling out paper forms and mailing them or dropping them to a branch are your options. And then they lose them....or the form you downloaded off their site is an old version....or the excuses are endless. The new fintechs like Questrade, Wealthsimple etc. are so much easier to deal with and I predict will soon be taking a lot of business away from the big banks, esp. RBC. I suggest you look elsewhere for your investing needs.

I tried to open an account with RBC Direct Investing. This is my worst experience. They simply do not value customers — you either call and wait for hours for an available agent, or they just lie to you about timelines, and then new and new ridiculous reasons appear as to why they are not doing their job.

I was trying to open an investment account, but over three months they did not do it. With Servus, I opened it within one day, and with Wealthsimple in 10 minutes. I’m happy that I didn’t send my money to these losers. I do not recommend dealing with them ever.

ASIF ISLAM is a liar.

If you decide to invest with RBC and get him, be careful, this dude will lie.

This is so ridiculous. I couldn’t withdraw a single Penney, if BlackSpectrums hand’t intervened I wouldn’t have gotten a cent back. All thank to BlackSpetrums.

there are no negative stars so i am stuck with 1 for you. I cant and wont begin to share the horror story of being an RBC direct investing customer until my investments clear. That being said, go elsewhere and avoid the mind-boggling mismanagement of information and service that accompanies this entity. Its simply not worth spending weeks of your life correcting the mistakes this firm makes on a routine basis.

Never again will I trust RBC Direct Investing, and I strongly urge anyone considering them to think twice.
My family had both RRSP and TFSA accounts with RBC Direct Investing for over a decade. After my husband passed away in 2022, I began the process of trying to access these funds. What should have been a straightforward procedure turned into a three-year nightmare that still hasn’t been resolved.
Not once—not once in three years—did RBC Direct Investing reach out to me on their own. Every update came only when I called. Each time, I was told something different: “We still need more information,” “We’re missing a document,” “Someone will follow up.” I would submit the requested information within hours, confirm they had received it… only to call back months later and hear that they suddenly needed something else. This cycle repeated for three years.
Three weeks ago, we submitted the “final documents” with a promise that the case would be prioritized. Since then, I’ve made multiple calls, been assigned a new case manager because the original one “went on leave,” and still—no correspondence, no updates, nothing.
This is the last thing anyone should face while grieving a loved one. The emotional burden, the stress, and the feeling that my own money is being held hostage have been overwhelming. Families deserve compassion, communication, and basic competence—not years of excuses.
If you are considering RBC Direct Investing, please learn from my experience. Protect yourself and choose another institution. No one deserves to go through this.

I have been helping my wife gain Power of Attorney for her father's Direct Investing account. It has taken 5 months to finally get access to even check his balances. The answer has always been it is with legal and we should hear in 3 to 5 days. When you try to escalate you hear things like my supervisor will call you in the next 2 days doesn't happen, I don't have a number for my supervisor, there is a high firewall with legal. Prior to this experience both my wife and I were Royal Direct clients and Royal Bank clients for 40 years but are currently looking for a new trading platform. Interestingly a manager in a Royal Bank yesterday warned us not to use Royal Direct saying that he has seen people suffer for 2 years to get things straightened out.

I have been dealing with RBC Direct Investing for years and they have progressively gotten worse. Before placing orders, it is necessary to go online and check stats - pricing, volumes, or any info that may affect your trade, because it’s ALWAYS outdated. Price uncertainty is a major problem, when trades are based on real time. Opening/closing hours offer high volatility and price changes, but quite often it’s hard to sign in, at this time, their response is quite often “unavailable due to maintenance”… what maintenance is more important than prices?.. but nothing changes. I could carry-on, but bottom-line is, it is so frustrating dealing with them, so don't do it. One day I’ll move my assets, which will be a chore, but one day I will.

very bad i will go to OSC regarding stocks behavery they did.

The website isn't easy to navigate and lacks functionality. I can't see all my dividends from one stock. I can't set up/remove a DRIP. I emailed for help, but no reply. I phoned to correct an error and was on hold for 4 hours! There are many more alternatives and I'll be switching.

I have noticed RBC Direct Investing is using only my English name on statements I received from them since they took over all my HSBC accounts & investments since March 2024. When I started to request my full legal name to be restored on their records since a week ago, I ran into multiple on-going red tapes, total rigidity & much intimidations & lots of frustrations just to have my full legal name restored in the proper order/arrangemnt.

I have been doing business with Royal Bank of Canada since July 1994 & this bank has all my personal information including my full legal name, my SIN number, my address, telephone number, date of birth & so on. All these information remained identical since 1994.

HSBC was using my English name with my ethnic name intials for 24 years until RBC took over in March 2024. RBC Direct Investing took over all my HSBC investments & uses ONLY MY ENGLISH NAME & SCARCED MY ETHNIC NAME INITIAL TOTALLY.

I shared with a customer care officer named Pat Feng my concerns & limitations regarding what they called a ''Name change'' request (I insisted that this is a NAME CORRECTION request) such as my driver licence had not been renewed recently as I am no longer driving for 15 yeras, I have no passport whatsoever as I do not travel, etc. Ms. Feng has already confirmed that RBC does have my full legal name, though in different arrangements/orders (such as my English first name-my ethnic name-my last name or my English first name-my ethnic name initials-my last name). However my name arrangemt RBC has already on their own records or on my HSBC account records that they now poccess, ALL THESE NAMES ARE MINE WITH SAME SIN CARD NUMBER, SAME ADDRESS, SAME PHONE NUMBER, SAME DATE OF BIRTH SINCE 1994!!!

I cannot even want to imagine that RBC/RBC Direct Investing WOULD EVEN THINK THAT SOMEONE WOULD ACTUALLY STAY HIBINATED, DO NO TRICKS WHATSOEVER, USE SAME EVERYTHING FOR 31 YEARS IN ORDER TO STEAL ANOTHER PERSON' S IDENTITY & HIS/HER ASSETS & MONEY. WHAT A TOTALLY UNREAL & INCOMPENTENT BIGGEST BANK IN CANADA!!

It is so very simple & easy for these so-called back office decision-making people to NOT spend any time to perform an actual investigation/risk assessemnt whatever regarding such a stright-forward, zero risk name correction request & straighten their records for a customer who have been banking with them for 31 years instead of simply telling him/her to fill out a name change form, waste lots of extra time & hassels going to a branch, finding, waiting & explaining what to do to multiple people, provide valid ID documents that THEY ACCEPT & so on & so forth!! WHAT AN EFFORTLESS, NO COST/THOUGHT PROCESS FOR THESE BACK OFFICE DARK BOX OPERATING, VERY SECRETIVE INCOMPENTENT RBC DRIECT INVESTING PEOPLE TO HARESSS AND INTIMIDATE LEGITIMATE CLENTS OF THEIR BANK!!!

These guys are AWFUL!!! I have a margin account with them, and they are CONSTANTLY SCREWING UP!!! My account would show a MARGIN CALL situation, when it was wrong, and I soon realized that their system wasn't including my mutual fund holdings (over $400K) in their calculations! I would have to get on the phone, wait 10 - 45 minutes to get through to someone, and explain to them (they who didn't speak or understand English as their first language) about how their margin calculations are flawed. This went on for 10 years! I would have to sell positions (sometimes at a loss) when I didn't have to! Just to stay on top of my margin, so I wouldn't get a margin call. Then their ORDER STATUS page would make mistakes: Either my limit orders went unfilled, right in front of my eyes the ticker would show another order getting filled ahead of mine, even though mine was priced lower, or was on there first; OR, they screw up on the AMOUNT of shares or units I was selling. Eventually I would have to try again, on a subsequent day, at a LOWER PRICE, therefore losing money!! Then, at other times, they would charge me a higher interest rate when my TOTAL account holdings clearly put me in the next higher, cheaper, interest tier. I had to plead with management to LOOK AT MY OTHER ACCOUNT (I have 2 accounts there), to see the value of my holdings, which qualified me for a lower interest rate! Another time they went into my account to exercise their right to sell me out of something, due to a margin call, WHEN ALL ALONG I HAD THE NECESSARY FUNDS/HOLDINGS IN MY OTHER ACCOUNT, ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS LOOK!!! One thing after another! Unbelievable! And their service/interest charges are expensive too! I'm DEFINITELY moving my funds elsewhere....
Glen Anthony

Absolutely appalling service. The staff are polite and try to be helpful but they can not get around the positively obstructive systems, or lack thereof, they have in place. I was executor for my mother and they made it impossible to file her final tax return on time. Totally inflexible, uncoopertve and didn't seem to have a clue.