3% Cash Back Offer FAQ

• How do I qualify for this offer?
• What is the offer?
• What is the duration of the offer period?
• Is there a minimum funding amount to qualify for the cash back?
• How much can I earn?
• What accounts can I transfer into?
• How are Joint Accounts and Corporate Accounts handled?
• What are Qualifying Deposits and where can my transfers come from?
• How long do I have to transfer my funds?
• Do multiple transfers count towards my net funding total? 
• Do I have to pay transfer fees for external transfers from another institution? 
• How is the cash back calculated?
• How will I receive my cash back?
• When will I receive the first cash back payment?
• Where will I be able to find my first cash back payment?
• What if I don't have a Cash or Margin account to receive my cash back payment in?
• Which account will the cash back be paid to if I have both a Cash account and a Margin account?
• How long do I have to keep my transfers in my account at Questrade?
• How much money can I withdraw without impacting my cash back?
• I’ve withdrawn money. Can I get my full cash back amount again?
• How much can I withdraw if my account grows in value?
• Will market fluctuations impact my cash back?
• What are the tax implications of this offer?
• Can I be eligible for multiple offers at once?
• How will USD assets be treated?
• What happens if I decide to close my account?
  

To qualify, you must:

• Be a new or existing client of Questrade, Inc. (‘Questrade’) or Questrade Wealth Management Inc. (‘QWM’)
• Be a legal resident of Canada
• Be the age of majority in the province or territory you live in
• Meet the additional requirements for the offer, such as the minimum required qualifying deposit

 For more information on eligibility for this offer, please see our Terms and Conditions. 

Until February 28, 2025 you can get up to 3% cash back on net-new transfers from other institutions. For your transfer to be eligible, you have to move at least $1,000 to a Questrade account. Remember: this has to be a transfer, cash deposits do not count for this offer. See offer terms and conditions.

Your cash back bonus will be deposited into a Cash account (either a Self-directed account or a Questwealth Portfolios account (‘QWP’)) or a Margin account. This is because these account types don’t have contribution limits. So, by depositing your bonus into them, it ensures your contribution room in a registered account isn’t impacted.

If you don’t have a Cash or Margin account, you can open one for free at any time. Your cash back bonus isn’t locked into this account, either. If you want to, you can move it to another Questrade account any time.

The cash back deposit will happen on or around the last business day of each month as long as your transferred assets have arrived (also known as settled) in your account. 

The offer period is between February 10, 2025 - February 28, 2025. Only transfers-in from other institutions that are submitted to Questrade during this period will qualify for this offer.

Yes. You’ll need to transfer-in a total of at least $1,000 CAD. These transfers can be made to one account, or multiple accounts—it’s up to you. Just make sure you’re transferring to an eligible account type.

For example, let’s say you’re the primary account holder of a Questwealth Portfolios TFSA, a self-directed RRSP, and Margin account. You can transfer in $500 to each, for a total of $1,500 transferred, and be eligible for cash back.

Remember: only funds or investments that are transferred into Questrade from another institution count for this offer. Cash deposits to an account, like a pre-authorized deposit, Interac e-Transfer, or Visa Debit deposit don’t qualify for cash back.

All of the most commonly owned asset types qualify for this offer, including:

• Cash
• Stocks (regular and preferred shares)
• Bonds
• GICs
• ETFs
• Mutual funds 

A few asset types aren’t eligible, though. Restricted assets (ones that are set aside to meet regulatory or contractual requirements), assets subject to a cease trade order, or assets lacking evidence of current value. See the full terms and conditions for more details. 

Your cash back will be calculated based on an important figure called the Net Qualifying Transfer Amount, which is the total qualifying amount you submitted to transfer-in during the offer period (February 10th to February 28th, 2025) minus any withdrawals during the same time frame. 

You can earn 3% cash back on the first $10,000 of your Net Qualifying Transfer Amount, and you’ll also earn 1.5% cash back on any Net Qualifying Transfer Amount above $10,000 during the same period. The maximum cash back bonus you can earn is $10,000.

For example, if you submit your first transfer-in request on February 10, worth $8,000. Then, on February 20, you submit another transfer-in request worth $5,000. In between these requests, you made no other withdrawals. That means you would have a Net Qualifying Transfer Amount of $13,000.

In this scenario, you would receive 3% on the first $10,000 of your Net Qualifying Transfer Amount, and the remaining $3,000 would earn 1.5% for a total of $345 in cash back.

There is a 5% withdrawal limit during the hold period. See the terms and conditions for details.

There may be tax implications associated with this cash back offer. Consult a tax professional for further guidance.

Most of our most popular accounts are eligible, and you can qualify whether you have a self-directed account or you invest in a Questwealth Portfolios:

• Margin accounts (individual or joint)
• Cash accounts (individual or joint)
• Individual or spousal Registered Retirement Savings plans (RRSPs)
• Individual or spousal Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIFs)
• Registered Locked-in plans (transfers-in only)
• Individual or Family Registered Education Savings Plans (RESPs)
• Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) 
• First Home Savings Accounts (FHSAs)
• Corporate, Partnership or Trust Accounts (All entity accounts)

Transfers (in-cash or in-kind) can be initiated into new or existing eligible account types.

Accounts that are not eligible to receive this offer: 

• Any Forex (FX) or CFD accounts
  

Individual accounts (like a TFSA), joint accounts (like a Margin account you hold with your spouse), and non-personal accounts (like corporate or trust accounts) are all eligible for this cash back offer. Note that Spousal RRSPs or RRIFs are not considered joint accounts, so if you hold one, it will be treated as an Individual account.

However, when it comes to determining your cash back, each of these account types is calculated separately. Your transfers to an individual account go into one bucket, your transfers to a joint account go in another, and transfers to a non-personal account go in a third. 

In practice, this means two important things:

Example 1—if you are transferring-in an Individual RRSP and a joint Cash account each worth $500, you wouldn’t hit the minimum transfer-in requirement of $1,000 to receive your cash back. This is because we consider these accounts to be different entities for the purposes of this offer, so each of them only had $500 transferred-in.

Example 2— if those Individual RRSP and joint Cash accounts were instead worth $10,000 each, you would receive 3% on your individual RRSP ($10,000) and 3% on the joint Cash account ($10,000). Cash back earned from your individual RRSP would go into your individual Cash or Margin accounts, and cash back earned on the joint Cash account will go into that same account, as it is already a Cash account.

Qualifying Transfers for this offer are cash or investment assets (like stocks and bonds). All of the most commonly owned asset types qualify for this offer, including:

• Cash 
• Stocks (regular and preferred shares)
• Bonds 
• GICs
• ETFs
• Mutual funds 

However, there are some types of assets that do not qualify. 

• Restricted securities (e.g.: stock that is used as compensation in a company) 
• Securities that are subject to a cease trade order
• Securities that are locked or frozen that you can’t access or trade 
• Securities that are not listed and without independent evidence of current value acceptable to Questrade

Your assets have to be transferred from another financial institution (like a bank or another online brokerage). 

This means that transfers between existing Questrade accounts don’t qualify—they must come from another institution, not Questrade, Questrade Wealth Management, or any of their affiliates in Questrade Financial group.

You must submit your transfer request from another financial institution (e.g.: another bank, credit union) to Questrade between February 10th, 2025 and February 28th, 2025. For your transfer to be considered as submitted, there are just a few steps you have to complete, like giving us the transfer details and your signed transfer documents so we can start the process. It’s all outlined in this walkthrough. 

As soon as you submit your request, we’ll get to work. The time it takes for your funds to arrive from your old institution varies, and sometimes they may be slower to process things on their end. Rest assured: we’ll be doing everything we can to make transfer fast for you; however, you can also follow up with your old financial institution to try to expedite the process.

We will start paying your cash back once your transfers have arrived at Questrade, with the first possible payment on April 30, 2025 (please see the When will I receive the first cash back payment? question for more details).

Yes. Your cash back is based on your Net Qualifying Transfers (transfers-in of cash, stocks, etc.) to your eligible accounts, minus any withdrawals and transfers-out, and calculated as of February 28.

For example: If you submitted 3 different transfer-ins of $5,000 each between February 10 and February 28, 2025, and made no other withdrawals or transfer-outs, your Net Qualifying Transfer amount calculated on February 28 would be $15,000.

Whether you’re new to Questrade or already a customer, you can transfer almost any type of investment account over to Questrade—for any amount and as many accounts as you like. You can transfer your cash or your actual investments (this is called an in-kind transfer). 

The best part? We’ll cover your transfer-in fees, up to $150 per account.  See our Transfer For Free terms and conditions for more information. 

Remember: while most types of investments qualify for this offer, some don’t. Double check the Cash Back Offer terms and conditions for more information.

Your cash back is based on the net total of your transfers during the offer period. Each time you transfer-in qualifying assets like cash, stocks, or ETFs, your net total will increase by their value. However, if you make any withdrawals or transfers-out during the offer, your net total will go down.

You’ll get 3% cash back on the first $10,000 you move, and 1.5% on transfers after that. See below for how that math looks in practice.

Example 1: You submit a transfer of $25,000 worth of stocks to your account between February 10 and February 28 (the offer period). That $25,00 is the net total value of your qualifying transfers. So, your cash back would be ($10,000 x 3%) + ($15,000 x 1.5%) = $525.

Example 2: You submit a transfer-in of $15,000 worth of assets to your account on February 12, which is within the offer period. A day later, you make a Visa Debit deposit of $3,000. The $15,000 you transferred would qualify for cash back, and be used to calculate your net total offer-eligible transfers, but the $3,000 wouldn’t because it was a cash deposit—not a transfer. Therefore, your cash back would be ($10,000 x 3%) + ($5,000 x $1.5%) = $375.

To receive your cash back, you’ll need to have an eligible Questrade Cash or Margin account or Questwealth Portfolio cash account.  This is because these account types don’t have contribution limits. So, by depositing your bonus into them, it ensures your contribution room in a registered account isn’t impacted.

If you don’t have a Cash or Margin account, you can open one for free at any time. Your cash back bonus isn’t locked into this account, either. If you want to, you can move it to another Questrade account any time.

All of your accounts need to be in good standing, meaning they can’t be frozen or restricted in any way or have a negative equity balance. Your cash back will be paid out in 24 equal monthly installments on the last business day of each month.

For more information about opening a Cash or Margin account, please see the What if I don't have a Cash or Margin account? question.

Your first cash back payment will be deposited on April 30, 2025 as long as the funds from your transfer have arrived from your old institution by then. 

For example: if you submitted your transfer request on February 15 and the funds arrived in your Questrade account on March 15, then you would get your first cash back payment on April 30, 2025. After that, the remainder of your cash back payments will be deposited on the last business day of each month as long as you continue to meet the offer conditions. 

The time it takes for funds to arrive from your old institution varies, and sometimes they may be slower to process things on their end. Typically, though, the process takes around 20 business days to complete.

If your funds from your transfer arrive after April 30, don’t worry: you’ll get your first cash back payment at the end of the month when your transfer does fully arrive. Even if this takes a while, it won’t impact your bonus. A catch-up payment will be added to the first payment you get to make up for any previous months that were missed. All payments always happen at the end of the month.

For example: if you submitted your transfer request on February 14, but it took until May 3 for the funds to arrive from your old institution, you’d get your first cash back payment on May 31 and continue to receive them monthly.

Remember, to get your cash back, you’ll need to have a Cash or Margin account. This is done to make sure your cash back won’t impact your contribution limits in registered accounts like an RRSP or FHSA.

Once you start to receive your cash back payments, they’ll show up as a deposit called “Cash Back Incentive” in both your monthly statement and account activity report. Remember: the cash back payment will be made to your Cash account (self-directed or Questwealth Portfolio) or your self-directed Margin account (see Which account will the cash back be paid to? for more details).

To view your account activity report:

• Log in to your Questrade account
• Click REPORTS
• Tap Account activity
• Select your date range to view your transactions. All transactions, including cash back payments, will appear in the table. 

Here are more details on how to access your account activity report.

If you don’t have a Cash or Margin account yet, you will have to open one to receive your cash back payment. Opening either type of account is free and only takes a few minutes to set up. 

Our self-directed accounts also have no funding minimums, so if you open a self-directed Cash or Margin account, you’ll be all good to go right away. Questwealth Portfolios do require a $250 minimum balance, so if you choose to open a Questwealth Portfolios Cash account, you’ll have to deposit at least $250 into it.

Remember: you need to have a Cash or Margin account open by April 30, 2025 to receive your cash back payment. We’ll reach out closer to the date to remind you if you don’t have one. 

Where a cash back payment is sent is decided by a basic priority system:

1. Self-directed Cash account
2. Margin account (self-directed only)
3. Questwealth Portfolios Cash account

For example, if you have all three of these account types, you can expect to see the deposit in your self-directed Cash account. If you have a Margin account and a Questwealth Portfolios Cash account instead, the deposit would go into the Margin account. If you only have a Questwealth Portfolios Cash account, the cash back will be deposited there.

You’re allowed to make withdrawals at any time from the account you transferred—it’s your money—but, depending on how much you withdraw, it may impact the size of your cash back payments from that point on. We’ll look at a scenario in the next question, but just know that your transfer ins will be subject to a “Hold Period.” This date range starts when the offer begins on February 10, 2025, and ends when you get your last cash back payment on March 31, 2027. 

After the Hold Period ends on March 31, 2027, you’re free to move as much or as little money out of your account as you’d like with no possibility of impacting your cash back. As a reminder, we won't claw back any cash back payment already made.

Yes, it’s possible to withdraw from your account without impacting the cash back you earn, but it depends on an important figure called your “Net Qualifying Transfer Amount.”  In short, this is the total amount you submitted to transfer in during the offer period (February 10th to February 28th) minus any withdrawals and transfer outs processed during the same time frame. 

As long as you don’t withdraw more than 5% of your Net Qualifying Transfer Amount during the Hold Period (from the offer’s start date on February 10 to the last cash back payment on March 31), you’ll get your full cash back payments.

Withdrawing more than 5% of your Net Qualifying Transfer Amount during the Hold Period, though, will affect your subsequent cash back payments. The amount you’ve withdrawn will be subtracted from your old Net Qualifying Transfer Amount, and this new, lower amount will be used to calculate your cash back payments moving forward.

For example, let’s say you transfer $25,000 to your Questrade account during the offer period and qualify for a cash back of $525 or $525 / 24 months = $21.88 monthly.

If you withdraw $5,000 on June 5, 2025, which is 20% of your Net Qualifying Transfer Amount, then your new Net Qualifying Transfer Amount will be $25,000 - $5,000 = $20,000 and your new monthly cash back payment will be $18.75 calculated as ($10,000 x 3%) + ($10,000 x 1.5%) = $450 divided by 24 months.  

If you’ve withdrawn more than 5% of your Net Qualifying Transfer Amount during the hold period (see the How much money can I withdraw without impacting my cash back? question for more details), your subsequent cash back payments would be reduced. To avoid this, you can top up your account with a deposit that brings your total withdrawals back under the 5% limit. 

Make sure to top up before the last business day of the month; if you don’t, we’ll use your new Net Qualifying Transfer Amount to calculate future cash back payments, even if you top up in the next month.

Lets use the same example as the previous question, where you transfer $25,000 to your Questrade account during the offer period and qualify for a cash back of $525 or $525 / 24 months = $21.88 monthly.

If you withdraw $5,000 on June 5, 2025, which is 20% of your Net Qualifying Transfer Amount, then your new Net Qualifying Transfer Amount will be $25,000 - $5,000 = $20,000 and your new monthly cash back payment will be $18.75 calculated as ($10,000 x 3%) + ($10,000 x 1.5%) = $450 divided by 24 months.  

If you wanted to keep your full future cash back payments, you would need to deposit $3,750 or more into your account on or before June 29th, 2025. In that case, your cash back payment on June 30th, 2025 would remain the same $21.88.

The amount you can withdraw without penalty is always calculated based on your Net Qualifying Transfer Amount (see the How much money can I withdraw without impacting my cash back? question for more details). This is the case no matter how your account’s value changes. 

That means that if you withdraw more than 5% of your Net Qualifying Transfer amount, you will start receiving a reduced cash back payment in the next month if you do not top up.

For example, let’s say you transfer $25,000 to your Questrade account during the offer period. By doing this, you qualify for a total cash back of $525, which works out to $21.88 monthly for 24 months. 

Over the next few months, your account balance grows to $30,000. If you withdraw $5,000, that would equal 20% of your original Net Qualifying Transfer Amount ($5,000 / $25,000 x 100%), which would reduce your future monthly cash back payments if you don’t put that money back in.

No, market conditions won’t impact the calculation of your cash back. The Net Qualifying Transfer Amount is calculated based on the market value of the assets on the settlement date.

Your cash back is paid out to a non-registered account (Self-directed or QWP Cash or Margin account), which don’t have contribution limits, reducing the risk of tax implications. This also helps ensure the cash back payment doesn’t impact the contribution room in any registered accounts you have like an RRSP

However, as with any offer, there may be personal tax implications for you to consider. If you have any questions, we recommend contacting a tax professional for additional guidance.

Yes! You’re also able to use our Transfer for Free offer and our Questwealth Portfolios $0 Management fee offer along with this cash back promotion.

The CAD equivalent of the USD assets will be calculated using the foreign exchange rate on the day the transfer settles in your Questrade account. The CAD equivalent will be included in your Net Qualifying Transfer amount, and your cash back will be paid in Canadian Dollars. 

For example: You submit your transfer-in of an account containing $5,000 USD worth of  investments on February 20, 2025. On that day, the foreign exchange conversion rate valued your investments at $7,000 CAD. 

However, on the day that your transfer arrives in your Questrade account, the foreign exchange rate fluctuates and the same investments are now worth $7,100 CAD. We would calculate your Net Qualifying Transfer amount and cash back payment using the $7,100 amount.

If you’ve met the offer requirements, you won’t have to return any cash back that was already paid to you. If you close your account, you will give up your remaining cash back payments.

At Questrade, we’re always looking for ways to show our clients how much we value them. If you have questions about your account, please reach out to one of our account specialists.

Disclaimer: In the event of any inconsistency or conflict between these 3% Cash Back Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and the 3% Cash Back Offer terms and conditions, the provisions of the Offer terms and conditions shall prevail. The offer is subject to change at any time without prior notice. Any modifications will be effective immediately upon posting.

Transfer for free:
You can transfer any account to Questrade from another financial institution, regardless of the balance, and get your transfer fees rebated (maximum rebate $150/account). No limit to the number of accounts you bring over.

For a rebate, submit a statement from your financial institution displaying the transfer fees incurred within 60 days of the transfer request being submitted to Questrade.

For Questwealth™ accounts, all-in-kind and partial transfers of your securities will be liquidated. Transfers from cash accounts may be subject to capital gains taxes or provide capital losses upon liquidation. Exchange and ECN fees may apply.

Terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.

Note: The information in this blog is for educational purposes only and should not be used or construed as financial or investment advice by any individual. Information obtained from third parties is believed to be reliable, but no representations or warranty, expressed or implied, is made by Questrade, Inc., its affiliates or any other person to its accuracy.