AJ Bell vs Questrade — which broker is better?

Pros

• Custody charge on shares, ETFs and investment trusts capped at GBP 3.50 a month in the Dealing account and ISA, and GBP 10 a month in the SIPP — GBP 42 and GBP 120 a year respectively
• GBP 1.50 online fund dealing is among the cheapest on any UK platform, and regular monthly investing is free from GBP 25
• Share dealing at GBP 5.00, falling to GBP 3.50 in any month following one with 10 or more share deals
• Listed on the London Stock Exchange under AJB as a FTSE 250 constituent, with published audited accounts and FCA regulation
• Which? Recommended Provider for eight consecutive years, 2019 to 2026 — the only investment provider to achieve that run
• Seven-day customer support: phone 08:00–19:00 on weekdays and 10:00–14:00 at weekends, plus live chat and secure message
• Free transfers in and out, free withdrawals, free cash holding with interest paid, and no inactivity fee
• 24 international markets and a deep menu — over 4,000 funds, over 3,500 ETFs, over 400 investment trusts, bonds, gilts, ETCs and warrants

Cons

• The 0.25% custody charge on funds is uncapped up to GBP 250,000, so a GBP 200,000 fund portfolio pays GBP 500 a year where a flat-fee platform charges under GBP 100
• Foreign exchange starts at 0.75% on the first GBP 10,000 of a trade, with a further 0.5% taken when overseas dividends are converted into sterling
• Six of the 24 international markets — Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa — are telephone-only with a GBP 10,000 minimum order, which effectively puts them out of reach for most retail portfolios
• No options, futures, spread betting, CFDs, direct crypto or fractional shares, and no demo account to test the platform first
• In-house research is thinner than Hargreaves Lansdown's: a favourite-funds list and Shares Magazine content rather than a full analyst desk with written coverage of individual holdings
• Sterling is the only cash currency, so a round trip in a US share crosses the FX spread twice with no way to hold dollars between trades

Pros

• CAD 0 commission on every Canadian and US stock and ETF trade, on both the buy and the sell side, with no ECN fees at all on Canadian orders
• CAD 0 contract fee on US-listed equity options and free assignment — one of only two Canadian brokers offering this
• Questrade Pro is free to all clients and includes Level 2 depth, time and sales, chart trading, hot keys and a multi-leg options strategy builder
• No inactivity fee, no annual account fee and no minimum balance on any registered or non-registered account
• Dual-currency registered accounts let you hold USD inside a TFSA or RRSP, removing forced conversion on every US dividend and sale
• Fractional shares, pre-IPO access, private credit, bonds, GICs, mutual funds and a separate FX & CFD account under one brand
• CIRO-regulated with CIPF coverage of CAD 1,000,000 per account category, and a record as Canada's largest independent broker going back to 1999

Cons

• The 1.5% CAD/USD conversion charge is high and unavoidable unless you deliberately manage currency; on a CAD 20,000 US-stock purchase it costs CAD 300, dwarfing any commission saving
• Cash earns effectively 0% below a CAD 250,000 balance — the published formula is prime minus 8.50%, floored at zero — while Wealthsimple pays 1.25% or more on chequing balances
• CAD 150 to transfer an account out, full or partial, and CAD 9.95 per journalling request unless you pay CAD 19.99 a month for Questrade Plus
• The 'margin rates as low as prime minus 2.5%' headline applies only to USD borrowing for clients trading 5,001+ US options contracts a month; the standard CAD non-registered rate is prime plus 4.25%, and registered accounts pay prime plus 8.10%
• No spot crypto, no exchange-traded futures, and no meaningful international equity access — non-US foreign shares cost 1% of trade value with a USD 195 minimum per side
• Questrade advertises no practice or paper-trading account for self-directed clients, so there is nowhere to learn Questrade Pro without real money at risk