Canadian FinTech giant Wealthsimple has announced a pricing change to its Trade service in an effort to make US trades, well, more simple.
The Toronto-based company announced the launch of a new ‘Plus’ tier at $10 per month. Officially launching in January, Wealthsimple will onboard interested current Trade customers via a waitlist.
Officially launching in January, Wealthsimple will onboard interested current Trade customers via a waitlist.
The ‘Plus’ tier, more than three times the price of Wealthsimple Trade’s current ‘Premium’ tier offering, promises access to USD accounts with unlimited trading to TFSA, RRSP, and taxable accounts. By allowing traders to hold USD in their accounts, Wealthsimple says those in the new ‘Plus’ tier can buy US stocks and ETFs in USD, avoiding any currency and commission costs (currently, Wealthsimple Trade charges a 1.5 percent conversion fee on US trades).
According to Wealthsimple, that $10 fee is less than what most platforms charge in commission on a single trade, making the new ‘Plus’ tier worth it for any users planning to make at least one US trade per month. The ‘Plus’ tier also provides the snap quotes unlimited price alerts, and instant deposits up to $5000 currently found in the ‘Premium‘ tier.
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The announcement comes just two days after Wealthsimple announced the sale of its UK book and business to focus solely on the Canadian market. It’s an open question as to whether this change in focus is in pursuit of building Canada’s FinTech ‘super app‘, but this change to its Trade service is a win-win: active users on the platform are rewarded with reduced fees, US meme stocks trades – which fuelled the app to reach number one overall on the Canadian Apple App Store in January – become more palatable, and Wealthsimple makes more money per month if its users do nothing at all.
If Wealthsimple is pursuing a super app strategy, a continued exploration of new subscription options across its suite of apps and services could be around the corner. Did someone just say rundle?
According to the company, Wealthsimple will notify clients in advance of plans to sunset its ‘Premium’ offering, at which time they can make the call to switch to ‘Plus’ or the free ‘Basic’ plan.
Feature image courtesy Wealthsimple.