Tag Archives: User ID

Why You Should Group Your BMO InvestorLine Accounts Under a Single User ID

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If every account you have at InvestorLine has over $500,000 in it, this article doesn’t apply to you. On the other hand, if you have that much money at InvestorLine, why do you even need to read articles on my website? You could stimulate the economy by paying someone else read them for you. For the rest of us, here’s why you should group your BMO InvestorLine accounts under a single User ID.

Like a late night talk show, I’ll list the reasons you should group your accounts in order from least important to most likely to make you nod your head in agreement:

Reason Five: Grouping InvestorLine Accounts Can Help You Manage Your Passwords

While for maximum security you should have a unique sign in password and trading password for each of your InvestorLine accounts, you may find it difficult to remember all of those alphanumeric strings without using string theory. It’s nice to only have to remember one password if  all you want to do is check your portfolios, not change them.

When you sign in using your User ID, you can look at your holdings for each account linked to the id. You can only look at the holdings in one account at a time, however.  You decide which account to look at by clicking on a drop-down list of the linked accounts.

Reason Four: Grouping InvestorLine Accounts Can Save You Time

One Id. One password. Access to all of your account information. Quick. Fast. Simple. Easy.

Reason Three: Grouping InvestorLine Accounts Can Get Your Deeper Kowtows

Why would this one surprise anyone? If you have over $250,000 in your User ID-linked accounts, you can get “exclusive access to a dedicated service team.”

Well, at least between 8 and 8, weekdays, Eastern Time.

I guess that shows Westerners how prejudiced InvestorLine can be. Frankly, it’s a bit bizarre given how many millionaires live west of Ontario.

Reason Two: Grouping InvestorLine Accounts Can Gain You More Information

This one will take a LOT of money.

But, if you can amass a group of accounts with over $250,000 in them, you qualify for Real Time Quotes and Level II Quotes.

From what I’ve been able to find out so far (I don’t qualify for the 5 Star program) it appears these quotes include some information on who is buying or selling and how many lots they are offering or seeking.

One article I read listed about 6 ways large dealers can conceal what they are doing or even deliberately enter buy and sell orders to trick the market. So if information is power, make sure you know who’s got the true data and what they plan to do with that wattage.

If you can combine over $500 000 in accounts, you can also get the Market Streamer and some additional reports and research information.

According to the short summary on the InvestorLine website, the research on offer is “access to BMO Capital Markets research on only the top 60 TSX stocks.”

Perhaps they figure if you already have $500,000 in assets you already know what you want to buy?

The Market Streamer is a tool to “track a virtual portfolio throughout the day.” You can see an image of it on the InvestorLine website. The data should be real-time.

Reason One: Grouping InvestorLine Accounts Under One User ID Can Save You Money

It used to be you needed to group accounts to achieve $50 000 in assets so that you could qualify for $9.95 trades. As of February 2014, though, all accounts of any size now qualify for $9.95 trades. So this incentive is no longer relevant.

Being honest, the $9.95 trades was the best advantage most of us could hope to achieve by grouping only our personal accounts. Getting to $50 000 was quite do-able. I’m not so sure about that $500 000 stuff, unless I get my Mom to shift all her GICs and CSBs to an InvestorLine account. : )

However, if you can get your grouped assets to $250,000, you also get

  • reduced margin rates on non-registered accounts
  • discounts on agent trading costs for some types of assisted transactions
  • reduced annual fees for accounts such as small RRSPs

And if you get up to $500 000, you get

  • even further reduced margin rates
  • even more discounted agent trading costs, and
  • some lower administrative fees for non-trade transactions

(Frankly, I think most people find the Market Streamer described in Reason Two as the only real perk at this level.)

I Guess I Want a User ID; What Now?

So have I convinced you to set up a User ID for your InvestorLine accounts? If so, you can tune in for the next exciting article: How Do I Group InvestorLine Accounts Under One User ID and Whose Accounts Can I Group?

The problem is I haven’t written it yet because I’m still trying to find out the rules about whose accounts can be grouped. After all, maybe I *could* get Mom to move those GICs and CSBs. A girl can dream!

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Do you group your InvestorLine accounts? Does it provide a benefit I’ve overlooked? Please share your views with a comment.

How To Add a RESP Account to Your BMO InvestorLine User ID

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You can sign in to each of your InvestorLine accounts separately but you don’t have to. You can group all of your accounts, such as a TFSA, RRSP, LIRA and RESP, under a single User ID. Then you can sign in to all of your accounts using one id and one password. When you go to execute trades for the accounts, you use the account specific trading password. I recently opened a RESP account at BMO InvestorLine. Here’s how I added the RESP account to my BMO InvestorLine User ID.

Grouping accounts under a single User ID can also help an account qualify for lower trading costs and other benefits more quickly. In February 2014, InvestorLine removed the requirement to have a minimum account balance to qualify for $9.95 trades but there are still some other benefits to grouping account balances.

Adding an InvestorLine Account to your User ID

  1. Sign in to your InvestorLine accounts using your User ID.
  2. From the Account Services tab, select User ID Profile.
  3. Click on the Add Accounts to User ID link.
  4. Next
    1. In the Account Number field, type the number for the InvestorLine RESP account.
    2. In the Account Password field, type the login password for the RESP account.
    3. In the Account Nickname field, add an optional name for the account, if desired.
      For example I used: Queens vs McGill
    4. Under the 5 Star Program benefits’ column, ensure the Yes box is selected if you want to qualify to reduce the trading fees and commissions on this new account.
  5. Click on the Submit button.
  6. If you are finished with the account, click on the Sign out link.
  7. For increased security, clear your browser cache and close your browser session.

What Will I Pay for a Trade for my New BMO InvestorLine RESP Account?

When you first look at the cost on the Equity and Option Order Entry screen, trades will now cost $9.95 each as of February 2014. Before this they cost $29.

If you will qualify for a reduced rate due to a large balance or by combining your account with other accounts at InvestorLine, make sure you see the reduced rate on screen before placing an order. It may be difficult or impossible to get a refund if you over-pay for a trade before you qualify for the reduced cost.

Does Adding a New RESP InvestorLine Account to a User ID Automatically Update the Account to Flat Fee Pricing and Other Perks?

I have enough $$ in my RRSP and TFSA account to qualify for Flat Fee Pricing. That’s the name InvestorLine uses for $9.95 trades.

When I added my RESP account to my User ID, I checked whether it immediately updated the account to receive the lower trading price. (This was before InvestorLine began offering lower trading prices to all customers.)

Nope.

Time to check into how this works with InvestorLine. I’ll send them a message via their MyLink secure email system.

OK, I’ve got it sorted out now. Please see: How Do I Get My Account Evaluated for the 5 Star Program and $9.95 Trades at BMO InvestorLine for the details.

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Does your brokerage allow you to easily group accounts to qualify for trading discounts and to make checking on your portfolios easy? Or do you bank with RBC Direct Investing which has just started offering low cost trades to all accounts regardless of their balance? Please share your experiences with a comment.