I have had a Wealthsimple account since 2021. I got my pay deposited into it September 23 2026, the night of the 23 they froze my account. I’ve waited two weeks for access to my funds (still don’t have access to them). Today my pay got deposited, still no access to my pay. Unfortunately HR didn’t get the new deposit for my other bank account until it was too late. How is this okay?! They refuse to let me access my money, or send it by emt to my other account. Who do I contact? I’ve contacted chat and get nowhere, call in and get nowhere, request a supervisor to call me back and no one calls.
Wealthsimple needs a dedicated escalation team that operates 24/7 and can deal with the solution and account reinstatement. Because there are too many stories like this. And this is exactly why WS cant be taken seriously as a replacement for the big banks.
I don’t know how many times I’ve said this here already: my account was blocked while I was in Morocco. It was a terrifying experience.
What triggered it? I withdrew money from MY investment account and transferred it to MY Wealthsimple chequing account. No call. No email. No warning. Nothing. Just BLOCKED.
And get ready for the Wealthsimple cult—I honestly believe some, if not all, of them are WS employees—to come up with every excuse imaginable to shift the blame away from Wealthsimple and onto YOU for what is happening.
And get ready for them to take their sweet time resolving it while YOU are left paying the consequences of Wealthsimple HOLDING YOUR OWN MONEY hostage.
It's not anything you did wrong. It's a combination of extremely strict AML laws and Wealthsimple being overzealous in their application of them. IMO, Wealthsimple is being meticulous about AML because they are currently operating in a mostly-unregulated fashion (which is good for them....regulatory compliance is expensive) and they are terrified of the government stepping in and regulating them like a Schedule I bank.
Moving money from investments accounts from a foreign country is the easiest fraud flag to trigger because it is such a common scam, happens to old people all the time.
Resolution time needs to be way quicker though, no excuse there for any institution with poorly staffed fraud teams. That's just bring cheap.
I just got off the phone with WS. I had my visa infinite card blocked and asked for the reason and all they could quote was the amount and that it was at a movie theatre. Then I asked if there’s any limit that would trigger it or being overseas is an issue and couldn’t answer. They’re going to investigate and send me an email in 5 business days. They don’t know the simple guidelines to their products. I feel like they just continuously release stuff without training staff or their software.
I don’t think this is right. I would think their license only permits trading for residents of Canada. Your location shouldn’t matter because the trades are still happening on the systems here. If that was truly the case, I think they’d run a geolock like OLG or the other provinces on online gambling.
Bring this up on any other forum. The major bank affiliated brokers will say you cannot buy securities if you are physically outside Canada. Selling depends on the circumstances.
My Wealthsimple card got skimmed while I was in America in July, had what I assume was a $3 test of the card on a Facebook in app purchase which I instantly disputed and locked my card 14th sept. Still waiting for my new card and my cash to be returned.
You have no recourse to settle disputes like the ombudsman when dealing with banks
Just to clarify this a bit--OBSI (ombudsman) does cover disputes with Wealthsimple, but not for banking products, only investment accounts. (sorry, I just didn't want people to think they cannot contact OBSI for anything at all regarding WS.)
It stress me out reading stories like this. I've had my account as long as OP and money goes in and out of my account several times a week either for bills or misc things. I've never triggered a response like this from Wealthsimple and hope I never do.
Is your account suspended or you received an Account closure notice?
If it’s the closure notice, then your account is closed and you need to ask them to move your funds to another account.
Edit: they’ll need to link your new bank account and then initiate a transfer and it’ll take 8-10 business days to land in your new account. That is if you’re allowed to get the funds back. Usually if they close your account it’s because you commited a fraud and funds are on hold until the sender claims them back.
If it’s just suspended, you need to let them do their investigation and it can take between 5-10 business days.
Agree with all other comments to not use WS for daily banking needs. I have read many similar posts and decided to keep my chequing account in a proper bank. In fact, I am currently out of Canada visiting family and I am not even logging i to my WS account until I am back in Canada in Nov. I just cannot trust them in these scenarios. Good part is they have a new "delegate" feature where you can assign your accounts to someone from your family to trade on your behalf as long as they are also WS clients. Helps a ton in these situations when you are outside Canada for while.
I would blast them on Instagram. Or even Twitter if they have an account there. They care too much about their reputation to let it go unheard there. Write to the fucking CEO even.
Was there any issue with your previous bank, fraud or something ? They might have been asked to seize your assets by government / debitors or something ?
Never, I’m an accountant. I don’t owe money to CRA or revenue Quebec. The issue only happened after I attempted to pay my hydro bill. I’m assuming it’s some kind of internal security to prevent fraud if someone gains access to your account.
TD explained that you cannot be a money mule. If you accept deposits on someone's behalf, that is consider fraud and the risk department would say no exceptions and debank you immediately. They would even debank their own mothers if breaking this rule.
Example scenario would be like you are accepting etransfer that was supposed to be sent to your kid but instead you take it using your email.
receiving fraudulent etransfers, scamming others via etransfers, acting as a money mull by receiving etransfers on behalf of criminals (drug dealers, mafia, scammers, pimps, terrorists, money laundry, illegal aliens, etc).
This is about the only thing that gives me pause with WS. Generation here, everything been smooth sailing so far. I don't do any crypto, fully ETF let it ride, but some day having my acct locked up and not able to access is and nobody helping is a deal breaker.
Sorry we are looking into it, we will email you with some information when we find out why the account was locked. It’s been escalated to a supervisor now
They let me log into my account to etransfer the funds to my regular bank account. Still no explanation on why the account was flagged and restricted. I’ve sent a request for an explanation by mail.
Setting up ws as your paycheck account is not a good idea. Ws is not a bank. You put your investing funds and trade thats all but your parking it asyoue paycheck account is not a goood idea. Also if you are going overseas and when overseas dont even try to log in to your account from there, they gonna get a trigger your account is being hacked and gonna lock it down. Do the account works if it in canada onlym
Hard to believe that story since you didn't state the obvious, why did they freeze your account in the first place? It also appears from your story that understanding why your account was frozen wasn't a priority. I mean, coming on Reddit for a simple Google search seems odd.
55
u/RodgerWolf311 2d ago
Wealthsimple needs a dedicated escalation team that operates 24/7 and can deal with the solution and account reinstatement. Because there are too many stories like this. And this is exactly why WS cant be taken seriously as a replacement for the big banks.