changing rrsp from itrade to questrade. Sell and reinvest or transfer?

[strider3700]

scotia itrade is charging me $100/year to have an rrsp account with them. Fuck you scotia...  Questrade won't be charging me and gives me more options so I'm switching.   My question here is about the RRSP.  I had only just opened it before getting slapped with the $100 charge.  So it only has something like $400 in it.    reading this http://www.scotiabank.com/itrade/en/0,,3694,00.html  TO Close my account with scotia will be Free  however to transfer the $400 will be $150.  Fuck you again scotia...

Does it make more sense to just sell the investments in there and then repurchase in questrade?   is this a nightmare tax wise?  Or if I sell the etfs take the cash out of the itrade RRSP account and then reinvest it right away into the questrade RRSP account is it considered as having not removed it?  I'm not sure how that aspect works....

The withholding tax assuming I was to take it out and never put it back in is $80. so I'm assuming that answers my question and close then walk is the better choice.

Thanks for any advice

[ghatko]

But is there a fee for closing the account? Meaning if you just take out the cash, pay the taxes, and then pay a fee to close the account, are you still better off? You can also check with the company that you are transferring to, as I believe some of them will refund you a transfer fee.

[aclarridge]

But is there a fee for closing the account? Meaning if you just take out the cash, pay the taxes, and then pay a fee to close the account, are you still better off? You can also check with the company that you are transferring to, as I believe some of them will refund you a transfer fee.

Typically I think they only do that reimbursement for larger balances... now that I check, it's 25k for questrade:
http://www.questrade.com/campaigns/free_to_transfer

I am no tax expert but I think the income tax you'd pay on the $400 (your marginal rate) would net out with the refund you'd get from putting $400 back in to the new RRSP account. So it's probably your best option. Look for a more informed opinion though by all means, as I could very well be wrong.

[strider3700]

checking the fees page it appears to be free to close the RRSP with scotia.

I'm pretty sure I'll go this route because really anything is better then a yearly $100 charge to send me some documents,

[Cecil]

Don't forget to take into account that you permanently lose that $400 of RRSP room. It's not like a TFSA where withdrawals get you the room back - by withdrawing and reinvesting you will have used up an additional $400 of contribution room.

[strider3700]

yep I'm aware of that.   It's a non issue for me.  I'm  a much bigger fan of the TFSA but RRSP has it's place.