Charles Schwab review

Pros: Where Charles Schwab stands out

Trading fees and account types

Schwab charges $0 for stock and ETF trades and $0.65 per contract for options. You could find cheaper options commissions if you wanted to skimp on some key features such as research, customer support or fee-free funds. But Schwab’s commissions are competitive and more than reasonable for all the value you’re getting. Plus, there’s no account minimum, so it’s easy to get started.

Schwab also offers nearly any account type you can imagine: Individual, joint, IRAs, education savings accounts, 529 education accounts, business accounts such as the SEP IRA and solo 401(k), as well as trust and charitable accounts, among many others. As your financial needs grow, Schwab is going to be able to accommodate your requirements. 

No-commission funds

Mutual fund investors should be happy with Schwab’s offerings — with more than 6,700 funds available without a sales load. Investors in mutual funds should generally be looking to avoid sales loads since they’re a dead loss, and Schwab gives you plenty of solid fund choices.

But the broker goes one better, offering more than 4,000 funds with no load and no transaction fee, meaning you’ll buy and sell without a commission. It’s another way that Schwab is so investor-friendly.

Fractional shares

Schwab has a great feature for newer investors, allowing you to put all your money to work in an investment, even if you can’t afford a full share (which is a real possibility with some high-flying tech stocks.) It’s called Stock Slices, and it lets you buy any stock in the Standard & Poor’s 500, which is an index of 500 of the largest companies in the U.S.

You can buy a slice of any of the index’s stocks for as little as $5, and you can buy up to 30 slices in total at a time. For example, if you wanted to buy 10 slices of various stocks, you’d have to have at least $50. But if you want to invest just $25, you could max out at five slices in total or pick just one or two. The Schwab trade interface is easy to use, allowing you to input all your transactions at once and then click the trade button once — a clear upgrade from Fidelity’s clunky interface for purchasing fractional shares. This program enjoys Schwab’s no-commission structure on stock trades, too. 

However, the clear disadvantage at Schwab is that you’re limited to those 500 stocks in the S&P 500, whereas rivals such as Fidelity and Interactive Brokers allow you to purchase thousands of stocks on a fractional basis. Hopefully, Schwab expands this program to include more than just S&P 500 companies. Besides purchasing fractional shares, at Schwab you’ll also be able to reinvest dividends in partial shares.

Research

Schwab is great at providing investors with what they need to know, both in terms of research and all the tools the broker offers.

Clients receive earnings news from Reuters, Briefing.com and other sources. Schwab also provides market commentary from Morningstar, Argus and CFRA. Those investors looking for research on specific stocks may like Schwab’s in-house analytical work, including Schwab Equity Ratings for evaluating a stock’s performance on an A-F scale, as well as other third-party reports.

Fund investors can access the Morningstar rating for each mutual fund, while ETF traders can trawl through the offerings efficiently with Schwab’s ETF screener and ETF Select List, a guide to the broker’s top picks. It’s an easy way to sift through the fund universe for what you really want, and the screener helps you find low-cost funds quickly. The fund screener can even help you find which funds are engaged in socially responsible investing, if that’s what you’re looking for. 

Fixed-income traders can pore through tens of thousands of offerings with Schwab BondSource, a screener that includes ratings from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s. 

High-quality trading platforms

Schwab offers a pair of trading platforms as well as a mobile app, so you’ll have the means to trade wherever you are.

Schwab.com web trader: The broker’s entry-level platform does plenty. In addition to all of the basic features, the platform keeps tabs on major indexes and watch lists, can pull up a company’s financials and trading data, and can access options chains and analyze trends. The all-in-one trade ticket allows you to make simple stock trades and even complex options trades from one interface. If you need even more functionality, you can step up to thinkorswim for free.

Schwab thinkorswim: Thanks to its acquisition of TD Ameritrade in 2020, Schwab gained a powerful trading platform with thinkorswim. The thinkorswim platform is available in desktop, mobile and web form and offers a customizable trading experience that is highly respected by experienced traders. You’ll get advanced charting with hundreds of technical indicators to help you explore different trading strategies, and you can even watch live financial news.

Beyond just the trading platforms, Schwab clients pointed to the easy-to-use site and ability to get your tasks done efficiently. A Reddit user shared: “Schwab’s site is very clean, fast, and capable of doing quite a bit without having to speak to someone or fill out forms…. The fact that they have the best customer service is an added bonus.”

Mobile app

The broker offers two mobile experiences — Schwab Mobile and the thinkorswim mobile app — depending on what you need. 

Schwab Mobile provides the core functionality of the broker’s web trader and you’ll be able to securely access your accounts with industry-standard encryption. The app allows you to place trades (including multi-leg options) and monitor your portfolio, access news and real-time market data and check out stock charts. You can deposit checks into your brokerage or Schwab bank accounts, and the app is integrated with Apple Watch, too. On top of this, you can access many of the app’s functions with voice commands via the virtual assistant. You can trade, check your portfolio, deposit checks and set alerts, among other features.

The thinkorswim app tries to move a lot of the functionality from its higher-powered desktop version to the mobile app. You’ll be able to trade stocks, ETFs, options and even futures and forex. Of course, the app includes watch lists and live market news, but it also includes charting functionality and allows you to watch CNBC on a livestream.

Customer support

It might be a dark and stormy night, but Schwab’s customer support team is going to be open to take your call. Not only does the Schwab team take calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but it’s also available for online chats and email around the clock, too. It’s hard to do better than that. 

You can always send an email, or you can stop by one of the more than 380 Schwab branches if you need more personal assistance. This physical presence is an advantage that Schwab has over online-only brokers such as Webull, Robinhood or Interactive Brokers.

Schwab customers also highlight the broker's strong support, especially when it comes to non-routine issues. A reader on Bogleheads stated: “I've been blown away by Schwab's customer service — and we needed it during a particularly tricky partial rollover due to the summary plan description of the 401(k). And, for me personally, I find the website easier to navigate and more visually helpful compared to Fidelity.”

Integration with the rest of Schwab

One of the benefits of going with a powerhouse such as Schwab is the ability to conduct nearly all your financial business under one roof. If you’re looking to expand your relationship from just a brokerage account to a bank account, you can have that set up in minutes on the Schwab site. You’ll get a highly regarded bank account and still enjoy the company’s top-notch customer service. Plus, Schwab offers credit cards, making it a viable option for people who want to consolidate their financial services.

If you’re looking for help with managing your investments, Schwab has a robo-advisor service called Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, but you'll need at least $5,000 to get started. The kicker? The company doesn’t charge any management fee (just the small fees for any funds it places you in).  

And you’ll still have access to Schwab’s physical branches if you need a specific question answered or you prefer to conduct your business in person.

Cons: Where Charles Schwab could improve

Fees

With all the other investor-friendly advantages at Schwab, it feels nitpicky to target the broker’s fees for a couple of services — but they do stand out. If you want to make a partial transfer out of your account, that’s now free (down from $25 previously), while a full transfer will cost you $50. Although Schwab is generally good about not hitting you up for fees here and there, that’s not really the case with transfer fees. Key rival Fidelity somehow manages to get away without charging those fees, so Schwab probably could, too.

Again, this fee is very specialized, but if you're interested in margin trading — to invest in more securities than you could buy with your available cash — you may find lower rates elsewhere. As with anything else, lower borrowing rates will keep more money in your pocket, and that’s true when buying on margin, too. Margin rates vary widely and brokers often adjust them, but consider this: While Schwab customers currently will pay effective margin rates in excess of 10%, Interactive Brokers offers rates starting at about 4.5%.

Investment options

Schwab’s investment choices — stocks, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, futures, forex — will suffice for plenty of its customers. But a recent announcement may make Schwab more attractive to some traders: The broker says it expects to begin offering bitcoin and ethereum trading across its platforms at some point in 2026. That will be a big shakeup in the industry, particularly if Schwab brings its low-cost model to direct trading in cryptocurrency. While Schwab could become a more viable one-stop shop for people who want to trade select cryptocurrencies along with the usual array of assets, it’s not likely to offer the wide array of currencies of more specialized platforms anytime soon.