Charles SchwabReviews of schwab.com

My experience over several years is: 1. Their account interface and trading platform is excellent, and user friendly. 2. They offer in-depth research reports. 3. education services, courses, training at no fee. 4. good customer service that is u.s. based. Schwab is the best brokerage and financial services company out there.

Can't give a 5 star rating. Charles Schwab charges the same commission for micro futures (2.25) per side. What I absolutely love about Charles Schwab is that everything is in one account. No having to switch money from futures to stock account.

They are on the whole pretty good compared to their competitors. Their debit card is really handy and does not rip off on FOREX rates unlike most banks. It's the least hassle so far, and they have real people, not some poor English, scripted person in the third world parroting rubbish (looking at you Capital One and Chase, and Xfinity, the worst of the worst). Downsides:- Linking accounts is a hassle, as is typical with most institutions, it shatters into pieces for no particular reason with their "verification" algorithm that is poorly designed, relies on bad third party data and has no manual override. Their staff just wring their hands as if the brokenness were done by some mysterious spirit they are powerless to intervene about and have no means to escalate to senior management who have a tin ear. This drives people nuts and limits my willingness to trust them with money. They think they can second guess, countermand and treat customers like infants. The mindset is BAD. This is a common failing of the "digital revolution" /AI many companies waste vast sums on, believing slick IT salesmen selling them garbage promises only to harm their business and customers who find themselves thwarted instead of leaving stuff alone that works, or at least used to work. I've been with them 20 years and would say it has gone downhill as they add more and more layers of krud to their IT. Opening a company account is completely impossible, takes hours and is vastly frustrating, then gives a message "try again another time" (and so losing all the work and time investment) which seems to be the industry "standard" (bad). In that sense, they are no worse than the other bad companies the finance sector that seems crippled by their increasingly Byzantine IT and process for its own sake over function. Besides that, better than the others and pretty good provided you don't touch anything that might break the delicate and brittle IT they use.

Schwab works fine. I can't trade Canadian stock (well, unless I want to pay a big fee) so those, I buy OTC.

So far so good. I've had a small portfolio of companies (5-10 stocks) I will only trust Schwab to manage my portfolio. There transfer are seamless. The call center is open 24/7. and they get back to you somewhat fast to question you send them.

I have had a fabulous experience after switching from TD Ameritrade to Schwab and I'm a little perplexed about the challenges described by some others. I have a solid investment team that I speak with regularly. There is always someone available and they are very helpful. I get good advice and have had no problems withdrawing cash when I want it. There are a couple of opportunities for improvement such as automating money market withdrawals to fund monthly IRA disbursements. But, that is getting pretty specific and the work around isn't unreasonable. I would like a few more trade options as well, but this is still much better than what is offered by most brokerage companies and 401(k) options. I am reluctant to give anyone a five-star review unless I know they are the best. In this case, I don't know of anyone better or I would take my five accounts elsewhere.

I am pretty happy with their service. No commissions on my account. easy to invest. doing what it is meant to do. They could do a bit better with the user experience but that wouldn't stop me from having my investments there.

The agents at Charles Schwab have always been professional and helpful, but my most recently-assigned Financial Consultant/VP is not. He makes remarks - even in email - that he would never make to a guy. He tells me that everything I've learned from the agents at the main number is incorrect; makes up stories to hide fault; writes to me in all caps, etc. Adversarial, patronizing, misogynistic. And when I called him on it, no apology was offered.