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Charles Schwab review: great service but very high commissions and fees
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Brokerage Trading Fees and Investments Offered (2010)
- Stocks: $12.95 per trade commission
- $8.95 stock trade commission if 120+ trades per year OR $1,000,000+ in household balances
- Commissions are for the first 1,000 shares. Add 0.015$ for each additional share
- Options commission: $9.95 plus $0.75 per contract
- Mutual funds: $49.95. Mutual Fund OneSource® Funds - free
- Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures, treasury issues, options, CDs, insurance, ETFs,
annuities, non-U.S. securities and ADRs, WEBs and Canadian foreign orders
Trading tools at Schwab are average. Trading from the order execution screen and the portfolio menu is well done.
Modifying and canceling orders is well done. Selling existing positions from the portfolio screen could be a
little more convenient.
- Traditional banking features: credit cards and checking accounts
- Around 300 offices for personal visits and deposits and 24/7 support
- No account service fees
- Lots of investing products
- Minimum balance requirement: $1,000
- Excellent customer service
- Very high commissions on stocks, options, mutual funds and ETFs
- 0.015$ per share surcharge for each share over 1,000
- Non-intuitive trading tools
Charles Schwab has an impressive choice of investing products and some of them are not offered in most other
discount brokerage firms: CDs, insurance annuities, non-U.S. securities and ADRs, WEBs
and Canadian foreign orders. On the other hand, most investors do not invest in these assets.
Charles Schwab offers top notch customer service.
Charles Schwab was one of the first
discount stock brokers. But it's not as inexpensive as it used to be. Firm's $12.95 per stock trade
(plus surcharge) and $49.95 for a mutual fund trade commission are considered very expensive in 2010. The company
is primarily targeting wealthy investors and is not well suited for middle class people.
There are a lot of brokerage firms with cheap commissions, high consumer rating and great customer service:
OptionsHouse,
Scottrade and
TradeKing, to name a few. We see no good reasons
for overpaying your stock broker.
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