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Merrill Edge vs Charles Schwab (2025)
Compare Charles Schwab versus Merrill Lynch (Bank of America Merrill Edge): which is better for
(Roth) IRA accounts, brokerage fees, online stock trading, and mutual funds investing?
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Merrill Edge vs. Schwab
Highlights:
• Merrill Edge and Charles Schwab offer many investment services.
• Both companies have brokerage accounts, financial planning, and advisory accounts.
• Only Schwab offers trading in futures and forex.
If you want to open a brokerage account, it’s a good idea to compare Charles Schwab and Merrill Edge. Both of these companies have brokerage accounts and many other services.
Commissions
| Broker Fees |
Stock/ETF
Commission |
Mutual Fund
Commission |
Options
Commission |
Maintenance
Fee |
Annual IRA
Fee |
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Charles Schwab
|
$0
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$49.95 ($0 to sell)
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$0.65 per contract
|
$0
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$0
|
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Merrill Edge
|
$0
|
$19.99
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$0.65 per contract
|
$0
|
$0
|
Services
Promotions
Charles Schwab: $0 commissions + ACAT rebate + satisfaction guarantee at Charles Schwab.
Merrill Edge: Get $0 stock commissions at Merrill Edge.
Available Assets
Schwab lets you trade these products by yourself:
• Stocks
• Options
• Exchange Traded Funds
• Closed End Funds
• Mutual Funds
• Bonds
• Futures
• Forex
• Real Estate Investment Trusts
• American Depository Receipts
Schwab’s stock choices include OTC securities and foreign stocks.
Merrill Edge’s list is shorter. You can’t trade futures, forex, or foreign stocks, but you get everything else Schwab offers.
Both companies also give investment advice. They both have managed accounts, including robo and full-service options, plus personal advice at local branches.
There are also many types of account registrations, like custodial accounts, 529 plans, trust accounts, and 401k plans.
Winner: Schwab
Margin Services
Both companies allow margin trading in advisory and brokerage accounts. You can have both short and long positions, and use advanced option spreads. On Schwab’s website, equity profiles show the maintenance margin requirement for long stocks, but Merrill’s do not.
If you never use margin, you won’t pay any margin fees. If you do, you pay interest. Schwab charges margin interest on a tiered schedule, ranging from 12.325% to
10.575%.
Merrill Edge’s margin rates work differently. Like Schwab, rates depend on the loan balance. Merrill also looks at your total assets in the Bank of America family and adds a lending rate that changes each week.
Winner: Schwab
Computer Tech
On Schwab’s website, there’s a simple order form called SnapTicket. It stays hidden on the right side of the site until you click a trade button. On SnapTicket, you can trade options, stocks/ETFs, and mutual funds.
Schwab also has a bigger trade ticket on a different web page, called the All-In-One Trade Ticket. Here, you can pick more advanced trades, like OCO and contingent orders.
Schwab’s thinkorswim platform, found under the Trade tab, lets you do live and practice trading. It has useful tools like Level II quotes and a price ladder.
There is also a desktop version of thinkorswim. This program gives you Schwab’s most advanced trading tools, including hundreds of technical studies and live video news.
Merrill Edge doesn’t have video news on any platform and does not offer a desktop program. But it does have a web-browser system called MarketPro. MarketPro has lots of helpful tools, including an advanced options platform. Merrill’s website has fewer tools than MarketPro but still works for basic trading and offers some useful features for options and derivatives.
Winner: Schwab
Mobile Trading
Schwab customers can use two apps: a main app and a thinkorswim app. The thinkorswim app is made for serious traders and is the only one that lets you trade futures and forex. This app has very advanced charts with more than 400 technical studies. Both Schwab apps include mobile check deposit and lots of market news.
Merrill Edge has just one app. It offers a lot of personal finance tools because of its link with Bank of America. For example, there is a Life Plan® tool that helps you set goals. For trading, the app has horizontal charts with many tools, option chains, and a trade ticket with trailing and stop orders.
Winner: Schwab
Additional Services
IRAs: Both Schwab and Merrill offer retirement accounts. Merrill, but not Schwab, charges $49.95 to close an IRA.
Fully-Paid Securities Lending: Schwab lets customers earn extra money by lending out their stock shares.
DRIP Service: Both firms let you reinvest cash dividends into more shares of the stocks or funds that paid them.
Extended Hours: Both companies allow trading before and after normal market hours. At Schwab, you can trade futures and forex all day and night. Foreign stock exchanges also allow 24-hour trading.
Initial Public Offerings: Schwab gives access to IPOs.
Fractional Shares: You can use whole dollars to buy stocks at Schwab (for stocks outside the S&P 500, use Schwab’s Investment Themes).
Systematic Mutual Fund Purchases: Both brokers let you set up automatic mutual fund purchases. Schwab also lets you set up automatic selling.
Winner: Schwab
Recommendations
Retirement Planning & Long-Term Investing: Both companies have many articles and calculators for retirement planning. Financial advisors are available online and in person. You can’t go wrong with either.
Small Investors: Schwab needs $5,000 for its robo-advisor, and Merrill needs $1,000. So, neither is great for small accounts. But for self-directed trading, there is no minimum at either firm.
Active Equity Trading: Schwab is the best choice because of its thinkorswim platforms.
Beginners: We suggest using an advisory account (ideally with a human advisor) at either company.
Mutual Funds: Schwab has 5,817 mutual funds, while Merrill Edge has 2,558. Schwab is the better choice here.
Promotions
Charles Schwab: $0 commissions + ACAT rebate + satisfaction guarantee at Charles Schwab.
Merrill Edge: Get $0 stock commissions at Merrill Edge.
Merrill Edge vs Schwab: Summary
Schwab comes out ahead in this comparison, but Bank of America customers may prefer Merrill for easy account connections.
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Updated on 9/10/2025.
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
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