Charles Schwab & Co.

Core Services and Fees
Online Schwab One accounts are differentiated by two trading levels as well as varying pricing tiers, based on account balances:
 Less than 30 trades per quarter or less than 120 trades per year and <$1 million account balances.
 More than 30 trades per quarter or more than 120 trades per year or > $1 million account balances.

Commissions:
Market: $9.95-$12.95
Limit: $9.95-$12.95
Options: $9.95+ $0.75/contract
Account minimums: $1,000
Margin Rates: BR - 0.5% to +2.0%
Additional benefits: Commissions are significantly lower than trading via telephone (an extra $5) or live person (an extra $25).

Strengths
Investors can trade just about any investment they desire. Offers a much wider range of services than the basic- or deep-discount firms, including tremendous availability of mutual funds and research. Commissions are very competitive for investors.

Weaknesses
Supplementary fees can quickly add up, although they were recently reduced to be more competitive. Trading service can be relatively expensive unless volume is very high. Emphasis on Schwab-related products and lack of diversity in order routing may not always be to the benefit of the investor.

Registration - C
Trading - B
Charts - C
Research Tools - B
Commissions and Fees (Pass/Fail) - Pass

Schwab offers good research tools and has acceptable commissions and fees. Schwab loses some marks for a mediocre registration process and charts but I still recommend the service.

For my detailed review of Schwab and other online brokers please visit http://onlinebrokerreview.blogspot.com/

Show me the money, Chet?

Best for nontraders.  I get trades done for $10, website is excellent.

Pretty good; no major complaints so far.  Trade execution is as near to instantaneous as I could desire, and the personal consultations don't cost anything.  Researching on their website is a mixed bag--some of the data you can pull there is better than anything I've found on the free internet, but I still go to Yahoo finance for a lot of companies (especially foreign) they don't cover. Beware of the hidden fees in Schwab mutual funds, which they try just a little too hard to sell to you.  You're usually better off in index funds anyway.

Schwab's response to complaints about well-documented customer service issues experienced by multiple clients was to resign the ($4 million) account!

Customer over 20 years. I use 2 other brokers. Not the best in terms of service, website, or research. But the service is better is recent years (at least someone calls and offers assistance) and consolidated account reporting is good, fees have come down. Who is hands down better,(now that Harris is with Etrade?) I moved an account to schwab because of the promotion for new accounts.

I left Interactive Brokers to get the better per-share pricing at CyberTrader. The account approval/funding process took several days longer than they said it would. The software user interface made it impossible to see if my limit orders were still the best bid. Futures contracts cannot be held overnight making it hard to hedge positions. Then I discovered another limitation that made it impossible for me to trade my best strategy. Closing my accounts was very frustrating. It took several days and 20 phone calls. They committed two acts of incompetence, delayed every step, and ended up charging me TWICE the fees the website indicates!

Firm has slipped badly in recent years,they have re-organized about 50 times,moved people around for no apparent reason,and still have lousy salaries.Only the top dogs get paid well and Charles Schwab himself is not involved in the day to day business.Fees are way to high.Why are these people still in Business?

I've been with Schwab since 1995. They have done a decent enough job, but since I bought a house last summer and pulled my account below the trigger point, the fees are ruining my account. They are pulling $40 per Roth per year and charging $30 per quarter on my brokerage acct. It will cost me $95 per account to have my assets transferred to another broker.

there seems to be a aewer breed of represenatives taking hold at Schwab. Seems that many have just been brought in from local car dealers. So if you do not mind spending big bucks on your tranactions while being abused by their less than professional staff, this your place,

Can you believe they charged me a $60 termination fee? The quarterly fees were enough to make me switch. After being hammered on my positions in Telecom and networking in solid companies that are still doing well, Schwab has the audacity to charge me for not trading and for closing my account. If not for their good customer service they would get a terrible.

brokers are courteous but not very knowledgable about options trading.

I use Charles Schwab and they are fantastic. Everything I need is on their web site.

Schwab has always had a name to trust will be there for the long run