What are the cons of opening a Charles Schwab account?

Margin rates are poor, and Charles Schwab doesn't offer spot cryptocurrency trading. If you want to borrow from Charles Schwab or trade crypto, you may want to look elsewhere for a broker.

How much money do you need to open a Charles Schwab account?

You need $0 to open a regular Charles Schwab brokerage account. But, if you're opening a robo-advisory account, you need $5,000.

How to Open a Charles Schwab Account

You can open a Charles Schwab brokerage account online or at a physical branch. The fastest way to open an account is through the website. Below, we've done a deep dive into how to open a Charles Schwab account. You can follow along to open an account online.

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Charles Schwab

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Bottom Line

Fees:

$0 stock, ETF, and Schwab Mutual Fund OneSource® trades. No fees to buy fractional shares.

Account Minimum:

$0, ($5 minimum per fractional share transaction)

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What you'll need to open a Charles Schwab account

You'll need the following information. Have it on hand to get your Charles Schwab account up and running:

Your Social Security (SSN) or Tax Identification Number.
Your employer's name and mailing address, if applicable.
Your email address and mobile phone number.

If you're opening an IRA, you'll need the beneficiaries' birthdates. You must say who you want to inherit the account. If you're opening a joint account, both owners must enter personal information. You can have the other account owner do so by sending them a link later on.

Step 1: Choose a Charles Schwab account

Charles Schwab lets you choose from a handful of brokerage account types. Below are some of the most popular types of brokerage accounts that Charles Schwab offers.

Brokerage account

Charles Schwab offers a taxable brokerage account -- it's the standard account type. You don't get any tax advantages, but neither are you bound by special trading rules. A Charles Schwab brokerage account is cheap. It costs $0 to open and has no maintenance fees or minimums. You can trade stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and more.

Traditional IRA

With a traditional IRA, you pay no taxes on money you invest. You pay the taxes when you withdraw it. The downside is you can't access your money until you reach retirement age. You can withdraw from the account early, but you'll pay an early withdrawal penalty.

Roth IRA

A Roth IRA is more flexible than a traditional IRA and comes with different perks. You pay taxes on money you invest in the account, but you don't pay taxes when you withdraw money. If you withdraw a lot of money from your IRA at retirement age, withdrawals aren't impacted by your tax bracket. Once you've had the account for five years and are at least 59 1/2, you can withdraw investment gains from your Roth without paying a 10% early withdrawal fee or taxes.

You can open individual or joint brokerage accounts with Charles Schwab. You can also open a Schwab Intelligent Portfolios account, a robo-advisory account. To do so, you'll need to take a short quiz that Charles Schwab uses to measure your investing preferences. You'll also need $5,000 on hand to invest in the account -- this minimum is only for the robo-advisory account.

Step 2: Click an "Open account" button on the Charles Schwab website

Charles Schwab will direct you to a page that gives you an overview of the account you're opening.

If you have a referral or promo code, enter it on this page. To get started with a quick bonus, check out current Charles Schwab promos. There's usually at least one promo available. Heads up, you may need to open an account from a specific page to get a cash bonus.

Step 3: Enter your personal information

Be prepared to enter your name, date of birth, Social Security number, email, and phone number. Charles Schwab may ask you whether your current home address is in the U.S.

Step 4: Answer regulatory questions

Standard regulatory questions check whether you can legally open a brokerage account. Be prepared to answer why you're investing, whether you work for a broker, and whether you hold a huge stake in a company.

Step 5: Choose your account features

Charles Schwab will ask if you want more access. This includes optional features, like margin trading and options trading. These advanced strategies pose a significant risk. If you're new to investing, you likely want to leave these boxes unchecked for now.

Step 6: Review and confirm

Charles Schwab asks you to finish by reviewing your choices and agreeing to Charles Schwab's terms and conditions. Consider at least skimming the summaries to know what you're signing up for. Charles Schwab may ask you to open a cash management account or another account type. But, any such account should charge you $0 in opening or maintenance fees.

Step 7: Fund your account

You can fund your account right away, though it's not required. Charles Schwab lets you open a brokerage account with a $0 minimum. The exception is if you're opening a robo-advisory account. But if you're pursuing a Charles Schwab promotion, you may want to fund your account soon to get your new account bonus.

To fund your account, you'll need to link it to a bank account or another brokerage account. If you want to link, say, a checking account, you'll need your account and routing numbers handy. If you don't want to do this yet, no worries -- you can always link your other accounts later.

Fees and minimums

There is no minimum deposit required to open a taxable brokerage account, traditional IRA, or Roth IRA with Charles Schwab. Nor are there monthly maintenance fees you need to pay to keep the account open -- Schwab is light on fees.

But, you do need $5,000 to open a Schwab Intelligent Portfolios account. It's a robo-advisory account that manages your investment based on your preferences. If you want extra features like tax-loss harvesting, you'll need to deposit even more.