I have a Fidelity account, but I don’t really have much in it. I was considering using Charles Schwab through USAA since I have an account with them. Their services seem the same as Fidelity, but I’m wondering how people are experiencing using Schwab versus Fidelity?
Posted by Humble_Heat4365
14 Comments
They are basically the same. No reason to change just for change
Vanguard
I’ve never used Schwab, but my understanding is they still don’t allow fractional ETF share purchases and their default sweep account is very low yielding. Can anyone confirm these are still the case?
Fidelity allows fractional ETF share purchases and its default sweep account (SPAXX) pays close to Tbill rates.
I had both. I went with Fidelity for the online interface. Plus the Fidelity office treated me much better than the snobby Schwab office.
I greatly prefer Fidelity from their desktop UI perspective. Don’t use the mobile apps outside of the occasional cash transfer
I use both, there really isn’t much difference outside of very niche services.
I just treat Schwab, fidelity and vanguard as picking a starter in Pokemon, just pick a color you like.
Fidelity over Schwab all day.
Use both. No bad choices between the two
Been using Fidelity (both app and web version) and no issues. 1st time into stocks/investing etc and love the interface. I’ve done transactions on the road. Just bought some shares on S&P500 earlier this morning (ETF).
former Schwab employee & longtime Fidelity self-directed client here. Go with Fidelity. Fractional stock purchases also – not just etf’s. Among all the other reasons listed.
Fidelity leaves me alone. When at Schwab we had entire teams dedicated to attempting to convert self-directed clients to go with their advisors.
to be fair I might be below Fidelity’s minimum to even bother but I do have a 6 figure balance.
Fidelity didn’t stop trading on the whole gamestop thing either.
I have all 3 and would recommend Fidelity.
Fidelity: good sweep fund (SPAXX right now. is 3.32%, Schwabs pays 0.1%, so uninvested cash gets nothing), fractional shares, easy treasury ladders, easy platform to use, can do bill pay right out of your sweep fund (so get HYSA level interest on money you pay bills with), running balance on activities make using it for bill pay easy. If you decide you wanna move, no fees for closing the account (others charge $100).
Schwab: best for active traders (good tools, and opens trading activity on the side instead of reloading over your current window), people who want a Coverdell ESA IRA (not offered by Fidelity or Vanguard), and people who think they may go ex-pat in the future (had int’l branch). Not supporting fractional shares and not offering any interest on the sweep fund are my main issues.
Vanguard: find myself going through lots of menus to do simple things, and doesn’t offer running balance on activity screen (have to generate a PDF report). An example is I’m looking at a holding. I click the “cost basis” link and it takes me to a screen of all my holdings again where I can scroll to the one I was just looking at and click a expand arrow to see all the bases. I should be able to access all info relevant to that holding from one screen. Vanguard offers the best rate on their sweep fund (VMFXX is 3.59%, so 0.27% better than Fidelity). Vanguard offers eft versions of their biggest mutual funds at a lower ER (0.01% lower), so you can access all of Vanguard funds anywhere. Fidelity and Schwab have their own versions as well.
Robinhood.
both are solid honestly, fidelity edges out slightly on research tools and the platform feels a bit cleaner imo, but if you’re already in the schwab/usaa ecosystem the convenience probably evens it out.
The knock against Schwab is that their sweep account pays diddly.
If you do not care about Schwab automatically paying you 3.5% on your money instead of 0.01%, unless you do something, then go with Schwab.
Fidelity and Vanguard puts your money into their HYSAs, Fidelity is SPAXX and VANGUARD is VMFXX.