I’ve been using this app for over a decade and have experienced all the versions of it since. I can say, hands down, this is highly functional, reliable, mobile banking app with all the stock trading power you could ask for in the palm of your hand. I can tell you Schwab has Leo their app competitive with all the mobile banking functionality you would expect any bank to offer, plus the added power and flexibility of stock trading that also keeps up with the best of the industry players. That being said, with all efforts for functional upkeep, it seems the user interface has taken a backseat as of late. Nowadays, the dark color-themed user interfaces are king on mobile Apps and most software in general, and they seemingly take advantage of high-contrast design with vibrant interactive dashboards. The Schwab app is uninspiring comprised of mostly white, light grey, or beige color schemes with a few static bar charts that look straight out of Windows 2000 - frozen in time. Overall, the user interface has really begun to look aged and frankly, more than a bit out of date. For such an amazingly powerful mobile banking app, the user interface (UI) just feels lacking and could benefit from a major visual overhaul - One that helps to better position Schwab as a leader of online mobile banking and information technology space. A banking app for the future.
It feels like Schwab goes out of their way to punish and hassle you for trying to withdraw funds. When I initially signed up I was bombarded with calls and emails about funding my account. It was a breeze linking my bank account and transferring money to my Schwab account. It was deducted and on my bank statement within an hour. When the time came to withdraw some funds all of a sudden the transfer was voided and my bank account was unlinked even though all cash was settled and available for withdrawal. When I went to re-link the SAME bank account I had prior I was booted and locked out of my account. I was given several different numbers to call and had to talk to multiple people, take a quiz to verify my identity and given a 1-2 week timeframe for my account to be unlocked. All for only a $300 withdrawal to a bank account that was already verified. They’ll take money with no questions but when you try to withdraw they place several purposely placed hoops with the intent to wear you down in hopes you get frustrated and give up and forget about the money. I understand the need for safety to avoid identity theft and other fraud but it’s interesting that I can transfer money in, trade but the moment I try to withdraw a small amount I’m required to jump through hoop after hoop. It’s all by design. You’re better off with Fidelity
I e been a long time customer and user of this app on both iPhone and iPad. The old version worked flawlessly. The new version is terrible! First, it cannot maintain connection reliably over 1 minutes. This results in screen freezes, errors displayed - but worse is that orders are either not placed or duplicated. Schwab won’t honor these software mistakes. Furthermore, quotes are inconsistent and often wrong or severely delayed. When I say inconsistent, portfolio may say one current price, while order screen shows another and watchlist yet a third! Speaking of watchlists - they revamped them to “improve” but they ended up making almost unusable. You no longer change position of symbol in watchlist. Basically all you can do is delete and re-add from “edit”. Terrible. Old lists lock up after a couple of refreshes. New list often stop working with “oops - something went wrong”. Forcing you to end the app and re-login. Whoever does software testing for this app should be fired! It’s definitely not ready for prime time. It will fail on you during the most critical times that will often cost you real money! After more than 25 years with Schwab, this new version will probably FORCE me to go to another company.
I opened a checking and savings account in 2009 after my son advised me that Schwab received the Number One ratings in 2008 and 2009. I was very hesitant to change checking accounts, as I had been with my locally owned bank since I was 14 years of age. After researching all of the benefits of “no cost” Investor Checking & Savings accounts I made the change. It sounded too good to be true. The benefits are incredible and I’m still surprised there are no charges for any of these benefits. And, the Customer Service Representatives are the best I’ve ever experienced in any business relationship. The Representatives are extremely knowledgeable in all areas and I’ve never been transferred to another individual to get my issue handled. Specifically, when my son lived in Tokyo, Japan for three years and I had to make multiple international transfers for him I never experienced any difficulties. Nor did he on the receiving end. Over the past 11 years anytime the subject of banking arises I always recommend Charles Schwab and take time to explain the outstanding account benefits and Customer Service. I’m still impressed! Keep up the great work.
I can not stress enough how impressive Charles Schwab has been in every way, and I have been with many different banks. When I inherited my brokerage account, everyone at Schwab treated me like family right away. Anytime I had a question or wanted to do something over the phone, the customer service was always outstanding. I do believe they lead the trading industry, because when Chuck started it, he did it for the people, not for himself. I believe they have the perfect balance of traditional face to face or over the phone service along with the leading technology for online trading. When they informed me they did checking accounts also, I immediately switched them to my main banking institution. Best financial decision I’ve ever made. With their fewer branches than most banks, they compensate greatly with their online services. Check deposits are posted to your account sometimes within minutes! I’m not one to write reviews for companies at all, but after all the trouble I’ve been through with my other banks, Charles Schwab really deserves a 5 out of 5. I can’t say I have ever had a bad experience with them! A++++
I absolutely love Schwab! Unlike most people, I didn’t open an account with Schwab for trading. After coming to USA in 2016, I started with Chase since my peers pushed for it. I didn’t have a clue and ended up with Chase. Chase didn’t treat me well and I switched to Bank of America. BofA is relatively good, but I didn’t like them for unnecessary fees all the time. I only heard of the concept of “online only” banks back then. And had to chose between Schwab and Ally. Thank god I chose Schwab! Best decision ever made. Their customer service is top notch. The most polite set of people you’ll ever speak to. My experience is so good that I terminated my Robinhood and now trade exclusively with Schwab. If I were to make one change in Schwab, it has to be support for faster movement of money, say using Zelle etc. That’s the only reason I haven’t closed my Bank of America... yet. The day Schwab introduces Zelle or any faster method of moving money, I’ll commit myself to Schwab only. Speaking of the app itself, it works smooth. Never had a problem. However once in a while, I do see some issue with options and a blank page appears with a message “Content currently not available”. I’m sure other users have experienced this too. Hope they fix it soon.
This is top tier banking and investing. From a millennial.
I have been with Charles Schwab for almost a year now and I got to say it has been good and honest for me. With a combination of banking, retirement and investing you can trust them with your life savings. Charles Schwab has been in the game for a long time now and they have a top tier online platform. The only issue I see with them is the dated UI, especially with the app. But by no means is it difficult or a pain to use. It is by far one of the smoothest experiences I have had with a banking app. I believe if they update their user interface and do fractional shares with most of the market and ETFs they can attract more younger individuals and help them tackle this crazy economy with ease. I don’t live anywhere near one of their branches but considering I direct deposit my paycheck and most money is wired or sent digitally these days, Schwab has done a fantastic job with keeping up with the times compared to most banks. I can’t wait to see what comes next after the TD merger. But I’m definitely seeing myself sticking with them for life.
There are some things that could be improved... for instance, when you bring up the chart for a stock, why is there a translucent (not transparent) rectangular box (with writing in it) on top of the chart at the location you are trying to check? Can you say asinine? I have been complaining about this for years but it’s still there. Yes, I said years. It is, however, better than it used to be. A number of years back it was opaque! You had absolutely no idea where you were on the chart. Now you have an idea, but can’t always be sure of exactly where you are. Get rid of the box and move the info to the mostly empty gray bar immediately above the chart. Why is it that the larger charts only have the month and year (6-month to 5-year) or only the year (10-year and Max). Why can’t you include the date on all of them like the Personal Value Chart? It seems to me that whoever is in charge of the individual stock charts needs to take some lessons from whoever is in charge of the Personal Value Chart. I am of the opinion that (in some cases) you can fix stupid... but sometimes it requires a little public shaming. Let’s see if you can fix this one.
Coming over from TD Ameritrade app. The CS app fails at every turn: 1. No realtime streaming prices. 2. No price updates on a limit order and no slider where you can rapidly change the price - you have to click up/down arrows or re-type in the price! 3. No screen to see all you portfolio at one. They have the day and the overall history split into different screens so can see what I made today vs where it stands overall 4. No notification when an order is filled 5. Login is slow and text messages take time to arrive 6. Does not remember how I want my stocks orders so have to change it on each login 7. The default screen is the top 10 stocks so have to click show more to see them all instead of just opening that screen! 8. When you buy an ETF it does not immediately show up under the gain/loss list - took a day to show up there so had to keep looking at the history tab and manually calculate the gain / loss. Some of us hold an ETF for less than a day and it should show up immediately! 9. When you add to a position you have to manually refresh the two screens to force an update. It feels like a bit of a joke right now! They should have scrapped the CS app and used the TDA app for everyone instead. It is like going back to the prehistoric age on the new app!
Schwab is an excellent brokerage with plenty of benefits that I need not repeat here. Customer service by phone is very quick and the reps are helpful. But the app is buggy and often won't complete trades near the end of the trading day. A bug I frequently encounter is that after I set the limit price in the order screen and tap "Review Order" the app claims that I did not enter a limit price. I sometimes have to try four or five times before the app will property register the limit price; it then takes several minutes to place a single order. Gradually I have begun to use StreetSmart Edge software to do my trades; it's much faster and less buggy than the mobile app. The mobile app is still good for checking transaction history, balances, and finding the right phone number to call when I need customer service. One oddity: the app shows your futures account under balances but it won't show any positions in the futures account. It'd be nice to show those positions too.
It seems all I can do on this app is trade and view my account in limited detail. The research capabilities are virtually nonexistent. A search for “research” yielded the reply “log in to the website and hover the cursor over the research link”. In other words this app would appear to have no research functionality I was originally a Scottrade user before it was sold to TD Ameritrade. Now TD Ameritrade is being bought by CS. Schwab would do well to look at a substantial overhaul of the user interface on both this app and it’s website as they are both woefully lacking in the details I was accustomed to previously. I am not a CS customer by choice, I am here due to corporate institutionalization initiated by my employer and multiple acquisitions. Using Schwab’s digital resources is like looking at my grandfather’s faded tighty whities. Schwab should pull out a blank sheet of paper and start from scratch in designing a better app/website with more functionality and ease of accessing data for research and reviewing account details. Please take a few pages from TD Ameritrade employees and any Scottrade employees that may be left on property. Just because you are bigger doesn’t mean you do things better. I find the opposite is usually more accurate.
Accurate. Safe multi-factor. Extremely Simplistic. However, I do everything on my phone, so this basically useless app suggests I need a new broker with better mobile. The schwab app is not very useful - except transferring money looks well setup (which I have not tried yet). Not even useful looking at investment positions, which should be the first thing it should do perfectly. Investments are there in one big lump, you just have to search for it - no sorting or selectable columns - just a blob of alphabetical investments with most of the investment detail for each investment just in a paragraph. Considering how huge and old Schwab is, lack of app features is extremely disappointing and a bit concerning. The worst brokerage app I've used. I could not find the logout, so I asked the Schwab knowledge assistant multiple ways, and it never found an answer. Yikes. Luckily, the Schwab app is so tiny, I eventually found it where I would not expect it. Also, don't bother downloading this Schwab app to get the "look and feel" of Schwab, because without an account, it is just a couple pages of broad useless advertisements (e.g. we're big, we can do good stuff, so open an account) - missed opportunity on Schwab's part. Venting, because I expected a lot more.
Best financial institution I have ever done business with.
All I wanted to do is buy some CD’s and in less than half an hour I was able to do just that. I was able to open an account, connect my bank account to it to transfer funds into the new account, and was able to buy the CD I wanted two days later. After getting raked over the coals by Chase for more than 10 day, and getting absolutely nothing done except to get the account locked more than five times in ten day just for trying to transfer funds into it, opening this account with Schwab was literally a dream come true. Not only that but them walking me through the process of how to go through the process of how to put in the order to buy a CD was second to none. I plan on moving all my finances to this financial institution after I clear up a few things. Again, the best financial institution I have ever dealt with in all of my 64 years on this planet.
I’ve been a Schwab customer for 20+ years and I trade fairly often, including both equities and options. I use the iPhone and iPad app and they both have two fundamental flaws when it comes to monitoring positions. For one, there is no way to sort your positions by % gain/loss, $ gain/loss or any other way - they are permanently listed in alpha order by company name. Being able to customize the sort is such a basic feature, and one that every stock monitoring app has, and it’s absurd that you can’t do it here. Second, you cannot view a position’s day change and overall gain/loss on one screen - you have to flip back and forth between screens to get the complete picture. I understand that compromises have to be made for mobile apps, but there ought to be a way to see a more complete picture of your positions on one screen. And if you must limit the amount of info on a screen, at least give the user the option to choose which information is viewable. Again, simple customizations go a long way. Otherwise the app is generally easy to use, fast, and offers a fairly simple platform for making trades.
Since Schwab transitioned all TD Ameritrade accounts to their own trading platform, it has been a disappointing experience. No push notifications (price alerts or news). No breakdown of income (how much is coming from where, all income is grouped together as total $ instead of the option of %). No live market details on accounts page, no ex-dividend price/share. Dividend history is generalized and doesn’t tell where money is coming from. Transfers from bank to account take too long (virtually instant with TD Ameritrade, now you must wait 1-3 days). Watchlists and news are buried and annoying to get to. This app has been disappointing for those that prefer the functionality and quick access to information of the TD Ameritrade app, and is certainly not for active managers of their accounts. I mostly utilize the app to follow my retirement contributions and determine what next steps I want to take based on market performance, but this app keeps me in the dark on important information I need to make informed decisions. If Schwab can’t figure out how to implement theses basic investment tools, I will take my account to a broker that does. (i.e. Fidelity)
The mobile app is lacking user friendliness and convenience. Honestly, Ally Invest is the only app with worse charts. You can’t really see as much info as you need by default and when you try to drag your finger over it, it opens a chart in landscape view that is confusing. Please copy Robinhood in that regard. They have nothing else good about them but people still use them because dem charts. Also, when you try to buy something in Robinhood and your trading account doesn’t have enough money they will do an Instant Deposit that lets you immediately trade while they transfer the money from your external bank account. But on Schwab when you try to make a trade from your trading account it will say you don’t have enough funds even though there are plenty in your Schwab checking account. So you end up having to manually transfer money from the checking to trading account first which is tedious. You can’t set your accounts to do auto stock purchases from the app. Or set a bill to auto pay. Or set stock price alerts. It’s really annoying to have to open the web app to do stuff.
I have used schwab for the last seven years. Ever since they purchased TD they have changed their order entry system. It is absolutely horrific! When you enter a limit order, especially on small priced stocks fractional of pennies around it to the next lowest if you are putting in a stop order. Same thing happens with limit orders. Right before you hit enter you see that the price has been changed. This has cost me a lot of money. Also, when you switch from a limit order to a stop order, they automatically change the price to the current bid. This makes absolutely no sense. In fact, it makes no sense to have any dollar amount listed when you’re entering a limit order you should be able to enter that number yourself. I am switching over to another service. This has cost me enough money at this point. June 11, 2024 – their system is once again down I cannot login. I cannot trade my Stocks. I had a stock that was up now it’s rolled back down. This is really turning into like a world country platform. Very disappointing no new money here. Went to FIDELITY no outages, but they have their limitations as well.
This app is so functional. I’m a huge fan of my experience with Schwab because of how good this app experience is. Leaving this review to highlight one annoying, but frequent problem/design concern because you don’t have a bug report form like other apps. There often is a small modal that blocks all app interaction when first opening the app but that is only covering 10% of the bottom of the screen. Because the entire screen remains visible (with no dimmed/faded overlay), it is unexpected that the modal causes the entire app to not be interactable AND attention is not properly drawn to the modal that must be interacted with to proceed. Altogether the experience is that the app feels “broken” and “frozen” with no immediately obvious reason until the modal is finally identified by scanning the entire page. Recommendation: 1) make page interactable behind modal, allowing it to be ignored and noticed as a sticky notice Or 2) put an overlay on the rest of the content so the modal is more attention grabbing
TD Ameritrade was so much more user friendly and simple to use and understand that’s why I choose to use their platform. Charles Schwab app doesn’t allow you any customization on your Home Screen and limits you so much on what you can view all at once. Before I could have all my assets lined up from multiple accounts and see all my cost basis, growth, value, dividend payments, ex dividend dates, P/E ratios and a million other things I could choose from for each stock on one page and could compare easily between all my assets and customize it any way I see fit. Now I’m just stuck with just account values over all and their growth. If I wanna see dividends or P/E ratios I have to chase all the way into the stocks page itself. They created an over simplified app that doesn’t allow you to keep track near as well as TD Ameritrade had it set up. Very disappointed in this transition. I am some what satisfied with logging on in my browser version of Charles Schwab on the internet. If they could implement that version into the app more I would think about sticking around. Otherwise I’m continuing the search for a better mobile trading platform.
When I first switched to Schwab I was a little nervous. Online ONLY??? What if I need help?! My old mobile banking app sucked! Is this the worst choice ever??? But I took a chance because I hated my old bank and live half the year on opposite ends of the country and was struggling to find a bank with adequate locations in both Idaho and Maryland 😂 Best. Choice. Ever. Their customer service is the easiest and most helpful customer service I’ve ever (across any brand or company EVER) interacted with! I’ve never had any problems with the app! They make mobile banking so easy and so simple! Schwab took banking and turned it from a hassle, anxiety producing, pain in my rear into something I never have to worry or think twice about. This app is so easy, so simple, and their customer service can help you with any problem you have.
In desparate need of a UI overhaul, and instant transfers
Schwab is a great company, time tested and respectable, but their mobile platform is undoubtedly antiquated in comparison to other mobile investment apps. Other than its bare bones black-and-white UI, what makes the Charles Schwab app feel like it belongs in a museum rather than on smartphones, is the inability to make direct transfers to and/or from personal bank accounts. While other trading platforms allow for instant access to funds traded between accounts even before transfers are fully settled with the press of a button, I can’t even move cash between accounts without physical checks. For a younger guy like myself, this is a massive turnoff, and it’s why other apps like Robinhood and Webull have been exploding in popularity, and most folks under 25 have never heard of Charles Schwab (outside of those with retirement accounts) I, and many others, would Love it if Schwab took initiative and overhauled their app and offered some innovative changes, even maybe offering a cryptocurrency wallet and the option to purchase transfer and sell cryptos on their platform.
Yesterday, Thursday June 15th, tried to log into my Schwab brokerage account. Had no luck whatsoever. I used “forgot my password“ but never received an email from Schwab. I’ve had my accounts with Schwab since the late 1990s. It’s been awhile since I’ve run into log in problems. I contacted a wonderful Schwab representative, Noriah, who provided excellent customer service. I regained access to my brokerage and Roth accounts. Unfortunately, when I decided to make a credit card payment I couldn’t access bill pay. I’m ok with this as most of my recurring payments are automatic. But, now and then I like to lower my credit card bill. So, I had to transfer funds to my Wells Fargo account. I’ll make additional credit card payments from there. Once I regained access to my brokerage account I saw that some kind of update was taking place. Maybe that explains why I lost access. And, why the funds I transferred won’t be available until Wednesday, June 21st. I guess it’s just my luck. Then again, I don’t think so.
I am shocked and dumbfounded that Charles swab had 18 months to design an app that had the same functionality as the existing TD Ameritrade platform and this is the best they could come up with? You can’t even create custom views for your positions in this app. You can sort by key data point on the positions view. This is all 101 basic functionality, that every other trading platform apps offer. This app was clearly designed for the casual 401(k) “Checker inner”, not anyone that actively trades (or even interested in sorting any data point). Bottom line is that anyone from entry-level to the CEO that signed off on taking this app live to the existing TD Ameritrade customers should be sent walking papers tomorrow. Seriously, did they not do any kind of customer satisfaction testing or usability testing??? It 100% feels like this was an egotistical move by the existing Charles Schwab team, that they had what they thought was a better app (HAAAA). The only positive thing in this whole transaction, is that the same ego allowed them to offer zero fees to move other brokerages. And on that note, it would be great time to start shorting Charles Schwab :).
The app is very slow to reflect current prices on things like options and even cash balances. When trading on other platforms, when I execute a trade, the shares either bought or sold are immediately shown in my portfolio. On Schwab it can take several minutes to show up in my account. Additionally the cash balance takes several minutes to update and I have mistakenly gone negative because I thought there was enough funds to cover trades and then 5 minutes later I find that the cash balance has finally updated and I need to transfer additions funds to cover. Also option prices are often incorrect and when you look at a call price on other platforms and websites, they will all be in line and Schwab will be off, sometimes even from themselves. Example: a stock showed the last option price at $.80 with a bid and ask of $.80 and $.85, but the current option price showing on my portfolio was $1.20. All other sites showed the price at $.80. This needs to be fixed.
The day change and possibly several other figures on the app are not accurate! I called Schwab on it and they confirmed it!! It was showing I had a day change of ~$800 whereas the actual change was only roughly $400! This prompted me to make more changes than I normally would have but in another scenario could possibly put you into a position where you think you are gaining but you are actually losing money! It definitely affects how you feel about buying or selling stock and therefore, with inaccurate figures could cause a loss of money you weren’t expecting because Schwab was not up front with the user on the problem. I even called a broker from Schwab who confirmed this anomaly and was also frustrated with it admitting that Schwab has known about it for a long time!! Because of this issue, he said many brokers at Schwab use the website instead of the app. Therefore, this app is unacceptable and a 1 star rating until they get it fixed. I will say that all of the brokers I have talked to over the phone have been super kind and helpful so I think Schwab is a decent company, but don’t get yourself into trouble using this app!
The app operates smoothly which is a big positive. It’s not choppy nor is it glitchy, at least not for me. I give it only two stars because those elements are the bare minimum. This app is entirely consumer focused but UX wise that doesn’t really show. My financial information is displayed as if I’m looking at a mere digital representation of an old school checkbook. That’s ok but we’re at a stage with software engineering where there is vastly more they can do. I should have more ways to look through my data other just using basic filters for basic categories. I can’t even do a basic keyword, let alone word, search for anything outside of what financial instruments I might have purchased or sold. So that’s just looking things up. What surprises me though, really, is that I can’t manipulate my financial information at all in the app. All I can do is view it. If that’s all my fellow consumers want to do, then the app won’t change to include those features, but that lack of interest just won’t last for long. App has a long way to go.
First, I love the Bubble charts. I’m a former TD Ameritrade customer and this is my favorite Schwab feature (although it would be better if a link to this feature was displayed on the top of the positions and gain/loss screens, like in the iPad app). Second, constructive criticisms: 1) Again, on the iPad app you can choose to sort your positions by greatest market value (or least market value or whatever) on the positions and the gain/loss screens. Why not give this functionality to the iPhone app ? 2) On watchlists, why is the first column so wide? You see the ticker symbol and a lot of wasted empty space. Why not make this column the same width as the others and make more space for other column info we want to see?3) Why isn’t cost basis a choice on watchlists? You’ve got everything else, cost per share, market value… seems strange. This is especially annoying since the only way I can sort my positions by market value is on watchlists.
I’ll start by saying, Schwab is a customer centric company. I have never had a bad experience with the people working at Schwab. HOWEVER, their technology, specifically their app and website, are aging... badly. Tonight at 10:29 PM PST I wanted to set a transfer for tomorrow from my Schwab investor checking to my Schwab investor brokerage in the app, and I was met with an ugly “stop” sign, yes literal stop sign emoji saying “Payments/transfers between these accounts can only be accepted online Monday through Friday 9:00 am ET - 7:00 PM ET”. I just wish apps would let you forward date your transfers without throwing up a stupid blocker which clearly is put I place to show they didn’t want to develop out any features to support it. I like the people Schwab hires, but the second they make the app too clunky to use for basic money management, I’m out, sorry. My advice, invest in the products and features your customers need. I need to move money and buy and sell stocks from my phone. The rest can be built on the desktop site, so solve your consumers needs.
Latest update removed the summary page displayed when an option was selected from the option chain. Page showed the Bid/Ask, last price, High/Low for day and 52 week ranges, Greeks, Open Interest, Volume, and current price on one page. It also had a button to trade the option which populated the trade ticket. After the update, selecting an option from the chain skips showing that useful info and goes straight to the trade ticket. The chain page was updated to try and show this now missing info but items are missing and what is available requires selecting item groups to show and left-right scrolling to see. One easy to read page full of useful info is replaced with a frustrating mess that is both hard to use and has less info. And Schwab advises more “features” such as this are coming. The app was clunky and dissatisfying to use for option trading before these updates but at least it worked to a sufficient degree. Now its painful and annoying on top of that.
Nothing is easy to do on this application at all other than transfer your money in. Everything else is overly complicated for no reason whatsoever. Or there are severely limited options without logging into the website on a laptop or PC. Absolutely ridiculous. It shouldn’t take me 20 minutes to find out that you can’t do something on the app and need to do it on a PC. An example of this would be setting your stocks to reinvest dividends. Completely unable to do this on the app. Unless it’s when your first buying the stock. But if for some reason you forget like a normal human, you can’t get that accomplished on the application. It’s nowhere to be found. And instead of telling you that when you’re looking at your stock that you’ve purchased, you have to go into the buy screen where you can see that it reinvest dividends as an option. But you can’t do anything with it. And then when you ask the assistant about it and then finally tells you that you have to go onto the website to do it. This is completely ridiculous.
Worst stock and option trading interface and performance
This app provides a pre historic user experience. It’s takes painstakingly long to enter stocks and options orders as there are validations at every step of entry that are firstly unnecessary (no other trading app does this) and secondly each validation takes it sweet time. It does a validation at the end again. Additionally, changing an entry like Qty or limit price wipes out what you had entered in other fields which is counter intuitive and leads you into vicious cycle of data getting removed. Takes forever. If you want to do multi leg options it is a compounding nightmare. Please design the app based on user use cases and not based on technical requirements, which should be embedded seamlessly. It’s a shame big banks with deep pockets can’t think out of the box and come up with easy to use app. Please learn from newbies like Robinhood how they easy and quick they have made option trading reinventing entire interface. This whole ordering interface shd be redone ASAP from the ground up or you are going to lose customers like me who are using their mobile devices increasingly. Thanks for asking for feedback.
If you like donuts, you will love this app since you will see a lot of spinning donuts while you wait to place a trade or see your balance. Schwab needs to devote far more server capacity to its apps. It’s often the case that it takes 10-15 minutes of effort to place a single trade. Except for this glaring problem, it’s mostly good. But it could use improvements like listing positions alphabetically instead of completely randomly. You should not have to scroll up and down a list of dozens of positions just to find two options trades in the same symbol that were literally placed at the same time. Why would one be listed at the top and the other near the bottom? And when you click on Order Status, who on God’s green Earth wants to be taken to orders placed days ago by default? The default assumption should be that the trader wants to see open unfilled orders. It’s clear from decisions like this that the app creators are doing things to check development tasks as complete and not doing the tasks because they help real customers.
I primarily use Schwab’s Investor Checking account, mostly as an initial landing spot for income that is then funneled to my savings and investing accounts. The app is a useful way of looking over information on the go (I usually use my iPad for mobile banking) and can do much of what you need on a daily basis. The only frustration is that a few functions are not available on the app, only on the website, and which functions are and are not available is unintuitive. For instance, I couldn’t link to an external bank account from my app, even though the tab from where I would have to link it exists on the app just like it does on the website. But, once the account is linked, I can manage cash flow easily through the app. I wish the app would gain some of this minor functionality, or else more predictably exclude features. Otherwise, the app is great. It does most everyday tasks, is clean and efficient, and makes life easier. 9/10
Will no longer allow mobile check deposit. I have a brokerage, checking and savings account. Normally after clicking on deposit I am prompted to choose which account to deposit check. Now instead I and prevent d from depositing by an error message “You do not have any schwab brokerage accounts eligible for mobile deposit” I do not need or want to be able to deposit to my brokerage account, I use my Schwab bank accounts. I was able to deposit checks recently but since latest update, now cannot. Fail. After installing latest update Touch ID is no longer setup for Schwab app. Was required to login manually using username/password and re-enable, however after do so the apps returned an error message saying that the phone’s passcode has to be 6 digits. So basically the Touch ID that worked yesterday, no longer works today. No mention of this in the release note for this update. For multiple reasons I cannot modify the phones passcode settings. I guess I’ll just not use the Schwab app now due to lack of Touch ID. Thanks for the lack of notice on this version change Schwab.
Just wrote a very cohesive reason as to say this brokerage is trash for trading and even the review crashed and removed it all. Recap doesn’t refresh and stay up to date like any other brokerage app/ stopped allowing purchasing of otc which I originally used it for anyways (dpls for example) but still available on others yes even Ameritrade for a fee even though they were merging. Also my eeenf disappeared telling me I sold them when that’s the very last one I would’ve sold. I got in literally near the bottom. Only reason it’s okay is because some of its features for viewing in a watchlist like which options are running etc … other than that.. the only thing Schwab is good for now is to buy and hold shares. If that because well you can do that anywhere else. App crashes/slows down seemingly on purpose during times of high volatility- so it’s a big no for trading and after the only thing they were good for is now useless as well/ well.. it’s useless. My .02 - I’m good.
The stock tax section is confusing. The order filter should automatically filter out confirmed orders. The gain and loss section seems to reset after each year, so I don’t know how much exactly I am up. The account value function at the beginning some times shows total account value gain that takes into account money you transferred in for investing and not actual investment gain. But everything else is perfect, I would like more stock slices and make it easier to trade options, i was approved but have been unable to do so. I would also like the ability to use the investment tools I can on the schwabb website. The fact there are no transaction fees is better than a lot of brokerage firms, but could encourage over trading for the inexperienced investor. The fact that you can buy ADRs and foreign stocks is great, but the tax situation is kind of murky.
Great, but PLEASE show stock prices past the hundredths place!
I'm a penny stock trader, and I absolutely love Charles Schwab. It's a great Brokerage and I love how there are no fees for OTC stocks. However, PLEASE allow users on the app to see more than the hundredths place with stocks on their order status page, trading page, ETC. When you are reading penny stocks, the smallest changes in numbers make a huge difference. I hate how Schwab rounds all the prices to the hundredths place. It makes it incredibly hard to keep track of prices of stocks at the current moment, or prices of stocks that I have purchased. The only place it shows past the hundredths place with your order history is in your emails. PLEASE, do not round the stocks to the hundredths place. It is incredibly annoying for penny stock traders, and I have made mistakes with trading solely for this reason. Once this is fixed, I'll happily give my favorite brokerage a five star rating. Thanks for listening to your users.
Schwab used to have an ios app that was better than any of the other brokerage/financial accts i owned (Fidelity, Vanguard, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo). With the latest change, however it has fallen to second to last (with Vanguard retaining its worst in class reputation). I used to use Fidelity for just REITS & funds, but now that its ios app is better than Schwab's, I move money from my Schwab account for trading too. The latest change by Schwab makes it more difficult to get info, having to switch between overall performance view to daily performance in order to reveal tabs for info on research is a pain. Fidelity's app gives you more info in a spreadsheet at once & allows you to rank by whatever you want (daily % change, % holding of account...). But the deal breaker is that Fidelity's ios app now allows you to sell individual lots, with Schwab you can only do that on a home computer, which I do not have access to during the day.
Like the format but lots of issues including: 1) heat map view of watch list does not show prices on all stocks. Always at least one stock (first on the list) but sometimes more do not show the price or percent change; 2) tapping on a stock from the heat map to view details often locks up the app and I have to close the app and sign back in; 3) if you buy a stock, the day change calculation is based on the prior day closing price rather than the purchase price. 4) have not found a way to look at position change (gains/losses) for the current year. It shows the position change since purchasing the stock but not for current year. It would be nice to see gains and losses from investments (including dividends) for the current year. Personal value doesn’t work because it includes transfers.
I love Schwab! I mean it. I love the quality and dependability of the app, it’s intuitive interface for banking. And I love love love the ability to get a real person on the phone 24-7 nearly 365 if I need help. The reps are extremely knowledgeable, well trained and invariably kind even if you aren’t a millionaire. If you don’t have an account with Schwab, I have very hard time thinking of any reason at all not to make them your primary banker. A few people may still need brick and mortar banks. But most of us would be better served by places like Schwab that refund ATM fees charged by other banks to use their machines, give us free checking, a great web site and app and bar none, the best customer service by phone that you can have without a lot of money and a personal banker.
This app is utilitarian, it gets the job done. But the user interface on a phone and/or tablet does leave some things to be desired. All of the information that you need is contained within the app. However, I would like to see more options to vary investor preferences. I personally would like to have a day graph of each asset available to add to the initial investments page. Create a customization feature for each asset instead of dictating what I prefer to see upon opening the app. I know that Charles Schwab is in the business of caring diligently for people’s assets and for that I am greatly thankful. But now that they are a front runner in doing that, I’d like to see some time invested in the user interface and investment platform. Interviewing a younger population that has grown up in a digital age my help in assisting with the user interface of this app. The question is: do you value form or function, because this app doesn’t provide both?
I must say, I was a bit worried about the transition from Ameritrade to Schwab and the app interface. I was happy that the thinkorswim was available before and after so there is the sense of familiarity there in case I need something quick. Some of the Schwab reviews left me more worried what it would be like to use the new app. Happy to see that the worry was overblown. I do enjoy the interface so far and especially love the “Investment Income” with monthly average. At this point in my life, nearing retirement, this is a very welcomed feature as my goals for investing continue to change. Hopefully, as I spend more time with the Schwab app, I will continue to be delighted with the interface and forget all about the Ameritrade app I used so often. Bonus: My account migration to Schwab also went simply smooth. Kudos! to those hard working to make it so unnoticeable to the customer.
iPhone app: How do I go back to the previous view where Order Status was always visible at the bottom. Order Status screen was horrible even before, and now made even worse. It does not load quickly. On top of that you cannot sort by symbol to see if you have a order already for that symbol. Someone, try scrolling to see if that symbol exists. Who comes up with this UI designs? I have never seen a perfect app going down the drain that started with the last Order Status screen updates. The order Stu’s button at the bottom got replaced by Move Money. Who move’s money every day as opposed to going to the Order Status screen every day. It is getting lot harder to find the orders for a symbol unless we scroll multiple pages. Please bring back the old Order Status screen, where all orders are are sorted by symbol and all the orders for a symbol are grouped in one place for that symbol. Also fire the UI expert who came up with the new bad design from a perfectly working screen.
As a new client I’m having a Very difficult time Navigating the site. I moved from Webull and urged my son to do the same because Webull did not offer DRIP. Wiring money into the account took a little longer than we liked. Fractional investing was alluring. Sadly, the Schwab layout is not simple. We struggle to get familiar with/ make good use of the system. (I’m assuming it’s because we use mobile about 85% of the time). Before signing up I read about ‘great, easy to use’ useful platforms. Independent trading is important to us. The wonderful platforms/software don’t seem to exist. I was especially hopeful about Street Smart Edge... not available?! I regret encouraging my son to move to Schwab. I’m considering another firm. I’ll pay the fee for his transfer out once we find a user friendly firm that allows D.R.I.P and fractional investing. I’m sure it’s out there. I wouldn’t recommend Schwab for independent users who want to use the platform for anything more than direct purchase/sells.
Schwab improved the UI a lot over the past 5 years. I wish they made the UI more simple like fidelity to trade stocks. Ex: Fidelity requires fewer clicks to buy/sell stocks compared to Schwab. By default, fidelity has the action on buy. On Schwab, the default is blank. You need to select buy, sell or short sell. Most casual investors would buy stocks assuming current portfolio has no positions. Why not enabled buy as default? Fidelity allows you to enter dollar amount to calculate estimated Shares via single click. Schwab has the feature too, but requires two clicks. I think it’s the simple things in the UI that gives fidelity the slight edge over Schwab as far as awards. Fidelity been dominating this for years. I love Schwab, but please improve the UI to make it more simple. Create an account on Fidelity and buy stocks. Compare the experience and make notes of it. Please pass this on to the CTO.
I’ve been trading for years but never have my results been this fantastic. The reason is because Schwab has screening tools that identify the best daily performers and those with increasing volume and price. I look at about a hundred of these best performers and rising stars on candlestick charts daily with the object to participate in some part of a break-out and rapid growth. I rate them the evening before. The next day, I watch the opening but don’t buy until after about 35 minutes, when most seem to establish the direction for the day. I may find only one to three of my picks are moving like I projected, but boy, are they! I buy and place a stop loss below support. I then keep moving my stop loss up gradually over time until the trend turns and takes me out. My portfolio is growing with these great performers. Thank you Charles Schwab!
Schwab asked me to review their software and I gave them 1 star because certain securities did not show up in the stock quote. I assumed the review would appear here so i came here to update my review to be more fair after using it but it seems it conveniently got lost. Anyway it seems less intuitive to use than other stock brokers. I would rather not have to learn to use it but rather it’s usage be self evident. So for user interface I give it a C. When you get information about a stock, there is a lot of information which for an iPad I give it an A. Finally some of the missing quotes can be found under Research > ETF. I was looking for exchange traded debt like SOJD. Seems stupid I cannot get a quote for SOJD directly as a stock quote. I am not certain that debt security even meets the definition of an ETF. In summary, usable but you have to “learn” how to use it. Works but frustrating.
The app is fine for trading. Research i find it difficult to use it is easier to use say yahoo to read info then app. Also i feel there is room to add custom alerts on stocks. For example why cant i set the app to push a notification on stock changes of >1%. Or it breaks a threshold of price. Much like limit buy or limit sell. But instead of doing it automatically it can notify. This would be useful on something you buy and want to hold for a bit but when it makes so much het rid of it. Where limit buy sell is more for the day. Even though it can be set longer if it is days you position may change so notification is better in that time period that hey there been change you want to do something. Also if notification was by ticker. Then one can set some watches on set stocks to ding you when it moves to where you want it to make a move.
My account was moved from TDAmeritrade, where the App functionality was much better. During the merger, my entire watchlist was deleted. Schwab’s watchlist itself allows for duplication instead of notifying you a stock symbol is already there. With this App, one cannot see realized gain/loss, only unrealized gain/loss. The chart always revert back to Mountain chart display instead of your last setting, which in my case is the preferred candlestick. Likewise, one cannot keep the last preferred time frame in Advanced Chart Setting, but have to reset each time. When displaying candlesticks, the shadow of the last candlestick is hidden (because it overlaps with the edge of the box displaying the graph). When enlarging the chart for a better view, the volume indicator at the bottom does not enlarged accordingly. There are other deficiencies that make this App clunky to use. Schwab bring back the TDAmeritrade App functionalities/display because it was far superior. Data is incorrect, especially daily gain. Option chains limited. Cannot keep personalized setting. So many problems to list. Who is responsible for the catastrophe?? Such a terrible app with little functions. The whole team should be fired! Shame on them for the little pride they show in producing this junk. Bring back the TDAmeritrade app. Am going to give it a little more time, then moving my account somewhere else if things don’t improve in a major way.
Schwab went from what I considered the best brokerage to nearly the worst. Fidelity is much better than the investor checking at Schwab. Schwab pays .45 percent interest on the money in the checking while Fidelity pays over 2.5 percent on their checking money. Plus idle money in brokerages is invested in a money market paying right at 5%. I think Schwab pays .45 on idle money. The thing that really drove me away was the elimination of the line of credit. In almost 20 years I think I may have used it less than 5 times for at most a few days while money was in transition but it was the piece of mind of it being there that I liked. Just out of the blue cancel the line of credit linked to the checking account without even explaining why it was done. Furthermore, this was not just done to me it was eliminated as a service altogether which is why it’s so frustrating. They no longer even offer it. Please check out Fidelity’s service they are far superior to Schwab.
