Charles Schwab Bank is an independent bank that was established by its parent holding company, the Charles Schwab Corporation, a publicly traded financial services company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (Symbol:SCHW). The bank was established in order to offer personal banking and lending products in addition to the brokerage services for which the company is commonly known.
Charles Schwab Bank has received great reviews on DepositAccounts.com for its checking and savings accounts, two of its personal depository products. Its checking accounts are versatile and convenient, have no monthly fees, come with free checks and Visa debit cards, and refund ATM transaction fees up to a certain amount. The bank’s savings account has no monthly service fees, as well as no minimum account balance to be maintained. The savings account also offers ATM refunds up to a certain amount and links up with the bank’s checking account for fund transfers. Both the savings and checking accounts feature mobile deposit and mobile banking for convenient banking functionality. Charles Schwab Bank also offers Certificates of Deposit (CDs) that range in term lengths from 3 to 60 months. Money Market accounts are available as well and offer higher interest rates for higher account balances. Mortgages are available on the bank’s consumer lending side.
Charles Schwab Bank online banking is a sophisticated, web-based platform that provides customers with access to their accounts at any time. Activities like bill pay, fund transfers, and direct deposit are easily accomplished and can be done so via mobile banking as well. The bank’s mobile apps offer access to both trading accounts and deposit accounts, and are available on select smartphone and tablet devices.
Charles Schwab Bank was established in 2003 and its organization type with the FDIC is a stock savings bank. It is a subsidiary of Charles Schwab Corporation and headquartered in Reno, Nevada.
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Excellent Experience
Although I firmly believe brick and mortar banks are a valuable part of our banking system, I truly love having an account with Charles Schwab. I compared several online banks ahead of time and what drew me to CS was their anti-fee based policies. While larger banks have moved toward general fees for everything from checking to savings accounts, Schwab has zero fees or requirements for account holders. Beyond that they don't even have fees for when you use another bank's ATM. Also, if the ATM owner charges you a fee, Charles Schwab will refund you that amount back into your account automatically. Since it is an online only bank, their app is well made and intuitively programmed. The ability to instantly deposit things like checks is extremely convenient. That said, I do have 1-2 complaints --- their app does not allow for checks over a certain amount (500-1000 can't remember exactly), this has occasionally been an issue for me as the only way to deposit checks like this are through snail mail. Hopefully they streamline this in the future.
Good if you also invest using the same firm
I was looking for a online banking solution and I was looking around. I ended up with the same firm where I have an investment account. I asked the person in the chat various questions and he was very polite and knowledgeable about the banking product. It is advantageous to open an online banking account here because it is much easier to manage and transfer funds from the investment account. The interest rate paid to the account is competitive and comparable to other online banking accounts. The functions of the web interface and the Charles Schwab app were very good. It was very intuitive and easy to manage my account using these portals. Overall, I would say that the banking account alone is a great offering and it is even better if you have an investment account too.
Online banking with Charles Schwab
After deciding that I wanted to start travelling the world, I wanted to find a bank that would allow me to use my money without including a ton of ridiculous and overpriced fees. My local bank in Colorado wanted to charge me fees for using my card and an ATM internationally. How ridiculous! After finding Charles Schwab's online high yield investor account, I was relieved to discover that I could now travel the world without any either of these fees. That's right: no fees for using my card and no fees for using an ATM while in international location. Let me give you an example of how much money this has saved me: whenever I went to an ATM in Peru I would have been charged at least $7 per transaction on an ATM and 2% of all card purchases from my previous local bank. This can add up to well over $50 a month. Thank you Charles Schwab for making my banking much easier to handle both locally and internationally!
Lackluster Experience
Overall, I think CS is providing a decent product. Not to mention, if you open a checking, you get an investment account as well. However, I opened an account when the checking account was made available online to customers nationally. I was younger at the time and was trying to move money from my old bank in CS and I happened to use my CS debit card too early before the funds were cleared which caused me to "overdraft." I believe it was by $-0.30 (or something silly). Something that I have never done before. So I immediately deposited another check via mobile deposit, not knowing that due to my overdraft these funds were put on hold for over 10 business days. This really irked me, as the overdraft was an accident as I explained that to the rep and they could see I made a larger deposit via the mobile app to cover the negative balance. However to no effect, so as soon as my check cleared I moved the funds electronically bank to my old bank. I called CS and the rep was nice, however he didn't try to save the account and keep me as a customer. He closed the account in less then one minute and that was it...
Data as of Q2 2016
Learn more about bank healthHealth Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| FDIC Certificate # | 57450 |
| Year Established | 2003 |
| Employees | 579 |
| Primary Regulator | OCC |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 0.94% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 13.99% |
| Annual Interest Income | $1.28B |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q2 2016vs Q2 2015 | $153.9B$122.4B |
| Loans | Q2 2016vs Q2 2015 | $14.65B$14.04B |
| Deposits | Q2 2016vs Q2 2015 | $137.4B$113.1B |
| Equity Capital | Q2 2016vs Q2 2015 | $10.55B$8.55B |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q2 2016vs Q2 2015 | $30.0MM$35.0MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q2 2016vs Q2 2015 | $27.0MM$31.0MM |
| Real Estate Owned | Q2 2016vs Q2 2015 | $8.0MM$8.0MM |
Always verify rates and promotions with the bank or credit union. We are not Charles Schwab Bank; we are a rate comparison website and cannot provide official rates or promotions.
* The APY shown varies based on the deposit amount. Expand the listing to see APYs for other deposit amounts.
Charles Schwab Bank Savings Account Rates
| APY | MIN | MAX | ACCOUNT NAME | VIEW DETAILS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.10% | - | - | High Yield Investor Savings |
Charles Schwab Bank is an Internet only bank and does not have branch locations. Its headquarters is located at 5190 Neil Road - Reno, NV 89502