Complain about a product or service

Charles Schwab & Co.

101 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA

Charles of Bakersfield CA (04/26/08)
In early 2006 after my 94 year old mother had a heart attack, my 93 year old father decided that it was time to have the trust and all documentation updated. The result was that I have complete durable power of attorney for both my parents as well as succeding trustee of the trust and a 50% benificary of the trust.

A year later my father had a heart problem that resulted in brain damage and he has slipped further and further into dementia which has required having him placed in a facility for the mentally impared. During all this my mother had another heart attack and a slight stroke that has left her in very poor physical condition.

In September of 2007 I took over all of their affairs. Getting control of the financial affairs required that I deal with eight banks, three credit unions, and four brokerage houses. With the exception of Charles Schwab this went as smooth as one could hope for. All were extremely helpful. But,Charles Schwab fought me every step of the way. Starting with refusing to accept my durable power of attorney and telling me that the only power of attorney they could accept was one that was done on a Charles Schwab form and went on to claim that it was required by SEC regulations and federal law. After that claim was challenged it was just one silly excuse after another.

As I saw it I only had one option. Eliminate the problem. While my mother is in poor shape physically, her mind and tongue are still very sharp. So I loaded her up and rolled her into Schwab and moved everything to a friendly broker who was more than happy to get our very large portfolio. People at the Schwab office seemed stunned that we would have the audacity to terminate them. Cost a bit, but well worth the money to be rid of Schwab.

Tristen of Star ID (11/08/07)
I recently opend up a shwab account. got the the account number and had made arrangements with the veterans administration to have my disability direct deposit into my account. i got a call from schwab about 4 days later saying that they had terminated the account. schwab had ran my credit without my permission, and this was the basis for the account termination. i was told that when my credit was appropriate to give them a call. i feel as an american war veteran that this attack on my personal past history and trials of past judgements is not called for.

I feel that schwab should do a little house cleaning in their vice president positions. this has given me cause to believe that if your high and mighty in the corporate world that you can just step on others. NOT this one. However, Fidelity Investments has stepped in and i now have the brokerage and checking that i need.

Just to let everyone know, Fidelity is rated higher and the list than Schwab is and their customer service is without question the best for a brokerage firm.

I had to rush changing my direct deposits back to my bank. And with me me being diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder because of being in iraq i became depressed for a few days, and was unable to concentrate on my day to day activities.I felt as if no one gives a crap about the small people in this world.

D. of Redlands CA (08/09/06)
On July 11, I submitted an online request to redeem for $25 in cash 2500 points earned on my Schwab Visa credit card. Their website indicated providing my Schwab checking account number would result in a direct deposit of the $25 into that account within 14 days. I've made 4 phone calls since their deadline passed. They acknowledge the redemption was requested but they never pay. They don't call back when promised. They've never called back. No one I talk to can explain why it didn't get paid or when it will be paid.

I was induced to use this credit card in expectation of earning rewards which should be paid on a timely basis. I have other cards, like Discover and AMEX, that always pay promptly. Calls to Schwab & MBNA show they are both completely indifferent to resolving this matter in a timely manner.

Dave of Oshkosh WI (06/25/06)
Charles Schwab is dangerous to your wealth.

I opened an account with $50,000 and told Schwab to put it in a Money Market fund yielding about 4.5%. Instead they put the money in their Scwhab bank at slightly over 1% interest. I believe they put my money in a money market fund and pocketed the other 3%. This is truly a scam and they did it without my permission. I would imagine they are screwing thousands of people this way. Only a greedy, sleazy company would do this to customers. I've had an account with Fidelity for many years and have never been treated this way.

Schwab insisted that I open a Margin Account even though I didn't want it. Margin accounts charge you exhorbitant interest on your money and rip you off.

Schwab also promised my 50 free trades for opening a new account and failed to deliver. You need to read the fine print. I didn't do any trades for the first 45 days because the market went straight down. The fine print said the free trades were only good for 45 days. I argued the point and they were really nasty. Accused me of being a inept at market trading, and badgered me for not making trades. Threatened to cancel my trading software. Schwabs attitude was really amazing and obnoxious. They cancelled my account.

I've been a broker and have been involved in investments for many years. Schwab is the biggest scam I have ever come across.

I'm going back to Fidelity. They are great.

I lost several hundred dollars in interest that went into Schwabs pocket. It's my opinion that it was stolen from me.

I also lost 50 free stock trades. And I lost the opportunity to make other money in investments during the two weeks it took me to get my money from Schwab and move it to another brokerage firm. Don't let Schwab steal your money.

Mike of Highland Park IL (04/13/06)
We have a trust fund set up for my daughter at Charles Schwab & Co. It was originally set up with my accountant as trustee, he indicated that due to age he wished to resign and we agreed tp make my wife the trustee.

Despite filling out their forms 3 times and hand carrying them to the Scwab office it took 6 months till they made the change. They still have not gotten us a checkbook in my wife's name so we can access the funds to pay this years taxes on the trust.

my wife and myself have been forced to spend hours on the telephone with people who have no ability to fix things. We quite simply cannot access the money

Marilyn of Covina CA (02/25/06)
If you have funds in one of the Schwab money market funds where dividends are partially state-tax exempt, Schwab has repeatedly refused to provide the percentage of dividends that pertain to individual states by the 1/31 tax deadline. Instead, they include the information with a person's January statement which is not received until mid-February.

This has been their practice for years and they refuse to supply the state tax info with their 1099 forms, causing an unwarranted delay in being able to file state income tax returns.

According to the California State Franchise Tax Board, they are required to provide the info by 1/31. This year I talked to 3 different people, the first 2 of whom denied that they even furnished the info, while the 3rd stated that they were not required to provide it by 1/31.

As a consequence of their failure to provide timely tax information, I have to delay filing both my state and federal tax returns every year.

Joel of Centennial CO (02/13/06)
I have been a customer with Charles Schwab for more than 10 years. Recently while looking for a new home I decided to give Charles Schwab Bank a try for a new mortgage. I've always been happy with the customer service at Schwab so I thought they would be good for a mortgage.

I started down the road with Charles Schwab Bank only to find out that the mortgages are handled by Cendant while using the Schwab name. It became only too obvious that I wasn't dealing with Charles Schwab directly.

The loan officer, David Daniels, that I worked with on the Good faith Estimate made plenty of claims how they could meet or beat any other companies' rates. When it finally came time to finish the application he asked for a credit card. I asked why and he mentioned that they charge $350 for the application if I don't close with Schwab. I hesitated and told him that I wasn't comfortable with a fee since no other lenders charge for the application. He told me about their Best-Price Guarantee which insured me that I would get the best rate or Schwab would send me a check for $500. This seemed reasonalble so I proceeded with Schwab.

After completing the application, David gave me the name and number of his processor. I left no less than five calls with David after the application was complete and never once got a return call. I was so disgusted with this level of service that I felt compelled to get competing bids. Sure enough, I found two companies that had better rates. I decided to proceed with another company and made sure that I followed Schwab's policy and rules on the Best-Price Guarantee. The day that I was ready to lock I sent the competing Good Faith Estimate to Schwab to see if they would like to honor the quote and they declined and told me it was okay to proceed with the other company. All that I needed to do was send them the HUD Settlement Statement after closing and they would send me a check for $500. I followed their procedure and now they are reneging on their deal.

Since starting down the road with Charles Scwab Bank I have left approximately 17 voice messages and have only received 5 returned calls. I guess batting .294 % is pretty good by their books.

2/2/06 Hai Ramirez, a manager at Schwab said that my check would be mailed immediately. He asked me to follow up with him on 2/8/06 if I hadn't received the check. I left him a message on 2/9 letting him know that I hadn't received a check...no returned call. On 2/11 I received a letter from Diana Allain (Office of the President) stating why they can't honor their Best-Price Guarantee.

I'm out $350 dollars plus untold frustration and aggravation.

Susan of Ceres CA (11/03/05)
I closed my Charles Schwab account over the phone, got a total from the broker, and wrote and deposited a check with my local bank for that amount. My intention was to put that money towards a car and pay off some bills. The check was returned, as the broker had not mentioned a maintenance fee which amounted to a $30.00 difference in the check amount. After calling, another broker told me to write a new check, minus the maintenance fee. THe second check was returned, due to a maintenance fee and then a returned check fee.

In the meantime, I'm writing checks and buying a car, as I think the problem has been taken care of. Again, I called a Schwab broker, who said he would send a check and not charge me a wiring service. How kind! As my checks starting bouncing all over, the insufficient fund fees piled up while the Schwab company assumed no responsibility. Johnathon Ramer offered me $60.00, as he said all of my charges (the charges I would not have had in the first place) had been waiived. I am finished with this company. When they're using your money, they're great. Otherwise, they'll leave you hanging.

William of Huntsville AL (01/06/05)
Transfer of account from existing Charles Schwab account to E Trade account. Unadvertised arbitrary charge of $95.00 by Charles Schwab to allow transfer, automatically taken from my account without my authorization or notification. Telephone request to provide list of work performed for the $95.00 charge was refused. Request re-embursement of illegal charge of $95.00

Jess of Castle Rock CO (07/06/04)
I have been trying for 110 days to have Ch. Schwab to tansfer my EMC shares to Sharebuilder, my new broker. ShareBuilder has contacted Schwab four (4)times since March 2004; the last was April 21, 2004. Schwab advised ShareBuilder and me that I had to post $90.00 in servie fees to free the account transfer. Funds in the amount of $90.00 were remitted and recieved my Ch. Schwab on May 17, 2004.

I just received another monthly statement (ending My31, 2004) from Schwab. I called to inquire; the account was never close, shares were never transferred and yes, the monthly fee is legit.

Gordon of Santa Clarita CA (05/29/04)
The local Schwab office called and, among other things, asked if they could do anything for me.

I have three accounts, IRA, checking and a dormant account from years ago. I asked them if they would close the dormant account, they said they would.

But..it didn't work out. They closed my active checking account and transferred the balance to the dormant account. I called to complain and got a name of a person that could help me. When I called her, she said that my account was really better the new way. At this point my only gripe was that I could not reconcile my checking account.

I have two direct deposits into my checking account. When the usual date for those deposits came and went without either of them, I called again. They said NOTHING COULD BE DONE but they would be happy to send me a form to forward to the depositors so they could change the account for the direct deposit.

Botton line, now I have a real financial delima on my hands since I cannot pay my bills! Again I called and again NOTHING COULD BE DONE. And, in addition, I can't use my old ATM card and if I use the new one they sent, there are fees. Reviewing the new account setup, there will be a lot of new costs for me to do business with Schwab.

It has been a month from the start of this and I still do not have the physical checks so I am still in financial crisis. I am, of course, in the process of transferring to another brokerage. Unfortuneately, that takes time.

Unable to pay my bills since Schwab bounced back the direct deposits.

Owen of San Francisco CA (04/08/04)
I transferred funds from two different IRA accounts with Charles Schwab. I was charged a $95 transfer fee for each account. At the time of requesting the transfer there was no mention that I'd be charged these fees. Supposedly a transfer fee was part of my initial agreement with Schwab when opening these accounts, though the fee has gone up from $50 to $95 in just a few years. This $95 is on top of other fees Schwab charges for managing accounts and is way out of proportion with the service of transferring fees to another brokerage.

It's basically a sneaky way for them to skim money off people's accounts and discourage people from moving their business elsewhere. I spoke with a manager at their complaint office and there is no recourse for the individual once the fee has been charged. They can get away with this because it's a small amount of money for each individual, but it undoubtedly adds up to huge profits for Charles Schwab.

Chris of Eden Prairie MN (03/02/04)
Being a Schwab customer for over a decade, I had minor problems with my account. When I went to fix those problems, I was told that Schwab would be closing all of my accounts within a 15 day period. They notified me on December 31st, had me rush to their office only to tell me that my accounts would be closed. I told them that I did not want the accounts closed, they proceeded anyway and then charged me fees for termination of accounts, transfers and trading fees.

Charges for termination of accounts, trading and transfer fees.

Karen of San Diego CA (07/10/03)
We just wanted to let you all know that although we had been Schwab customers for over a decade and had several hundred thousand dollars in our accounts, shortly we complained about a customer service problem and responded adversely to one of their telephone surveys, Schwab unilaterally terminated our accounts giving us less than forty-five days to transfer all our money and stating that if we didn't they would liquidate the accounts and charge us fees for the liquidation.

As you might expect the tax consequences of this would have been substantial particularly since one of the accounts was a retirement account. We contacted the Executive Offices but they refused to help us or provide us with the information they have about us or our accounts. The only justification they gave is that we were unhappy with Schwab's service.

Apparently, Schwab reserves the right to unilaterally terminate accounts at any time in their account agreements. Please note that this all occurred over the Holiday season so you can imagine how much difficult it was to complete this in the time allotted. Thankfully, Fidelity was extremely helpful with the transfer. To literally add insult to injury, Schwab charged us termination fees for closing our accounts. We wanted to make sure you all knew about this so you can consider it in making your investment decisions and will not be as surprised as we were if you are subjected to the same treatment.

Hours of our time over the holidays and the risk of substantial tax consequences.

Brad of Watchung NJ (07/06/03)
Charles Schwab Bank provided me verbal and written confirmation 5 days prior to the closing on my house that I had a rate-locked at 5.228% with 3/8th lender credit. One-day prior to closing Schwab e-mailed me to say that the rate changed to 5.46% with zero points - a huge difference! Given I had rate locked & had it in writing, the rate should not have changed at all.

Loss of $1200 upfront lender credit. Increase of $44 a month in my monthly mortgage payment

Kevin of Dayton OH (10/26/02)
Charles Schwab introduced a new fee structure 6/30/2002 that raised account limits to avoid fees. I chose to transfer my balances to another brokerage and close my accounts to avoid these predatory fees. Schwab charged me $60 per account to transfer the assets of two IRAs and one brokerage account to Fidelity.

Schwab further reduced the value of my assets by $180, making it impossible to avoid their onerous fees.

Karen of San Diego writes (7/10/03):
We just wanted to let you all know that although we had been Schwab customers for over a decade and had several hundred thousand dollars in our accounts, shortly after we complained about a customer service problem and responded adversely to one of their telephone surveys, Schwab unilaterally terminated our accounts giving us less than 45 days to transfer all our money and stating that if we didn't they would liquidate the accounts and charge us fees for the liquidation.

As you might expect the tax consequences of this would have been substantial particularly since one of the accounts was a retirement account. We contacted the Executive Offices but they refused to help us or provide us with the information they have about us or our accounts. The only justification they gave is that we were unhappy with Schwab's service.

Apparently, Schwab reserves the right to unilaterally terminate accounts at any time in their account agreements. Please note that this all occurred over the Holiday season so you can imagine how much difficult it was to complete this in the time allotted. Thankfully, Fidelity was extremely helpful with the transfer. To literally add insult to injury, Schwab charged us termination fees for closing our accounts.

Brad of Watchung NJ (7/6/03):
Charles Schwab Bank provided me verbal and written confirmation 5 days prior to the closing on my house that I had a rate-locked at 5.228% with 3/8th lender credit. One-day prior to closing Schwab e-mailed me to say that the rate changed to 5.46% with zero points - a huge difference! Given I had rate locked & had it in writing, the rate should not have changed at all.

Damage: Loss of $1200 upfront lender credit. Increase of $44 a month in my monthly mortgage payment.

Kevin of Dayton OH (10/26/02):
Charles Schwab introduced a new fee structure 6/30/2002 that raised account limits to avoid fees. I chose to transfer my balances to another brokerage and close my accounts to avoid these predatory fees. Schwab charged me $60 per account to transfer the assets of two IRAs and one brokerage account to Fidelity. Schwab further reduced the value of my assets by $180, making it impossible to avoid their onerous fees.

Douglas of Ventura CA (6/6/00):
On March, 21, 2000 I completed a Roth IRA application at the Oxnard, CA branch of Charles Schwab to open an account. I also completed a transfer request and supplied a copy of my last fund statement to move my Roth IRA with 5,407.910 shares in the Matthew's Korea Fund (MAKOX) over so I could easily sell the shares and invest the funds in other items.

Kathleen at the Oxnard, CA branch took this paperwork and sent me a confirmatory letter stating that the transfer request had (in theory) been sent on to the transfer department. Three weeks after I opened the Roth IRA, April 11, 2000, and after the transfer should have been completed the Korean market had a nice but short upturn and I decided it was time to sell all shares in the fund. On April 12, 2000 I sent in an order for my trust account to sell all MAKOX. However, I could not sell the shares in my Roth IRA because the transfer had not been completed.

The following day I called Charles Schwab to see when they had sent out the transfer request and learned there was no record of the transfer request ever making it to the transfer office. In other works they lost it. I called the Matthew's Fund Company again to see if they had a money market fund I could park the money in temporally, but they did not offer any such fund. The fund shares were posted to my account on April 28, 2000 when I sold the total drop in value based on the April 12, 2000 price of $5.50 for MAKOX was $2,812.00=[(6.02-5.50)X5407.910].

I was able to purchase 19000 shares of Thai Farmer's Bank-F shares at about 0.9% less [($1.06-1.05)X19000]=190 due to this delay Charles Schwab's loss of my first transfer request has caused my Roth IRA to lose a net of about $2622.00 in value ($2,812-$190) from the date I wished to sell it.

This highly negligent mistake was clearly the fault of Charles Schwab yet they refuse to credit my account for the amount lost. I find this especially shocking because of the amount of business I have given them and the amount of total assets on deposit with them. Seems to me only a fool would be willing to lose my amount of business over that amount of money.

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