Independent profile — not affiliated with Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab

The Charles Schwab Corporation, based in Westlake, Texas, runs a broker-dealer, savings banks and a robo-adviser under the Schwab name. This page gives Schwab's own contact, fee-refund, fraud-guarantee and bank-complaint channels, the outside routes (FINRA, SEC, CFPB, Texas regulator), and the dated SEC and FINRA record, with BBB, CFPB database and Trustpilot counts as displayed on October 11, 2026. 12 archive posts from 2004 to 2012 are linked as Schwab's own.

COMPLAINTS12
VERIFIED PHONE800-435-4000
LAST CHECKED2026-10-11
Write a Review Jump to complaints ↓
CONSUMER ALLEGATION

Complaints & Reviews on USAComplaints

USAComplaints currently maintains 12 historical complaints about Charles Schwab, published between 2004 and 2012. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources below.

EDITORIAL

Complaint Themes

Account closed, restricted or terminated by Schwab (keyword match)Fees, commissions or charges (keyword match)Customer service or support team (keyword match)Banking, checking or deposits (keyword match)

Each tag reflects a complaint's single primary theme (not every angle it raised), and complaints outside any problem theme — a positive report, or one later retracted by its author — aren't tagged. Counts may total less than the full complaint count above.

EXTERNAL SOURCE

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

BBB: 106 reviews, 480 complaints
CFPB: 1457 complaints
Trustpilot: 784 reviews,
VERIFIED

Contacts

VERIFIED

Locations

TypeAddress
Headquarters3000 Schwab Way Westlake TX 76262
EDITORIAL

Charles Schwab complaints: who to contact and how to escalate

Schwab runs a brokerage, a bank and a robo-adviser service under one name, and each has its own channel. The numbers below are the ones Schwab's own pages showed on October 11, 2026.

  • Brokerage account problems. Schwab's contact page lists “Brokerage Services 800-435-4000” and a general number, 877-519-1403, plus chat and branch lookup. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios has its own number on that page, 855-694-5208.
  • Bank accounts (checking, Schwab Bank). The contact page lists “Schwab Client Banking Services 888-403-9000”. Schwab's “Bank Client Complaints” page says that Charles Schwab Bank, SSB and Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB “are chartered under the laws of the State of Texas” and that a consumer wishing to file a complaint against either bank should contact the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending: 877-276-5550, fax 512-936-2003, 2601 North Lamar Boulevard, Suite 201, Austin, Texas 78705-4294, or www.sml.texas.gov.
  • Fees and commissions you think were wrong. Schwab's Satisfaction Guarantee page says it will “refund any eligible fees or commission related to your concern”; “Refund requests must be received within 90 days of the date the fee was charged”, and funds are credited “in approximately four weeks of a valid request”. The page says to call 800-435-4000 or your Schwab Financial Consultant. It says the guarantee does not cover accounts managed by non-affiliated advisors (for example through Schwab Advisor Network), fund and ETF operating expenses, or margin interest. Its terms add: “The guarantee is only available to current clients”, “No other charges or expenses, and no market losses will be refunded”, and “Schwab reserves the right to change or terminate the guarantee at any time.”
  • Unauthorized activity or fraud. The Security Guarantee page says: “Schwab will cover losses in any of your Schwab accounts due to unauthorized activity.” It tells clients to report unauthorized transactions as quickly as possible and, if they suspect fraud, to call 888-3-SCHWAB. It also says you “will be required to identify items of unauthorized activity and may be required to complete a notarized affidavit of fraud”, and that activity by anyone to whom you gave your login information is treated as authorized. It says clients are “responsible for timely reviewing your account statements”, and that if you authorize account access through a third-party app “(except one that Schwab has partnered with on our platforms)” and that access leads to a loss, “the guarantee does not apply”. The same page says the guarantee applies to Schwab Crypto accounts offered by Charles Schwab Premier Bank. The page adds that nothing in the guarantee limits rights under Regulation E for applicable transactions. For Schwab Bank products it says you “will not be responsible” for an unauthorized transaction made in your Schwab Bank account.
  • Mortgages. The contact page says: “Mortgage customers: Please contact Rocket Mortgage at 877-535-4023 for any questions or servicing.”
  • Written complaints and disputes by mail. Schwab's contact page lists, by state of residence, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. El Paso Operation Center, P.O. Box 982600, El Paso, TX 79998, and Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Omaha Operations Center, P.O. Box 2339, Omaha, NE 68103, with a separate El Paso address for international residents; TTY service for the hearing impaired is 800-345-2550. Check the page for which center covers your state.

If Schwab does not resolve it. Schwab's pages checked for this profile do not describe a further internal appeal step, and none is described here. Outside routes that exist for each side of the business: FINRA's “File a Complaint” page for the broker-dealer (finra.org/investors/need-help/file-a-complaint), the SEC's Tips, Complaints and Referrals portal (sec.gov/tcr), and the CFPB's complaint form (consumerfinance.gov/complaint). Schwab's 2025 Form 10-K says the CFPB is one of the regulators of its Texas-chartered savings banks and of Charles Schwab Trust Bank, a Nevada state-chartered savings bank, which it says is also regulated, supervised and examined by the Federal Reserve, the Nevada Financial Institutions Division and the FDIC; the Texas route above covers only the two Texas-chartered banks. Keep dates, account numbers (last four digits only), names and reference numbers of every call or chat, and attach statements to any outside complaint.

EDITORIAL

Regulator and court record: SEC, FINRA and state matters

Dated, with each order's own words on admissions. A regulator order or an allegation says what the regulator found or alleged, not what a court decided about any individual client's complaint. Several of these concern Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., and one concerns Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. together with two Schwab advisory affiliates; the page does not merge them into one number.

  • FINRA, September 1, 2026 (fractional-share trade reporting). FINRA BrokerCheck reports an Acceptance, Waiver & Consent (case 2022076789501) under which Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. “consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings” without admitting or denying them. The findings include failing to report to FINRA's trade reporting facility “approximately 2.2 million fractional share transactions” arising from liquidating fractional shares on customers' account transfers, and trade-reporting and supervisory-system deficiencies. The firm was censured, fined $175,000 and required to comply with an undertaking; BrokerCheck says the fine was paid in full on October 2, 2026.
  • SEC, January 13, 2025 (recordkeeping, off-channel communications; File No. 3-22407). The SEC order says Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. “admits the facts set forth in Section III”, “acknowledges that its conduct violated the federal securities laws”, and found that personnel including senior staff used personal devices for business communications that were not preserved, and that about 330,000 business text messages from roughly 1,700 personnel were not retained between about April 2016 and February 2021 because of a telephone provider error; the order also says the respondent self-reported this. The order censured the firm and imposed a $10,000,000 civil penalty and a cease-and-desist order. This is a recordkeeping matter, not a finding about client accounts.
  • FINRA, June 8, 2023 (exchange-traded note confirmations). BrokerCheck reports an AWC (case 2020068047101), without admitting or denying, with findings that transaction confirmations for certain callable ETNs omitted required redemption disclosures; the firm was censured and fined $350,000. BrokerCheck says the firm self-reported the issue and notified affected customers of the correct information.
  • SEC, June 13, 2022 (Schwab Intelligent Portfolios; File No. 3-20897). The order against Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., Charles Schwab Investment Advisory, Inc. and Schwab Wealth Investment Advisory, Inc. was entered “without admitting or denying the findings”. It found that from March 2015 through November 2018 the firms made false and misleading statements in Form ADV filings about the cash component of the robo-adviser service: each model portfolio held between 6% and 29.4% of assets in cash, pre-set so an affiliate bank would earn a minimum spread, and the disclosures did not say the cash could lower returns by about as much as an advisory fee would have when other assets outperformed cash. The respondents were censured and ordered to pay, jointly and severally, $186,536,861 in total: $45,907,541 disgorgement, $5,629,320 prejudgment interest and a $135,000,000 civil penalty, into a Fair Fund for distribution to affected investors. BrokerCheck answers “Yes” to its question whether the order is a final order based on violations of laws or regulations that prohibit fraudulent, manipulative, or deceptive conduct. Whether distributions to individual investors have been completed was not confirmed for this profile.
  • SEC civil action, 2018 (suspicious-activity reports). According to BrokerCheck, in SEC v. Charles Schwab & Co. (N.D. Cal. 4:18-cv-03942) a final judgment entered July 9, 2018 permanently enjoined the firm from violating Section 17(a) of the Exchange Act and Rule 17a-8 and required a $2,800,000 civil penalty, over failures to file suspicious activity reports on transactions by independent advisers that Schwab had terminated from its custodial platform; the firm's own BrokerCheck statement says that “without admitting or denying the allegations” it consented to the injunction and the $2,800,000 penalty (BrokerCheck shows the regulator's entry as “Judgment Rendered” and the firm's as “Consent”).
  • Massachusetts Securities Division, filed July 21, 2021 (docket E-2021-0036, shown as pending). BrokerCheck lists this administrative complaint as pending against the firm; it alleges the firm “failed to have in place any policies and procedures to monitor adequately accounts on its platform for payments known to unregistered investment advisers” and sought restitution, a fine and other relief. A later SEC order says the Massachusetts Division entered a Final Order for Entry of Default against the individual adviser, James P. O'Connell, on May 19, 2022. The state's own page for the Schwab matter redirected to its Securities Division home page on October 11, 2026, so the current status as to Schwab could not be confirmed from the state.
  • SEC, 2011 (Schwab YieldPlus Fund). BrokerCheck lists SEC Litigation Release 21806 (January 11, 2011): the SEC charged Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. with misleading statements about an ultra-short bond fund. BrokerCheck shows the case (11-CV-136, a federal court in California) as resolved by judgment on February 16, 2011, with a $5,000,000 civil penalty against the firm; the firm's statement says that “without admitting or denying” the allegations the investment-management subsidiary and the firm agreed to pay a total of $118,944,996.
  • New York Attorney General, filed August 17, 2009 (auction rate securities). BrokerCheck's firm-reported entry says the NYAG alleged fraud in the sale of auction rate securities; the trial court dismissed the complaint on October 24, 2011, the appellate court on August 27, 2013 affirmed dismissal of two counts and limited the remaining claims, and the matter settled on February 3, 2015 with dismissal of the lawsuit with prejudice and undertakings to ARS customers.

FINRA BrokerCheck totals. The BrokerCheck report for Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (opened October 11, 2026) shows 59 regulatory events (1 pending, 58 final), 3 civil events (described above), 260 arbitrations and 2 bond events, many of them decades old; it does not rank them by severity. Searches of other regulators' databases (state banking departments, the CFPB's enforcement page for “Schwab”, which returned no results on October 11, 2026) were not exhaustive.

EDITORIAL

About Charles Schwab: who operates it

The Charles Schwab Corporation is a Delaware corporation, described in its 2025 Form 10-K as “a savings and loan holding company” with offices at 3000 Schwab Way, Westlake, Texas, and shares listed on the NYSE as SCHW. The 10-K names three principal business subsidiaries: Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., “a securities broker-dealer” incorporated in 1971; Charles Schwab Bank, SSB, “our principal banking entity”; and Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc., the adviser to Schwab's mutual funds and ETFs. It also names Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB and Charles Schwab Trust Bank, and says the first two are Texas-chartered state savings banks and the Trust Bank is a Nevada state-chartered savings bank.

The 10-K says that at December 31, 2025 Schwab had “$11.90 trillion in client assets, 38.5 million active brokerage accounts, 5.7 million workplace plan participant accounts, and 2.2 million banking accounts”. Its 10-K and 10-Q describe the acquisition of TD Ameritrade: the legal-proceedings note says TD Ameritrade, Inc. is “now part of CS&Co”. The 10-K also says Schwab announced in November 2025 an agreement to acquire Forge Global Holdings, and the June 30, 2026 10-Q says Schwab completed that acquisition on March 2, 2026 for $636 million of cash and other consideration.

Archive posts on this site name “Charles Schwab”, “Schwab” and “Charles Schwab Bank”. “Charles Schwab Properties” (a timeshare-resale operation named in 2010 and 2011 posts), posts about individuals who share the surname, and Les Schwab Tire Centers are different businesses and were not linked.

EDITORIAL

Complaint counts and what this site has on file (as displayed on October 11, 2026)

These are different sources with different rules, and they are not added together.

  • BBB (Charles Schwab Corporation, Westlake). Not BBB Accredited, rating A+. The complaints tab shows 480 total complaints in the last 3 years and 121 filed in the last 12 months. The reviews tab shows 1.33 /5 stars from an average of 106 customer reviews. BBB's raw page data gives a file-opened date of 1997-05-23 and a business-start date of 1973-04-01. BBB says this profile includes complaints and reviews for the headquarters and its corporate-owned locations.
  • CFPB Consumer Complaint Database. Under the name “CHARLES SCHWAB CORPORATION, THE” the database shows 1,457 complaints received since December 2011 (latest received October 2, 2026), 365 of them from October 4, 2025. By product, the largest group is checking or savings account (1,087), followed by money transfer, virtual currency or money service (121) and bank account or service (94). Company responses: closed with explanation 1,324, closed with monetary relief 88, closed with non-monetary relief 26, in progress 12. These are consumer submissions, not findings.
  • Trustpilot (schwab.com). 784 reviews, TrustScore 1.5, shown as an unclaimed profile; Trustpilot says it does not fact-check reviews.
  • This site's archive. 12 posts are linked as complaints about Charles Schwab itself (written 2004 to 2012). A further 31 posts written 2004 to 2013 are about TD Ameritrade, which Schwab later acquired; they are shown as related mentions and are not counted as Schwab's own because they describe a separate firm at the time of writing. These are individual accounts this site could not verify, and policies and products have changed.
EDITORIAL

Litigation: the TD Ameritrade antitrust class action and the 2018 SEC judgment

Corrente antitrust litigation. Schwab's 10-K and June 30, 2026 10-Q say that on June 6, 2022 the company “was sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on behalf of a putative class of customers who purchased or sold securities through CS&Co or TD Ameritrade, Inc.” from October 26, 2020, alleging that the acquisition of Ameritrade violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act by creating an anticompetitive market for execution of retail customer orders. Schwab says its motion to dismiss was denied on February 24, 2023; that on December 12, 2024 the parties filed a joint stipulation proposing a class settlement under which defendants would give non-monetary undertakings and pay plaintiffs' attorneys' fees and costs “in an amount that would be immaterial”; and that the court granted final approval on November 24, 2025, after which “certain objectors to the settlement have appealed” to the Fifth Circuit. On the Fifth Circuit docket (No. 25-40774; the first notice of appeal, by Mr. Shiyang Huang, was docketed November 26, 2025) the State of Iowa also appears as an appellant (January 7, 2026). Plaintiffs filed an opposed motion to dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction on January 26, 2026, and a court order of March 17, 2026 carried that motion with the case; the docket I opened shows no ruling on it. An amicus brief was filed by Alex Kozinski (March 30, 2026), and Schwab's appellee brief was filed May 22, 2026, the newest entry shown on Justia on October 11, 2026. The settlement is not described as providing cash payments to class members.

SEC v. Charles Schwab & Co. (2018). See the regulator section above for the July 9, 2018 final judgment.

Schwab's filings say it is subject to “claims and lawsuits in the ordinary course of business, including arbitrations, class actions and other litigation”, and that it “believes it has strong defenses in all significant matters currently pending”. FINRA BrokerCheck separately lists 260 customer arbitration disclosures for Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.; they are not individually reviewed here.

EDITORIAL

Is Charles Schwab Legitimate?

The Charles Schwab Corporation files annual and quarterly reports with the SEC (Form 10-K for 2025 filed February 25, 2026; Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 filed August 7, 2026). Its broker-dealer, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., appears in FINRA BrokerCheck under CRD 5393 and SEC number 8-16514, regulated by FINRA's Dallas office; the report, opened October 11, 2026, answers “No” to whether the firm is currently suspended with any regulator. The same report lists the disclosure events described above, including an SEC order imposing a $10,000,000 penalty in January 2025 and a $186,536,861 order against Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. and two Schwab advisory affiliates in June 2022. Registration and disclosure records are not a measure of how any individual client was treated.

PUBLIC RECORD

Court & Public Records

CaseAuthorityDatesTypeOutcomeSource
Corrente et al. v. The Charles Schwab Corporation (putative class action over the TD Ameritrade acquisition; settlement approved, objector appeal pending)
Docket E.D. Tex. No. 4:22-cv-00470; 5th Cir. No. 25-40774		U.S. District Court, E.D. Texas; appeal in U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Appeal decidedAppeal decided — see outcome

A putative class action alleged that Schwab's acquisition of TD Ameritrade violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act; these are allegations. Schwab's Form 10-Q for June 30, 2026 says its motion to dismiss was denied on February 24, 2023, that a class settlement with non-monetary undertakings and payment of plaintiffs' attorneys' fees and costs “in an amount that would be immaterial” was proposed on December 12, 2024, that the court granted final approval on November 24, 2025, and that “certain objectors to the settlement have appealed” to the Fifth Circuit. On the Fifth Circuit docket (No. 25-40774), appellants include the State of Iowa and an individual objector (Mr. Shiyang Huang); plaintiffs moved to dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction on January 26, 2026, and the docket opened on October 11, 2026 shows that motion carried with the case (March 17, 2026) and no ruling on it. The newest entry shown is Schwab's appellee brief of May 22, 2026.

Source
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (suspicious activity report filing)
Docket 4:18-cv-03942		U.S. District Court, N.D. California
JudgmentJudgment entered

According to FINRA BrokerCheck, a final judgment was entered July 9, 2018 permanently restraining and enjoining the firm from violating Section 17(a) of the Exchange Act and Rule 17a-8 and ordering a $2,800,000 civil penalty to the SEC, with undertakings. The SEC's allegations concerned failures to file suspicious activity reports on transactions by independent investment advisers that Schwab had terminated from its custodial platform; the firm's BrokerCheck statement says that, without admitting or denying the allegations, it consented to the injunction and penalty. The court docket itself was not opened for this profile.

Source
CONSUMER ALLEGATION

Related Complaints

Names this company in a role other than the primary subject — not necessarily current or complete.

VERIFIED

Company Relationships

  • Affiliated with: Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
  • Affiliated with: Charles Schwab Bank, SSB
  • Affiliated with: Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB
  • Affiliated with: Charles Schwab Trust Bank
  • Affiliated with: Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc.
  • Affiliated with: TD Ameritrade, Inc.
  • Affiliated with: Forge Global Holdings, Inc.
EDITORIAL

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I contact Charles Schwab about a problem with my account?

Schwab's contact page lists “Brokerage Services 800-435-4000”, a general number 877-519-1403, “Schwab Client Banking Services 888-403-9000” for bank accounts, and 855-694-5208 for Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. The page also offers chat and a branch finder. For unauthorized activity the Security Guarantee page gives 888-3-SCHWAB.

Does Schwab cover losses from unauthorized activity in my account?

Schwab's Security Guarantee page says: “Schwab will cover losses in any of your Schwab accounts due to unauthorized activity.” It conditions this on safeguarding your login information and reporting unauthorized transactions “as quickly as possible”, says you may have to identify the items and complete a notarized affidavit of fraud, and says activity by anyone you gave your login information to is treated as authorized. Read the full page for the exclusions, including third-party apps and remote-access scenarios.

Can I get a Schwab fee or commission refunded?

Schwab's Satisfaction Guarantee page says it will “refund any eligible fees or commission related to your concern”. Requests “must be received within 90 days of the date the fee was charged”, and refunds are credited “in approximately four weeks of a valid request”. The page lists exclusions, including accounts managed by advisors who are not affiliated with Schwab, fund and ETF operating expenses and margin interest. Call 800-435-4000 or contact your Financial Consultant.

Where do I complain about Charles Schwab Bank?

Schwab's “Bank Client Complaints” page says Charles Schwab Bank, SSB and Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB are chartered under Texas law and that complaints may be sent to the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending (877-276-5550; sml.texas.gov). The CFPB also accepts complaints about bank accounts through its complaint form, and the 10-K lists the CFPB among the banks' regulators. Charles Schwab Trust Bank is Nevada-chartered, and the 10-K lists the Nevada Financial Institutions Division, not the Texas department, among its regulators.

What have the SEC and FINRA found against Schwab?

Four recent dated matters appear in FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC's own orders: a June 2022 SEC order ($186,536,861 in total, without admitting or denying) over Schwab Intelligent Portfolios cash disclosures; a January 2025 SEC order ($10,000,000 penalty; the firm admitted the facts) over unpreserved business communications; a June 2023 FINRA AWC ($350,000) over ETN confirmations; and a September 2026 FINRA AWC ($175,000) over fractional-share trade reporting. Each has different admission language, set out in the regulator section.

What happened to TD Ameritrade accounts and complaints?

Schwab's 2025 Form 10-K describes TD Ameritrade, Inc. as “now part of CS&Co”. This site has 31 archive posts from 2004 to 2013 that name TD Ameritrade (or Ameritrade); they are shown as related mentions, not counted as Schwab's own, because they describe a separate firm at that time.

How many complaints are there about Charles Schwab?

BBB's headquarters listing shows 480 complaints over the last three years and 121 in the last twelve months. The CFPB database lists 1,457 under “CHARLES SCHWAB CORPORATION, THE” since December 2011 (365 from October 4, 2025), and Trustpilot shows 784 reviews for schwab.com. Each source has its own rules, counts were read on October 11, 2026, and they are deliberately not added together.

Who services a Schwab mortgage?

Schwab's contact page says: “Mortgage customers: Please contact Rocket Mortgage at 877-535-4023 for any questions or servicing.” Rocket Mortgage is a separate company from Schwab; this page does not cover it.

Why are the complaints on this page so old?

This site's archive holds 12 posts about Schwab itself, dated 2004 to 2012, and 31 about TD Ameritrade, dated 2004 to 2013. Nobody here could verify them, and Schwab's products, fees and policies have changed since. The current contact routes and the dated SEC and FINRA record are placed ahead of them for that reason.