Charles Schwab vs DEGIRO — which broker is better?

Pros

• USD 0 commission on every online listed US stock and ETF order, with no share cap and no proprietary-fund restrictions
• thinkorswim desktop, web and mobile are included free — full options chains, thinkScript, backtesting and paperMoney simulation
• Options at USD 0.65 per contract, with the fee waived on buy-to-close orders at USD 0.05 or less
• Around 7,700 no-transaction-fee mutual funds in Mutual Fund OneSource, plus USD 0 new-issue Treasuries at auction
• 24/7 phone and chat support backed by close to 400 physical branches — an unusual combination for a discount broker
• SEC/FINRA-regulated with SIPC cover and an affiliated FDIC-insured bank; parent company SCHW is NYSE-listed and reports publicly
• Schwab Global Account gives online access to 12 foreign markets in local currency from the same login

Cons

• No spot cryptocurrency trading — only ETFs, futures and crypto-adjacent equities, which puts Schwab behind Fidelity and well behind Robinhood
• The default uninvested cash sweep pays close to nothing (0.01% at the time of writing); you have to manually move idle cash into a money market fund
• Transaction-fee mutual funds cost up to USD 49.95 per purchase, with a USD 74.95 ceiling for some fund families
• Margin rates sit near the top of the US market — roughly 11.8% below USD 25,000, versus mid-single digits at Robinhood
• Stock Slices fractional investing is limited to S&P 500 constituents, so it will not cover a small-cap or ADR watchlist
• Trading foreign stocks through a broker costs the greater of USD 100 or 0.75% of principal, which makes ad-hoc international orders expensive
• Currency conversion adds a percentage charge on top of the commission: 1% of principal per conversion below USD 100,000 in the Schwab Global Account, tapering to 0.2% from USD 1,000,000 — USD 100 on a USD 10,000 conversion. Except on small orders, the conversion charge is larger than the online commission. Outside the Global Account, Schwab's pricing guide allows a markup of up to 300 basis points (3%) on USD/foreign-currency conversions

Pros

• ETF Core Selection trades cost EUR 0 commission plus the EUR 1.00 handling fee - among the cheapest ETF execution available to EU retail investors.
• US and Canadian shares are EUR 1.00 commission plus EUR 1.00 handling, flat, with no percentage component at any order size.
• Options and futures at EUR 0.75 per contract undercut nearly every European retail platform, across eight derivatives exchanges including Eurex and CME.
• No custody fee, no inactivity fee, no deposit or withdrawal fee, and a minimum deposit of EUR 0.01.
• Direct market access to more than 50 exchanges in 30 countries, so you own the actual listed line rather than a synthetic wrapper.
• Sits inside flatexDEGIRO Bank SE, a BaFin-supervised German bank, with cash covered to EUR 100,000 by the German statutory deposit guarantee.
• Parent flatexDEGIRO SE is listed in Frankfurt under FTK, so capital position, client numbers and profitability are published quarterly.

Cons

• The EUR 1.00 handling fee lands on almost every order, so a EUR 200 ETF purchase costs 0.5% before anything else. DEGIRO is cheap per order, not cheap per euro invested.
• AutoFX converts every non-euro trade at a 0.25% markup in both directions; the Manual FX alternative costs EUR 10.00 + 0.25% and only pays off on large conversions.
• The EUR 2.50 per-exchange annual connectivity fee is trivial in isolation but stacks quietly for anyone holding positions across five or six markets.
• No fractional shares and no demo account, which rules out small monthly contributions and leaves beginners nowhere to practise.
• Research is close to non-existent: no analyst ratings, no usable screener, and charting that stops well short of what an active trader needs.
• DEGIRO does not act as a withholding tax agent, so German and Austrian clients declare and pay capital gains tax themselves instead of having it handled at source.