Charles Schwab is one of the most well known and respected brokerage platforms in the investment industry. However, since Schwab offers so many features, it might be a bit overwhelming to a beginner investors.
Robinhood, on the other hand, is designed to be the most beginner friendly investing app out there. You won't find all of the features, account types and order types offered on Schwab. However, Robinhood has a very sleek app designed to be as easy to use as possible.
Whatever your reason may be, we will be walking you through step by step how to transfer from Charles Schwab over to Robinhood.
If you are still on the fence, check out our comparison article on Charles Schwab vs Robinhood!
Charles Schwab offers account transfers through the ACATS service. This type of transfer is also supported by Robinhood.
Charles Schwab charges a one time $25 fee for a partial account transfer or $50 for a full account transfer.
The good news, however, is that Robinhood offers a transfer fee reimbursement. Robinhood will reimburse you up to $75 when you transfer into their brokerage from another competitor.
So, the transfer fee will be reimbursed and it won't end up costing you anything except for your time.
Keep in mind, the only account types supported by Robinhood are cash and margin accounts. If you have a retirement account with Schwab, for example, you would not be able to transfer that over to Robinhood at this time.
In order to transfer over, there are a few pieces of information you need from your current Schwab account.
The first is your Charles Schwab account number.
This is visible on your statement sent monthly. You should also download a copy of your most recent statement as it is likely that Robinhoood will ask you for a copy of this during the transfer process.
The next step you need to take is setting up your new brokerage account with Robinhood.
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Once you download the app on your phone or begin creating an account on their website, you will be prompted to provide basic information.
Since this is a taxable investment account, they will need to collect information such as your name, address, employer and social security number. Once you fill out all of the information, Robinhood will review it and get back to you if they need any additional info.
Once you have opened a brokerage account with Robinhood, the next step is to initiate the transfer within Robinhood. This is only possible via the Robinhood app, so you will want to download this onto your phone.
One of the options for funding your new Robinhood account will be to transfer in an existing brokerage account. That is the option you will want to select.
At that point, you will need to provide Robinhood with the information you gathered from Charles Schwab earlier on. You may need to email them a copy or upload a copy of the most recent statement.
Transferring from Charles Schwab is a relatively easy and straightforward process. The only account types you are able to transfer over currently are cash and margin accounts.
Keep in mind, Schwab offers trading of stocks in the OTC markets which are not supported by Robinhood. If you own any of these stocks, you will need to sell them if you are looking to do a full account transfer.
The $25 or $50 fee charged by Schwab for an outgoing transfer will be reimbursed by Robinhood, so it won't end up costing you anything to transfer.