Online Brokerage Accounts Compared: What Idle Cash Earns, What Margin Costs, What Leaving Costs

Michael Whitman · Trading since 2017, full-time since 2020 · YouTube creator, 137K subscribers · Published 2026-11-08

An online brokerage account at any of seven large US brokers costs $0 to buy a US stock or ETF, going by the pages each published on 8 November 2026. Since the ticket price no longer separates them, this page compares the three costs that still do: what your uninvested cash earns while it waits, what borrowing costs, and what the broker charges when you leave.

The largest of the three is usually the first. Cash you have not invested yet goes wherever the broker’s default setting sends it, and the rates on those defaults ran from 0.01% to 3.89%.

What they are: seven brokers, three homes for uninvested cash

Every account below holds stocks, funds and cash, and each has its own page on what a brokerage account is. What separates them is where the money you have not yet invested sits by default.

• A bank sweep. Schwab moves uninvested cash into deposits at its bank. Schwab’s own cash page listed that balance at 0.01% APY, a rate its footnote dates to 8 November at a minimum balance of $0.01; the page shows no higher tier for larger balances.
• A money market fund. Vanguard’s default settlement fund is Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund, which showed a 7-day SEC yield of 3.89% as of 6 November. How such a fund differs from a deposit is covered on money market funds.
• Interest paid by the broker. Interactive Brokers pays its own rate on cash, and Robinhood pays 3.60% APY to members of its Gold subscription ($5 a month or $50 a year), a rate it dated 17 September 2026.

Fidelity, E*TRADE and Webull publish their cash rates too, but those pages load the number by script, and it was not in the page text read on 8 November, so they are left out of the cash figures rather than guessed.

Where they differ: the account-cost table, read 8 November 2026

Schwab’s rate is for debits of $100 to $24,999.99 on a base of 10.25% last changed 18 September 2026, and Fidelity’s for $0 to $24,999 on a base of 10.825% set the same day; E*TRADE’s is for $10,000 to $24,999.99 on a base of 10.20% from 21 September 2026. Vanguard may also charge a $25 annual account service fee, waived under conditions that include choosing electronic statements.

Fractional shares. Fidelity and Interactive Brokers list fractional purchases from $1, Interactive Brokers on more than 10,500 US stocks and ETFs; E*TRADE offers select stocks and ETFs with a $5 minimum. How fractional holdings behave in a transfer is on fractional shares.

The original data: a year of idle cash next to the 3-month T-bill

The benchmark. The 3-month Treasury bill, series DTB3 on FRED, was 4.00% on 5 November 2026, its latest reading. That is a discount-basis rate; as a bond-equivalent yield it is 4.10%. Over the 250 daily readings since 5 November 2025 it ranged from 3.52% to 4.10% and averaged 3.71%.

The test. Take each broker’s rate as shown on 8 November and assume it holds for a year, with no compounding. Two accounts: $10,000 of cash sitting in a $50,000 account, and $25,000 sitting in a $100,000 account.

What it shows. At Schwab’s default, $25,000 earns $997.50 less in a year than the same money in a 3-month bill. On $10,000 the gap is $399. Robinhood’s figures are before the $50 yearly Gold fee, which leaves $850 on $25,000 and $310 on $10,000.

Interactive Brokers depends on size. It pays nothing on the first $10,000 and, below $100,000 of account value, scales its rate by the account’s size. So $10,000 idle in a $50,000 account earns $0, while $25,000 in a $100,000 account earns 3.38% on $15,000, a blended 2.028%. The formula reproduces the three examples in IBKR’s own comparison table to three decimals: 0.000%, 1.352% and 2.958%.

Download the data: idle cash by broker and transfer-out fees, free to reuse with credit and a link to this page, under the site license.

A worked example: borrowing $20,000 against the account for a year

Margin is a loan from the broker, secured by your holdings; how the account type works is on cash vs margin accounts. At each listed rate, simple interest on a $20,000 debit for a year comes to:

The arithmetic is rate times balance: $20,000 x 12.075% = $2,415. A Robinhood Gold member’s first $1,000 of margin is interest free, which brings Robinhood’s figure to $997.50. Real bills differ slightly, because brokers accrue interest daily and the rate floats with each broker’s base rate. For margin held only a few nights, with nine accounts’ rates at a $10,000 debit, see day trading apps.

The spread is wide. Borrowing at E*TRADE’s listed rate costs $1,440 more a year than at Robinhood’s.

Leaving later: the transfer-out fee table

Moving an account to another broker runs through the industry’s ACATS system, and the steps are on how to transfer a brokerage account. The fee belongs to the firm you leave.

• $0: Interactive Brokers states it does not charge for incoming or outgoing ACATS transfers.
• None listed: Fidelity’s fee schedule lists no transfer-out fee; ask Fidelity before relying on that.
• $50: Schwab, for a full transfer; moving part of the account is $0.
• $75: E*TRADE for full transfers, Webull per outgoing stock transfer.
• $100: Robinhood, and Vanguard, which waives it for clients with at least $5 million in qualifying assets.

How a $0 commission is paid for: Rule 606, third quarter 2026

A broker that charges nothing for a trade is still paid for it. SEC Rule 606 makes each broker publish every quarter the net payments it received from the venues that filled its customers’ orders.

• Robinhood Securities, Q3 2026: $129.48 million for stock orders, $35.59 million on S&P 500 stocks and $93.88 million on the rest, and $413.76 million for options orders.
• Webull Financial, Q3 2026: $28.06 million for stock orders, $3.78 million on S&P 500 stocks and $24.28 million on the rest, and $86.17 million for options orders.

That money is paid by the market maker, not taken from your account. It is the reason a $0 commission is possible, and whether it costs you anything shows up, if it does, in the price you are filled at, which is priced on trading fees. The two brokers’ second-quarter reports are read side by side on Robinhood vs Webull, the per-100-share rates for six brokers are on day trading apps, and the per-contract options rates on options trading platforms.

Which to pick: matching the account to what your money does

Schwab’s default costs the most when you keep a cash balance for weeks; its 0.01% is the lowest rate on the table, and moving the cash into a money market fund is a trade you have to place yourself.

Vanguard’s default earns the most when cash waits in the account, at 3.89%, and Robinhood’s comes close at 3.60% when you already pay for Gold.

Robinhood and Interactive Brokers cost the least when you borrow, at 5.25% and 5.380% on $20,000.

Interactive Brokers costs the least when you might move the account, at $0 to leave; it pays the least on cash when your balance is under $10,000 or the account is small.

Schwab, Fidelity and E*TRADE cost the most when you borrow: about $2,415, $2,415 and $2,490 a year on $20,000.

Robinhood and Vanguard cost the most when you leave, at $100 each, so their fee matters more on a small account than on a large one.

When it fails: four ways this table misleads

It fails when the rates move. Every rate here floats. The T-bill alone ranged from 3.52% to 4.10% in the past year, and Robinhood’s cash and margin rates are dated 17 September 2026. Check the date beside each number before relying on it.

It fails when you change the default. The table shows what happens to cash you leave alone, not the best rate an account can reach. Schwab’s own cash page, for example, listed its money market funds at yields of 1.94% to 3.92% beside the 0.01% sweep.

It fails when the account is protected differently. SIPC protects a failed brokerage’s customers up to $500,000, including $250,000 of cash; a bank sweep is covered by FDIC insurance at the bank instead, and neither covers a fall in what you hold. Confirm the firm itself is registered on how to verify a broker.

It fails when three brokers are missing. Fidelity, E*TRADE and Webull’s cash rates and Webull’s margin rates load by script and were not readable on 8 November. Their absence from the cash table says nothing about whether they pay more or less.

Brokerage account questions, answered briefly

Which online brokerage account pays the most on uninvested cash?

Of the defaults readable on 8 November 2026, Vanguard’s settlement fund at 3.89%, then Robinhood at 3.60% for Gold members. Schwab’s bank sweep paid 0.01%, against 4.00% on a 3-month T-bill.

Does it cost money to move a brokerage account?

The broker you leave may charge: $0 at Interactive Brokers, $50 at Schwab for a full transfer, $75 at E*TRADE and Webull, $100 at Robinhood and Vanguard. Fidelity’s fee schedule lists none.

Is buying stocks online free?

All seven charge $0 commission for US stocks and ETFs online. Brokers are paid instead through order flow, interest on cash and margin loans.

Related

The application and the defaults to set on day one are on how to open a brokerage account. Where idle cash can go beyond the default, from funds to bills, is on Treasury bills, and the case for keeping cash in bills rather than savings is on high-yield savings vs Treasury bills.

This page is educational, not financial advice. Test every idea on your own charts before risking money.