I have been a Schwab customer for almost 15 years. I have an an account with Fido for several years as well. I find both to be reasonable places to do business, but the vast majority of what I do is with Schwab. Schwab used to be a lousy place for bonds, but they have greatly improved in the last year or two. Their prices for bonds seem to be competitive. Is Schwab the cheapest (on just about anything)? Generally not. But they are typicallly competitive, easy to deal with, relatively transparent, and they offer almost everything under one house.