6 Best Online Brokers for Bonds of January 2025
The best brokers for bonds offer a range of different types of bond products – including individual bonds and ETFs — as well as low trading fees and high cash sweep rates.
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Our deep, independent analysis of brokers sorts through key account details to find and evaluate the information investors want when choosing a brokerage firm. To see our full methodology and learn more about our process, read our criteria for evaluating brokers and for evaluating robo-advisors.
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Bonds are often an important part of a balanced investment portfolio. They can be used as a source of fixed income, or as a way to potentially pad the losses of other portfolio assets, like stocks. Brokers range in the types of bonds they offer, from simple products like bond ETFs to extensive offerings of government, corporate and international bonds and bond funds.
The following brokers score highest among all brokers we review for the types of bonds on offer, the fees charged for trading bonds, the level of customer support they provide and their interest rate on uninvested cash.
Note: The below trade fees refer to the broker's commission for U.S. Treasurys — all of the brokers on this list allow you to purchase those with no commission or trade fee except for Interactive Brokers, which charges a small percentage of face value. Other types of bonds at these brokers may carry a different fee; we've described those fees in detail in the product cards below the table. Often, brokers require a minimum commission of $10 and limit commissions to $250 per trade.
Best Online Brokers for Bonds
| Broker | NerdWallet rating | Fees | Account minimum | Promotion | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.8/5 | $0 per online equity trade | $0 | None no promotion available at this time | Learn moreLearn more on Charles Schwab's website | |
4.5/5 | $0 per trade | $0 | Get up to $700 when you open and fund a J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing account with qualifying new money. | Learn moreLearn more on J.P. Morgan's website | |
4.4/5 | $0 per trade | $0 | None no promotion available at this time | Learn moreLearn more on Vanguard's website | |
5.0/5 | 0.002% | $0 | None no promotion available at this time | Learn moreLearn more on Interactive Brokers' website | |
5.0/5 | $0 per trade | $0 | None no promotion available at this time | ||
4.4/5 | $0 per trade | $0 | None no promotion available at this time |
Fees
$0
per online equity trade
Account minimum
$0
Promotion
None
no promotion available at this time
Fees
$0
per trade
Account minimum
$0
Promotion
Get up to $700
when you open and fund a J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing account with qualifying new money.
Fees
$0
per trade
Account minimum
$0
Promotion
None
no promotion available at this time
Fees
0.002%
Account minimum
$0
Promotion
None
no promotion available at this time
Fees
$0
per trade
Account minimum
$0
Promotion
None
no promotion available at this time
Fees
$0
per trade
Account minimum
$0
Promotion
None
no promotion available at this time
Last updated on December 4, 2024
Methodology
NerdWallet’s comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. brokerage firms by assets under management, along with emerging industry players. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. We adhere to strict guidelines for editorial integrity.
We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the providers and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider’s performance across more than 20 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).
For more details about the categories considered when rating brokers and our process, read our full methodology.