Nobody reads the fee schedule. That is the entire business model.
A proper brokerage fees comparison takes twenty minutes, and it will change which broker you pick. I mean that. The seven fees that actually bite: options contract fees, margin interest rates, account transfer-out fees, wire fees, IRA annual fees, paper statement fees, and broker-assisted trade fees for the day you need a human on the phone. Everything else on the schedule is noise for most people.
Two deserve special attention. Broker account transfer fees punish you for leaving, usually $75 to $100 per account, which explains why some brokers can afford to be relaxed about service. They have done the retention math. And margin rates get quoted as one friendly number in ads but charged on tiers in practice, so the advertised rate and your rate are often two different numbers.
Then there is the part people check last and regret first: account closure and inactivity fees by broker. Most big brokers dropped inactivity fees years ago. A few still charge when your balance sits too low or you trade too rarely. If you are a slow, steady investor, confirm this one is zero before you sign. Slow money should not be punished.
Here is my rule, and I have never seen it fail. If a broker makes its fee schedule hard to find, that is the review. Transparent brokers publish a clean PDF linked in the footer. The ones with something to hide bury it three clicks deep inside a help article. I read broker reviews through this lens: a glowing review that never mentions the fee PDF is a press release wearing a costume.
Comparing fifty brokers fee by fee by hand would eat your weekend. BrokerCompare already did it, and the onboarding calls walk new investors through the results. Start at brokercompare.fyi.