We discuss the choice of input parameters for the renormalization of the chargino and neutralino sector in the minimal supersymmetric standard model in the on-shell scheme. We show that one should choose the masses of a bino-like, a wino-like and a Higgsino-like state as inputs in order to avoid large corrections to the masses of the other eigenstates in this sector. We also show that schemes where the Higgsino-like input state is a neutralino are more stable than those where the mass of the Higgsino-like chargino is used as input. The most stable scheme uses the masses of the wino-like chargino as well as the masses of the bino- and Higgsino-like neutralinos as inputs. {\textcopyright} 2012 American Physical Society.