Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

In this Discussion

Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.

    Support MFO

  • Donate through PayPal

Follow up to my Schwab discussion

135

Comments

  • edited August 18
    @Balu
    BOA is terrible. I still have an account there but abandoned active usage of it many moons back. I'm happy with Discover Bank. That said, I'm leaning towards switching to Schwab and Fidelity only for all banking related needs. All bill pay is currently via Fidelity and paycheck is deposited to Fidelity. I like it because I don't have to manually purchase a high yield MMF like Schwab.

    I have bank accounts with Capital One(hardly used, closed), Ally(great rates, terrible customer svc), Pentagon FCU(good), Marcus(disaster), Alliant CU(hardly used, closed) and 2 local banks(1 for safe deposit box). Too much account sprawl, intend to clean up and get down to Schwab and Fidelity only.

    I advised my son to not open a bank account, to just use Fidelity for brokerage and banking.
  • @stayCalm. I have had my personal banking with Schwab Bank was introduced. Loved it until recently. The refused to let me deposit a check made out to me from Citibank. Apparently they can pick and choose what they will accept. And twice recently access to Schwab bank was cut off for technical reasons. If Schwab.com is down I haven’t found another way to Schwab Bank. As i mentioned earlier in this thread they are always oh so polite but half the people I spoke to were not aware of selectively not accepting real checks from real banks. But they did send me a box of cheese and fruit for my trouble.
  • edited August 18
    @larry
    Ty for sharing your experience. I hear you -- Schwab and Fidelity both have their upsides and downsides. Here is how I see them.

    Schwab: Reps are polite, broader selection of mutual funds, real bank, ATM fee rebate does not require a new account. Lower system reliability, customer svc is less efficient, no HSA accounts, high yield MMF cannot be default option

    Fidelity: Reps are efficient, high yield MMF is the default option, free wires, better system reliability, has HSA accounts. Wire form UI to other brokerages is a mess, free ATM fee rebate requires CMA account, not a real bank - a facade to PNC.
  • edited August 19
    "Wire form UI to other brokerages is a mess"

    Please elaborate. I have not done a wire from Fido to other brokerages in a couple of years and I have a short memory for unpleasant things.

    Do not you need a Fido CMA account to use zelle?
  • msf
    edited August 19
    If Schwab.com is down I haven’t found another way to Schwab Bank.

    In a post (way) above, I suggested that Schwab Bank may be just another internet bank. This tends to support that view. I suppose you could call Schwab and see if they can help access your money. That would be like calling into any other internet bank where you had your account.

    Schwab: ... real bank
    Is Merrill is a real bank because it shares a parent company with BofA? "Schwab Bank ... and Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. [Schwab Brokerage] are separate but affiliated companies and subsidiaries of The Charles Schwab Corporation."
    https://www.aboutschwab.com/history

    Schwab Bank is real but it's not part of Schwab brokerage services. To use Schwab Bank services you have to have an account there distinct from your brokerage account. No different from using other internet banks. One thing that Schwab does to mitigate this dual account arrangement is to let you use your brokerage account for optional overdraft protection on the bank account.

    Alternatively, there are some banking services that Schwab offers directly with a brokerage account. No separate bank account needed. You can write checks and make ATM withdrawals from your brokerage account just as you can with Merrill and Fidelity. According to this Schwab brokerage account agreement (2023), those services are provided through BNY Mellon (see p. 2).

    My Schwab brokerage account shows that Schwab uses Citibank, NA for incoming wires and JP Morgan Chase for direct deposits and ACH transfers.
    https://client.schwab.com/app/routing-numbers/#/routingnumbers (login required)

    Fidelity ... free ATM fee rebate requires CMA account
    Or premium level services ($500K+ in household accounts), or paid management services. Though now that you can use SPAXX as a CMA sweep account, is there anything you can do with a Fidelity brokerage account that you can't do with a CMA account?

    Fidelity ... a facade to PNC
    Fidelity cash management services (for both its brokerage and CMA accounts) are provided by UMB bank. PNC bank only issues Fidelity's ATM/debit card. That card is actually serviced by BNY Mellon. And its Visa credit card is from Elan.

    Schwab's Amex credit cards are issued by American Express National Bank.

    Do not you need a Fido CMA account to use zelle?
    You need a debit card. That's available with most Fidelity brokerage accounts. There is no fee charged by Fidelity to use this card with any Fidelity account at any level of assets.
  • edited August 19
    @Balu

    The sordid details are in Reddit link below. There are several Reddit threads covering the issue. Gist is that Fidelity uses non standard definitions for commonly accepted terms on a wire form such as "FFC". I got docked twice for $40 and have given up on dealing with wiring money from Fidelity to Schwab. I just do a ACH pull now from Schwab. Wires from Fidelity to direct bank account work fine. Things get messed up when FFC is needed.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Schwab/comments/1dw5nl9/how_to_do_a_wire_transfer_from_fidelity_to_schwab/
  • edited August 19
    My mentor told me horror stories when he was executor for a trust that was housed at BAC. Never had I heard such incompetence and administrivia designed soley to leech money out of the estate into the bank's hands. If I ever left my credit union, I would go to JPMC long before I'd ever go to BAC.

    I agree w/whomever wondered why commercial banks can't provide as good customer service as credit unions. (Though a local SunTrust - now Truist, i think - branch was rather good to me when I was managing my late father's affairs - I had no problems with them, ever.)
  • edited August 19
    This post is mostly to thank @msf for the Zelle answer.

    Never had a problem with JPMC as a banking or IB client. JPMC no longer offers safe deposit boxes, I am told by the manager - not sure if that is a regional or national thing.

    I still can not figure out why you need to unfreeze your credit to add your name to an existing safe deposit box account at BoA.
  • We also us JPMC as our primary bank- all of our SS and retirement income is channeled through them, and then automatically transferred to Schwab twice a month. Both JPMC and Schwab have offices one block away from our home, so dealing with either of them is very easy. I don't believe that our JPMC branch still offers deposit boxes, but they have maintained ours for many years.
  • I always traded number of shares and not dollars for stocks and ETPs. Fidelity allows one to trade in dollars. I was surprised to find that Schwab website trade ticket does not have that feature. Just an FYI.
  • BaluBalu said:

    I always traded number of shares and not dollars for stocks and ETPs. Fidelity allows one to trade in dollars. I was surprised to find that Schwab website trade ticket does not have that feature. Just an FYI.

    You can submit orders at Schwab using either share #s or a dollar values. If it's not in the all-in-one ticket it's in the 'stocks and etfs' ticket.
  • @Old_Joe @BaluBalu et al

    SD boxes have been mentioned in this thread, as to whether boxes are offered; being either not available at a branch, or that all are rented.

    After the GFC there were bank fails and merger/acquisitions. In many suburban locations numerous banks were in competition. The merger/acquisition circumstance found former competing bank branches too close to one another. Many of these branches were stripped of all banking equipment (except the walk-in vaults; and in many cases, the VD frame assemblies and doors were removed, too. There was a period time when a lot of this equipment was for sale via web sites.
    In our area, some bank buildings were re-purposed as jewelry stores (vault storage). In some areas, others have become restaurants with a special area in the vault for dining. One large branch became a large dentist office.
    Anyway, just a bit of background.
    USED bank equipment FOR SALE link.............
    A related note; is that the credit unions have since expanded the number of full service branches in our area, which have standard vaults and SD boxes.
  • Most soft pulls are allowed for frozen-credit a/c, but if the institution decides on a hard pull for some reason, it will fail.
  • edited August 20

    Most soft pulls are allowed for frozen-credit a/c, but if the institution decides on a hard pull for some reason, it will fail.

    Bank of America is like a government organization. Their employees are not trained well or to think. I spoke with the branch manager and suggested to him they should provide clients a check list of requirements when inviting to open an account. He thought that was a novel suggestion (I felt like I was speaking with an Amazon tribe) and then he said he is only a retail branch manager and does not have any input in corporate policies. Buffett should sell the rest of his position in BoA.
  • Here is my US BANK story. In my effort to leave Schwab Bank I opened a checking account at the US Bank branch where we grocery shop. The folks were uncommonly nice and even professional. I next tried to link the new account with my Schwab brokerage account. The trial deposits went straight through and all I had to do was verify the amounts of the money link deposits. Before I could do that I got an email from US BANK that they were unable to establish a link with Schwab and they were stopping my request to connect the accounts. When I told them that had to be a mistake because the two money link deposits were already in my account and I gave them the reference numbers from the transactions they said the link had failed. They refused to find out where the problem was but asked me if there was anything else they could help me with and told me to have a great rest of my day. All these service people read from the same script.
  • Thanks for sharing @larryB
    A really pitiful story regarding that bank. One has to wonder whether these reported banks actually want real business; and whether anyone at some managerial level is aware of such problems and/or even gives a shite...............
    I'll stay with our C.U.
  • @LarryB,

    From my personal experience, I do not have any kind words for US Bank. I would rank JPMC way higher.
  • My son just opened TRP acct. Everything went smoothly until attempting to link his credit union acct with TRP. Sorry, we are unable.... Feces.

    He STILL refuses to get a credit card. Prefers cash and debit card. Dunno if that factors in.
  • Crash said:

    My son just opened TRP acct. Everything went smoothly until attempting to link his credit union acct with TRP. Sorry, we are unable.... Feces.

    He STILL refuses to get a credit card. Prefers cash and debit card. Dunno if that factors in.

    An entire generation has been conditioned to think debit cards = credit cards. I would never use a debit card for everyday purchases primarily since the consumer protections are not as strong as they are on credit cards.

    People forget that if you responsibily pay your credit card bills off every month, it's no different than using a debit card (from our perspective) ... but that means banks are paying more for interchange fees and consumer protections, plus they're not making $$ from you on interest or potential overdraft fees and stores hate paying banks to accept credit cards. So it's no wonder why banks (and stores) prefer people use debit v credit.
  • My son just opened TRP acct. Everything went smoothly until attempting to link his credit union acct with TRP.

    Was he trying to link his CU account to TRP (i.e. have the TRP account recognize the CU account), or was he trying to link TRP to his CU account (i.e. have his CU recognize the TRP account)?

    While I haven't tried linking accounts at TRP in many years, I do know that at Vanguard you generally cannot link Vanguard accounts to outside institutions. The one exception is Vanguard Cash Plus, that's specifically designed for moving cash.

    Even with that account (from VG): "***Some third-party institutions may not accept the Cash Plus Account routing number for transactions. If you have any issues using the routing number on a third-party website, contact the provider." I've had that problem, though Fidelity (the institution I was trying to link to) handled it manually.

    TRP may be similar.

  • Speaking of Schwab, this morning's WSJ front page:

    Charles Schwab Wants to Fix Its Struggling Bank. Investors Are Skeptical.
    Roughly half of the brokerage’s revenue comes from banking
    Charles Schwab has called 2024 a transition year.

    https://www.wsj.com/finance/banking/charles-schwab-bank-strategy-3bae69be?st=dgghu7y06unnvgo&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
  • rforno said:

    Crash said:

    My son just opened TRP acct. Everything went smoothly until attempting to link his credit union acct with TRP. Sorry, we are unable.... Feces.

    He STILL refuses to get a credit card. Prefers cash and debit card. Dunno if that factors in.

    An entire generation has been conditioned to think debit cards = credit cards. I would never use a debit card for everyday purchases primarily since the consumer protections are not as strong as they are on credit cards.

    People forget that if you responsibily pay your credit card bills off every month, it's no different than using a debit card (from our perspective) ... but that means banks are paying more for interchange fees and consumer protections, plus they're not making $$ from you on interest or potential overdraft fees and stores hate paying banks to accept credit cards. So it's no wonder why banks (and stores) prefer people use debit v credit.
    I have a CC and debit card. Here's something I read online years ago, that I never thought of, and why I NEVER use my debit card for online purchases:

    When using a CC, if there's some problem -- no matter who's at fault -- you have plenty of time to dispute it, and you don't have to pay it until it's settled.

    With a debit card the purchase comes out of your bank account immediately. If there's some problem with the purchase and even if it's in your favor, you have to get the money BACK from the vendor -- which may or may not be a PITA.
  • We have changed banks about every five years, driven away by some disaster or another. Once it was data related, ie they lost an unencrypted data file with all our info on it. Usually it is bad customer service, usually with a national bank, or our cute local bank gets bought out.

    BOA was the worse. We stuck with WF because of decent local branch staff in CT, but now are down to $3000 in account.

    Currently we use a local bank with only regional footprint, still mutually owned. They have notary, easy access and locations. Of course they pay zip on account but it is easy to move money there when needed.
  • @Low+Tech ... exactly!!
  • Same here.
  • @msf "I do know that at Vanguard you generally cannot link Vanguard accounts to outside institutions. " Generally" comes into play here. I just finished looking at my VG account & I can move money in & out to my local bank. Since establishing this link , Vanguard Cash Plus has been implemented. Maybe they prefer clients to use this means.
  • I have linked VG account (initiating) to accounts at CU and bank (targets). But the reverse may not work - i.e. initiating process at CU or bank to link to VG (target).

    CU and banks are easy to link to other CUs and banks, so no problem linking to Schwab Bank (either initiating or targeting).

    Some banks no longer use the old way of sending and verifying 2 under $1 deposits, but use some 3rd party service for linking. It may fail for various reasons.
  • No problems linking Schwab to JPMC- in fact we have automatic transfers twice a month from JPMC to Schwab. Our SS & pensions are auto-deposited to JPMC checking, then auto-transferred to Schwab for deployment. This allows two potential sources for checking, although we only use Schwab at this time. Works very smoothly.

    Very easy to move money from Schwab over to JPMC also. As we all know Schwab sucks on their lack of an automatic sweep account, but at least they make some other things easy.
  • edited August 21
    rforno said:

    Crash said:

    My son just opened TRP acct. Everything went smoothly until attempting to link his credit union acct with TRP. Sorry, we are unable.... Feces.

    He STILL refuses to get a credit card. Prefers cash and debit card. Dunno if that factors in.

    An entire generation has been conditioned to think debit cards = credit cards. I would never use a debit card for everyday purchases primarily since the consumer protections are not as strong as they are on credit cards.

    People forget that if you responsibily pay your credit card bills off every month, it's no different than using a debit card (from our perspective) ... but that means banks are paying more for interchange fees and consumer protections, plus they're not making $$ from you on interest or potential overdraft fees and stores hate paying banks to accept credit cards. So it's no wonder why banks (and stores) prefer people use debit v credit.

    Quite right. He says he's frightened by the fact that some friends got into some serious debt trouble using the card carelessly. I did that myself, way back when I was young and foolish. And the smart thing is to pay off the balance every month. No interest charges. That's what we do these days, always. If someone gets hit with an emergency, you may have to carry-over a balance. But I assert it'd be a better idea to have an emergency cash-stash.

    ....And more and more slimebag companies are opting-out of accepting credit cards! Our internet bill is now pulled directly from our checking account. It used to be that the T-Mobile lovely individuals charged our credit card. But since they've begun pulling the monthly charge directly from checking, they don't have to deal with that small merchant's fee anymore. So, do you think our bill might reflect a 3% or so reduction? Hell, no.

    Same goes for the Canadian drug outfit. Ostensibly, there are a bunch of American-types using credit cards to buy drugs through the same sort of Canadian-Hoser type outfit that I use. (I stopped doing business with Vancouver and moved to a business in Winnipeg. MUCH better customer relations, customer service.) They used to accept credit cards. I'd bet a bunch of U.S. customers were running into foreign transaction fees on their monthly bills. We made sure to use a card with no foreign transaction fees...Anyhow, now THEY want to pull the charge directly from checking, too.

    (A side note: what a convoluted, complicated set-up! I call Winnipeg. They fax the doctor for the needed 'scripts. Once they have that stuff, they can move. But the pharmacy might be in India or on Mars. And it will be "fulfilled" in the Maldives, but the items arrive in my mailbox by Royal Mail, or Deutsche Post, or the BELGIAN Post. ORK! But the price is right, compared to the USA rip-off at the local drugstore for SOME of my needs.)



  • edited August 21
    msf said:

    My son just opened TRP acct. Everything went smoothly until attempting to link his credit union acct with TRP.

    Was he trying to link his CU account to TRP (i.e. have the TRP account recognize the CU account), or was he trying to link TRP to his CU account (i.e. have his CU recognize the TRP account)?

    While I haven't tried linking accounts at TRP in many years, I do know that at Vanguard you generally cannot link Vanguard accounts to outside institutions. The one exception is Vanguard Cash Plus, that's specifically designed for moving cash.

    Even with that account (from VG): "***Some third-party institutions may not accept the Cash Plus Account routing number for transactions. If you have any issues using the routing number on a third-party website, contact the provider." I've had that problem, though Fidelity (the institution I was trying to link to) handled it manually.

    TRP may be similar.

    Thanks for the note, msf.
    Yes, he was just doing what all businesses these days prefer that we do: to have the ability to electronically send $$$ by ACH. It would have been easier if TRP could have directly grabbed the money from his account at the credit union, eh? So, my son gave TRP his checking acct. number and the routing number for the CU. That particular CU is GASCU, out of Glendale, CA. They dropped the customary "F" (federal) some years ago. Privately insured deposits now. Dunno if that enters into the snafu. So, Sean (son) will just have to write a check from his account and send it to TRP in Balto. But I told him last night that I'd love to know what the problem was. So, I'm going to push him to find out, once his account is funded. The entire sign-up process went smoothly apart from that.
Sign In or Register to comment.