Hmm?? auto overdraft protection?

Onson said:I've been a member for a few months and everything is good so far. My only gripe is a lack of electronic statements. Same here -- I contacted the customer support about this issue. They told me that electronic statements will be soon be available for Investor Checking accounts (Elec. statements are already available for brokerage accounts) and that Schwab customers will be notified when electronic statements are available.

actually, it does have some differences....My Smart Cash is a total brokerage in itself, and doesn't need a seperate brokerage to be opened also...in other words, you can buy mutual funds, trade stocks, whatever, all in the same account!

The only thing you can't do with it, having it by itself, right now, is use the "Cash Manager" features, and for that you do need to open the seperate brokerage, as you did with Schwab....

However, i have heard that eventually one will be able to use "Cash Manager" right within the My Smart Cash account, with other funds bought right within it....

The "Cash Manager" allows setting up auto-overdrafting (no charge) and replenishing your balance in the checking, automatically.

The other thing is that Fidelity's MM Funds, which you can add even now to just the "My Smart Cash Account" without a seperate brokerage acct, pays higher apy...over 5% Currently Fidelity Select MM Fund is yielding about 5.23% and requires only a $2500 opening, and $2,000 minimum (much lower then Schwab)....You can even get around the min balance rule by adding the "auto investing" feature to it....

The Schwab sounds like an excellent account, though i think the Fidelity does offer a few advantages, as i just outlined.....despite the slightly lower checking account APY....I was about to open the Schwab myself, but when i heard about the Fidelity one being launched...i held off, and went for that instead.....

koreysmith said:Well, I just found out that my Schwab account was closed "without notice". I have without notice in quotes because I just tried logging into the account and I couldn't get in.

I called and the second person I spoke with said it had to do with whatever Schwab found in my credit report. I understand that they run a credit report when opening an account, however, I figured they did that on the front end and didn't wait until after the account was opened to decide to close the account.

WARNING TO ALL: AVOID CHARLES SCHWAB AT ALL COSTS!!!!Hmm so...what's in your credit report?

hotfreestuff said:The only thing keeping me from opening an account is the $12.95 trades. I want an "all in one" account, but those fees are so high. I'm used to free trades with zecco, but zecco is far from perfect

Really? At some point, companies need to make money or at least break even. It seems obvious that Schwab, fidelity and E-Trade are rolling out these accounts to offer something more than the free trades from Zecco, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Clearly, they don't want to lower their prices on trades, but instead they are rolling out a new product with ultra high interest checking, free checks and unlimited ATM surcharge refunds. So, the banks and an upstart are offering free trades and the brokerages are offering totally free checking with super high yields.

The trick here is to figure out your usage of bank and brokerage services during the past year and figure out the bottom line cost of each option, including multiple accounts at different providers if using Zecco. Also, there is the intangible benefit of the one stop money supermarket requiring little maintenance and the easy execution of investment decisions. Often, using separate providers saves money but configured properly, the brokerage bundles may offer quite a savings for those who are not hyperactive traders.

dolmar said:Update Flyertalk.com chart

Well there is contradicting information from FW to Flyertalk.com

Flyertalk.com claims only HSBC Premier clients get the Forex fee waived overseas everyone else pays 1%. FW everyone claims they get no forex fee so not sure who is right. But if you look at the list Chases charges as high as 3.5% for Forex Fees while US Bank, Wells Fargo and Citibank at non Citibank ATM charges 3% And PNC Bank is 2.5% and the rest are either 1% or 0%. So you might want to call up Schwab and ask what there Forex fee is. I assume even if they charge 1% it could be much better than Citibank, Wells Fargo, Chase, US Bank and PNC Bank or it could be 3% and make HSBC straight 1% + $1 non ATM fee look good.
Regarding the FlyerTalk chart, it's too bad the POS chart of fees isn't as lengthy as the Debit Card chart of fees. For instance, Bank of Internet, Capital One, Presidential Bank and State Farm Bank have 0% foreign exchange fees on ATM withdrawals. Do these four banks also offer 0% foreign exchange fees on POS transactions?

On the brokerage side, incoming wires are free for everyone, outgoing are $25.

If household balance is over $100k, there are three free online domestic outbound wires per quarter. With $500k or 36 trades, there are three free wires (any sort) per quarter.

makeinu said:Does Schwab's ATM card allow you to see your available balance at the ATM?

Fidelity's mysmart account, apparently, does not.
For Schwab Bank, my ATM receipt always says my balance is zero.

Does Schwab really have a cc which gives you $200 opening bonus?

makeinu said:jamesboy said:makeinu said:Does Schwab's ATM card allow you to see your available balance at the ATM?

Fidelity's mysmart account, apparently, does not.
For Schwab Bank, my ATM receipt always says my balance is zero.

And are you overdrafting from your brokerage/core account or do you actually have funds in the Investor Checking account?
I have funds in Investor Checking.