dolmar misquotes me again so that he can say i am wrong...I never implied they cover you if your brokerage firm made bad investments, didn't sell shares of bad stocks when they should have, etc...All i said was they cover the current value of whatever assets are actually in the account at that moment when the firm goes belly up....that is all i said....

Any reputable brokerage firm, such as fidelity, t-rowe, vanguard, schwabb, etc etc first of all is about as likely to go under as the moon is really made of "green cheese".....so SIPC coverage is almost irrelevant, anyway....and they have good managers who know what they are doing, so if the firm just goes under, it is highly unlikely that your money has been wiped out due to bad choices on their manager's part...

craig10x said:dolmar misquotes me again so that he can say i am wrong...I never implied they cover you if your brokerage firm made bad investments, didn't sell shares of bad stocks when they should have, etc...All i said was they cover the current value of whatever assets are actually in the account at that moment when the firm goes belly up....that is all i said....

Any reputable brokerage firm, such as fidelity, t-rowe, vanguard, schwabb, etc etc first of all is about as likely to go under as the moon is really made of "green cheese".....so SIPC coverage is almost irrelevant, anyway....and they have good managers who know what they are doing, so if the firm just goes under, it is highly unlikely that your money has been wiped out due to bad choices on their manager's part...

That is still wrong. I dont understand how I keep misquoting you as I even quoting what you say so there is no question on that subject. They dont grantee the value of your assets under any circumstance. They just grantee you will have the correct shares of each investment at the time brokerage house went under. If you thoses shares are bonds, stock, MMF or mutual funds are worthless that is too bad for you and your problem as SIPC does not grantee the value of any investment under any circumstance.

You dont seen to get it. I am not claiming you told broker to sell anything so only person misquoting people here is you.When issuer of VRDN goes under most people will redem thoses issues back to underwriter. If the underwriter goes under as well as the issuer thoses VRDN become worthless. So redeming them promptly is key. All MMF holds VRDN do you understand that? It is not your choice when the manager redems thoses VRDN but the fund managers choice. If the fund manager is an idiot SIPC does not care or cover you. Back when Orange County CA went BK small local banks went under because of there exposer to repurchase loans and VRDN being redemed. So this is not unheard of either.

anaray said:Question 2: How does Schwab handle its billpay? BofI doesn't withdraw money (for e-bill payments) until the recipient actually cashes it. That means I can send my landlord an e-check today, and if he doesn't cash it for 2 weeks I earn 3.40% apy on that money (and since this happens every month, I definitely make out at the end of the year). Many other bill payments subtract the money as soon as they send the check.

You'll have to watch this one yourself as I've had the actual billpay check in my hand because the intended person did not cash it, but the amount had already been deducted from my account. This resulted in a phone call telling them to put the money back.

Does Schwab have an online ACH page?

For example, I have a local bank checking account so I can conveniently deposit checks into it. Can I transfer the funds to Schwab via Schwab's ACH system on their website instead of having to mail in the checks to Schwab?

gkl said:Squeezer99 said:Does Schwab have an online ACH page?

Yes. You'd have to set it up by mailing the sig papers in, I believe.
I set it up online, although I had to confirm by phone.

Its a CashEdge system. I haven't figured out if its 3-day or 1-day yet.

I know we confirmed earlier in this thread that a hard credit pull will be done (according to Cust. Service). Can anyone confirm which CRA they pull if you've already opened an account and have access to your credit reports (TrueCredit, etc)?

Xeon852 said:sithlordabe said:I know we confirmed earlier in this thread that a hard credit pull will be done (according to Cust. Service). Can anyone confirm which CRA they pull if you've already opened an account and have access to your credit reports (TrueCredit, etc)?
They pulled me twice (my best guess is once for margin, once for checking) on Equifax.

Ouch. Thanks for the heads up.

Xeon852 said:Looks like ACH is 1-day, although a 3-day hold (earns interest during hold, just can't withdrawal). Better than USAA's hold period, about the same as Fidelity (I believe Fidelity is 4-day).

Thanks! If it earns interest, then the 3 day hold isn't much of an issue for me. At 4.25% I won't be nearly as diligent in sweeping my checking account into my savings account, so I'll have a good buffer in there to cover any checks or bill payments I need to make.

This account is a no-brainer for me. Now to find some CCS to apply if I'm going to have to take a couple of hard pulls anyway.

jpsfranks said:I've been looking for a good fee-less debit card account to use with international ATMs. Looks like this could fit the bill.

"Unlimited ATM fee rebates when using the Schwab Bank Visa® Platinum Check Card at any domestic and international locations on the Plus or Visa ATM networks. Schwab Bank will refund fees charged by ATM operators for Investor Checking and Interest Checking Plus accounts when you use your Schwab Bank Visa Platinum Check Card. The rebate will appear as a lump-sum credit on the same checking account periodic statement that includes ATM fees incurred for that particular account statement cycle. Schwab Bank reserves the right to modify or discontinue the ATM fee rebate at any time. Note: Unlimited ATM rebates do not include fees imposed by merchants for POS transactions or currency exchange fees for international ATM withdrawals."

This is a quote from there web page. Notice part I put in bold. Using a BOA ATM at any of there partner banks overseas has no fee at all no forex and no atm fee.Using a Citibank ATM overseas at Citibank also has no forex fee and no atm fee. HSBC is the same using there own ATM overseas you have no forex and no ATM fee.The fact is overseas(travel in Europe mostly) almost no ATM machines charge a non bank customer fee and you would just be subject to forex fee. The exception I have noticed is Gas, Casino, Store, Airport, Train Station and Hotel ATM tend to charge $1-2 Euro fee plus forex fee.

This account will save you nothing and more than likely might end up being more costly then Mega Bank ATM cards overseas as using thoses allows you to convert your money forex free with no fee vs at best you will get rebated the ATM fee for non bank customers but will still be subject to 3% forex fee most ATM cards charge.

jpsfranks said:dolmar said:This account will save you nothing and more than likely might end up being more costly then Mega Bank ATM cards overseas as using thoses allows you to convert your money forex free with no fee vs at best you will get rebated the ATM fee for non bank customers but will still be subject to 3% forex fee most ATM cards charge.

Hmmm. In my experience the exchange fee is pretty universally 1% but it has always been the bank-imposed fees that were killer. BOA is a disaster if you're not in a country covered by one of their alliance ATMs ($5/pop). I don't recall seeing many Citibank ATMs when traveling, but I looked at their site recently and it suggests better coverage than my experience. And I don't know about you but I've got an HSBC account and they charge me the 1% at their ATMs.
I've never been charged the 1% at HSBC ATM's in France and England.

But yah, IME, its usually a 1% charge for foreign exchnage. Like dolmar said though, ATM owner fees are much rarer outside the US.