Charles Schwab 2.01% checking account

TheeeeChosenOne said: "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 doesn't sound too promising. Most int'l ATMs I've been to charge a fee of some sort.


Does this mean cash advances from an ATM machine and/or straight up ATM withdrawal?

that's not true. most international ATM's DO NOT charge a fee. if you are getting charged fees, you obviously don't know where to look.

Gizmogeek said: abaliga said: Searched and didn't find a post for this one yet.

Everyone with a Schwab Bank Investor Checking™ account automatically earns 4.25% APY, regardless of your balance

* No account minimums
* Free checks
* No monthly service charges
* Free bill pay
* No ATM fees
* FDIC insured

Linky

Yahoo Article

From the Schwab site - "There is no fee to open and maintain an account at Schwab. Other transaction or service fees may apply."

In their list of fees it says: Minimum Balance Requirement for Schwab One® Account is $2,500. Otherwise a $12.50 charge per quarter.

Does this apply to the new checking account too?

"Minimum to Open $0
($1,000 minimum balance is waived for Schwab One brokerage accounts when you open both an Investor Checking account and a Schwab One account.)
Fees There is no fee to open and maintain an account at Schwab. Other transaction or service fees may apply. Please refer to the Charles Schwab Pricing Guide, including any amendments to the guide, for more details on fees."


I interpret this as you can maintain $0 in brokerate and $0 in checking and not get charged any fees at all. Unless I'm told different otherwise this deal would suck...

Edit: I used opened an account online, need to mail in one check to get account open...

Is there any way to get a cashier's check if you need one? Also, can you download banking transacations directly from Quicken for free?

craig10x said: ShiZZAh said: can anyone tell me if this is possible?

Lets say I just withdraw $20.00 from any atm. some atms, especially the ones at casinos have huge rate hikes ive seen $15.00 withdrawal charges. so i withdraw 20.00 only from a casino atm and schwab will pay me back $15.00? NO WAY they will lose so much money! Couldnt schwab's competitors organize all their employees and keep doing this and make schwab go bankrupt? thats probably a long shot but still wouldnt this make schwab lose money?

Casinos in Las Vegas charge $15 atm surcharges? really? it's that high? yikes...well, if they do, that's very unusual practice..most atms i have seen, charge a maximum of $2 for each withdrawal...and some less...in my area (NYC) we even have alot of 99 cents atm machines...like in Mcdonalds and in our huge chain of Duane Reade drug stores.....

No, they don't. I've been to tons of casinos in AC and Vegas and I've never see an ATM fee over $4. In AC, they are mostly $3. In Vegas, they are mostly $4 (with some being $3).

I did see $6 at a gentlemen's establishment, but never at a casino.

This really high fees are probably using "cash advance" machines to make a pull out of your debit card using the POS purchase system, after you've tapped out regular ATM withdrawal capability. Almost as bad a rip as doing a cash advance off a credit card.

Incidentally, I don't know what the max ATM withdrawal is on the Schwab Bank debit card, but I was able to pull $2000 a few weeks ago (and was surprised that it worked).

Finally, this is probably just my ignorance about debit card usage in general, but I don't know what happens with the POS surcharges that are sometimes applied to PIN-based purchases at the store (45 cents at a gas station, etc). I have a hunch those get hidden in the purchase price and are not refunded.

ouch...thats a double whammy

Do they have their own ATMs or they have tie-ups with someone?

chrisjs said: Looks good. I don't see any details about how to make (paper) deposits...if that's even possible with this account.

Edit: If you click through Deposit Accounts > Checking it says:
"Deposits for the Schwab Bank accounts are not accepted at any Charles Schwab & Co. branches. However, deposits to your Schwab Bank Investor Checking account can be made by transferring funds from your Schwab One brokerage account and by mailing deposits to Schwab Bank."I called to ask them about this. What this means is that you make paper deposits at a branch into your brokerage account. You can then electronically transfer the funds into your checking account.

ss315 said: I wonder if Fidelity has changed its policy with using the semi-sweep: I emailed them about using Select MM for bill pay and they said:

"All transactions, including payments made through the BillPay feature, are processed through your core account. Fidelity Select Money Market (FSLXX) is not an available core account option. In addition to the core cash position, you can hold FSLXX outside of the core account. However, if funds are held in a money market mutual fund separate from the core, you will need to move this money to the core account to cover any bill payments. Likewise, when you have money in the core cash position that you want to place in the money market fund, you would need to enter an order to buy that amount of the money market fund."

If this is indeed there new policy, I think the Schwab account is a no brainer--especially b/c of ATM rebates. I would hate for an important bill not to get paid because of ambiguity around which account funds bill pay.

This has always been the official word from them. In my experience, though, they have no problem automatically selling a portion of your FSLXX to cover withdrawals. The only thing that is not automatic is moving money into FSLXX. However, since the APY of the core account is the same or higher than Schwab, I'm sticking with Fidelity.

One thing I don't think has been mentioned...Fidelity accounts are not FDIC insured, only SIPC. In reality not much of a difference. But, its still nice to have.

While SIPC does not cover "market losses" (the stock market's effect on your share value) it does cover the available assets for loss, should your brokerage company go bankrupt...which essentially, is the same as FDIC protection....
In other words, whatever your funds are currently valued at...that amount is protected against the brokerage company "going under"...They don't protect you from a fraud situation...so make sure you stick with "reputable" brokerage firms...they will protect you if that reputable firm becomes insolvent, and help recover your asset losses!

From the SIPC Website:

Our 35-Year Track Record for Investors
The Securities Investor Protection Corporation is the investor's first line of defense in the event a brokerage firm fails owing customers cash and securities that are missing from customer accounts. From the time Congress created it in 1970 through December 2004, SIPC has advanced $570 million in order to make possible the recovery of $14.2 billion in assets for an estimated 624,000 investors. Although not every investor is protected by SIPC, SIPC estimates that no fewer than 99 percent of persons who are eligible have been made whole in the failed brokerage firm cases that it has handled to date.

Got pulled from EQ. This is gonna replace my 4.03% checking at City National Bank of Taylor with the stupid 10 debit card transaction per month requirement.
With no minimum balance requirement and no gimmmicks, this looks like a very good deal. Thanks OP!

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.