So I am on a quest to find a one stop shop for everything - savings, brokerage, billpay, and checking. Right now I am using USAA for checking and savings - grandfathered in and do not qualify for the AMA account as of 8/1 - and then I have an Ameriprise One account(I know I know....). Luckily I have no funds that I can not move to a new brokerage account(nothing from RiverSource).

In looking at the different options out there I have narrowed it down to Fidelity with a mySmart Cash Account and Schwab Investor Checking with matching brokerage accounts at each.

I have read through threads on each:
Fidelity
Schwab

I have also read through the brokerage thread but there is not much in there at this time.

Both seem comparable, but because I have no experience with either company. I am most concerned with the ease of use and customer service - how do they stack up against each other?

Having ONE account with a cash sweep option into a MM or something similar would be perfect, however it looks like I will need 2 accounts at the same institution to get what I want currently.

I'm on the same boat as you.

I opened schwab 1 month ago and will be able to close 2 checking and 1 savings accounts.

Schwab service has been great. Upon opening, you get a dedicate "Concierge" rep. to help with any questions or concerns. They mailed all appropriate information, checks, deposits slips, bunch of informational stuff about schwab and website is pretty easy to use. Their checking rate is 4.25% and FDIC insured (whereas Fidelity's 5+% quoted isn't, thought it IS probably VERY safe)

That being said... I might end up opening Fidelity (throwing a wrench in my consolidation plans) as it offers $100 for opening the account and 10,000 UAL/AA miles. Those I knew about when I opened Schwab, but I found Fidelity is running this promo just recently... 60 free trades for moving in new retirement assets above $25,000 or 100 free trades for those above $100,000.

So I was thinking of rolling my 401(k) and a separate IRA at another firm into Fidelity for the bonus and then after 6 months, consolidating to Schwab (unless I end up loving Fidelity and then its going to be the reverse)

For those interested, one can use Schwab's managed service, where they sit with you and figuring your needs, manage your account (yeah yeah, its bunch of B.S... but I'm actually going to test the waters out and see how they perform)

Schwab managed accounts require initially $25,000 for retirement accounts ($50,000 all others) and costs 0.05% on total assets annually manage your investments. Fidelity offers this service too, but its at $50,000 entry point and costs between 0.25% to 1.1%.

Schwab:
Pros:
4.25% FDIC rate
Great Service
Managed Investments
OneSource lists has some very good mutual funds without costing anything to purchase and sell

Cons:
4.25% rate vs. Fidelity MM >5%
No current incentives to open
Fidelity might have their own no cost funds (not too sure)

bucketjon, if you really made it through ALL of those three threads, then you know more about Fidelity and Schwab than most people who work at either.

Besides "soft" opinions like liking customer service (fidelity) or website interface (tie), the mathematical choice of which is "better" is going to come down to minor factors depending very specifically on your situation.

For instance, if you truly wanted just one account, you could accomplish this with Fidelity (*just* a regular brokerage account, or *just* a mycash account), but a regular brokerage account would forfeit ATM refunds. If you don't qualify for a cash sweep money market at Schwab (household assets > $500k), then you are more dependent on the 4.25% in the checking account. With Fidelity, you have lower threshold to get good money markets than can be used as 'overdraft', but you need to manually place buy transactions. Commisions on stock buys may be different, which will matter if you're a trader. If you're a mutual fund buyer, the list of no-transaction-fee funds. Fidelity and Schwab offer their own proprietaryfund families, Fidelity's are generally better, but Schwab has a few good ones.

hell, if you're a diehard boglehead mutual fund dollar-cost-averager, then your best bet is to open a Vanguard account. Or maybe a BofA account with a substantial bank deposit balance to get free stock trades.

The nice thing about Fidelity's MY Smart Cash Account is it is actually a brokerage account as well...and you don't have to open the seperate investment brokerage if you don't want to, because you can buy Mutual funds and trade stocks, etc right within it..... The Core is less then Schwab's (3.5% APY) However, you can then purchase a 5% plus Money Market Fund like the Select MM Fund (currently about 5.23%) for just $2500 going in to it...

Normally the MM Fund would require maintaining a $2000 min balance, however you can get around that rule by setting up "auto investing (with as little as $100 every 3 months) from you "core checking"...

And doing that, will give you automatic Overdraft protection to your "core" for all debits coming out of the "core" including atm withdrawals, bill pay, check written, etc...

At present you can't use that "Cash Manager" feature they have with just this one account, but they are working on adding it on, and anyway, even as it is now, it will automatically overdraft if you add the extra MM Fund...

So, it's a pretty neat set-up and Fidelity's customer service is excellent and so is the Online Interface....
I have all my investments with them, and now very happy to be able to bank with them as well...

i hear you bucketjon, as i use to bank with USAA as well...Fidelity is outstanding and i have had all my investments with them for about 15 years now...and very glad i can finally do the banking with them as well.....And coming from USAA's excellent customer service, i don't think you would be disapointed with Fidelity as it is of a very high level...

please forgive my ignorance. what's this managed services in Fidelity? I have a brokerage acct. with them, never remember being charged this fee. thanks.

markkundinger said:bucketjon, if you really made it through ALL of those three threads, then you know more about Fidelity and Schwab than most people who work at either.

Besides "soft" opinions like liking customer service (fidelity) or website interface (tie), the mathematical choice of which is "better" is going to come down to minor factors depending very specifically on your situation.

For instance, if you truly wanted just one account, you could accomplish this with Fidelity (*just* a regular brokerage account, or *just* a mycash account), but a regular brokerage account would forfeit ATM refunds. If you don't qualify for a cash sweep money market at Schwab (household assets > $500k), then you are more dependent on the 4.25% in the checking account. With Fidelity, you have lower threshold to get good money markets than can be used as 'overdraft', but you need to manually place buy transactions. Commisions on stock buys may be different, which will matter if you're a trader. If you're a mutual fund buyer, the list of no-transaction-fee funds. Fidelity and Schwab offer their own proprietaryfund families, Fidelity's are generally better, but Schwab has a few good ones.

hell, if you're a diehard boglehead mutual fund dollar-cost-averager, then your best bet is to open a Vanguard account. Or maybe a BofA account with a substantial bank deposit balance to get free stock trades.Bank of America "free trades" with $50,000 in a low-yielding deposit account is hardly free.... For every 1% you earn above whatever BoA pays, thats $41.00 a month - the equivalent of half a dozen trades or so at a discount broker.

kchnew said:please forgive my ignorance. what's this managed services in Fidelity? I have a brokerage acct. with them, never remember being charged this fee. thanks.

usually managed services are when the firm makes investing decisions for you. usually you do this if you think they have a better return after fees than you would on your own. You probably don't get the fee because you do the investing by yourself.

I left Schwab for Fidelity.
Higher rates on money markets, lower commissions, better customer service.
Schwab may have made improvements, but back in late 90s they messed up trades
and messed up my Roth conversion. They were so focused on getting new customers
that they just did not seem to care about current customers (now former customer)

I had some time today to put in a couple of calls to each Fidelity and to Schwab. Wanted to find out what the branch locations offered and see how the customer service of each was first hand.

Schwab - had to call twice to get the information as the first time I called I was told that the branch would refer all questions back to the toll free number... With the Schwab branches you can pay for advice and portfolio reviews however the 2nd person I talked to did not have any rates.

Fidelity - actually called into the local branch and got a very helpful person. Said that they sit down with people all the time to help go over portfolio and plan for future. I asked about coming in every year or so to do a portfolio review to ensure that diversified correctly and was told there would not be a charge for that. Guy said they work on salary and did not have to pay to sit down with them if a customer of Fidelity.

Does anyone have experience going into a Fidelity office and working with someone? If they truly will sit down and give some advice for nothing extra that is something that I can see using every so often.

Looks like I will be using Fidelity as my one stop shop at this time. Hands down Fidelity was much better to make a call into to deal with someone. Hold times were longer with Fidelity, however the people I talked to on each of my calls were great and more than made up for having to sit on hold a couple of minutes. With Schwab it felt like all they wanted to do was get me off the phone. One change that I wish they would make to the mySmart account is to have it tagged/classified as a true checking account instead of a brokerage account.