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!