Schwab - Opinions?

[southerndoc]

I've been a loyal TD Ameritrade patron for many years now. I've also used a Delta SkyMiles/American Express credit card for accumulation of free SkyMiles.

Recently Amex has raised their fee for the credit card, and they've reduced rewards at the same time.

I've read a lot about Schwab's 2% cashback credit card, which actually doesn't have a fee. The only stipulation is you must open up a Schwab One brokerage account.

Does anyone have any experience with Schwab? Any positive or negative feedback?

Schwab seems to offer a lot: 1% high-yield checking linked to their brokerage accounts, 2% savings linked to their brokerage account, and the 2% cashback from their credit card.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[schwab]

I've been a loyal TD Ameritrade patron for many years now. I've also used a Delta SkyMiles/American Express credit card for accumulation of free SkyMiles.

Recently Amex has raised their fee for the credit card, and they've reduced rewards at the same time.

I've read a lot about Schwab's 2% cashback credit card, which actually doesn't have a fee. The only stipulation is you must open up a Schwab One brokerage account.

Does anyone have any experience with Schwab? Any positive or negative feedback?

Schwab seems to offer a lot: 1% high-yield checking linked to their brokerage accounts, 2% savings linked to their brokerage account, and the 2% cashback from their credit card.

There for a minute, I thought you were calling me out

Schwab's semi-recent entry into the banking market seems to be pretty successful. They offer a good checking account product as well as their already well known brokerage accounts. All of these can be tied together and accessed from a single signon which is pretty nice. The 2% rewards card is pretty great as well.

I've been with Fidelity for a while as they offer a very similar package with their mySmartCash checking account that I talked about on my blog. I went with Fidelity over Schwab because I'm more familiar with their investment products and I like their mutual funds better than Schwab's on the whole. The offer a 2% rewards credit card as well, but it's an American Express. The promo material only mentions depositing the rewards into your retirement account, but you can apparently deposit it in any Fidelity account.

All that being said, I don't have direct experience with Schwab. The interest rates on the Schwab checking account are higher which is nice. And the rewards card may be more widely accepted than Fidelity's AmEx.

 

[southerndoc]

I stay away from mutual funds with rare exception. I prefer ETF's instead.

 

[UserNameNeeded]

I'm a long time Fidelity customer. I opened up the brokerage, checking, savings and credit card with Schwab recently since it is MUCH better for cash management at the moment. If only money movement between the 3 Schwab accounts was more seamless, it'd be awesome. But there's hold periods on money transfers (even within Schwab), you have to call in to transfer into/out of the savings account, etc.

The only reason I'm keeping my Fidelity account is because I don't want to sell/transfer the assets already in them and I have a lower commission schedule there.

 

[southerndoc]

I opened everything today (except the savings, I mailed the forms to open it). When I called a customer service representative, he said they are working on the issue of needing to call to move money between checking and savings. He said that in the next two or three months, you will be able to do this online.

I spent so much on credit card (I charge everything for rewards points) that the 2% cash back will net me a significant amount of money every year. Since I don't make that many stock trades, the higher cost of commissions won't come close to the benefits of the cash back from the credit card.

 

[245399]

I've been a loyal TD Ameritrade patron for many years now. I've also used a Delta SkyMiles/American Express credit card for accumulation of free SkyMiles.

Recently Amex has raised their fee for the credit card, and they've reduced rewards at the same time.

I've read a lot about Schwab's 2% cashback credit card, which actually doesn't have a fee. The only stipulation is you must open up a Schwab One brokerage account.

Does anyone have any experience with Schwab? Any positive or negative feedback?

Schwab seems to offer a lot: 1% high-yield checking linked to their brokerage accounts, 2% savings linked to their brokerage account, and the 2% cashback from their credit card.

This is an excellent find.

 

[southerndoc]

This is an excellent find.

They haven't opened my savings account yet (you have to mail in a form for that; weird). My investment and checking accounts are up and running. Actually made a few trades in the investment account, and I actually like Schwab's website for trading. They have a lot of research tools and info available.

Still waiting to receive my checks, debit/check card, and credit card (guess it'll take a week; it's already showing up on the website).

 

[Capgras]

I have been talking about the Schwab interest checking account to everyone and didn't notice this sweet deal under my nose. 2% cash back on everything is amazing and they have great customer service.

If you don't know about the interest checking its the best deal out there. You get 1% on your balances, free checks and unlimited ATM fees rebated. I have used this ATM everywhere and always got my ATM fees rebated. I'm going to Africa next month and will be able to use this at ATMs there and get my fees rebated and they don't charge a foreign exchange fee.

Fully endorse Schwab.

 

[southerndoc]

I have been talking about the Schwab interest checking account to everyone and didn't notice this sweet deal under my nose. 2% cash back on everything is amazing and they have great customer service.

If you don't know about the interest checking its the best deal out there. You get 1% on your balances, free checks and unlimited ATM fees rebated. I have used this ATM everywhere and always got my ATM fees rebated. I'm going to Africa next month and will be able to use this at ATMs there and get my fees rebated and they don't charge a foreign exchange fee.

Fully endorse Schwab.

It all sounds too good to be true. Here's hoping they don't drop the rewards and interest rates next year after they've lured a few people to them.

 

[RustyGator]

I've used Schwab for over a year now. It's not too good to be true. It's an excellent full service firm. You think 1% checking is good...when I signed up it was 4%!!! Understandably, since interest rates have gone down so low, so has the interest bearing checking. It is variable, which means once rates start going back up, so will your checking interest rate!! (I've seen it go down, and then back up...it happens). To one of the previous posters, why do you say transfering funds isn't seemless?? If I transfer funds from brokerage to checking, it is immediate. Can't get more seemless than that. Like was said before, you get paid back for any ATM fees and everything else they do is free. I didn't know about that cash back credit card...I'm going to look into that...thanks!

 

[ethat001]

Definitely love the 2% back Schwab card & I use it for everything. I joined 2-3 months ago and have had no problems. I use it & have a Fidelity mySmartcash for my checking acct.

Fidelity's 2% card is an AmEx.. I remember having an Amex BlueCash -- I got tired of hearing "I'm sorry we don't take American Express"..

Other cards worth mentioning:
- Schwab VISA credit card 2% on everything
- Penfed credit card - 5% on gas
- Discover Cash Back - 5% on selected categories
- Upromise BoA - up to 18% back on selected restaurants/etc

Note: To qualify for PenFed you have join the NMFA for $20 - it's described somewhere on a forum board.

 

[UserNameNeeded]

The bad thing about Discover (and some of other credit card rewards programs) is that there's an annual cap/limit on either how much you can get back or on only the first X amount of dollars qualifies for the full 5% or whatever.

I opened up a WellsFargo PMA account for the 100 free annual commissions in the brokerage account and minimal to no fees on anything else. You just need to have $25,000 in assets and/or liabilities with them (10% of your mortgage qualifies).

Bank of America offers 30 free commissions per month in their brokerage accounts if you have $25,000 (I think) in FDIC-insured deposits (checking, savings, money market, CDs).

Zecco.com offers comparable free trades, too.

 

[southerndoc]

I'm very happy with the Schwab credit card. There's no limit. Of course I've only used it for a month, but I've already earned a lot of money on it thanks to purchasing a few season tickets for baseball and football.

Not only do I get 2% cash back, but I wait until 5 days before the due date to pay the credit card. That leaves money in my savings account longer (earning 2% APY). If I spend cash for things, that money can't earn interest and I don't earn a reward on it. That's why I charge nearly everything possible to the credit card. The only time I don't charge is if the merchant doesn't accept credit cards, if they charge a fee to use a credit card, or if I don't want it on a permanent record somehow.

 

[GeraldMonroe]

Comments. I've heard that "no limit" cards can cause serious problems. The reason is that since there's no limit, the credit reporting agencies often use the current or the highest balance achieved as your "credit limit".

Credit card utilization % factors into the FICA formula significantly, and no limit cards mess this up.

Another comment : my bank (USAA) offers credit card auto-pay where it pays the statement balance the day it's due. That keeps my money in the savings account for the maximum amount of time and makes full use of the grace period. That's better than having to manually pay the bill.

 

[southerndoc]

For those considering Schwab, they have lowered their APY's for their High Yield Investor Checking to 0.75% and for their Savings to 1.75%.

As soon as the economy recovers, I have a feeling these will be in the 3-4% range.

 

[iatetheworm]

southerndoc, thanks for posting about schwab!

how does it work when transferring $$$ between the checking, schwab one, and savings accounts? can you do this online? is there a limit (ie number of times per billing statement) or fee for shuttling funds between the accounts?

i looked around the schwab website a bit, but couldn't find any of these specifics.

thanks again!

 

[southerndoc]

There are federal limits to how many savings transactions per month. Not sure what that number is though.

You can move money online from a linked account into and out of your investment account. Checking and savings accounts require a phone call, unless you're moving to/from your investment account. You can't move to/from an external account (unless it's your investment account), but they are working on allowing that. What I do is transfer money to my investment account, let it clear (2-3 days), then transfer it to checking/savings. If you transfer from investment to checking, it's available immediately. If you transfer from investment to savings, it'll take another 2-3 days.

You can now access your savings account online.

I've been told by Schwab that you will be able to transfer money online (fully implemented) within the next few weeks.

BTW, there is no fee for transferring funds through ACH.

 

[iatetheworm]

thanks much southerndoc!

i was thinking of doing ing's online savings account but methinks i'm going to pursue schwab's savings/checking accounts instead--just gotta find out if earned interest is credited to one's account monthly (ing does this) or yearly (bummer). have you had your savings and checking accounts with schwab long enough to find this out? if not, i'll call them tomorrow when i can and report back.

thanks again southerndoc.

 

[southerndoc]

thanks much southerndoc!

i was thinking of doing ing's online savings account but methinks i'm going to pursue schwab's savings/checking accounts instead--just gotta find out if earned interest is credited to one's account monthly (ing does this) or yearly (bummer). have you had your savings and checking accounts with schwab long enough to find this out? if not, i'll call them tomorrow when i can and report back.

thanks again southerndoc.

Both are credited monthly.

 

[iatetheworm]

Both are credited monthly.

done deal--i will be pursuing this. thanks again sdoc.

 

[RabbMD]

All these replies and no one has brought up the other great thing about the Schwab checking/Credit card combo. If you a a foreign traveler then you should familiarize yourself with the following authoritative flier's talk wiki on foreign transaction fees.

http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Credit/Debit/ATM_Cards_and_Foreign_Exchange

Basically though most credit cards charge a 1-3% foreign conversion fee. The Schwab Vise charges a 0% fee. Additionally, the Schwab checking account supplies an ATM card that offers worldwide ATM fee reimbursement and 0% foreign transaction fee on cash.

That makes the Schwab Visa/checking account invaluable for frequent international travelers. I started using it, and it gives me peace of mind knowing that I can transfer limited amounts of money into my Schwab Checking account to prevent access to my larger accounts while I am in a foreign country as well.

 

[southerndoc]

All these replies and no one has brought up the other great thing about the Schwab checking/Credit card combo. If you a a foreign traveler then you should familiarize yourself with the following authoritative flier's talk wiki on foreign transaction fees.

http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Credit/Debit/ATM_Cards_and_Foreign_Exchange

Basically though most credit cards charge a 1-3% foreign conversion fee. The Schwab Vise charges a 0% fee. Additionally, the Schwab checking account supplies an ATM card that offers worldwide ATM fee reimbursement and 0% foreign transaction fee on cash.

That makes the Schwab Visa/checking account invaluable for frequent international travelers. I started using it, and it gives me peace of mind knowing that I can transfer limited amounts of money into my Schwab Checking account to prevent access to my larger accounts while I am in a foreign country as well.

Yea, definitely a big perk for those that travel frequently. All the perks seem too good to be true, but they really do exist. Here's hoping Schwab doesn't cut back the rewards.