@iglooo - we had some home improvement done and the financing came from WF. They send us a statement every month and they had sent us a debit card associated with the account.
I think you need to call them, or visit each bank, and find out the details that are important to you. Out here it seems like “the devil or the deep blue sea”.
P. S. We have a local bank account as well as our main CU account and the local bank has no international ATM fee. When we were in Ireland in December we didn’t need to take advantage of that. We changed money once, at the airport, and had to make an effort to spend all the cash.
This is a misrepresentation… All FDIC coverage is the same whether you are at Fidelity or Podunk Bank as long as it is an FDIC insured bank. It is $250k per signer, per account, and a person can have up to 5 accounts at a bank for a total of $1.25M IF they are titled in different ways. For example, you can have a single savings account, a joint account with person B, a money market account, but you can’t have 5 savings accounts all in a single name and have that $1.25M coverage. If you stick all $1.25M into the same account at Fidelity, your coverage will be $250k, not 5x that. If you have 5 names on that account, all will be covered for $250k.
Actually, @twoinanddone, an account at Fidelity DOES have up to $1.25M in FDIC insurance because of the way Fidelity uses FDIC insured banks as sweep accounts. It’s totally legit because of the way they do business (don’t think they would advertise it as such if it wasn’t). Bottom line, though, most of us aren’t going to be keeping $1M+ in a cash account anyway.
Here’s some fine print:
The Fidelity® Cash Management Account’s uninvested cash balance is swept to one or more program banks where it earns a variable rate of interest and is eligible for FDIC insurance. At a minimum, there are five banks available to accept these deposits, making customers eligible for nearly $1,250,000 of FDIC insurance. If the number of available banks changes, or you elect not to use, and/or have existing assets at, one or more of the available banks, the actual amount could be higher or lower.
It is using 5 accounts at 5 banks. Anyone can go to 5 banks and get the same coverage, or even get the same coverage at one bank by using 5 different types of accounts, but Fidelity is offering this service with one stop shopping. The money is insured through the individual banks, with a $250k limit on each account if I’m reading the above correctly.
The FDIC coverage is the same at every bank, on every account, with a limit of $1.25M per person per bank. Fidelity is setting up the 5 accounts in different ways to get maximum coverage. It might be better at setting up the 5 types of accounts, but the coverage is not different or better than a typical bank. Some banks are very bad at this and do not warn depositors when they have too much money in an account so that some of it becomes uninsured, and if that bank fails, the depositor is partially uninsured. Fidelity seems to understand and advertise the limits.
Can you use any ATM with Schwab or Fidelity account? I don’t see any Schwab or Fidelity ATMs where I live. Usually foreign ATM fees are two parts; half for the bank that owns the ATM and and your bank. If Schwab waives their fees, that’s only half of the fees. Do they pay you back the fees charged by the other bank?
I think the nuance is that you can have 1 account at Fidelity (for customer ease) even up to $1.25M but that money is then held in 5 different accounts (assuming you max out at $1.25M) at 5 FDIC insured banks. You, the individual, don’t see those 5 different accounts. You just see your Fidelity account. It’s all a back office thing, requiring no effort or inconvenience or juggling of 5 accounts by the individual. You see your Fidelity account cash management account (plus whatever investment accounts/funds you set up). Fidelity, in turn, has placed your money with 5 FDIC insured banks. I’m sure Vanguard and others of that ilk handle things in a similar fashion. But, yes, FDIC insurance is FDIC insurance. However, if you combine that convenience with the no fee, no minimum balance, no ATM fee type of service, I personally think that the Fidelitys, the Vanguards, etc. are the way to go in the age of online banking for a good chunk of the population. If you are running a small business or have other types of transactions that require much face to face interaction in a bank branch, then maybe a local bank can beneficial but I think a lot of banks have made themselves archaic with their combo of excessive fees and poor customer service.
^^You know, you’d think that but it just isn’t the case. Someone asked me at a party “Who even goes to banks anymore?” but there are hundreds of branches opening up every year. People still LIKE to go to the bank. I’ve lived in two other states recently and I kept the same CU and just did all my banking by direct deposit and at ATMs. It was difficult at first as only certain ATMs take deposits for my institution, but I figured it out.
There are times when having a storefront bank is convenient. When I needed some Euros, I had to order them and wait around for the delivery (had to sign for the delivery), when if I’d had an account at B of A or WF I could have just gone into the bank. I had to use a Coinstar machine to trade in coins, and take a gift card or pay a premium, but when I’m near my CU I can just use the machine for free. I’ve had things notarized for free at the CU. I can go to the counter and just put stuff into my kids’ account and not deal with the extra Debit Cards I have for their accounts (co-owner).
On my 13 mile route to work, I used to entertain myself with counting things. 26 banks/CU and that didn’t include ATM pavilions or of course ATMs in businesses along the way. That’s a lot of storefronts for a country that is changing to online banking only. Many of them were new buildings, like Chase that was new to the area built all new buildings. People LIKE to go into the bank.
I’ve been with B of A (or their predecessor institution) for years and have never had any problems. The tellers in my branch have been fine, but I probably only go into the branch two or three times a year - only to go in the safe deposit box. In Chicago, you can deposit at a B of A ATM up until 8:00 PM and the transaction will post same day. Same with mobile deposits.
However, I should note that I have been in their “mass affluent” programs over the years - maybe that has colored my experience. The current program is called Preferred Rewards. You get access to special 800 number with more experienced bankers and agents that are definitely a step above the “would you like fries with that CD” staff that you might otherwise get.
The best thing is you do not need to be a Rockefeller to qualify. If you have $100k combined in your deposit accounts and/or Merrill Edge accounts - which is easy to do if you have a 401k rollover from a former employer - you get multiple free deposit accounts, all ATM fees and surcharges reimbursed, 100 free trades a month at Merrill, a 75% bonus on the credit card points/miles as well as other bonuses and discounts. Combine these privileges with a huge branch network and state-of-the-art technology products (Bill Pay and Mobile Deposit), it is a compelling proposition.
Of course, any institution the size of B of A is going to have a some employees that are going to provide less than optimal service. I don’t doubt the complaints noted above - YMMV.
The website for the Schwab account advertises ATM fee rebates. You can call them and ask to see if it means what you want it to mean. You can check Fidelity and others as well.
Banks and CUs join ATM co-ops, and those agree to waive fees for members. Most CU are in the same networks (NYCE, MoneyPass, Co-OP, Star) and allow members to use their ATMS, but not all belong to every group. My CU wasn’t ‘friends’ with the CU down the street, you know the one with the easy drive through ATM so if I wanted convenience I had to pay $1.
There are still a lot of privately owned ATMs that do charge a fee for use, and some banks aren’t as friendly as others about fees… My daughter goes to college in a smaller town, and there are no ATMs that take deposits for our institution. She can get money at a few for free, she can take a picture of a check and deposit it (except that she can’t get or send photos with her phone either from that area!), or she can just do direct deposit or send me the checks for deposit. Not that many incoming checks to worry about it, to be honest. There are plenty of banks and CUs there where she could open an account for free, but she’s not that good with numbers or banking, so we’ll just keep her account where it is and do the work arounds.
“There are times when having a storefront bank is convenient. When I needed some Euros…I had to use a Coinstar machine to trade in coins… I’ve had things notarized for free at the CU. I can go to the counter and just put stuff into my kids’ account and not deal with the extra Debit Cards I have for their accounts (co-owner).”
“That’s a lot of storefronts for a country that is changing to online banking only. Many of them were new buildings, like Chase that was new to the area built all new buildings. People LIKE to go into the bank.”
I agree with some of these points. I was a very late convert to online banking, just in the past year or so, but now I wonder why I waited so long. A lot of it has to do with established patterns and comfort levels. But, after some bad experiences with my bank (one that is fairly National) and constantly increasing fees (no longer offer free checks despite a sizable balance) out of principle I decided to go elsewhere. Your point about your coins is the one area I haven’t found a good solution for because Coinstar is a rip-off. The Fidelity branches will notarize. It’s more of a trek than my local branch bank was but needed notarizations are few and far between for me. I never take out foreign currency because I will just take out money from an ATM when I arrive. The exchange rate is better. I do miss the free lollipops.
The younger generation doesn’t have the same established patterns and comfort levels with banks. For them, online banking is the way most will do it. This is the group that uses venmo to settle money owed between them.
At Coinstar you can get gift cards for that same value as you have in coins. I’ve gotten them for Chili’s and Southwest airline, Starbucks. I just make sure they are for places I use often. It was still inconvenient though, as I had to go to a grocery store I never shopped at to use that machine.
I had BOA for years. I can’t remember the ever paying any fees. Most banks offer free checking is you have direct deposit. I use online bill pay so I haven’t purchase checks in the last 5 years or so. I never understand what people are talking about when they talk about the fees their banks charge.
“That’s a lot of storefronts for a country that is changing to online banking only. Many of them were new buildings, like Chase that was new to the area built all new buildings. People LIKE to go into the bank.”
For H’s small business, we go into the bank to make physical deposits of all the checks he might get in a day. It’s important to us to have a real record of it and see someone doing the transaction. For an odd personal check or two, I’d use the outside but for his business we want a banking relationship. Now that I am retired I am now his errand-runner
yes, that’s what happened. but it was for a special teenage account, not a grown-up thing.
tbh, it was another “set of accounts” they sold me…I don’t know why it couldn’t have been a normal free checking but I doubt it had to do with her age–someone probably made more commission on the services.
(but now that I think about it, I also have a savings account for reasons I cant exactly explain. i’m not kidding when I say I have like 10 accounts will WF, none of which actually meet my needs!)
I wouldn’t like to have a savings account. I am trying to simplify my life. That’s absurd. If I have to get a set of account, Wells Fargo is out.
I agree. I may do without branch offices but I do need my bank ATM. $6 per withdrawal is insane. The question whether we need a branch office or not is a moot point. If you have an ATM, it’s likely they will have a branch office nearby.
