I'm pretty certain this wouldn't qualify as a legitimate cell phone account for the purposes of opening a Schwab account. It didn't qualify for opening a Capital 1 credit card account because it's an account that can be opened by people that are not resident in the US. To open a Schwab account, I would need to provide a cell phone number from a provider like T-Mobile. Schwab or Capital 1 would then search the cell phone providers' customer database to verify the account. This, along with an SSN and other data would then let Schwab determine that you are both a citizen and resident of the US, something they cannot confirm with a Google Fi account.
Thanks, perhaps this would work, I'll have too look into it more carefully.
Yes, opening a Schwab checking account, and I think most other Schwab accounts, requires US residency, it says so in the fine print, which is interesting since I don't need US residency for my other US bank accounts and US-issued credit cards that I have, nor did I have to provide a cell phone number to open those accounts. I'm not sure if there is a way around this residency requirement other than to call Schwab and ask.