747FC

Fidelity Cash Management ATM card has no FTF. I used it extensively in Japan.

007shinobi

Yeah speaking about customer service it seems support for the HYIC account is great, but the Schwab One Brokerage... a lot of the representatives are ill-informed about the check card differences between the Schwab One Brokerage card and Schwab HYIC debit. I was told different things many times about the features of the Schwab One Brokerage visa card. On another note, I had chatted many times on the status of my card and the first rep I talked to said it was already sent on Friday of last week. This week, I contacted them and they said it has not sent out. However, the representative tried to make it up to by expediting shipping and crediting me $15 extra in addition to the expedited shipping. However, I think I may just resort to calling Schwab One instead of using the chat function from now on.

Info about the Schwab One Brokerage Visa Card:
-like Fidelity, uses BNC to handle this service and reimburses immediately
- 10 transaction limit/day whether you do ATM or non-ATM transactions(limit can be reset by calling in every time, though not likely people will)
-$1000/day ATM withdrawal limit, $500 withdrawal limit per a machine(according to a Schwab One rep I talked over the phone, based on acceptance of limit raising request, you can temporarily raise up to $2,000 for a day on an exception basis)
-Schwab does not ever pass the 1% ISA fee whether HYIC or Brokerage check card
-$15,000/day purchase limit

I honestly think Schwab Brokerage is better than Fidelity Cash Management despite both of them going through BNC. As of now, Fidelity also has a lower limit of $500/day ($1000/day temporary raise on an exception basis). They told me you had to have a certain amount of assets with them to have the permanent $1000/day limit.

uds0

State Farm Bank is reportedly an additional resource with no AF no FTF, reimbursed ATM cash withdrawal fee, and perhaps even the balance inquiry fee that Schwab may not cover (per discussions with reps and their disclosure). They have no chip but do have a slight advantage of being able to accept deposits via ATM whereas Schwab provides prepaid envelopes to send in deposits. Both work with ACH so deposits are not much of an issue, but for at least the Schwab savings account (which doesn't require a brokerage account!), setting up the link to another bank required mailing a form and a deposit slip or voided check. That process may have improved by now?

tmiw

I thought that if you go to a Plus Shared Deposit supporting ATM that you could deposit to any account that uses a Visa debit card. I've never tried it though because Schwab isn't my primary bank and ACH is usually fine anyway, but it would be interesting to find out.

007shinobi

Only those who participate in the Plus Shared Deposit program. Schwab also prevents you from deposit from an ATM even if the button is available. I tried to deposit cash via TD Bank atm and it failed with an error telling me to contact the institution.

In my experience at least for the schwab one brokerage and high yield investor account, I can set up the ach links online. I recently opened a schwab one brokerage account by itself with checking features enabled. It says you need a minimum $1000 balance or $100/month direct deposit. However, the reps told me it was a soft cap and they do not enforce it.

747FC

I can't say which is better, but I can say that on my Fidelity withdrawal receipts or statements, there is no evidence of a additional 1% charge. Since I do not have a Schwab account, I cannot test whether there is a difference between the two.

Additionally, my Fidelity Accounts has a $1K/day permanent limit, not $500.

007shinobi

Sorry forgot to mention currently it has a $500/day limit unless you have a certain amount of assets with them. Though I would still be interested in how you got that limit. Whats your temporary increase limit?

747FC

They just gave it to me. I can do eight withdrawals a day totaling the $1k.

Re temporary increase limit, I never asked. $1k per day seemed enough....

747FC

OP: Here is another thread that may be of interest:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...xperience.html

mikemcft

Thanks for the advice. I just applied for Schwab.

seawolf

Seems like VISA (and thus Schwab) exchange rate could be a ripoff.

On March 7, made two back-to-back withdrawals on the same ATM in the same amount (400EUR) in Germany using my CapitalOne 360 MasterCard and my Schwab Brokerage VISA.

CapitalOne posted immediately $434.87 (1.087175 USD/EUR)
Schwab posted this morning $441.40 (1.1035 USD/EUR)

According to xe.com, the rate on March 7 was 1.08428.
According to VISA, the rate on March 7 was 1.103490.

Seems like VISA already tacks on its own foreign exchange fee.

FT777

Well, a guy on the DCC thread said that he had made 3 transactions with the same card overseas and the rate fluctuated about .01. The quoted rate for the day is taken at one particular moment. Just like the stock market, currencies change values by the minute.

seawolf

According to Visa, the rate they charge changes by date not hour/minute. In any case, at no point in time during MAR 7 to MAR 10 was the USD/EUR fx rate 1.10. As a matter of fact, it didn't even hit 1.09. Visa charging 1.1035 when the market rate is 1.085 tells me they are already tacking on a 1.7% fee. Banks like Schwab using the VISA network state they are not charging fx fee which is "accurate" but that's because VISA already took a cut.

tmiw

I'm not bothered by the Visa/MC rates because they do need to recoup the conversion costs somehow. The only way you'll get anywhere close to market rates is to buy and sell currencies on the open market yourself (and there's probably significant minimums to do so, though I haven't looked into it). Visa/MC's are still better than DCC or that Travelex booth in the airport, too.

seawolf

There is no need to do that. MasterCard charged 1.087175. The rate that date was 1.08428. ¼ of a percent higher than market.

Visa was 1.7% higher than market. The point I'm trying to make here is it appears Visa is charging a fee more than 6.5 times more than what MasterCard is charging.

I added links to both Visa and MasterCard exchange rate lookup to the wiki and performed a spot check on about a dozen 2015 dates between USD and EUR. Visa is consistently higher than MasterCard. You pay about $0.01 to $0.02 USD more for each EUR you buy with a "no-transaction fee" Visa vs. a no-transaction fee MasterCard.

If you have a cards from both issuers, MasterCard is the way to go.