aGeist

Posted this on another forum I'm a member of but just thought I'd let people know.

I was using Fidelity as a hub, linking small credit union/banks to it and then ACH Pulling in funds to BP my American Express. This way, my BP would all come from the same place. I did this for my MO deposits from gift cards, I've been hitting Blue Cash hard.

Unfortunately, Fidelity didn't like that I pulled 40k in, in a short amount of time even though my account had been open for 6 months.

I had to go in-branch submit all my statements for the accounts, two forms of ID.

Finally, I sent them another message and they said they would send the funds to a Bank account of my choice but they will no longer do business with me and are closing my account.

This is irritating because I have a Fidelity Amex and Visa which I can still cashout after I get $250 worth of points but the Fidelity Mastercard doesn't use Worldpoints and gives 2 points per $100 spent with no options other than to deposit into a Fidelity account.

Be careful.

Pecan Pie

my fidelity account was closed a long time ago. Back when I didn't even know what MS was. I was using it to bank my ebay money. Once I made a mistake and overdrafted the account by a small amount. They just closed it without even an email or phone call. I found out when my paypal transfer to the account got returned. I was not very happy about it. I called and they were also very nasty about it.. Most banks just charge you a fee for overdrafting but fidelity seems very in intolerant.

commdiver

6 months is hardly any time at all. Fidelity made the right call.

Often1

OP's setup has "RISK" written all over it. Financial institutions don't like risk so they fired OP.

ericdabbs

What happened to your cashback "points" on your Fidelity Amex and Visa cards? Were you able to cash those out?

oohaahouch

define hard?

andres17

I'm assuming OP didn't lost the investment account, just the cash management account. Thus, he can still get WorldPoints credited to an investment account.

Thanks for the headsup, don't use Fidelity as a hub.

P.S. I don't get why OP is a risk for moving 40k into a bank. Can someone explain what is the issue with large ACHs?

hamhead

I don't understand why you'd create a hub account.

I doubt any CC issuer is going to care much if your billpay comes from one account or three-five accounts. It just seems like an overcomplication and a major red flag to the hub bank, which it ended up being.

As for the $40k figure, I read that as he had his account open for six months and moved $40k in and out recently over a short timeframe - not that he moved $40k over 6 months.

I doubt anyone is going to say they are hitting Blue Cash hard if they only charged $7k a month.

aGeist

6k a day, m-f.

I don't think this is true, if you add 30 accounts to Amex, that may set off a flag if you're paying 5x times a month from different accounts and such (which is why I suggest using BoA billpay to ach pull from various accounts).

I think in the future, I'll just ACH pull with BOA BP without a 'hub' account.

floressalicis

My significant other and I use about 10 different checking accounts' bill pay, plus the bill pay of about 8 different prepaid cards to pay off Amex. They don't care, if they even get in that bill pay information the associated checking/prepaid card accounts info.

pier11

my line of thoughts as well

bu08usc11

Shocked AMEX hasn't shut you down too. 30,000/week on the Blue Cash seems bright.

rismoney

this is rediculous. no need for hub especially at a brokerage. i think it is worse to make $500 payments 30 fold to a single entity and subsequently make 15k payment out versus

just make outbounds from all the accts. unless you use specific svcs designed for this.

lingzhou

hmm, I remember I have done the same thing before when I use fidelity to get the UA bonus miles back and forth.

TTnC4me

You clearly have not had a FR or experienced CC scrutiny.