Comments on: Best Checking Account That Is Not A Checking Account

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:24:52 +0000

Yes. My Core Account is handled by UMB (United Missouri Bank), I would presume it is FDIC insured, but pays a low interest rate. I typically do online transfers into the higher paying Fidelity Cash Reserves Fund (not FDIC insured). The account will automatically sell shares of Fidelity Cash Reserves to fund payment of outstanding checks. I would bet on the collapse of the US Government (including FDIC) and the end of the world before I would bet on Fidelity Cash Reserves going under.

The only downside is Fidelity is not allowed to handle cash deposits (via ATM or at their office). This is rarely an issue and when it is we use our seldom used credit union checking account to handle this.

By: TFB

TFB — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:32:29 +0000

Amiga - The "core" cash in Fidelity mySmart Cash account is deposited in a FDIC-insured bank account. If you buy a money market fund inside mySmart Cash, none of Fidelity's money market funds has broken the buck. I don't expect any of their money market funds to break the buck. Even if one does, I wrote about Breaking The Buck Is Not a Big Deal.

By: Amiga

Amiga — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:14:19 +0000

Please let us have your comments on these money market funds (Fidelity checking account) now that the buck is broken.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:18:11 +0000

At 1.5% interest rate now, Fidelity's not worth looking at!

By: TFB

TFB — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:23:00 +0000

Anon - It says on their website: If you’re not yet a Fidelity customer, please download a mail-in application: mySmart Cash Account Individual or Joint registration (PDF).

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:28:00 +0000

I tried to open an account at the fidelity website. It appears that to open an account, you must be an existing customer. They ask for user id and password. Is there a way around this?

By: Gresh

Gresh — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:33:00 +0000

Schwab also offers most of these features in their SchwabOne accts-different than the Schwab checking. Scwab works through PNC Bank, so although its not technically a 'checking' acct, I have had no problems with any ACH transactions, direct deposit, etc. In particular the free ATMs (rebating all fees charged by other banks) is nice. I am adding the Schwab checking to my brokerage setup because it offers a rebate of the 1% VISA/MC charge on foreign currency transactions as well as the rebate of foreign ATM fees.

My only caveat is that I use ACH and have not used their billpay system so I can't comment on that end.

By: Silicon Shadow

Silicon Shadow — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:59:00 +0000

I had a terrible time with this — getting ACH to work reliably accross the board. The account number off the check often does not work. (routing number is correct though). If you look at the direct deposit instructions, you can use the numbers that this translates to beginning with 399 for account number. It was enough of a pain that I keep and ING electric orange account too and setup automatic pulls from fidelity to bring my pay checks in.

Its nice too since I get paid every two weeks but prefer to see lumps come in twice a month — the extra account serves as a buffer.

Instructions:
http://personal.fidelity.com/accounts/pdf/directdeposit.pdf

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 17 May 2008 02:51:00 +0000

I setup EFT transfers for my SmartCash account for both paypal and my old Bank of America checking account and it works fine using the routing and account numbers off the SmartCash checks.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 08:17:00 +0000

Using billpay to transfer funds to another account by paper check is indeed ridiculous, but works just fine. Since you can mail to just about any payee, billpay can be used to bypass almost all annoying restrictions. Another example of this is the difficulty of setting up electronic transfers between accounts with different registrations. So this is the easiest way I've found to transfer money to my daughter's money market fund account, or to make a payment to her credit card, because it avoids the need to fill out paper forms and run around to get signature guarantees at a bank.