Do You use a Vanguard Advantage Account?

[bertilak]

Do you use a Vanguard Advantage Account?

An advantage account provides typical banking features and conveniences, among other things. Banking features:

• Unlimited check writing
• Debit Card
• Online bill payment
• Overdraft protection

I suppose it makes most sense for those who are already retired and using the account for day-to-day expenses. There are fees associated with this type of account.

Another poll asked "How many are you are paying monthly bank fees". I was surprised that (as of this writing) only 2 out of 78 answered yes, implying that at least 76 of the 78 do not use this handy feature of Vanguard accounts. Thus this poll!

[FabLab]

Call me old school, but for some things I just like to walk into a neighborhood bank and get things done. Face to face.

[Midpack]

Because we have and use electronic fund transfer from Vanguard to our local bank, we have no need to use Advantage. Advantage would be redundant with local bank features. We had similar features when we had our accounts with Fido and it was handy, but that was before electronic transfer was available. YMMV

[cheese_breath]

Because we have and use electronic fund transfer from Vanguard to our local bank, we have no need to use Advantage. Advantage would be redundant with local bank features.

Ditto, except I use a credit union instead of a bank.

[Muchtolearn]

I used ior for a few years. I dropped it for a childish reason. Basically every time a check cleared there were 3 transactions to observe. One was the amount debited from the Advantage account . Second was a credit to the advantage account from your money market. Third was the debit from your money market. Throw that on top of money market dividend reinvestments, distributions from funds to money markets and I gave up. So now I use my Chase checking account for all financial activitties except investing and can transfer between Chase and Vanguard as needed. Now, if they could simply clear a check or EFT or bill pay against the money market accoun at Vanguard, directly, then I would reconsider.

[Grasshopper]

I have a VAA, I use it for everything. I ACH all my CC's and monthly bills. I have only used the debt card for International cash withdrawals, and maybe write 1 check every other month. I still have a free checking account with WFB for deposits, I just transfer $500+ bucks out of Vanguard to pay my BSBC every month and avoid fees.

[asset_chaos]

VAA doesn't take check deposits. I still receive the occasional check. So I'd have to keep a checking account of some kind anyway, which makes it not worth it to use VAA. If VAA could replace a checking account, I'd use it.

[momar]

It used to be my only checking account, but the combination of not having any PNC atm's near me anymore and the hassle of mailing in every check someone gave me got me to switch to a national bank checking account.

It was a lot nicer when I first opened it and Prime Money Market was yielding 5%. Now it's only handy because I have all of my stuff set up to pay into and out of it.

It's free with Flagship (I don't qualify, but apparently having a parent that does is enough and they aren't kicking me out). I wouldn't pay for it now, but I would if MMs ever recover.

[Taylor Larimore]

Many years ago, when we had a Vanguard Brokerage Account, I applied for the Advantage Account. The large amount of paperwork they sent me, turned me off.

Later, we were able to eliminate our Brokerage Account and we now hold all our funds directly with Vanguard.

Best wishes.
Taylor

[bertilak]

VAA doesn't take check deposits. I still receive the occasional check. So I'd have to keep a checking account of some kind anyway, which makes it not worth it to use VAA. If VAA could replace a checking account, I'd use it.

I did not know that! Might be a hassle someday.

The thing is, my relative had everything with Schwab, which included a nice checking account and online bill-pay. When I moved it all to Vanguard (to allow me to get the Admiral shares at a reasonable minimum and reasonable transaction fee) I did my best to mirror the Schwab setup. The Advantage Account was as close as I could get.

Schwab wanted $50 for every trade of a Vanguard fund and one of the funds I wanted had a $100,000 minimum if bought through Schwab!

[momar]

You can deposit checks in VAA by printing out a purchase form and mailing them the check; I don't mean a check you write, I mean any check that anyone writes to you.

[nisiprius]

I've never heard of a Vanguard Advantage Account.

Funny that it hasn't been pitched to me at any point. Might or might not be a handy thing to have. I probably should look into it. Sort of a Vanguard version of Fidelity MySmartCash, or a CMA account, or something of that genre?

I don't even see it called out obviously on their website. Under which category of "What We Offer" would I expect to find it?

It surely isn't mutual funds, ETFs, stocks, 401(k) rollovers, IRAs, College, Annuities, Advice. I tried "Personal Services" but it's not there, either.

It's not mentioned under Account Profile as anything I can add.

Where is it?

OK, the search feature found it.

nother poll asked "How many are you are paying monthly bank fees". I was surprised that (as of this writing) only 2 out of 78 answered yes, implying that at least 76 of the 78 do not use this handy feature of Vanguard accounts. Thus this poll!

???? It looks like there's a $30/year annual fee if you're not Flagship. I guess your point is that you feel it's well worth the fee?

[momar]

Go here to find out about it and sign up:

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/help/FAQVAAContent.jsp

I agree, they make it impossible to find. I had to google "Vanguard advantage"

[Steelersfan]

Because we have and use electronic fund transfer from Vanguard to our local bank, we have no need to use Advantage. Advantage would be redundant with local bank features. We had similar features when we had our accounts with Fido and it was handy, but that was before electronic transfer was available. YMMV

+1

[BHCadet]

Because we have and use electronic fund transfer from Vanguard to our local bank, we have no need to use Advantage. Advantage would be redundant with local bank features. We had similar features when we had our accounts with Fido and it was handy, but that was before electronic transfer was available. YMMV

+1

+1

[Agent9]

Why a fee? I close any account that starts charging me an annual fee. Credit cards included.

I use an online credit union for regular banking (check writing, bill pay, check deposit, ACH transfers) and Fidelity mySmart cash for the ability to use any ATM, anywhere in the world. Fidelity even pays me to use their service by refunding about $100 of ATM fees a year.

[bertilak]

I've never heard of a Vanguard Advantage Account.
...etc. ...
It looks like there's a $30/year annual fee if you're not Flagship. I guess your point is that you feel it's well worth the fee?

Maybe not *well* worth it, but it does simplify my financial life.

I was totally unaware of the Advantage Account until I stumbled across the phrase "unlimited checking" on the Vanguard site. I had already given up on transferring that one account to Vanguard until I found out about Advantage. Another place to look is under the "forms" link at the very top of the page and do a search for Advantage Account in the forms section. They will print out an application for you with your name and address already filled in. (Must be logged in to get that.)

It does seem that they are hiding this. When I noticed "unlimited checking" I did not write down the exact URL where it was and it took a call to VG to find it again. The guy I talked to had only a vague idea that there was something like this available and it took us a bit to track it down. I found the link in my first post and he found the form.

[chipmonk]

It used to be my only checking account, but the combination of not having any PNC atm's near me anymore and the hassle of mailing in every check someone gave me got me to switch to a national bank checking account.

I wish Vanguard would offer remote check deposit for the Vanguard Advantage account. If they did, I could make Vanguard my *only* financial institution and that'd be very handy.

Fidelity is ahead of Vanguard on this front: you can deposit checks into a Fidelity cash account via their smartphone app. Unfortunately, they hold the money for withdrawal for a really long time, about 5 business days. Chase is way better on this front and gets me the money from smartphone deposits in 1-2 business days. With Vanguard, I wouldn't care about hold/unavailability times since I don't plan to withdraw for many years

[asset_chaos]

You can deposit checks in VAA by printing out a purchase form and mailing them the check; I don't mean a check you write, I mean any check that anyone writes to you.

Have you done this? The last time I looked at a Vanguard deposit slip, admittedly not too recently, it said no third party checks. And I can't find anywhere at vanguard.com that says they'll accept a check made out to me for deposit to my account. (They'll accept recurring electronic payments, and they'll accept electronic direct deposit of tax refunds.)

[momar]

You can deposit checks in VAA by printing out a purchase form and mailing them the check; I don't mean a check you write, I mean any check that anyone writes to you.

Have you done this? The last time I looked at a Vanguard deposit slip, admittedly not too recently, it said no third party checks. And I can't find anywhere at vanguard.com that says they'll accept a check made out to me for deposit to my account. (They'll accept recurring electronic payments, and they'll accept electronic direct deposit of tax refunds.)

I've done this dozens of times. I always write "For deposit only" underneath my signature on the back of the check, but I do that with all checks.

I will add that mailing checks to Pennsylvania from across the country and waiting for them to clear at Vanguard is about the slowest possible way to get access to the money!

[beyou]

Between low yield on mmkt funds, and recent ability to buy via EFT from a bank and get same day price on fund purchases,
I don't see a reason to use this service, and I can get it free as a Flagship client.

If you want an online bank, many have much higher yields than mmkt funds (and this has gone on for years now).
If you want branch banking, there are many low cost local banks.
See no reason to do my banking at Vanguard.

[pkcrafter]

I can't find verification right now, but I believe you can hold Vanguard funds and funds from other companies in a single advantage account.

Paul

[beyou]

I can't find verification right now, but I believe you can hold Vanguard funds and funds from other companies in a single advantage account.

Paul

yes, it's a brokerage acct with cash management, like many brokers have.

[RIDL]

I do not see the need for this service for me at this time. Maybe in the distant future when I may no longer want to deal with multiple accounts.

[FrugalInvestor]

We are retired and use the big, bad national bank which we have electronically linked to our Vanguard account. The bank provides us with free (in exchange for one auto-deposit of $250/mo.) unlimited checking including a linked debit card, a very large network of cash machines for when we travel and an excellent online bill-pay system. It also administers our airline rewards VISA card (primary card, secondary is Costco Amex) and provides us with physical locations should a situation arise where it's more convenient to handle something in person (this has occurred upon rare occasions). Another available feature that I utilize extensively are "ShopSafe" virtual credit card numbers. It's a good setup for us and I wouldn't anticipate changing unless the bank ceases to offer the type of account we currently have.

I like keeping our Vanguard investment accounts and everything else separate. The only account linked to our Vanguard account is the checking and I "push" money to it as needed - it contains a maximum of one month's expenses. Everything else is linked to the checking, nothing else to the Vanguard account.

[Kevin M]

I voted yes because I have an advantage account, but I don't really use the features of it. I don't pay any fees, and I don't remember it being difficult to open. Can't really remember why I opened it; probably because it was free and I thought it might be useful.

[Soren Aabye]

You can deposit checks in VAA by printing out a purchase form and mailing them the check; I don't mean a check you write, I mean any check that anyone writes to you.

Have you done this? The last time I looked at a Vanguard deposit slip, admittedly not too recently, it said no third party checks. And I can't find anywhere at vanguard.com that says they'll accept a check made out to me for deposit to my account. (They'll accept recurring electronic payments, and they'll accept electronic direct deposit of tax refunds.)

asset_chaos:

A check that is written to you is not a third party check. A third party check is a check that is written to someone else who then endorses it over to you.