Fidelity as a one stop shop

[CuriousIndexer]

Apologies if this has been answered in this extensive thread, but superficial question, if I overdraft from the CMA and pull from the brokerage account how does it appear in my transactions activity? The reason I ask is I tried just buying a MM fund within my CMA and use that as cash but I really can’t stand how it included the redemptions as an activity as I spend on it. I just like seeing what I’m spending, not the redemptions on MM fund if that makes sense. Thanks.

[DeliberateDonkey]

If market is closed like say after 9/11, can we still get money out if it’s in the money market say with checks, atm, and transfers to checking?

Also, does anyone know how the restrictions work on the prime fund sprxx during times of severe market stress?

Per the prospectus:

The fund may impose a fee upon the sale of fund shares or may temporarily suspend the ability to sell shares if the fund's liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors.

[am]

If market is closed like say after 9/11, can we still get money out if it’s in the money market say with checks, atm, and transfers to checking?

Also, does anyone know how the restrictions work on the prime fund sprxx during times of severe market stress?

Per the prospectus:

The fund may impose a fee upon the sale of fund shares or may temporarily suspend the ability to sell shares if the fund's liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors.

Thanks. That’s a no go for me. I am using the treasury only money market at fidelity which I do not believe has that restriction.

[JoMoney]

If market is closed like say after 9/11, can we still get money out if it’s in the money market say with checks, atm, and transfers to checking?

Also, does anyone know how the restrictions work on the prime fund sprxx during times of severe market stress?

viewtopic.php?t=313331

[nalor511]

Apologies if this has been answered in this extensive thread, but superficial question, if I overdraft from the CMA and pull from the brokerage account how does it appear in my transactions activity? The reason I ask is I tried just buying a MM fund within my CMA and use that as cash but I really can’t stand how it included the redemptions as an activity as I spend on it. I just like seeing what I’m spending, not the redemptions on MM fund if that makes sense. Thanks.

Instead of the redemption you would see the overdraft in the CMA. And a redemption in the Brokerage. Not something to bother over

[drumboy256]

Can someone confirm that any purchases of SPRXX > $1,000 take almost 1 business week to settle to cash available to withdraw?

[stilllurking]

Can someone confirm that any purchases of SPRXX > $1,000 take almost 1 business week to settle to cash available to withdraw?

Did you pull the funds from your bank? ie initiated the request from Fidelity? Or were the funds pushed to Fidelity?
Former does that a week to clear on my experience. Latter should not.

Though it doesn’t matter if it’s $1 or > $1000.

[lstone19]

Can someone confirm that any purchases of SPRXX > $1,000 take almost 1 business week to settle to cash available to withdraw?

No, it depends on the source of funds used for the purchase. If you purchased with funds that were already available to withdraw, the purchase will also be available to withdraw. But if you did an ACH pull from your bank, those funds are not immediately available to withdraw nor will any securities purchased with them. An ACH pull is like depositing a check - they don't know if it's going to get returned.

[drumboy256]

Can someone confirm that any purchases of SPRXX > $1,000 take almost 1 business week to settle to cash available to withdraw?

Did you pull the funds from your bank? ie initiated the request from Fidelity? Or were the funds pushed to Fidelity?
Former does that a week to clear on my experience. Latter should not.

Though it doesn’t matter if it’s $1 or > $1000.

Correct--- ACH from bank account to Fidelity seems to take longer to settle (e.g. 1 business week). It's not a big deal, I was just making sure I wasn't loosing my mind.

[nalor511]

Push the funds from the outside account if you want them quick, do not pull from Fidelity

[Elmo]

Customized Opening Page

Fidelity had the facility on their site about 2 weeks ago to customize the startup page. So, I thought great, I'd like it to open to the CMA that we are now using for checking. Problem is it didn't work. Upon login same page still loads.

Called this morning and they said this feature had been removed from the site. They were going to submit my feedback that I would enjoy having that feature re-instated.

Would you like to have the Customized Start Page re-instated as well?

Of course it is only a few clicks to get to the CMA but I figure behaviorally (which may be why they disabled it) I don't see my investment accounts and thus are not given the opportunity to start pondering them.

Call Fidelity and let them know if you'd like this feature back. 800-544-5315 or Premium Line 800-544-4442 or Private Client Line 800-544-5704.

[drumboy256]

Push the funds from the outside account if you want them quick, do not pull from Fidelity

Got it! Just setup that feature this morning. Thanks folks!

[classicindexer]

Customized Opening Page

Fidelity had the facility on their site about 2 weeks ago to customize the startup page. So, I thought great, I'd like it to open to the CMA that we are now using for checking. Problem is it didn't work. Upon login same page still loads.

Called this morning and they said this feature had been removed from the site. They were going to submit my feedback that I would enjoy having that feature re-instated.

Would you like to have the Customized Start Page re-instated as well?

Of course it is only a few clicks to get to the CMA but I figure behaviorally (which may be why they disabled it) I don't see my investment accounts and thus are not given the opportunity to start pondering them.

Call Fidelity and let them know if you'd like this feature back. 800-544-5315 or Premium Line 800-544-4442 or Private Client Line 800-544-5704.

Ahh, I was wondering if that broke. I had worked around it by updating my Fidelity browser bookmark to be this:

https://digital.fidelity.com/ftgw/digit ... t/Z1234567

Where Z1234567 is your CMA account number

You get redirected to the login page and then after login it should send you to the Cash Management area with your CMA account selected.

[Elmo]

Customized Opening Page

Fidelity had the facility on their site about 2 weeks ago to customize the startup page. So, I thought great, I'd like it to open to the CMA that we are now using for checking. Problem is it didn't work. Upon login same page still loads.

Called this morning and they said this feature had been removed from the site. They were going to submit my feedback that I would enjoy having that feature re-instated.

Would you like to have the Customized Start Page re-instated as well?

Of course it is only a few clicks to get to the CMA but I figure behaviorally (which may be why they disabled it) I don't see my investment accounts and thus are not given the opportunity to start pondering them.

Call Fidelity and let them know if you'd like this feature back. 800-544-5315 or Premium Line 800-544-4442 or Private Client Line 800-544-5704.

Ahh, I was wondering if that broke. I had worked around it by updating my Fidelity browser bookmark to be this:

https://digital.fidelity.com/ftgw/digit ... t/Z1234567

Where Z1234567 is your CMA account number

You get redirected to the login page and then after login it should send you to the Cash Management area with your CMA account selected.

Thank you that works!

[BogleMelon]

Buyers be aware! Rare but could happen... Under specific circumstances, you may get your bill payment bounced. Here is how (my experience):

I had about $6000 in my Fidelity Cash Management Account in the default sweep (FDIC) fund available to withdraw and earmarked for my monthly bills and credit cards.
A few days ago, I pulled another $50K from Ally to the same account (I should have imported them to another taxable brokerage account since I assign the CMA for only the liquid transactions) and that was my mistake.
Once the $50K transaction went through, Fidelity made them (as usual) available to invest. I then invested them in a money market fund (so I had $56K in both FDIC and MM fund in CMA).

The next day, I wanted to separate those mm fund shares and move them to where they belong, i.e the other brokerage account, so I called CS and asked them to move those shares (without selling and buying to avoid any violation since they were not available to withdraw as they were too fresh and haven't settled). The CS did as I said. So far so good, I now have only the $6K in my CMA.

I then went ahead and instructed a couple of my CC to pull few hundreds to pay off the credit cards from the $6K. A few hours later, I received an email from Fidelity that they are bouncing payments due to insufficient funds!!

I logged in my CMA account and saw that the $6K are still there, but the available to withdraw is zero!! That happened almost after a week from the day I initiated the $50K pull.

I called Fidelity and asked and after a while on hold they said when I bought the MM fund the system assumed the $6K was the first to pull from and then the rest was from the transfer (FIFO kind of). Leaving the $6K ending balance from Ally transfer!
I tried to explain that there was no way for me to see that, but Fidelity rep. refused to reimburse any return payments fees by my credit card companies and said (rudely) "you should have known that before"

There are more little details to this, but I wanted to keep it as short as possible. Anyways, never again to combine liquid needed cash with investing. That said, I am back with Ally checking for the bills and CC.

[nalor511]

Buyers be aware! Rare but could happen... Under specific circumstances, you may get your bill payment bounced. Here is how (my experience):

I had about $6000 in my Fidelity Cash Management Account in the default sweep (FDIC) fund available to withdraw and earmarked for my monthly bills and credit cards.
A few days ago, I pulled another $50K from Ally to the same account (I should have imported them to another taxable brokerage account since I assign the CMA for only the liquid transactions) and that was my mistake.
Once the $50K transaction went through, Fidelity made them (as usual) available to invest. I then invested them in a money market fund (so I had $56K in both FDIC and MM fund in CMA).

The next day, I wanted to separate those mm fund shares and move them to where they belong, i.e the other brokerage account, so I called CS and asked them to move those shares (without selling and buying to avoid any violation since they were not available to withdraw as they were too fresh and haven't settled). The CS did as I said. So far so good, I now have only the $6K in my CMA.

I then went ahead and instructed a couple of my CC to pull few hundreds to pay off the credit cards from the $6K. A few hours later, I received an email from Fidelity that they are bouncing payments due to insufficient funds!!

I logged in my CMA account and saw that the $6K are still there, but the available to withdraw is zero!! That happened almost after a week from the day I initiated the $50K pull.

I called Fidelity and asked and after a while on hold they said when I bought the MM fund the system assumed the $6K was the first to pull from and then the rest was from the transfer (FIFO kind of). Leaving the $6K ending balance from Ally transfer!
I tried to explain that there was no way for me to see that, but Fidelity rep. refused to reimburse any return payments fees by my credit card companies and said (rudely) "you should have known that before"

There are more little details to this, but I wanted to keep it as short as possible. Anyways, never again to combine liquid needed cash with investing. That said, I am back with Ally checking for the bills and CC.

Always do investing in a separate account, yes, but that doesn't mean the Fidelity CMA is not still the best bank account (it is). Just do the investing in your Fidelity Brokerage Account. Fidelity CMA > Ally.

[drumboy256]

Buyers be aware! Rare but could happen... Under specific circumstances, you may get your bill payment bounced. Here is how (my experience):

I had about $6000 in my Fidelity Cash Management Account in the default sweep (FDIC) fund available to withdraw and earmarked for my monthly bills and credit cards.
A few days ago, I pulled another $50K from Ally to the same account (I should have imported them to another taxable brokerage account since I assign the CMA for only the liquid transactions) and that was my mistake.
Once the $50K transaction went through, Fidelity made them (as usual) available to invest. I then invested them in a money market fund (so I had $56K in both FDIC and MM fund in CMA).

The next day, I wanted to separate those mm fund shares and move them to where they belong, i.e the other brokerage account, so I called CS and asked them to move those shares (without selling and buying to avoid any violation since they were not available to withdraw as they were too fresh and haven't settled). The CS did as I said. So far so good, I now have only the $6K in my CMA.

I then went ahead and instructed a couple of my CC to pull few hundreds to pay off the credit cards from the $6K. A few hours later, I received an email from Fidelity that they are bouncing payments due to insufficient funds!!

I logged in my CMA account and saw that the $6K are still there, but the available to withdraw is zero!! That happened almost after a week from the day I initiated the $50K pull.

I called Fidelity and asked and after a while on hold they said when I bought the MM fund the system assumed the $6K was the first to pull from and then the rest was from the transfer (FIFO kind of). Leaving the $6K ending balance from Ally transfer!
I tried to explain that there was no way for me to see that, but Fidelity rep. refused to reimburse any return payments fees by my credit card companies and said (rudely) "you should have known that before"

There are more little details to this, but I wanted to keep it as short as possible. Anyways, never again to combine liquid needed cash with investing. That said, I am back with Ally checking for the bills and CC.

This right here is why I have two CMA accounts:
- One for Bills
- One for cash only (MM)

And I've found, as others pointed out, pushing funds to Fidelity is better than pulling. Little things, but as you pointed out, it can be tricky.

[VictorStarr]

Buyers be aware! Rare but could happen... Under specific circumstances, you may get your bill payment bounced. Here is how (my experience):

I had about $6000 in my Fidelity Cash Management Account in the default sweep (FDIC) fund available to withdraw and earmarked for my monthly bills and credit cards.
A few days ago, I pulled another $50K from Ally to the same account (I should have imported them to another taxable brokerage account since I assign the CMA for only the liquid transactions) and that was my mistake.
Once the $50K transaction went through, Fidelity made them (as usual) available to invest. I then invested them in a money market fund (so I had $56K in both FDIC and MM fund in CMA).

The next day, I wanted to separate those mm fund shares and move them to where they belong, i.e the other brokerage account, so I called CS and asked them to move those shares (without selling and buying to avoid any violation since they were not available to withdraw as they were too fresh and haven't settled). The CS did as I said. So far so good, I now have only the $6K in my CMA.

I then went ahead and instructed a couple of my CC to pull few hundreds to pay off the credit cards from the $6K. A few hours later, I received an email from Fidelity that they are bouncing payments due to insufficient funds!!

I logged in my CMA account and saw that the $6K are still there, but the available to withdraw is zero!! That happened almost after a week from the day I initiated the $50K pull.

I called Fidelity and asked and after a while on hold they said when I bought the MM fund the system assumed the $6K was the first to pull from and then the rest was from the transfer (FIFO kind of). Leaving the $6K ending balance from Ally transfer!
I tried to explain that there was no way for me to see that, but Fidelity rep. refused to reimburse any return payments fees by my credit card companies and said (rudely) "you should have known that before"

There are more little details to this, but I wanted to keep it as short as possible. Anyways, never again to combine liquid needed cash with investing. That said, I am back with Ally checking for the bills and CC.

You could avoid this problem by following a simple rule - use ACH push for money transfers.
In my experience, Fidelity has ultra fast ACH. Many transfers are processed in half a day and funds become available by 1am of the same day (eg, ACH push from Schwab to Fidelity or from Fidelity to Wise).

[Eno Deb]

I called Fidelity and asked and after a while on hold they said when I bought the MM fund the system assumed the $6K was the first to pull from and then the rest was from the transfer (FIFO kind of). Leaving the $6K ending balance from Ally transfer!
I tried to explain that there was no way for me to see that, but Fidelity rep. refused to reimburse any return payments fees by my credit card companies and said (rudely) "you should have known that before"

You could have seen that in the Balance tab. There are different limits of cash available for trade and to withdraw.

[BogleMelon]

I called Fidelity and asked and after a while on hold they said when I bought the MM fund the system assumed the $6K was the first to pull from and then the rest was from the transfer (FIFO kind of). Leaving the $6K ending balance from Ally transfer!
I tried to explain that there was no way for me to see that, but Fidelity rep. refused to reimburse any return payments fees by my credit card companies and said (rudely) "you should have known that before"

You could have seen that in the Balance tab. There are different limits of cash available for trade and to withdraw.

I wasn’t suspicious when pulling the CC payments . Just another routine regular payment, and I knew for sure I had the cash in the account setting there.
During the purchase of the mm fund itself is where I couldn’t see/ warned that the system is using my FDIC funds

[JoMoney]

Customized Opening Page

Fidelity had the facility on their site about 2 weeks ago to customize the startup page. So, I thought great, I'd like it to open to the CMA that we are now using for checking. Problem is it didn't work. Upon login same page still loads.

Called this morning and they said this feature had been removed from the site. They were going to submit my feedback that I would enjoy having that feature re-instated.

Would you like to have the Customized Start Page re-instated as well?

Of course it is only a few clicks to get to the CMA but I figure behaviorally (which may be why they disabled it) I don't see my investment accounts and thus are not given the opportunity to start pondering them.

Call Fidelity and let them know if you'd like this feature back. 800-544-5315 or Premium Line 800-544-4442 or Private Client Line 800-544-5704.

Yes, very annoying, having the customized start page set to the CMA had been broken for several weeks (maybe months) now.
I did submit a complaint about that, and now it seems the fix was just to remove the customized start page option altogether

Also horrible, is if you turn on their "Beta View" the new "Beta" layout hides the "Manage Cash" feature under a "More" tab, so you have additional clicks to get there.

One work around I've taken to, is just to change my Fidelity shortcut/favorite to be:

Code: Select all

 
https://digital.fidelity.com/ftgw/digital/cashmanagement

going directly to that link takes me immediately to the CMA Manage Cash view (after login.)

[spammagnet]

... And I've found, as others pointed out, pushing funds to Fidelity is better than pulling. Little things, but as you pointed out, it can be tricky.

I've found the opposite, in my experience. That's true with Bank of America, at least, which charges a fee for faster transfers. Pulling from Fidelity is faster than pushing from Bank of America, since I'm unwilling to pay for the privilege.

My only transfer activity between the two is moving my Preferred Rewards monthly credit card cash bonuses to Fidelity. The small amounts involved may affect the speed with which Fidelity makes it available.

[lstone19]

... And I've found, as others pointed out, pushing funds to Fidelity is better than pulling. Little things, but as you pointed out, it can be tricky.

I've found the opposite, in my experience. That's true with Bank of America, at least, which charges a fee for faster transfers. Pulling from Fidelity is faster than pushing from Bank of America, since I'm unwilling to pay for the privilege.

While it is generally better to push money, pushing from a bank that charges a fee like BofA is obviously an exception. What you're going to do with the money will make a difference. If you need it as "cash to withdraw," pulling will be slower before it's available; if you need it to invest, given Fidelity makes it immediately available for investment, pulling will be faster. Most of the complaints are from people who want to transfer money to be quickly withdrawn and get tripped up by Fidelity's clearance time for pulled money.

[JoMoney]

... Most of the complaints are from people who want to transfer money to be quickly withdrawn and get tripped up by Fidelity's clearance time for pulled money.

If people took the "one stop shop" to heart, you can avoid all of that by simply not having money spread all around different financial institutions, money transfers between Fidelity accounts are available immediately

[BoglesBeagle]

I recognize not everyone will want to go this route, but enabling margin on an overdraft-linked brokerage account, with some marginable asset in it, is a great workaround for the funds availability quirks. (The CMA itself can’t have margin.)

On the brokerage account, “Cash available to withdraw with margin” will be the excess of the maintenance requirement on the security (say, 70% of the value of a normal stock/ETF position with a 30% margin minimum). With overdraft enabled, this is implicitly true on the CMA as well, although its Balances view won’t show it that way explicitly.

Margin interest is only charged when the account balance actually goes negative for at least a day, so as long as the withdrawal follows the deposit there won’t be interest (even if it would otherwise fall within a hold period). There also seems to be some de minimis threshold, since I’ve occasionally had a month-to-date margin interest accrued of a few cents that seems to disappear instead of being journaled to the account.

[lstone19]

If people took the "one stop shop" to heart, you can avoid all of that by simply not having money spread all around different financial institutions, money transfers between Fidelity accounts are available immediately

Since you brought that up, I think a true "one stop shop" is a very bad idea. I am in the process of moving most of my checking activity from a credit union to a Fidelity CMA. Yet, I will still keep the credit union account open (as well as a "big bank" checking account) as a form of risk protection. And, I just moved a good sized chunk to a different brokerage. Why? As an emergency fund but not the usual use of EF here. It's in case something happens to Fidelity's systems or I lock myself out of my Fidelity account. So maybe a better thought would be "Fidelity as a 99% shop."

[JoMoney]

If people took the "one stop shop" to heart, you can avoid all of that by simply not having money spread all around different financial institutions, money transfers between Fidelity accounts are available immediately

Since you brought that up, I think a true "one stop shop" is a very bad idea. I am in the process of moving most of my checking activity from a credit union to a Fidelity CMA. Yet, I will still keep the credit union account open (as well as a "big bank" checking account) as a form of risk protection. And, I just moved a good sized chunk to a different brokerage. Why? As an emergency fund but not the usual use of EF here. It's in case something happens to Fidelity's systems or I lock myself out of my Fidelity account. So maybe a better thought would be "Fidelity as a 99% shop."

I'm a big proponent that people should have some physical cash around for emergencies.

[drumboy256]

If people took the "one stop shop" to heart, you can avoid all of that by simply not having money spread all around different financial institutions, money transfers between Fidelity accounts are available immediately

Since you brought that up, I think a true "one stop shop" is a very bad idea. I am in the process of moving most of my checking activity from a credit union to a Fidelity CMA. Yet, I will still keep the credit union account open (as well as a "big bank" checking account) as a form of risk protection. And, I just moved a good sized chunk to a different brokerage. Why? As an emergency fund but not the usual use of EF here. It's in case something happens to Fidelity's systems or I lock myself out of my Fidelity account. So maybe a better thought would be "Fidelity as a 99% shop."

I'm pretty much in this boat as the 1's and 0's for most cash flow works better and more "instant" at my local credit union. That said, I do love the convenience of Fidelity for all things investing.

[BogleMelon]

... Most of the complaints are from people who want to transfer money to be quickly withdrawn and get tripped up by Fidelity's clearance time for pulled money.

If people took the "one stop shop" to heart, you can avoid all of that by simply not having money spread all around different financial institutions, money transfers between Fidelity accounts are available immediately

That could be not always true either. Moving money from one account to another in Fidelity will take a day or two so it can be available for withdrawal (given the money is in a money market fund, in other words, the settlement time is for selling the money market fund)

[Lyrrad]

That could be not always true either. Moving money from one account to another in Fidelity will take a day or two so it can be available for withdrawal (given the money is in a money market fund, in other words, the settlement time is for selling the money market fund)

In general, I disagree. I am able to move cash or Fidelity money market fund shares from one Fidelity account to another and have it available for withdrawal immediately, even on a weekend or to withdraw from an ATM, and even if all the funds in the originating account is invested in a Fidelity money market fund.