Fidelity as a one stop shop

[nalor511]

Put in a buy order in your CMA for FZDXX using all available cash. Currently paying 3.04%

https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutua ... /31617H805

that was the conclusion I came to! if i need to transfer money to another (external) acct will these funds be converted automatically or will i need to sell them first?!

Transfer -> cash -> $x.xx -> they get liquidated automatically (as long as you do not have margin)

+1, I confirm it works that way for me, my CMA is 100% SPRXX and I pay my mortgage and CC bills out of it via ACH pulls by the mortgage servicer/CC companies.

Will all MMFs auto-liquidate to pay bills? I'm putting all my cash in FDLXX, and setting up bill pays. Would that work?

Two calls to two reps resulted in two different and conflicting answers . I'm surprised Fidelity doesn't have this clearly stated on their website somewhere, forcing me to resort to asking here.

Yes, it works. You can tell after you buy it, click balance, and it will show 'cash available to withdraw' <-- as long as you have enough balance here for your withdrawal, you're good

[MrJones]

Will all MMFs auto-liquidate to pay bills? I'm putting all my cash in FDLXX, and setting up bill pays. Would that work?

Two calls to two reps resulted in two different and conflicting answers . I'm surprised Fidelity doesn't have this clearly stated on their website somewhere, forcing me to resort to asking here.

Yes, it works. You can tell after you buy it, click balance, and it will show 'cash available to withdraw' <-- as long as you have enough balance here for your withdrawal, you're good

Excellent, thanks a ton!

For others' reference: I see "Available balance" as a box here. Though I can't find a place where it exactly says "cash available to withdraw", I think it's the same thing you're pointing to, since it says "Amount collected and available for immediate withdrawal. This balance includes both Core and other Fidelity Money Market funds held in each account listed within Manage Cash & Cards." if I hover over it.

[nalor511]

Will all MMFs auto-liquidate to pay bills? I'm putting all my cash in FDLXX, and setting up bill pays. Would that work?

Two calls to two reps resulted in two different and conflicting answers . I'm surprised Fidelity doesn't have this clearly stated on their website somewhere, forcing me to resort to asking here.

Yes, it works. You can tell after you buy it, click balance, and it will show 'cash available to withdraw' <-- as long as you have enough balance here for your withdrawal, you're good

Excellent, thanks a ton!

For others' reference: I see "Available balance" as a box here. Though I can't find a place where it exactly says "cash available to withdraw", I think it's the same thing you're pointing to, since it says "Amount collected and available for immediate withdrawal. This balance includes both Core and other Fidelity Money Market funds held in each account listed within Manage Cash & Cards." if I hover over it.

Share a screenshot with no personal info. It's under the 'accounts->pick an account->balance' tab, near the center bottom. In the app, and on the web. The wording is literally 'cash available to withdraw', anything else is not what you want

[MrJones]

For others' reference: I see "Available balance" as a box here. Though I can't find a place where it exactly says "cash available to withdraw", I think it's the same thing you're pointing to, since it says "Amount collected and available for immediate withdrawal. This balance includes both Core and other Fidelity Money Market funds held in each account listed within Manage Cash & Cards." if I hover over it.

Share a screenshot with no personal info. It's under the 'accounts->pick an account->balance' tab, near the center bottom. In the app, and on the web. The wording is literally 'cash available to withdraw', anything else is not what you want

Thanks for the precise instructions. I realized why I couldn't locate it earlier: I had "Beta view" turned on, and when doing so, 'cash available to withdraw' doesn't appear anywhere. Instead, what I mentioned above appears. Once I turned off Beta view, it appeared exactly in the location you said. Thanks again!

[nps]

After you establish the Standing Transfer Instructions you can transfer either once or do recurring transfers. Money becomes available instantaneously. My transfer limit to third-party accounts is $100K but it may be personalized.

This is great, not sure how I’d missed it before. Once established, can it be done online or do you still have to call?

That's my question also

[VictorStarr]

After you establish the Standing Transfer Instructions you can transfer either once or do recurring transfers. Money becomes available instantaneously. My transfer limit to third-party accounts is $100K but it may be personalized.

This is great, not sure how I’d missed it before. Once established, can it be done online or do you still have to call?

That's my question also

Once established, transfers may be done either online or in a mobile app.
One can transfer funds by calling Fidelity without establishing a transfer order.

[nps]

After you establish the Standing Transfer Instructions you can transfer either once or do recurring transfers. Money becomes available instantaneously. My transfer limit to third-party accounts is $100K but it may be personalized.

This is great, not sure how I’d missed it before. Once established, can it be done online or do you still have to call?

That's my question also

Once established, transfers may be done either online or in a mobile app.
One can transfer funds by calling Fidelity without establishing a transfer order.

Thanks! Can the transactions be initiated online by the other person, or only by the owner?

[CrazyCatLady]

I have a CMA (individual) and brokerage (trust) at Fidelity and I like the idea of being able to hold money in SPAXX (or is there a better state tax exempt option?) rather than my minuscule interest earning checking account so I’d like to start paying at least my monthly credit card bills through Fidelity instead of my bank. However, there are a few things I can’t figure out.

1. How does Fidelity know to liquidate the MMF in my brokerage when I pay bills with the CMA? I’ve read in this thread that there is a free overdraft option, but I can’t find one that lets me connect my accounts.

2. I’ve set up my credit cards as payees in my CMA, but I would prefer to continue to pay through the Chase app for my credit cards and just chose my CMA as my account to use to pay. Is there a way to do that? How will I know my routing number and account number? Will they still sell the MMF in my brokerage account if I pay bills this way rather than through bill pay?

3. How do you get checks? I’d like a couple on hand in case of emergencies.

4. Gas and Electric are on autopay. Is there a way to switch to my Fidelity CMA (this is basically the same question as 2 above).

5. Is there a better MMF to use than SPAXX? My state tax is about 5.25%, so I like the idea of state tax exempt. I would only have a few thousand in the MMF though. I’m currently buying tbills will my extra cash.

Anything else I am missing that you think I should know?

Thanks in advance!

[MrJones]

I have a CMA (individual) and brokerage (trust) at Fidelity and I like the idea of being able to hold money in SPAXX (or is there a better state tax exempt option?) rather than my minuscule interest earning checking account so I’d like to start paying at least my monthly credit card bills through Fidelity instead of my bank. However, there are a few things I can’t figure out.

1. How does Fidelity know to liquidate the MMF in my brokerage when I pay bills with the CMA? I’ve read in this thread that there is a free overdraft option, but I can’t find one that lets me connect my accounts.

2. I’ve set up my credit cards as payees in my CMA, but I would prefer to continue to pay through the Chase app for my credit cards and just chose my CMA as my account to use to pay. Is there a way to do that? How will I know my routing number and account number? Will they still sell the MMF in my brokerage account if I pay bills this way rather than through bill pay?

3. How do you get checks? I’d like a couple on hand in case of emergencies.

4. Gas and Electric are on autopay. Is there a way to switch to my Fidelity CMA (this is basically the same question as 2 above).

5. Is there a better MMF to use than SPAXX? My state tax is about 5.25%, so I like the idea of state tax exempt. I would only have a few thousand in the MMF though. I’m currently buying tbills will my extra cash.

Anything else I am missing that you think I should know?

Thanks in advance!

1. The option is there somewhere on your CMA accounts page to link to another account. I don't recall the page hierarchy, but it's simple to find

2. Yes, click on your account number and it'll give you routing and account number details

3. Same as 1: search for checkwriting in your options

4. Yes, see 2

5. FDLXX. You'll have to do the math on whether 5.25% marginal makes FDLXX better for you, but I think it currently does.

Hope that helps!

[JoMoney]

...
1. How does Fidelity know to liquidate the MMF in my brokerage when I pay bills with the CMA? I’ve read in this thread that there is a free overdraft option, but I can’t find one that lets me connect my accounts.

When you say "my brokerage" are you talking about the CMA account, or having a different brokerage account?
If you buy the MMF inside the CMA (which is a brokerage account) it will automatically debit against the MMF if your core settlement fund (the FDIC bank sweep) is at/reached $0 balance. If you're trying to link it to a separate brokerage account, that takes additional setup.

2. I’ve set up my credit cards as payees in my CMA, but I would prefer to continue to pay through the Chase app for my credit cards and just chose my CMA as my account to use to pay. Is there a way to do that? How will I know my routing number and account number? Will they still sell the MMF in my brokerage account if I pay bills this way rather than through bill pay?

If you have a CMA account and go to "Cash management", "Account Services", "Direct Deposit" - it will give you the ACH routing and account number that's used for ACH Direct Deposit or Direct Debit of the account. Yes, they will automatically liquidate MMFunds you hold in the CMA account if the core FDIC bank sweep has reached $0.

3. How do you get checks? I’d like a couple on hand in case of emergencies.

If you want paper checks (rather than using BillPay to have checks mailed to the recipient) in the "Cash management" section you click on "Order Checks". If you haven't previously enabled check writing on the account you have to print and sign a paper form and send it in.

4. Gas and Electric are on autopay. Is there a way to switch to my Fidelity CMA (this is basically the same question as 2 above).

That's entirely up to your Gas and Electric company. The CMA gives you all the features of a checking account (full ACH accounting/routing number, BillPay -including "eBills", and a Visa ATM/Debit card. So if your current 'autopay' is through a checking account you can do it with the Fidelity CMA account.

5. Is there a better MMF to use than SPAXX? My state tax is about 5.25%, so I like the idea of state tax exempt. I would only have a few thousand in the MMF though. I’m currently buying tbills will my extra cash.

FDRRX is a similar Federal Government MMF at Fidelity, it has a lower ER (so higher yield) and no minimum purchase, so in that regard I consider FDRRX preferable to SPAXX, but that has nothing to do with what state you're in or what you're tax situation is... which I don't know. If you're concerned about the tax impacts you should be looking at a Treasury MMF or a Municipal MMF to compare (which Fidelity has several options for.)

[uaeebs86]

Is there any difference between keeping money in FZDXX at Fidelity in a CMA vs. a brokerage account? I don't use my CMA for anything else right now. I do all my bill pay at Capital One.

I have both, but when I make transfers from my online bank it goes into my CMA first. Is there any reason to transfer to the brokerage account before buying FZDXX?

Maybe to protect against a transfer by someone hacking since I don't have brokerage account linked? I do have everything on lockdown.

[increment]

1. How does Fidelity know to liquidate the MMF in my brokerage when I pay bills with the CMA? I’ve read in this thread that there is a free overdraft option, but I can’t find one that lets me connect my accounts.

You need to (try to) set this up with "Cash Manager." On the website, under "Accounts & Trade" in the upper left, click on "Cash Management." Pick your CMA account. Choose "Account services" and one of the boxes underneath can take you to the "Cash manager tool."

I don't know whether your trust brokerage account is eligible to be named an overdrafting source for your individual CMA account. There is a Fidelity FAQ that says, "Cash Manager funding accounts must be owned fully by the owners of the Fidelity® Cash Management Account they are funding. Eligible accounts include: ... Trust Under Agreement (TRUA)" (with much discussion and examples).

[lstone19]

So a new question regarding buying other MMFs within a CMA. We opened one recently and just received the checks. In the package is a note: "Please note that all checks written from this book are drawn from your Fidelity core account. Other holdings in your Fidelity Account will not be automatically redeemed to cover checks that you write. To avoid bouncing your checks, please make sure you have available funds in your core account."

So is this an exception to them automatically redeeming other MMFs held in a CMA or is this warning incorrect? I don't plan to write a lot of checks from the CMA but was switching to making it my primary bank account.

[JoMoney]

Is there any difference between keeping money in FZDXX at Fidelity in a CMA vs. a brokerage account? I don't use my CMA for anything else right now. I do all my bill pay at Capital One.

I have both, but when I make transfers from my online bank it goes into my CMA first. Is there any reason to transfer to the brokerage account before buying FZDXX?

Maybe to protect against a transfer by someone hacking since I don't have brokerage account linked? I do have everything on lockdown.

I don't know that I understand what other people are imagining with regard to "someone hacking" their account.
The CMA is a brokerage account. You can buy all the same funds and securities in the CMA account as you with the regular "Fidelity Account" brokerage account. The advantage of buying the MMF in the CMA account is if you have a $0 balance in the core FDIC sweep, it will automatically draft against other MMFunds in the CMA.
On the other hand, if you don't care about the FDIC sweep option, or the ATM fee rebates offered by the CMA, you can do all the same stuff with just a brokerage account and have a Government MMF has your default core sweep account. You can enable ATM/Debit, check writing, and BillPay on the regular brokerage account, and it by default already has full ACH routing for Direct Deposit/Debit.

Some people like having different accounts for "bucketing" purposes, the regular Fidelity brokerage account can also trade options and enable margin, and if you don't keep a large available cash balance, and frequently do various trading activity, it's possible to get your cash locked up while it's in between states of settlement.... i.e. if you have a $100 "available for withdrawal" then you sell a security for $500 (that will take 3 days to settle) then buy another $500 security (before the other transaction has settled) it's possible your $100 "available" cash will go to $0 "available for withdrawal" until the settlement has completed.... and for that reason you may want your spending account separate from your trading account.

[nalor511]

So a new question regarding buying other MMFs within a CMA. We opened one recently and just received the checks. In the package is a note: "Please note that all checks written from this book are drawn from your Fidelity core account. Other holdings in your Fidelity Account will not be automatically redeemed to cover checks that you write. To avoid bouncing your checks, please make sure you have available funds in your core account."

So is this an exception to them automatically redeeming other MMFs held in a CMA or is this warning incorrect? I don't plan to write a lot of checks from the CMA but was switching to making it my primary bank account.

It's incorrect. Fidelity MMFs will be autoliquidated.

[CrazyCatLady]

Thanks to all three of you! Now that I know what to look for I will check it out and follow up with more questions if I still can’t figure it.

[JoMoney]

So a new question regarding buying other MMFs within a CMA. We opened one recently and just received the checks. In the package is a note: "Please note that all checks written from this book are drawn from your Fidelity core account. Other holdings in your Fidelity Account will not be automatically redeemed to cover checks that you write. To avoid bouncing your checks, please make sure you have available funds in your core account."

So is this an exception to them automatically redeeming other MMFs held in a CMA or is this warning incorrect? I don't plan to write a lot of checks from the CMA but was switching to making it my primary bank account.

It's incorrect. Fidelity MMFs will be autoliquidated.

That's been my experience as well, perhaps it's just a confusing way of pointing out that any non-Money Market Funds you hold in the account (stocks, bonds, CDs, mutual funds) can't/won't be liquidated to cover a check (or any other cash debit)

[MrJones]

It's incorrect. Fidelity MMFs will be autoliquidated.

That's been my experience as well, perhaps it's just a confusing way of pointing out that any non-Money Market Funds you hold in the account (stocks, bonds, CDs, mutual funds) can't/won't be liquidated to cover a check (or any other cash debit)
[/quote]

+1. No personal experience with this particular situation yet, but overall, I find Fidelity's messaging around auto liquidation in CMA accounts confusing, and lacking badly.

Two of of three online reps that I spoke to initially claimed that auto liquidation will not happen on anything but the core fund (for any withdrawal). Both changed their initial claim after I pressed then to double check. One rep later claimed that auto liquidation was limited to some funds but could not give me a list.

Nowhere (that I can find) is it clearly stated that *all" Fidelity MMFs will be auto liquidated. Nowhere is it stated if Auto liquidation is conditional on the type of withdrawal (check vs ATM vs Billpay vs transfer).

[nalor511]

Nowhere (that I can find) is it clearly stated that *all" Fidelity MMFs will be auto liquidated. Nowhere is it stated if Auto liquidation is conditional on the type of withdrawal (check vs ATM vs Billpay vs transfer).

The Official Fidelity Support Reddit has this information:
https://www.reddit.com/r/fidelityinvest ... _eligible/

While there is not a published list of money market funds that are eligible for autoliquidation, you can determine whether a money market will autoliquidate using the requirements below.

Auto-liquidate non-core money market requirements:
-Fidelity Investments Money Market (FIMM), non-FIMM government, retail prime, and retail municipal funds
-Maintains a stable net asset value
-A liquidity fee has not been imposed

[drumboy256]

Saving everyone a click:

level 3
FidelityTaylor
ModModerator AchievementProlific Commenter+1 ·
6 days ago
Community Care Representative

You're welcome, u/TheBellSystem!

Good news- I can confirm that SPRXX, SPAXX, FDRXX, FZFXX, FDLXX are all eligible funds to be automatically liquidated. Let us know if we can check any others.

[lstone19]

So a new question regarding buying other MMFs within a CMA. We opened one recently and just received the checks. In the package is a note: "Please note that all checks written from this book are drawn from your Fidelity core account. Other holdings in your Fidelity Account will not be automatically redeemed to cover checks that you write. To avoid bouncing your checks, please make sure you have available funds in your core account."

So is this an exception to them automatically redeeming other MMFs held in a CMA or is this warning incorrect? I don't plan to write a lot of checks from the CMA but was switching to making it my primary bank account.

It's incorrect. Fidelity MMFs will be autoliquidated.

Thanks to all who chimed in. As this CMA is intended to be used like a checking account, it will hold nothing but the core and MMFs. If I'm investing, it will be our regular brokerage account. Now that we're semi-retired, keeping savings (including retirement accounts) and day-to-day cash separate makes it a lot easier for me to track how we're doing relative to our SWR.

[JoMoney]

WIth regard to whether your CMA funds will auto-liquidate MMF for a check or other debit, the key thing to watch is the balance listed as "Available to withdraw", that amount should include all the settled cash amounts in the core and other MMF, and is available to be debited/withdrawn from.

https://www.fidelity.com/go/balances/ba ... o_withdraw
Cash available to withdraw
Amount collected and available for immediate withdrawal. This balance includes both Core and other Fidelity Money Market funds held in the account. This balance does not include deposits that have not cleared. Sell orders are reflected in this balance on settlement date and Buy orders are reflected on trade date.

Update frequency: Intraday

[MrJones]

Nowhere (that I can find) is it clearly stated that *all" Fidelity MMFs will be auto liquidated. Nowhere is it stated if Auto liquidation is conditional on the type of withdrawal (check vs ATM vs Billpay vs transfer).

The Official Fidelity Support Reddit has this information:
https://www.reddit.com/r/fidelityinvest ... _eligible/

Oooh, nice, good to know, and great channel overall.

I still wish Fidelity would make this clear on their site, and not on a third party forum, but still, the official presence on Reddit is very helpful to know for future questions.

Thanks for sharing!

[nalor511]

Nowhere (that I can find) is it clearly stated that *all" Fidelity MMFs will be auto liquidated. Nowhere is it stated if Auto liquidation is conditional on the type of withdrawal (check vs ATM vs Billpay vs transfer).

The Official Fidelity Support Reddit has this information:
https://www.reddit.com/r/fidelityinvest ... _eligible/

Oooh, nice, good to know, and great channel overall.

I still wish Fidelity would make this clear on their site, and not on a third party forum, but still, the official presence on Reddit is very helpful to know for future questions.

Thanks for sharing!

It would be a waste of their (our) money to operate their own forum software/hosting/etc when they can do it on Reddit. More money available for transfer bonuses this way

[MrJones]

Nowhere (that I can find) is it clearly stated that *all" Fidelity MMFs will be auto liquidated. Nowhere is it stated if Auto liquidation is conditional on the type of withdrawal (check vs ATM vs Billpay vs transfer).

The Official Fidelity Support Reddit has this information:
https://www.reddit.com/r/fidelityinvest ... _eligible/

Oooh, nice, good to know, and great channel overall.

I still wish Fidelity would make this clear on their site, and not on a third party forum, but still, the official presence on Reddit is very helpful to know for future questions.

Thanks for sharing!

It would be a waste of their (our) money to operate their own forum software/hosting/etc when they can do it on Reddit. More money available for transfer bonuses this way

Well, I'd disagree, but we may be talking about different things here: I wasn't suggesting they host forum software (which BTW, is incredibly, insanely cheap these days), but rather, to write a few sentences on how MMF auto liquidation works, on their website for reference, where I (a new CMA user) can simply read it and avoid having to research or call:

- They pay way more than necessary in support calls because of this lack of clarity: I've had to call them several times to get this info, and each involved them giving me incorrect info and then checking, meaning long calls for them, and me. Multiply that by the scores of users who I bet are calling in to ask about the same thing because the info is surprisingly just not available. All this adds to the cost for existing users

- Even worse, the fact that most of their reps (in my experience) don't even understand how auto-liquidation works in CMA points to poor training, which always costs a company a lot more than ensuring good training. Existing users pay for these costs

- Unavailability of official info means fewer signups potentially, which also results increased costs for existing users

Ultimately, the onus is on a bank to provide basic information about how their product works on their own website. And that is missing here.

[nalor511]

Nowhere (that I can find) is it clearly stated that *all" Fidelity MMFs will be auto liquidated. Nowhere is it stated if Auto liquidation is conditional on the type of withdrawal (check vs ATM vs Billpay vs transfer).

The Official Fidelity Support Reddit has this information:
https://www.reddit.com/r/fidelityinvest ... _eligible/

Oooh, nice, good to know, and great channel overall.

I still wish Fidelity would make this clear on their site, and not on a third party forum, but still, the official presence on Reddit is very helpful to know for future questions.

Thanks for sharing!

It would be a waste of their (our) money to operate their own forum software/hosting/etc when they can do it on Reddit. More money available for transfer bonuses this way

Well, I'd disagree, but we may be talking about different things here: I wasn't suggesting they host forum software (which BTW, is incredibly, insanely cheap these days), but rather, to write a few sentences on how MMF auto liquidation works, on their website for reference, where I (a new CMA user) can simply read it and avoid having to research or call:

- They pay way more than necessary in support calls because of this lack of clarity: I've had to call them several times to get this info, and each involved them giving me incorrect info and then checking, meaning long calls for them, and me. Multiply that by the scores of users who I bet are calling in to ask about the same thing because the info is surprisingly just not available. All this adds to the cost for existing users

- Even worse, the fact that most of their reps (in my experience) don't even understand how auto-liquidation works in CMA points to poor training, which always costs a company a lot more than ensuring good training. Existing users pay for these costs

- Unavailability of official info means fewer signups potentially, which also results increased costs for existing users

Ultimately, the onus is on a bank to provide basic information about how their product works on their own website. And that is missing here.

Understood. Same page. Maybe you could point that out in the reddit thread

[MrJones]

Understood. Same page. Maybe you could point that out in the reddit thread

Good idea, will do!

[MrJones]

Ultimately, the onus is on a bank to provide basic information about how their product works on their own website. And that is missing here.

Understood. Same page. Maybe you could point that out in the reddit thread

Done

[burritoLover]

If I don't want a cash mgmt acct (CMA) and I'm OK without FDIC insurance, can I replace a brick-and-mortar bank such as Chase with a Fidelity brokerage account with the money in Fidelity's settlement fund? What am I giving up here compared to Chase? I can still do direct deposit, mobile check deposits, bill pay, ATM withdrawals, write physical checks, etc?

[JoMoney]

If I don't want a cash mgmt acct (CMA) and I'm OK without FDIC insurance, can I replace a brick-and-mortar bank such as Chase with a Fidelity brokerage account with the money in Fidelity's settlement fund? What am I giving up here compared to Chase? I can still do direct deposit, mobile check deposits, bill pay, ATM withdrawals, write physical checks, etc?

Yes, you probably could. Compared to a brick'n'mortar bank you'll be giving up a place to deposit cash, and a place to get a cashiers check (Fidelity offered those, but stopped - supposedly temorarily - durring covid panic, no idea if/when they'll make them available again).
You can enable ATM/debit card, BillPay, check writing on a regular brokerage account, and by default it will have a ACH routing number for direct deposit/debit.
If you do trading of securities in the account, you'll need to be extra careful keeping an eye on the 'available for withdrawal' funds since depsite Fidelity allowing you to trade with funds that haven't yet settled, it draws from the available to withdraw cash first. So if you had $100 available for withdrawal, then exchanged sold/bought $200 of stocks, despite still having $100 of cash in the account until the trade has settled you may not have any available to withdraw cash.

[burritoLover]

If I don't want a cash mgmt acct (CMA) and I'm OK without FDIC insurance, can I replace a brick-and-mortar bank such as Chase with a Fidelity brokerage account with the money in Fidelity's settlement fund? What am I giving up here compared to Chase? I can still do direct deposit, mobile check deposits, bill pay, ATM withdrawals, write physical checks, etc?

Yes, you probably could. Compared to a brick'n'mortar bank you'll be giving up a place to deposit cash, and a place to get a cashiers check (Fidelity offered those, but stopped - supposedly temorarily - durring covid panic, no idea if/when they'll make them available again).
You can enable ATM/debit card, BillPay, check writing on a regular brokerage account, and by default it will have a ACH routing number for direct deposit/debit.
If you do trading of securities in the account, you'll need to be extra careful keeping an eye on the 'available for withdrawal' funds since depsite Fidelity allowing you to trade with funds that haven't yet settled, it draws from the available to withdraw cash first. So if you had $100 available for withdrawal, then exchanged sold/bought $200 of stocks, despite still having $100 of cash in the account until the trade has settled you may not have any available to withdraw cash.

Great - thank you - very useful info.

[OhioAndy]

What balance can I trust to spend in my CMA?

I sold some shares in my brokerage account. It settled. I transferred to my CMA. And I put in an order for SPRXX.

Making up numbers but not far off.

Cash available to trade: $1k
Cash available to withdraw: $5k

In the positions tab: SPRXX $1k and Cash Credit from Unsettled Activity is $4k.

This is a dry run as I do tests before migrating for it to be my primary checking. Looking to pay a credit card bill that is $1500. Am I good to go or do I need them all to get to the $5k first?

[anon_investor]

What balance can I trust to spend in my CMA?

I sold some shares in my brokerage account. It settled. I transferred to my CMA. And I put in an order for SPRXX.

Making up numbers but not far off.

Cash available to trade: $1k
Cash available to withdraw: $5k

In the positions tab: SPRXX $1k and Cash Credit from Unsettled Activity is $4k.

This is a dry run as I do tests before migrating for it to be my primary checking. Looking to pay a credit card bill that is $1500. Am I good to go or do I need them all to get to the $5k first?

The cash available to withdraw usually is the same or less than the cash available to trade. The cash available to withdraw is how much you have available to satisfy payments. So make sure any payments are less than the amount available to withdraw.

[OhioAndy]

What balance can I trust to spend in my CMA?

I sold some shares in my brokerage account. It settled. I transferred to my CMA. And I put in an order for SPRXX.

Making up numbers but not far off.

Cash available to trade: $1k
Cash available to withdraw: $5k

In the positions tab: SPRXX $1k and Cash Credit from Unsettled Activity is $4k.

This is a dry run as I do tests before migrating for it to be my primary checking. Looking to pay a credit card bill that is $1500. Am I good to go or do I need them all to get to the $5k first?

The cash available to withdraw usually is the same or less than the cash available to trade. The cash available to withdraw is how much you have available to satisfy payments. So make sure any payments are less than the amount available to withdraw.

Not the case in mine.

I was looking to see what number I can trust. So withdraw over trade?

Unlikely to be an issue once I move over a few months expenses into the account. But you never know when it will matter.

[heartwood]

Yes, there is relatively easy way if you live not far from Fidelity office.

https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060 ... ctions.pdf

“ Standing Transfer Instructions
Use this form to establish standing transfer instructions to another Fidelity brokerage account registered in someone else’s name. Establishing standing transfer instructions will allow you to request transfers of cash or shares to authorized accounts. ”

Oh, this is excellent on both counts. Exactly what I want, want didn't know that the medallion hassle can be avoided by going to a Fidelity office. Thanks much!

My goal is to monthly EFT from my Fido or BOA or Vanguard account to another person's BOA account. I'm currently manually doing BOA-to-BOA transfers monthly. I noted but didn't pay much attention to your posts until I wanted to do recurring transfers to an account in another name. I remembered the posts and came back. Thanks for the summaries.

Sadly the Fido process is not one I will readily use. I'm not anywhere close to a Fido office. MSGs are a problem as well. Doing bill pay to an individual results in a paper check defeating my aim of EFT.

BOA EFT transfers are easy if you have the recipient's BOA account number, but it's a manual process and won't accept recurring transfers. Bill pay again results in a paper check to an individual.

I can't find a way to make Vanguard work either.

Are there any EFT transfer platforms or options available that might work for me?

[stilllurking]

Yes, there is relatively easy way if you live not far from Fidelity office.

https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060 ... ctions.pdf

“ Standing Transfer Instructions
Use this form to establish standing transfer instructions to another Fidelity brokerage account registered in someone else’s name. Establishing standing transfer instructions will allow you to request transfers of cash or shares to authorized accounts. ”

Oh, this is excellent on both counts. Exactly what I want, want didn't know that the medallion hassle can be avoided by going to a Fidelity office. Thanks much!

My goal is to monthly EFT from my Fido or BOA or Vanguard account to another person's BOA account. I'm currently manually doing BOA-to-BOA transfers monthly. I noted but didn't pay much attention to your posts until I wanted to do recurring transfers to an account in another name. I remembered the posts and came back. Thanks for the summaries.

Sadly the Fido process is not one I will readily use. I'm not anywhere close to a Fido office. MSGs are a problem as well. Doing bill pay to an individual results in a paper check defeating my aim of EFT.

BOA EFT transfers are easy if you have the recipient's BOA account number, but it's a manual process and won't accept recurring transfers. Bill pay again results in a paper check to an individual.

I can't find a way to make Vanguard work either.

Are there any EFT transfer platforms or options available that might work for me?

Zelle or Venmo?

[Eno Deb]

If I don't want a cash mgmt acct (CMA) and I'm OK without FDIC insurance, can I replace a brick-and-mortar bank such as Chase with a Fidelity brokerage account with the money in Fidelity's settlement fund? What am I giving up here compared to Chase? I can still do direct deposit, mobile check deposits, bill pay, ATM withdrawals, write physical checks, etc?

Yes. This is what I'm doing and it works great. I use a separate brokerage account for that because I don't want to intermingle checking with my main investment account. Fidelity does not support cashier's checks and Zelle transfers though (I keep a traditional checking account at a bank for the rare cases where I need those).

[Gadget]

What balance can I trust to spend in my CMA?

I sold some shares in my brokerage account. It settled. I transferred to my CMA. And I put in an order for SPRXX.

Making up numbers but not far off.

Cash available to trade: $1k
Cash available to withdraw: $5k

In the positions tab: SPRXX $1k and Cash Credit from Unsettled Activity is $4k.

This is a dry run as I do tests before migrating for it to be my primary checking. Looking to pay a credit card bill that is $1500. Am I good to go or do I need them all to get to the $5k first?

The cash available to withdraw usually is the same or less than the cash available to trade. The cash available to withdraw is how much you have available to satisfy payments. So make sure any payments are less than the amount available to withdraw.

Not the case in mine.

I was looking to see what number I can trust. So withdraw over trade?

Unlikely to be an issue once I move over a few months expenses into the account. But you never know when it will matter.

If you buy a money market fund with already settled cash, then it is still available to withdraw and pay bills. Money market fund purchases settle at the end of the day.

So in your example, you can use the $5k withdraw limit as how much you can transfer out or use to pay bills.

The $1k available to trade is because you have $4k pending on open orders. Normally, that would be deducted from your amount available to withdraw. But since the order was just for a money market fund that had already settled, you still have $4k available to withdraw, but only $1k available to trade. I suspect on the back end, Fidelity completes all money market fund purchases first at the end of a day, then processes all debits for the account.

At least, that has been my experience. The only tricky part is when people first open accounts, ACH pulls in to the account sometimes take many days so you need to watch your available withdrawal balance. If instead you push funds to Fidelity or you direct deposit to Fidelity, those funds are available instantly to withdraw.

[heartwood]

Yes, there is relatively easy way if you live not far from Fidelity office.

https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060 ... ctions.pdf

“ Standing Transfer Instructions
Use this form to establish standing transfer instructions to another Fidelity brokerage account registered in someone else’s name. Establishing standing transfer instructions will allow you to request transfers of cash or shares to authorized accounts. ”

Oh, this is excellent on both counts. Exactly what I want, want didn't know that the medallion hassle can be avoided by going to a Fidelity office. Thanks much!

My goal is to monthly EFT from my Fido or BOA or Vanguard account to another person's BOA account. I'm currently manually doing BOA-to-BOA transfers monthly. I noted but didn't pay much attention to your posts until I wanted to do recurring transfers to an account in another name. I remembered the posts and came back. Thanks for the summaries.

Sadly the Fido process is not one I will readily use. I'm not anywhere close to a Fido office. MSGs are a problem as well. Doing bill pay to an individual results in a paper check defeating my aim of EFT.

BOA EFT transfers are easy if you have the recipient's BOA account number, but it's a manual process and won't accept recurring transfers. Bill pay again results in a paper check to an individual.

I can't find a way to make Vanguard work either.

Are there any EFT transfer platforms or options available that might work for me?

Zelle or Venmo?

Looks like Zelle can do what I'm looking for. I'll check to see if the recipient has an account and will do a road test soon.

Thanks

[VictorStarr]

Yes, there is relatively easy way if you live not far from Fidelity office.

https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060 ... ctions.pdf

“ Standing Transfer Instructions
Use this form to establish standing transfer instructions to another Fidelity brokerage account registered in someone else’s name. Establishing standing transfer instructions will allow you to request transfers of cash or shares to authorized accounts. ”

Oh, this is excellent on both counts. Exactly what I want, want didn't know that the medallion hassle can be avoided by going to a Fidelity office. Thanks much!

My goal is to monthly EFT from my Fido or BOA or Vanguard account to another person's BOA account. I'm currently manually doing BOA-to-BOA transfers monthly. I noted but didn't pay much attention to your posts until I wanted to do recurring transfers to an account in another name. I remembered the posts and came back. Thanks for the summaries.

Sadly the Fido process is not one I will readily use. I'm not anywhere close to a Fido office. MSGs are a problem as well. Doing bill pay to an individual results in a paper check defeating my aim of EFT.

BOA EFT transfers are easy if you have the recipient's BOA account number, but it's a manual process and won't accept recurring transfers. Bill pay again results in a paper check to an individual.

I can't find a way to make Vanguard work either.

Are there any EFT transfer platforms or options available that might work for me?

There is no reliable way for recurring USD transfers to a third-party accounts that is guaranteed to work for all cases. I am not aware of any good options for recurring ACH transfers to a third party BoA account from BoA or Fidelity.
There are a number of options that may work (ACH Push, BillPay, wires, Zelle, Wise, etc) but none is applicable to your situation.
BoA is one of the worst banks for moving money - they charge a fee for outgoing ACH transfers and don’t support recurring Zelle transfers.

Fidelity has a paper form for almost any situation. Here is “Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Authorization” form you may find useful:

https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060 ... k-wire.pdf

[VictorStarr]

There is no reliable way for recurring USD transfers to a third-party accounts that is guaranteed to work for all cases. I am not aware of any good options for recurring ACH transfers to a third party BoA account from BoA or Fidelity.
There are a number of options that may work (ACH Push, BillPay, wires, Zelle, Wise, etc) but none is applicable to your situation.
BoA is one of the worst banks for moving money - they charge a fee for outgoing ACH transfers and don’t support recurring Zelle transfers.

Fidelity has a paper form for almost any situation. Here is “Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Authorization” form you may find useful:

https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060 ... k-wire.pdf

As an alternative you can use BoA Deposit by mail, and setup BillPay to send a check directly to BoA (set payee as a company):

Deposits by Mail Only Address
PO Box 105576
Atlanta, GA 30348-5576

https://www.bankofamerica.com/deposits/ ... -accounts/
Section "Bank by mail"

[OhioAndy]

If you buy a money market fund with already settled cash, then it is still available to withdraw and pay bills. Money market fund purchases settle at the end of the day.

So in your example, you can use the $5k withdraw limit as how much you can transfer out or use to pay bills.

The $1k available to trade is because you have $4k pending on open orders. Normally, that would be deducted from your amount available to withdraw. But since the order was just for a money market fund that had already settled, you still have $4k available to withdraw, but only $1k available to trade. I suspect on the back end, Fidelity completes all money market fund purchases first at the end of a day, then processes all debits for the account.

At least, that has been my experience. The only tricky part is when people first open accounts, ACH pulls in to the account sometimes take many days so you need to watch your available withdrawal balance. If instead you push funds to Fidelity or you direct deposit to Fidelity, those funds are available instantly to withdraw.

That makes total sense.

I’m basically tiptoeing to the CMA becoming my primary account. Test each function then I will move over more money and give it a go.

The long transfers are definitely worse than my traditional bank, but once I’m set up with direct deposit, most of that concern goes away. And by keeping a big buffer since I’m receiving MM rates in my checking, that also eliminates most of the cash flow concerns.

Not sure why I am so cautious with this transition but I definitely am.

[Thefinancialhobbyist]

So here's a cautionary tale. I have a couple of credit card accounts with Chase, and I pay them with Chase's auto-pay feature. Last month, my automatic payment got rejected. When I called the representative, I read back the routing number and account number. Strangely, the 17-digit account number did not match -- it was missing the first digit. That seemed very strange to me, because I remember setting it up. I copied the account number directly from the Fidelity website and pasted into the Chase website. Then I had to manually type in the number to verify because Chase's website prevented pasting in the account number verification field. They were able to fix the problem over the phone and they removed all the fees and interest. The payment went through successfully the following day.

I totally forgot that I had also set up auto-pay on the business account, which has a different login. This morning I got an email from Chase that said they hadn't received that payment either. I again called Chase. I read the long 17-digit number back to the agent. This time the second digit was missing! So it is not a fluke -- there is some kind of a problem with Chase's website where they only accept checking account numbers with a maximum of 16 digits. And they apparently just drop a random digit if you exceed that.

So far this is the only place where I've had a problem using the 17-digit account number. Nevertheless, I would advise getting the checks and using the shorter checking account number that is printed on the bottom of the checks.

You’re not going crazy; I had the EXACT same issue with U.S. Bank about (60) days ago when I was approved for a new US Bank credit card. I set up the new credit card like I did the current one I have been using with U.S. Bank for the last 3+ years. Lo and behold, the automatic payment was rejected with something to the phrase “account not found”. I freaked out! I have never had an ACH return fee or problem with automatic payments. Luckily an “account not found” return doesn’t initiate a fee. But it does stop me from requesting a CLI for 6 months, as it’s counted as a payment return in their manual review process… . The funny thing U.S. Bank recently pulled the automatic payment for the other credit card I have with them without any issues. After being ping-ponged around different departments, I finally reached an angel representative who explained that the 17-digit account number fidelity uses doesn’t mix well with U.S. Bank and automatic payments. Something about different systems, one being older and newer. When I inputted the 17-digit account number (they monitored me via screen share) and then they refreshed the system, the 17-digit account number was transposed with either a 1, 0, or the ending number was dropped. We tried everything from me inputting it via safari, google chrome, the rep inputting it, etc. nothing worked and we continued to reproduce the same results. WEIRD…

The only fix was to figure out that my 3+-year-old credit card was utilizing the 13-digit account number and to switch the new credit card to the same account number. Then we processed the payment and crossed our fingers… it worked, and everything is smooth sailing.

I have no idea what is going on with U.S. Bank and my particular credit card. I’m sure people here used the 17-digit account number with success. I’m here to tell my story and help somebody one day. If all fails, use a 13-digit account number!

[anon_investor]

So here's a cautionary tale. I have a couple of credit card accounts with Chase, and I pay them with Chase's auto-pay feature. Last month, my automatic payment got rejected. When I called the representative, I read back the routing number and account number. Strangely, the 17-digit account number did not match -- it was missing the first digit. That seemed very strange to me, because I remember setting it up. I copied the account number directly from the Fidelity website and pasted into the Chase website. Then I had to manually type in the number to verify because Chase's website prevented pasting in the account number verification field. They were able to fix the problem over the phone and they removed all the fees and interest. The payment went through successfully the following day.

I totally forgot that I had also set up auto-pay on the business account, which has a different login. This morning I got an email from Chase that said they hadn't received that payment either. I again called Chase. I read the long 17-digit number back to the agent. This time the second digit was missing! So it is not a fluke -- there is some kind of a problem with Chase's website where they only accept checking account numbers with a maximum of 16 digits. And they apparently just drop a random digit if you exceed that.

So far this is the only place where I've had a problem using the 17-digit account number. Nevertheless, I would advise getting the checks and using the shorter checking account number that is printed on the bottom of the checks.

You’re not going crazy; I had the EXACT same issue with U.S. Bank about (60) days ago when I was approved for a new US Bank credit card. I set up the new credit card like I did the current one I have been using with U.S. Bank for the last 3+ years. Lo and behold, the automatic payment was rejected with something to the phrase “account not found”. I freaked out! I have never had an ACH return fee or problem with automatic payments. Luckily an “account not found” return doesn’t initiate a fee. But it does stop me from requesting a CLI for 6 months, as it’s counted as a payment return in their manual review process… . The funny thing U.S. Bank recently pulled the automatic payment for the other credit card I have with them without any issues. After being ping-ponged around different departments, I finally reached an angel representative who explained that the 17-digit account number fidelity uses doesn’t mix well with U.S. Bank and automatic payments. Something about different systems, one being older and newer. When I inputted the 17-digit account number (they monitored me via screen share) and then they refreshed the system, the 17-digit account number was transposed with either a 1, 0, or the ending number was dropped. We tried everything from me inputting it via safari, google chrome, the rep inputting it, etc. nothing worked and we continued to reproduce the same results. WEIRD…

The only fix was to figure out that my 3+-year-old credit card was utilizing the 13-digit account number and to switch the new credit card to the same account number. Then we processed the payment and crossed our fingers… it worked, and everything is smooth sailing.

I have no idea what is going on with U.S. Bank and my particular credit card. I’m sure people here used the 17-digit account number with success. I’m here to tell my story and help somebody one day. If all fails, use a 13-digit account number!

Interesting, I use my Fido CMA to make regular one time payments for my Chase and US Bank CCs, and I used the 17 digit account number.

[3000]

So here's a cautionary tale. I have a couple of credit card accounts with Chase, and I pay them with Chase's auto-pay feature. Last month, my automatic payment got rejected. When I called the representative, I read back the routing number and account number. Strangely, the 17-digit account number did not match -- it was missing the first digit. That seemed very strange to me, because I remember setting it up. I copied the account number directly from the Fidelity website and pasted into the Chase website. Then I had to manually type in the number to verify because Chase's website prevented pasting in the account number verification field. They were able to fix the problem over the phone and they removed all the fees and interest. The payment went through successfully the following day.

I totally forgot that I had also set up auto-pay on the business account, which has a different login. This morning I got an email from Chase that said they hadn't received that payment either. I again called Chase. I read the long 17-digit number back to the agent. This time the second digit was missing! So it is not a fluke -- there is some kind of a problem with Chase's website where they only accept checking account numbers with a maximum of 16 digits. And they apparently just drop a random digit if you exceed that.

So far this is the only place where I've had a problem using the 17-digit account number. Nevertheless, I would advise getting the checks and using the shorter checking account number that is printed on the bottom of the checks.

You’re not going crazy; I had the EXACT same issue with U.S. Bank about (60) days ago when I was approved for a new US Bank credit card. I set up the new credit card like I did the current one I have been using with U.S. Bank for the last 3+ years. Lo and behold, the automatic payment was rejected with something to the phrase “account not found”. I freaked out! I have never had an ACH return fee or problem with automatic payments. Luckily an “account not found” return doesn’t initiate a fee. But it does stop me from requesting a CLI for 6 months, as it’s counted as a payment return in their manual review process… . The funny thing U.S. Bank recently pulled the automatic payment for the other credit card I have with them without any issues. After being ping-ponged around different departments, I finally reached an angel representative who explained that the 17-digit account number fidelity uses doesn’t mix well with U.S. Bank and automatic payments. Something about different systems, one being older and newer. When I inputted the 17-digit account number (they monitored me via screen share) and then they refreshed the system, the 17-digit account number was transposed with either a 1, 0, or the ending number was dropped. We tried everything from me inputting it via safari, google chrome, the rep inputting it, etc. nothing worked and we continued to reproduce the same results. WEIRD…

The only fix was to figure out that my 3+-year-old credit card was utilizing the 13-digit account number and to switch the new credit card to the same account number. Then we processed the payment and crossed our fingers… it worked, and everything is smooth sailing.

I have no idea what is going on with U.S. Bank and my particular credit card. I’m sure people here used the 17-digit account number with success. I’m here to tell my story and help somebody one day. If all fails, use a 13-digit account number!

Interesting, I use my Fido CMA to make regular one time payments for my Chase and US Bank CCs, and I used the 17 digit account number.

Same here, both one time and recurring auto payments with the 17 digit account number.

[JoMoney]

I've never had a problem with the 17 digit account number. It would seem a failure of the financial institution that didn't allow it, since that's within the 4-17 digit account number standard.
That said, it's probably more secure to be "pushing" the money from the Fidelity account, or using BillPay, rather than authorizing another entity to direct debit your account (which probably includes waivers to hold them harmless if they screw it up causing you to bounce checks etc...)

[teamDE]

What are typical account transfer to Fidelity incentives these days? I talked to a rep who said he could do $2500 for moving a little over a million over from Vanguard. Seems pretty good to me. *shrug*

[cspitzer]

What are typical account transfer to Fidelity incentives these days? I talked to a rep who said he could do $2500 for moving a little over a million over from Vanguard. Seems pretty good to me. *shrug*

The offer Fidelity gave me in January was $1,000 per $1 million transferred to Fidelity. I transferred more money than you will be moving to Fidelity at the end of January and early February but will only be getting a $1,000 incentive.

[student]

This is a PSA. Yesterday I transferred money to Fidelity. Late at night, I checked and discovered that it was listed twice in activities but in portfolio it was listed correctly in pending balance, and in pending it was listed correctly. I freaked out. Called them. The CS agent was puzzled too. She said in another screen that she has access to, it was listed correctly. So we both guessed that it was some sort of system thing that would be corrected overnight. I just checked and it is listed correctly now.

Lesson: Don't check stuff late night when systems are updating.

[lstone19]

This is a PSA. Yesterday I transferred money to Fidelity. Late at night, I checked and discovered that it was listed twice in activities but in portfolio it was listed correctly in pending balance, and in pending it was listed correctly. I freaked out. Called them. The CS agent was puzzled too. She said in another screen that she has access to, it was listed correctly. So we both guessed that it was some sort of system thing that would be corrected overnight. I just checked and it is listed correctly now.

Lesson: Don't check stuff late night when systems are updating.

I've seen this as well recently. We moved from Central Time to Pacific Time in October so I'm now more likely to be on the Fidelity website in the middle of the night Eastern Time to see these things. I'd say don't worry about any anomalies you see between midnight and 6am Eastern Time.