Recently my main spending checking account (Captial One) changed the debit card from Mastercard to Discover card. I didn’t think much of it and changed over to the new card and that’s when the irritations began. I decided that what Capital One did by switching networks was not for the benefit of the consumer but for their own benefit – and started looking for another online bank for a spending checking account / debit card. As an example Discover does not support venmo instant transfer and when I went to book my vacation – VRBO didn’t accept Discover card. Just irritating.
Yes, I use a debit card for everything. No I don’t care about mileage or rewards points. No, I’ve never lost a cent to fraud under the Mastercard zero liability policy. Yes, I’m weird and I don’t borrow money for anything.
Captial One’s customer service is fair. You get an offshore call center where it can be very difficult to understand the agent. I find the technology to be good with the app and the website. So customer service and good tech were my main focus – along with some other features.
I opened a few different accounts and called the customer service numbers to inquire about a few things. Namely, point of sale debit card limits, ATM withdraw limits and fees and ACH limits and transfer times. I tried Ally bank and I couldn’t even get the account to open and then when I called them they just told me they had no idea what happened – no thanks!
When I called Schwab I was shocked. I waited a minute or two and then actually spoke to someone in the US who knew what they were talking about! Wow! They easily answered all my questions and made the account opening process a breeze! I also used the chat feature (which is available 24/7) and uploaded some docs via the secure message service – again it was exemplary service! The customer service is far beyond Captial One and even Vanguard (where I hold the vast majority of our funds).
So why did I go with the Charles Schwab checking account?
- No ATM fees anywhere in the world
- No foreign transaction fees
- VISA debit card accepted nearly everywhere
- Free checks and ATM cards
- High daily spend limit available – $15k per day but you can call them to raise it if needed – love this!
- Very high ACH limits – can send 100k per ACH put the rep was quick to say we can do that multiple times if needed – wow
- Easy ability to move money from brokerage MMF to checking and back – seamless integration
- By far best customer service I have experienced!
So what are the “catches” bc as Momma said there is no free lunch in life. From what I can tell Schawb makes a nice arbitrage on any uninvested cash, the savings and checking pay 0.05%. Not a big deal for me bc I sweep larger amounts into a MMF. You just have to be on top of where your cash is here. The MMF fund fees are much higher than Vanguard. Vanguard Fed MMF fee is 0.11% and the Schwab equivalent is 0.34% (3 times higher). My plan is to keep any money for my portfolio at Vanguard and money I plan on spending in the next 0-12 months at Schawb. I find the higher fees to be VERY much worth the better experience.
Lastly, I do prefer Vanguard’s technology to Schwabs but I don’t find Schwabs to be bad. Its just more geared towards trading and not the boring decades long buy and hold type of investing I do.
