Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

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Blue456
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Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by Blue456 »

I am thinking about closing my Ally bank account for various reasons. Would Fidelity CMA account be a viable replacement?
tsm1th
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by tsm1th »

I've done this with success. Only snag I hit was while working as a 1099, getting paid with the brokerage style routing numbers. Fidelity has extra long direct deposit account numbers that some small business bill wire transfer systems had trouble with. YMMV.
frugalor
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by frugalor »

Plaid or other instant verification might be easier with Ally. Also, you might not want to use your Fidelity accounts for some "trial" signups. Why don't you keep your Ally account open and leave the balances zero?

Also, Fidelity won't allow withdrawals/deposits under $10. I don't think they can't do scheduled bank transactions either (I am not 100% though)
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Blue456
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by Blue456 »

frugalor wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 3:49 pm Also, you might not want to use your Fidelity accounts for some "trial" signups.
Why not?
frugalor wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 3:49 pm Why don't you keep your Ally account open and leave the balances zero?
I will probably keep it open for awhile but eventually it will get closed. I don't like having opened accounts to which I don't log in on regular basis.
frugalor
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by frugalor »

Blue456 wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 4:03 pm
frugalor wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 3:49 pm Also, you might not want to use your Fidelity accounts for some "trial" signups.
Why not?
frugalor wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 3:49 pm Why don't you keep your Ally account open and leave the balances zero?
I will probably keep it open for awhile but eventually it will get closed. I don't like having opened accounts to which I don't log in on regular basis.
Just for extra safety. It's my personal opinion though.

You can use a password manger like bitwarden to remember your credentials so you can retrieve them easily. But if you really don't need to use it, then closing it is good. Try out using only Fidelity for a year to see if it will work out.
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retired@50
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by retired@50 »

Blue456 wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 3:16 pm I am thinking about closing my Ally bank account for various reasons. Would Fidelity CMA account be a viable replacement?
How does the interest rate compare?

Regards,
If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. -George Orwell
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William4u
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by William4u »

Fidelity interest rates are close to Ally's 1% now... 0.69% for Fidelity CMA account, and 0.99% for Fidelity Government Money Market.
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Blue456
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by Blue456 »

William4u wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 6:15 pm Fidelity interest rates are close to Ally's 1% now... 0.69% for Fidelity CMA account, and 0.99% for Fidelity Government Money Market.
I was planning to use NY municipal money market to pay less taxes :)...
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Tyrael314
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by Tyrael314 »

There is a thread on here somewhere about using Fidelity as a one stop shop for all financial needs.

Might be worth checking out.
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Drew31
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by Drew31 »

I’ve enjoyed Fidelity CMA as my main checking so I’d be one to recommend this approach. I still do have an Ally account that I’ve used when MMF were yielding essentially zero since Ally bottomed out at .5%.
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whodidntante
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by whodidntante »

You might want to hook your peepers on this old thread I made. viewtopic.php?t=209884
I still agree with most of what I said there. Fidelity doesn't change quickly.

Funds availability is still the main issue with the account. Funds availability is much better in my brokerage account, so I've gotten in the habit of depositing there and relying on overdraft and manual transfers from brokerage to CMA.
Loandapper
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by Loandapper »

I did exactly this in January and truly couldn’t be happier. Ally Bank’s customer service is terrible. Compared to Fidelity’s customer service, Ally Bank may as well be the central bank of [insert name of some terrible place you’d never want to step foot in].

With Fidelity you get: Unlimited, instant ATM fee reimbursements, free wire transfers, same-day ACH pushes/pulls, and my paycheck is available a day earlier than it used to be with Ally. Not to mention TONS of tools for your portfolio.

I’ve kept $1 in my Ally checking account just in case I needed it. I haven’t.

Definitely do this! You won’t look back - especially not to Ally Bank.
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JoMoney
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by JoMoney »

I've used Fidelity's brokerage CMA account as a bank-like option off-and-on for a very long time. The times where it was useful for me to have a "real" bank, it was necessary for it to be a physical branch, so I don't see that using Fidelity versus an online bank is losing much.

The big feature Fidelity is currently missing that I have needed on occasion, is the ability to issue a cashiers check. They used to offer that, but for some reason stopped offering them "because COVID" ... I don't quite get why that stopped cashiers checks :? but, it is what it is...

Dealing with excess physical cash is kind of annoying with no place to deposit it, but there are ways to deal with it, like simply using the cash to pay bills. For a $1.50 fee at a "Walmart Money Center" I can pay up to $2,000 towards my credit card bill... which is a pretty easy way to soak up any physical cash I have that I'd rather not have on hand.
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cuendillar
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by cuendillar »

I will second (or maybe third) the ridiculous amount of time it takes for Fidelity to get funds posted. This is across my cash accounts as well (debit / credit), so it super annoying. I am not usually in any particular rush, but taking upwards of 10 days to post cash seems way too long to me, especially when the funds are shown as removed from the originating account on day 1 or 2. When I discussed it with Fidelity, I was told they just have a process that they follow and there was nothing they could do. In fact, my last transfer to my Roth account (so not even part of the cash accounts noted above), posted at my bank on Feb 22nd, and still has not posted at Fidelity.
UpperNwGuy
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by UpperNwGuy »

I'm sure Fidelity has the money in-house within a day or two of the initiation of the transfer. They're earning interest on the funds while they take their time posting it to your account. You never see that interest. Schwab does the same. It's one of the ways they pay for their operating costs.
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Re: Any downside of replacing Ally with Fidelity for online banking?

Post by indexfundfan »

You can work around the late availability of funds if you have investments in a margin brokerage account with Fidelity.

When you want to move money to the Fidelity CMA, transfer it to your investment account, then from your investment account, submit a money transfer of the same amount to the CMA. The money will be available immediately for use in your CMA. The money-hold will happen in the investment account instead of the CMA.
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