I moved $2k from my regular savings to a Schwab brokerage for a higher yield. My credit union charged me $75 for the outgoing wire transfer. Didn't even think about it until I saw the statement. That wiped out like 4 months of interest gains. Anyone else get surprised by bank fees when moving money to a broker?
I needed to deposit a $750 check from my mom's birthday and figured I'd hit the bank since I was right there. Walked in and there's a barista making lattes and like 4 empty teller windows with nobody behind them. Some robo-advisor kiosk thing in the corner but no actual banker to ask about their CD rates. Had to wait 12 minutes for one person to come out from the back. Meanwhile my Fidelity account lets me deposit a check in 30 seconds from my couch. Has anyone else noticed banks turning into lifestyle stores instead of places to handle money?
I was waiting for my order last Saturday and this retired guy starts talking to me about his portfolio. He told me he's been with the same brokerage firm since 1987 and never once moved money to a bank savings account. Said he watched his dad get burned by bank CDs in the 70s when inflation ate up all the gains. That hit different because I've been sitting on $12,000 in a savings account earning basically nothing. He showed me his dividend statements on his phone and the numbers were pretty decent for just letting stocks sit. Now I'm wondering if I am missing out by being too scared of broker fees and market dips. Has anyone else had a older person talk them into moving cash from a bank to a brokerage?
For years I kept my emergency fund in a regular checking account because I wanted instant access. It earned basically nothing but I figured that was the price of safety. About 18 months ago I moved it to a high yield savings account at an online broker instead of my local bank. My bank pays 0.05% while the broker account gives me 4.2% right now. The transfer takes two business days to hit my checking which still seems fast enough for any real emergency. I had a roof repair last spring that cost $8,600 and the money moved over Thursday and paid the contractor Friday without any issue. Has anyone else found brokers making more sense than banks for holding cash that's just sitting there?
Ran into an old buddy from high school at a coffee shop in Phoenix last month. He works at Chase and when I mentioned I use Fidelity for my trades he actually laughed and said I was throwing money away on fees. I told him my trades cost like $5 each and he didn't believe me. Has anyone else dealt with this weird bank vs broker snobbery from people in the industry?
Went to my local branch near downtown to ask about their CD rates and the teller couldn't even give me a straight answer, kept trying to push me into some managed account. My buddy who uses Fidelity says he sorted this stuff out in 10 minutes online. Has anyone else dealt with this kind of runaround at a physical bank?
I needed a business checking account about 4 months ago and chose a local credit union because their fees were lower. They said I'd have online banking that works just like the big guys do. But their platform crashes every time I try to deposit a check over $2,000 from my phone. Now I'm stuck waiting 3 business days for checks to clear that would have been instant at a regular bank. Has anyone else switched from a credit union back to a big bank and dealt with similar issues?
My regular bank kept hitting me with random fees and the branch manager couldn't tell me why. Switched to a small credit union downtown and they actually picked up the phone on the first ring. The kicker was their loan rate for a line of credit was 4% lower than what my old bank offered. Any one else find better deals at smaller places or is it just my area?
I was grabbing coffee last Tuesday and heard a guy in a suit telling his friend that brokers are for growing money and banks are just for holding it. That made me stop because my credit union savings account has a 4.2% APY right now, which beats my brokerage's money market fund by almost a full point. On the other hand, brokerages give me access to CDs and T-bills that often pay more than bank savings accounts. So which is actually better for someone with $20k who just wants a safe return? Has anyone else run the numbers on this lately and come to a clear winner?
I kept 30k in a regular savings account earning 0.01% APY for like 2 years, thinking it was safer at the bank. Then a buddy showed me his brokerage account pulling 4.5% on a money market fund, and I felt like an absolute fool. Anyone else wake up to how much free money you're leaving on the table?
I needed to move money from my checking to my brokerage account last Tuesday for a stock I wanted to buy. The bank's website said 1-2 business days for transfers but it ended up taking almost a whole week. By the time the money showed up the stock had already jumped 4%. My broker told me if I had just used their ACH link it would have been there in 2 days. Why do big banks still move money so slow in 2024? Has anyone else had this hold-up cost them a trade?
I mean maybe it's just me but after comparing rates for that used Honda Civic last Tuesday the credit union beat the broker by nearly $2,000 over 5 years so why does everyone keep pushing the broker route?
I moved $12k from my Edward Jones account to Schwab on Monday and the fees alone saved me $800 a year. Has anyone else switched and seen a huge difference in fees or returns?
I had about 8 grand sitting in a savings account earning 0.01% APY for years. After reading some posts here, I opened a brokerage account with Fidelity and put the money in a money market fund earning around 4.5%. Yesterday I checked my statements and realized I made over $180 in interest in those 6 months versus maybe $2 at the bank. Has anyone else made the switch and regretted losing the instant access?
My old bank charged me $12 in maintenance fees every month until I finally got fed up and moved my checking account to a local credit union in Phoenix. Has anyone else here made the switch and noticed a big difference in what you keep in your pocket each month?
I had to choose between sticking with my usual bank for a 12-month CD or trying a broker I found online. I went with the broker and got 4.2% instead of 3.7% - that extra $50 on a $10k deposit was worth the hassle of setting up a new account. Anyone else jump ship from their bank for a better rate?
I was on the phone with my friend Dave last night while he was loading plates at his garage gym. He's a electrician by trade, not a finance guy. He asked me why I bother moving my old 401k from my last job into a brokerage account instead of just leaving it at the bank. I told him about lower fees and more investment choices with a broker. But he pointed out that I lost about 3 weeks of market time during the transfer last year because the check got held up. That hit me different because I never thought about the downtime between accounts. Now I'm wondering if sticking with a bank's rollover IRA is actually simpler for someone who doesn't trade much. Has anyone else dealt with that gap period causing problems?
Last Tuesday I moved $12,000 from my Chase savings into a Fidelity taxable account to buy some ETFs. The next day Chase locked my account for 4 days because they flagged the transfer as suspicious. By the time it unlocked, the ETF I wanted had jumped 3%. Has anyone else had a bank go full lockdown just from moving your own money?
Back in 2018 my dad told me to put all my savings into a brokerage account with a big online broker instead of keeping it in my bank's savings account. He said the bank was just giving me 0.5% and I could do way better in the market. So I moved about $12k over to Fidelity and bought what he suggested a mix of index funds. Then 2020 hit and I panicked sold when everything dropped, missing the recovery completely. The bank account would have just sat there and I'd have the same $12k plus some interest. Now I keep most of my emergency fund in a high yield savings account at a different online bank and only invest money I can afford to lose. Has anyone else gotten burned by family advice about where to park their cash?
I set up a simple index fund through their robo-advisor and the fees are like 0.08% compared to the 1.2% my bank was charging on their managed fund, so why wouldn't anyone with a few hundred bucks do this instead of a savings account?
I opened a CD at a small credit union in Austin last month and got 4.2% APY, compared to the 1.5% my broker offered. Have you guys had better luck with credit unions for short term savings?
Back in 2022 my local Wells Fargo banker insisted I keep all my dividend stocks in their managed account to avoid 'hidden fees' at brokers, so I paid $85 a year for their service. After a year I realized Fidelity and Schwab were offering the same dividend reinvestment for free with zero account fees. Has anyone else had a bank advisor steer you wrong about broker costs?
Back in 2021 I was all about buying fractional shares of Amazon and Google through my brokerage every week. Felt like I was getting a piece of the big names without the full price tag. But after about 6 months I realized I was nickel and diming myself with tiny buy fees and the mental math was driving me nuts. So last March I switched to buying whole shares of a single index ETF each month instead. Now I just set one recurring buy for VTI and forget about it. Anyone else ditch the fractional share strategy for something simpler?