Fidelity Cash Management a Year Later

[Surewhitey]

I'm one who acted on your tip & have used the account for funding CDs with my extra cash. I've also opened a 2% card (another smaller bonus) and opened an account for MIL. I personally like the website and app alot & have sold it to friends.

I'm going to look deeper into the MM as I've also been irk'd by the 2.7% although it has only pushed me to keep at the CDs... My Vanguard MM otoh is at 5.3%...

 

[audreyh1]

I called them, and confirmed that they charge 1% on all foreign ATM transactions.

Unfortunately you got wrong information. That 1% FTF only applies to point of sale (using debit card for purchases). It does not apply to ATM withdrawals.

 

[daver]

Unfortunately you got wrong information. That 1% FTF only applies to point of sale (using debit card for purchases). It does not apply to ATM withdrawals.

+1

Its unfortunate that the CSRs get this wrong. I've used ATMs to withdraw cash in many countries and always got fees reimbursed and no FTF ever.

 

[sengsational]

...what is a good way to test the behavior to verify that a Money Market in the CMA account will successfully cover overdrafts...

I had purchased SPAXX with 100% of my cash management funds earlier. Today a bill-pay transaction came through and it sold $72.14 of SPAXX and paid the vendor $72.14, and back to a zero balance in CM. Worked as everyone was saying it was going to work. This is a much cleaner solution that I had originally set-up. Thanks to all who paved the path ahead of me.

 

[teej1985]

I had purchased SPAXX with 100% of my cash management funds earlier. Today a bill-pay transaction came through and it sold $72.14 of SPAXX and paid the vendor $72.14, and back to a zero balance in CM. Worked as everyone was saying it was going to work. This is a much cleaner solution that I had originally set-up. Thanks to all who paved the path ahead of me.

You could just open a brokerage account for this function and have it sweep automatically to SPAXX, negating the need for manual purchases.

 

[sengsational]

^ Yes, I already had a brokerage account, and it had billpay. I had everything I needed. It was simple and worked, but then Fidelity offered the $150 incentive. I didn't "get it" at the time, but like I said up thread, they probably were going after "banking business" that they didn't yet have. I probably should have just collected the $150 and not used the account, keeping billpay where it was. But now I've invested the effort getting all my payees (more than ever now), into the cash management billpay, so I'll stick with it.

 

[audreyh1]

I use the Fidelity CMA along with my main bank checking account as immediate spending accounts. I prefer to keep accounts segregated by function, and the other Fidelity accounts are investment oriented.

I first opened the CMA (pre bonus offers) to take advantage of their ATM card with no international fees and refund of ATM fees. It has been stellar in this regard. We had been traveling to Europe once a year. I also eventually moved some of my billpay over to it. I also set it up to NOT overdraft in in case of ATM withdrawal trouble.

It’s the only Fidelity account with billpay enabled apart from DH’s HSA account which only pays Medicare premiums.