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Interesting. I was considering opening a second account specifically as a backup card and hedge against lockouts while travelling, and Schwab was high on my lis

Interesting. I was considering opening a second account specifically as a backup card and hedge against lockouts while travelling, and Schwab was high on my list, but it sounds like based on your experience that they are not fit for purpose.

k8svet 3y ago
The way it was explained to me is that this (a glorfied Excel sheet of transfers that get executed at a certain hour of each day) is just how intra-bank securities transfers work and that I mostly got unlucky that (1) the intended recipient was at Schwab (2) whoever was doing these transfers has dyslexia and my account was a number transpose off. For the most part, their customer support has been excellent. I had an ATM in France eat a card, and so I infact have two bank accounts with them. They refund ATM fees, have never given me a hard time about international withdrawals, do support TOTP, albeit in a round-about way, send very prompt email alerts with customizable thresholds. Of all the banks I've had, I'm most happy with them. Just consider if you need access to a physical branch. Luckily, despite my whining, my needs are rather simple.
- ahefner 3y ago
  Thanks for the information!
jrockway 3y ago
I've used Schwab for 11 years and nobody has ever transferred securities into my account without my request. My biggest complaint is not supporting U2F/WebAuthn/Passkeys. My second biggest complaint is that their brokerage billpay was extremely broken and always locked me out of my account. That was always a "call support" type situation. But... they fixed that! They knew the system was bad, so they replaced it with one that's not bad. In general, I think they have done a fine job. I have worked with them to transfer in old 401(k) accounts. I used a wire transfer out of Schwab to buy my apartment, which cleared in less than a minute. I have called support and they have been helpful and efficient. I really don't have any complaints.

k8svet 3y ago

The way it was explained to me is that this (a glorfied Excel sheet of transfers that get executed at a certain hour of each day) is just how intra-bank securities transfers work and that I mostly got unlucky that (1) the intended recipient was at Schwab (2) whoever was doing these transfers has dyslexia and my account was a number transpose off. For the most part, their customer support has been excellent. I had an ATM in France eat a card, and so I infact have two bank accounts with them. They refund ATM fees, have never given me a hard time about international withdrawals, do support TOTP, albeit in a round-about way, send very prompt email alerts with customizable thresholds. Of all the banks I've had, I'm most happy with them. Just consider if you need access to a physical branch. Luckily, despite my whining, my needs are rather simple.

ahefner 3y ago
Thanks for the information!

jrockway 3y ago

I've used Schwab for 11 years and nobody has ever transferred securities into my account without my request. My biggest complaint is not supporting U2F/WebAuthn/Passkeys. My second biggest complaint is that their brokerage billpay was extremely broken and always locked me out of my account. That was always a "call support" type situation. But... they fixed that! They knew the system was bad, so they replaced it with one that's not bad. In general, I think they have done a fine job. I have worked with them to transfer in old 401(k) accounts. I used a wire transfer out of Schwab to buy my apartment, which cleared in less than a minute. I have called support and they have been helpful and efficient. I really don't have any complaints.