I’ve used the free online banking from Charles Schwab as well as Capital One for years and don’t see any fees. Schwab refunds any ATM fees for withdrawing cash, even internationally last I tried. Capital One also has a large partner ATM network.
I’m similar, but I’m with Fidelity instead of Schwab. Using a brokerage as a bank account is an awesome cheat code to getting awesome interest w/o any extra effort. My “checking” is a brokerage account and the cash sits in a money market fund making ~4.5%, which is awesome.
The main downside w/ an online bank/brokerage is lack of access to branch services, like depositing cash or withdrawing specific denominations. I maintain a local bank that doesn’t entirely suck to get access to branch services and leave like $50 in there so they don’t close it, and then just transfer money to/from as needed. All of my regular expenses go through my brokerage “checking.”
I’ve used the free online banking from Charles Schwab as well as Capital One for years and don’t see any fees. Schwab refunds any ATM fees for withdrawing cash, even internationally last I tried. Capital One also has a large partner ATM network.
I’m similar, but I’m with Fidelity instead of Schwab. Using a brokerage as a bank account is an awesome cheat code to getting awesome interest w/o any extra effort. My “checking” is a brokerage account and the cash sits in a money market fund making ~4.5%, which is awesome.
The main downside w/ an online bank/brokerage is lack of access to branch services, like depositing cash or withdrawing specific denominations. I maintain a local bank that doesn’t entirely suck to get access to branch services and leave like $50 in there so they don’t close it, and then just transfer money to/from as needed. All of my regular expenses go through my brokerage “checking.”