Why I Love Charles Schwab
Anyone who reads FFU knows that I am a huge proponent of Charles Schwab.
I have been a Schwab customer for quite a few years now and I keep the majority of my money and investments with them. Even though Schwab has never had “affiliate links”, for years I have been telling anyone and everyone I know that they should switch to Schwab.
Not that the bar is set exceptionally high but I have honestly never dealt with a better bank and the benefits on their checking accounts are insane compared to most banks.
I’ve written many times about how awesome Charles Schwab is and why YOU NEED to get an account with them but if you aren’t familiar here is a quick recap.
- 100% free checking account with no minimums, no monthly fees, no direct deposit, and free checks
- FREE ATM WITHDRAWAL ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD & SCHWAB REIMBURSES YOU FOR FEES CHARGED BY ATMS
- No ATM foreign exchange fees (most banks charge 3%)
- If you call them, someone in the United States picks up the phone almost instantly
“Hard To Beat”
Charles Schwab $100 Sign Up Bonus
For the first time I have ever seen, it seems Schwab is finally offering some sort of sign up bonus for new accounts!
“Schwab Sign Up Bonus”
To get the $100 bonus, you need to deposit $10,000. While that is a pretty high deposit for such a small sign up bonus, the $10,000 can include investment accounts. Although there wasn’t a bonus when I signed up for Schwab checking account way back in 2011, I still rolled over my 410k from my old employer and moved my brokerage account to them too.
While the bonus isn’t that great, to my knowledge Schwab has never offered a sign up bonus and as I stated above, Schwab checking has NO FEES, NO MINIMUMS, NO DIRECT DEPOSIT REQUIREMENTS, FREE CHECKS, FREE ATMS WORLDWIDE, NO FOREX, & EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE. One time I even had to cancel a check and they didn’t even charge me…
While I love the credit cards that Chase, Bank of America, Shitibank, etc offer, I refuse to do any banking with them because they nickel and dime you for every single thing when THEY ARE HOLDING / LENDING OUT YOUR MONEY!
- “You didn’t meet the minimum balance, that will be $8 a month”
- “You used a non-bank ATM, that will be $3 per a transaction”
- “You don’t have direct deposit, that will be $10 a month”
- “You withdrew from an international ATM, that will be a $5 ATM transaction fee and then 3% conversion fee”
Just to put that all in perspective, Schwab has none of the above fees and on top of that, they actually paid me $166.49 over the last year or so to cover the fees that non-Schwab ATMs charged me to withdraw money…
“ATM Fee Rebates”
Of course, I also travel internationally quite a bit so I probably have saved even more in foreign exchange fees since Schwab doesn’t charge that like most banks do.
Sign Up Links
If you have been thinking about signing up for a new Schwab checking account, I highly suggest taking advantage of this offer. To my knowledge, I do not believe Schwab compensates me for referring you.
Full details on the $100 offer can be found below.
http://content.schwab.com/web/retail/cc/referral/index.html?refrid=REFERKRCXV
Recap
While the Schwab bonus isn’t amazing, I always get inquiries from readers asking if there is a signup bonus so I am happy to now say that there is one!
The $100 bonus is certainly nice but I’d recommend (and have recommended) this checking account even when there wasn’t a sign up bonus because IT IS THAT GOOD!
While some people have commented on my old post that there is a hard pull to open the account (for me there wasn’t but YMMV), given the money you will save over the long run, I still think a Charles Schwab checking account is hands down the best option for frequent flyers.
-Parag
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