Schwab Invest First 2% Cash Back Visa Card Approved
Posted by Cap in Credit Related |You may recall that just about a month ago, I applied for a Schwab 2% cash back Visa card.
Every time I apply for a financial product that requires credit approval, a little bit of anxiety builds up. Will I be approved? Will I get rejected? The horrendous waiting-for-an-answer just like when I tried to ask this one girl to the co-ed dance back in high school… maybe if I had shown her my credit report, she would have said yes…
After weeks of waiting and the occasional checking of the application status, I received an approval message from the online application query tool:
A few days later, I received the card and account related literature in the mail:
A credit line of $5,000 was enough to get me the Visa Signature benefits, which is nothing too special as a Signature card has its pro and cons — but I was a bit surprised by the semi-low credit limit granted to me. Though I rarely spend more than $5,000 per month, there are occasions where I may need to spend over that amount (e.g., buying plane tickets for group of family or friends for a trip).
Hopefully FIA will find it in their grace to increase my credit limit in the future, or I’ll be testing out the no pre-set spending limit “feature” of a Visa Signature card.
All in all, the process was just like applying at any major credit card issuers. FIA Card Service (formerly MBNA) made the process fairly seamless, and integrated their system for the Schwab brand well enough.
After receiving the Schwab Invest First Visa, I promptly opened a Schwab One brokerage account (another inquiry to the credit history), and soon enough linked the Schwab One account to the Invest First Visa card, for future cash-back accumulation (you can do this in the credit card’s online account access).
Because the Invest First Visa card is issued and administered by FIA Card Service, some people may get slightly confused as they’re required to use a different website (schwabbankcreditcard.com) to access their card’s online account services.
Look for a possible full review on the Schwab Invest First Visa in the future where I’ll go over all the nooks and crannies of this cash back credit card.
If you have any question about this particular credit card, feel free to ask. Great wise Cap will steal other people’s answer and copy/paste it in for you.
- Applied for a Schwab Bank Visa 2% Cash Back Credit Card
- Invest First Credit Card FAQ – Official FAQ from Schwab/FIA
- Fatwallet discussion thread on the Schwab Invest First card
- Fidelity Retirement Amex Card – Similar 2% card from Fidelity (more on this later)
22 Comments to “Schwab Invest First 2% Cash Back Visa Card Approved”
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January 30th, 2009 at 7:53 am
“maybe if I had shown her my credit report, she would have said yes…” LOL!
Congratulations on the new card. I applied for that some time ago and was declined. But then, I’m a hurtin’ loser in the credit world. Not forever, I hope, but for now.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Actually, now I remember that I applied for the Fidelity card, not the C.S. Also FIA, so pretty much the same thing.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I don’t remember how. But there is away to associate the card so when you log into your Schwab account it shows. I use the new web interface but i just looked and it is also under the old interface under banking –> credit card. With the new interface I log into a summary page listing my Brokerage, IRA, Roth, Checking and CC accounts. Link to a high yield savings and life is good.
January 30th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
If anyone is able to get Quicken direct connect working with this credit card please let us all know how. So far no go here.
January 30th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Joseph: Matt in the other post on this card mentioned that Quicken users may not be able to get daily transaction update with this card… but I was able to find and add the card in my Quicken Online account. I’m unsure if Quicken Online uses the same database and method to download transactions as Quicken direct connect…
What you can try is search for FIA Card Service and use the account name and password you’ve created at schwabbankcreditcard.com.
January 30th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
444: Yeah the Fidelity card is pretty much almost the same type of card in terms of cash back.. only slight difference is that cash back accumulation can be claimed yearly, instead of monthly as with the Schwab branded one. I wouldn’t worry about getting declined… current environment makes difficult for people with stellar credit too.
January 30th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Paul: Hmm after I linked my credit card account to the Schwab One account, I can now see my credit card account balance in my Schwab Client Service Center (at client.schwab.com). But when I click on the credit card account to see more information, they’ll take me to schwabbankcreditcard.com — reasonable enough since it’s two different system.
Still nice to be able to see balance as I’m logged into the Schwab brokerage account though. Not sure if the linking triggered the credit card showing up there, or they did it automatically and it just took some time…
January 30th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Cap
I had the schwabbankcreditcard.com and I think there was a box or something to set and save the credentials and future visits i just click and it shows me the transactions.
Jospeh,
Quicken Deluxe, Set it up as FIA and you’ll get transactions with each statement. Not daily.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
I have Fidelity which I believe offers a similiar card. I only use 2 cards – cashback AMEX and an Alaskan Airlines Visa for non-amex establishments. I’m building up for my “free” hawaii vacation.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:25 am
Hey – regarding the “monthly cash back” on this card. I received my first statement about a month ago and I had accumulated like 450 “points” (which means thats how many dollars I spent, then multiply that by 2% and thats what is supposed to get deposited into your Schwab account). Well I waited a week and did not see it go into my Schwab acct so I called to check into it and apparently yes, they give you 2% cash back monthly and they pay them when they do a sweep but the sweep is every 90 days. So after talking with this customer service rep, who was pretty patient and nice considering he did not understand the terminology (he thought it was paid out at the end of every month too), but it turns out you get your cash deposited at the end of the cash back cycle, which happens to be 90 days. So pretty much every quarter they pay you your 2%. Hopefully I explained that well enough, but in summation, you accrue points monthly, but Schwab doesnt add them up and deposit them every month, they do that every 90 days. Its still one of the best deals going I think when it comes cash cards if you ask me.
February 8th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Re: Quicken and Schwab cards: if the Schwab card is administered by BoA, likely there is no free way to get daily credit card activity. They used to do it, but stopped about 3 years ago, going to the less useful monthly dump. I find that a real disadvantage in monitoring the account.
I’m about to apply for a Schwab card, mainly to use for foreign transactions without a fee when we travel. Otherwise, Amex cash back through Costco still affords daily transaction downloads to Quicken.
February 9th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
After a call to Schwab customer service, I am still unable to determine if either the Signature VISA or Platinum Plus VISA cards cover the CDW on rental cars, and which countries are excluded.
Does anyone know? Or is this just standard on all VISA cards?
Thanks.
February 20th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
> if the Schwab card is administered by BoA, likely there
> is no free way to get daily credit card activity
I’ve had the card several weeks now. Anytime I login, I see a detailed list of all charges to date — incl “authorized charges”. Eg last week we went out to eat; when we got home, I checked the account and the charges for dinner were already posted — fastest update of any cc I’ve ever had!
Scott
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Scott,
I’m having trouble with the quicken download, have you had any luck? I got it to work through FIA Card Services as the bank, now its not working and I dont want to call because I know they wont know how to help. Thanks!
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:17 pm
I switched to the Schwab card after ExxonMobil took away the Quicken download. I’ve had one statement and was only able to download after the statement closed. Cannot download the daily transactions, although I can see them on the website. This is a downgrade from other cards. I’m hoping that FIA moves into this century and provides the daily download. I do have a successful “direct connect” with my card, but it doesn’t do anything until the end of the month. No error messages, just no transactions.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Nancy: Its probably partly Quicken and partly FIA, since I was able to use Yodlee-powered personal finance management tools and I can see daily transaction on these third-party PFMs. I would suggest a different PFM tool, but if you prefer Quicken then that’s sort of a moot suggestion…
I’m sure either FIA/Quicken will get around to it soon — hopefully, at least.
December 6th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
It’s like these credit card companies go out of their way to somehow scam you. With the Schwab Credit card there is no way to automatically pay your bill in full. Nor are there any alerts that you can set (for example Chase gives you all kinds of options to auto pay your bill, whether you want to pay the full or the minimum etc).
As a result I never got any notifications from them that my bill was due, and each month I kept getting a Finance fee. When I went to set up an auto pay, it requires you to specify the amount of auto pay…I mean how can you know what would charge each month.
The so called cash back is already negated by the finance fee that I paid so far.
Of course I am sure there are some that will say I should know when the bills are due and look for them…unfortunately there are many of us who are interrupt driven…i.e get an email saying a bill is due and we then pay it…better yet automate the paying of the bill.
I think I will switch to using Chase…at least I won’t end up paying finance charges there and get some points towards Southwest airlines.
December 10th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Srini,
I have this card and it is paid automatically at payment date (not 10 days before). You need to call customer service to set it up. I have not paid any finance fee. The card works great. Try calling customer service. However, the Quicken download is lacking. There is no automated download that I can find. It just does not work. Anyway, I am mostly happy with it. Good luck.
December 24th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Srini,
I was able to set my card up to be directly withdrawn from my bank acct monthly. It took a call to customer service and about 6 weeks to activate, so the first month I had to keep track. Not any more! Now I just have two credit cards, this and Costco Amex.
I hate the lack of daily quicken downloads but it works monthly, and you can go to your schwab acct and see daily reports at any time.
December 24th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
By the way, I just looked at my statements, they redeem your “points” monthly; mine are shown as being “redeemed” on about the first of the month, and arrive in my Schwab acct on about the fifth of the month.
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:19 am
I really like this card, the only problem I have is the monthly quicken download.
If you want to do autopay for your full balance, you have to call customer service and they send you a form in the mail. There is no way to do this online.
April 27th, 2010 at 6:49 am
I was shocked by how long the approval process took for this Card. Most major issuers have instant decision in less than 60 seconds when applying online. There’s really no excuse for taking weeks to approve someone, especially if they don’t request any additional financial documents from the applicant – they’re just processing the decision? I had a Schwab rep call me before I was approved and ask me about my brokerage account, to which I replied, “I don’t even want that account unless I’m approved for the Invest First Card. How can it possibly take this long to decide?!” – of course he just said he’d “pass along that feedback.” B.S.