Comments on: Schwab Invest First 2% Cash Back Visa Card Approved

By: Phillip

Phillip — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:49:07 +0000

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.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:19:02 +0000

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.

By: james

james — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:21:41 +0000

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.

By: James

James — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:12:57 +0000

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I was able to set my card up to be directly withdrawn from my bank acct monthly.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.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:33:33 +0000

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.

By: Srini

Srini — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:27:58 +0000

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.

By: Cap

Cap — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:22:14 +0000

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.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:17:36 +0000

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.

By: Tom Gartner

Tom Gartner — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:56:12 +0000

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!

By: scott

scott — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:52:44 +0000

> 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

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:38:32 +0000

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.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:40:19 +0000

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.

By: Gregg

Gregg — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:25:12 +0000

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.

By: thomas

thomas — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:47:03 +0000

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.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:17:10 +0000

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.

By: Cap

Cap — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:25:07 +0000

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…

By: Cap

Cap — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:20:25 +0000

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.

By: Cap

Cap — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:18:28 +0000

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.

By: Joseph Worrall

Joseph Worrall — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:03:57 +0000

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.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:35:28 +0000

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.