How can I add my Fidelity Investments Checking account to Quicken as a Banking Account

MikeBlantz

I am trying to add my Fidelity Investments Checking account to Quicken. When I add it, there is no option to add it as a cash checking account. My only options are Brokerage, 401K or 529.

I tried Brokerage but there is no Online Bill Pay for the account.

How can I add my Fidelity Investments Checking account to Quicken as a Banking Account?

Boatnmaniac

The Fidelity Investments "Checking" account is not really a checking account.  It is a Cash Management Account (CMA).  The CMA account is a Brokerage Account so your setting up the Brokerage was the right thing to do for the first step.  The 2nd step is to go to the General tab of Account Details for that Brokerage account and check "Yes" for Show cash in a checking account. 

This will set up a separate linked checking account (will show up with other Bank accounts).  When you download cash related transactions into the Brokerage account from Fidelity, Quicken will move them into/out of this linked checking account.

Let me know if this answered your question or if you have any other questions.

Boatnmaniac

The Fidelity Investments "Checking" account is not really a checking account.  It is a Cash Management Account (CMA).  The CMA account is a Brokerage Account so your setting up the Brokerage was the right thing to do for the first step.  The 2nd step is to go to the General tab of Account Details for that Brokerage account and check "Yes" for Show cash in a checking account. 

This will set up a separate linked checking account (will show up with other Bank accounts).  When you download cash related transactions into the Brokerage account from Fidelity, Quicken will move them into/out of this linked checking account.

Let me know if this answered your question or if you have any other questions.

NotACPA

Also note that, since Fidelity is a brokerage firm and not a bank, they CANNOT offer a "checking account" BY LAW.

What you've actually got is a "share draft account" that acts like a checking account but there are some subtle legal differences between the two.

MikeBlantz

Thanks for the information. I also learned that I can't do Quicken Online BillPay and need to use Fidelity BillPay.

Ps56k2

MikeBlantz said: I am trying to add my Fidelity Investments Checking account to Quicken

just following ....

Does this account appear as an actual investment - like a MM account - with a mutual fund symbol ?

NotACPA

MikeBlantz said:

Thanks for the information. I also learned that I can't do Quicken Online BillPay and need to use Fidelity BillPay.

I use Fidelity BillPay rather than Q Billpay ... and given the speed with which Fidelity sends the payments, and the multiple reports in this forum of delays in Q payments, I consider that to be another advantage of Fidelity Billpay ... PLUS it's FREE!!!

Boatnmaniac

NotACPA said:

MikeBlantz said:

Thanks for the information. I also learned that I can't do Quicken Online BillPay and need to use Fidelity BillPay.

I use Fidelity BillPay rather than Q Billpay ... and given the speed with which Fidelity sends the payments, and the multiple reports in this forum of delays in Q payments, I consider that to be another advantage of Fidelity Billpay ... PLUS it's FREE!!!

I agree that Bank BillPay and Online BillPay are superior options to Quicken's BillPay...both from a performance and a cost perspective.

I don't have a Fidelity CMA so I don't use their BillPay.  The FIDIR indicates that their DC connection does not support Bank BillPay which means scheduling BillPay payments needs to be done from within the online account.  Is this correct?

NotACPA

That's correct.  I need to originate bill payments at Fidelity's website.

BUT, I can setup recurring payments there (such as my  Homeowner's Association dues) and various utility and card payments are setup to automatically debit my Fidelity account.

There's relatively few transactions that I need to manually initiate,

And, again, it's FREE and I get a better interest rate that I would on any true bank account.

Chris_QPW

I always have to wonder why people choose to want to initiate every payment manually, and as such cause them so much extra work so that doing it from Quicken seems like a requirement to them.

Rocket J Squirrel

Chris_QPW said:

I always have to wonder why people choose to want to initiate every payment manually, and as such cause them so much extra work so that doing it from Quicken seems like a requirement to them.

Simple - I don't trust my billers, especially utilities like gas, electric, phone, cable, & internet. I want to eyeball each bill before paying it. Sounds like you're a more trusting soul.

Chris_QPW

Rocket J Squirrel said:

Chris_QPW said:

I always have to wonder why people choose to want to initiate every payment manually, and as such cause them so much extra work so that doing it from Quicken seems like a requirement to them.

Simple - I don't trust my billers, especially utilities like gas, electric, phone, cable, & internet. I want to eyeball each bill before paying it. Sounds like you're a more trusting soul.

I have had my bills paid by automatic payments for over 20 years.  I have never had an incorrect bill payment.
I do monitor them though.  I might add the very fact that most of them are paid by credit card means that if they did charge the wrong amount, I could dispute it.

Rocket J Squirrel

Chacun à son goût.

Chris_QPW

BTW anyone using Quicken Bill Manager has a lot more "trust" than I do, and in things that have been proven unreliable.

I say that "trust is earned", not a "given".  The billers/financial institutions have earned my trust over my lifetime, with virtually no mistakes.

Quicken Bill Manager schedules bills by logging into the biller's website and using their automatic payment system.  That might sound like the same thing I'm doing, but they are worlds apart.

First off as a human, I can navigate and understand the restrictions, costs and other aspects of each website.  Their "scripts" can't.  I tried using their "Online Bills" for years.  This is just the front part of getting the bill and it couldn't do it reliably, let alone talking about using the same system to pay bills!

What's more I setup an automatic bill payment and I'm done.  It is "pay bill when due".  People are trying to use Quicken Bill Manager to pay bills as they "schedule them".  As in instead of one time and done for setting up a given bill, they are asking the system to put in a bill payment every month for every bill.  That just adds to the odds of something going wrong.

And then there is Check Pay.  Reports of checks not showing up for weeks at a time!

I said that "trust is earned", well Quicken, and their third parties have not earned any trust.

If there is a reconcile problem it is because of something going wrong in Quicken, not at the financial institution or biller.

That is another area that I don't get.  The idea that entering transactions into Quicken is "checking on the financial institution".  What I think is needed is a program to check on what Quicken is doing!

I trust the financial institutions much more than I do Quicken or their third-party services.

I do find Quicken useful for monitoring everything to catch fraud and such.  And for consolidated reporting.  But one has to be an expert in Quicken to make sure that Quicken doesn't give you the wrong information.  Or should I say one has to be an expert on the limitations and bug of Quicken to effectively use it.

Rocket J Squirrel

@Chris_QPW, I hope I didn't mislead you into thinking I use any form of Quicken Bill Pay or Manager. I am grandfathered in to Bank of America bill bay via Direct Connect and it has worked perfectly for decades for free.

Chris_QPW

Rocket J Squirrel said:

@Chris_QPW, I hope I didn't mislead you into thinking I use any form of Quicken Bill Pay or Manager. I am grandfathered in to Bank of America bill bay via Direct Connect and it has worked perfectly for decades for free.

No, I was just warning anyone foolish enough to use Quicken Bill Manager.

Jon

Chris_QPW said:

Rocket J Squirrel said:

Simple - I don't trust my billers, especially utilities like gas, electric, phone, cable, & internet. I want to eyeball each bill before paying it. Sounds like you're a more trusting soul.

I have had my bills paid by automatic payments for over 20 years.  I have never had an incorrect bill payment.

I did once. The whole thing is a long story but the short version is that I disputed a fee on a cell phone bill, the company agreed on the phone they would remove the fee but did not & charged my credit card for the full amount. It was a huge hassle to get my money back, eventually I had to go to the store where I bought the phone & it took one of their employees an hour on the phone before they got through to a supervisor who could credit the charge back to my account. 

So I'm with @Rocket J Squirrel on this one - I want to decide for myself how much money to pay for a given bill rather than letting the biller just charge whatever they feel like. 

Boatnmaniac

I think there seems to be some confusion about what use of autopay is all about.  Autopay is simply an optional process for scheduling and making bill payments...just like hand writing of checks, mailing of checks, paying by cash, hand delivery of payments and individually scheduling BillPays or debit transactions are different options.  None of these options changes our ability and responsibility to review bills and address billing disputes in advance one iota.

There is no blind trusting of billers involved...unless one foolishly chooses to do so.  It doesn't take away our ability to "eyeball each bill before paying it" because statements/invoices are still available well before the autopay is transacted.  That's plenty of time to address any billing issues with the biller and/or to adjust or cancel the scheduled payment if appropriate.

Personally, I have found that setting up automatic payments for almost all of my billers has made managing my finances much easier, less complex and far more reliable than any other payment process.  I will almost always opt to use autopay whenever given the opportunity.  And for added security, if the biller is not a credit card, I will almost always set up the payments to be made by credit card since that provides additional protections for me when there are disputes (and I get credit card reward points for paying that way).

I still use Bank BillPay but only for the oddball bills (3-4 per month) that I can't set up for auto pay on the billers' websites or when the biller (mostly gov't agencies) will charge me a processing fee for ACH or credit card payments.

NotACPA

When I receive a bill that's setup for auto-pay, I input it into Q.  When the actual payment comes thru, the downloaded transaction is almost always matched to what I've input.

If it doesn't match, I need to investigate what happened.  Just the other day, I input a transaction into the wrong credit card account in Q.  It was quite easy to find that error.

mshiggins

Rocket J Squirrel said:

Chris_QPW said:

I always have to wonder why people choose to want to initiate every payment manually, and as such cause them so much extra work so that doing it from Quicken seems like a requirement to them.

Simple - I don't trust my billers, especially utilities like gas, electric, phone, cable, & internet. I want to eyeball each bill before paying it. Sounds like you're a more trusting soul.

I feel the same as Rocket. I prefer to be in control if initiating all of my payments. 

NotACPA

Jon said:

So I'm with @Rocket J Squirrel on this one - I want to decide for myself how much money to pay for a given bill rather than letting the biller just charge whatever they feel like. 

But the biller is going to charge "whatever they feel like" in any event. It's my responsibility, when I receive the bill, to review it while I input it into Q.

If I need to challenge something, THAT'S the time to do so ... not when the bill is actually paid.

And I still get paper bills for EVERYTHING.  That's part of being a former Audit VP ... the "paper trail".

Also note that I split the majority of transactions because the FI's can't possibly know the categories that I use and because even my utility bills have a Sales Tax component, which I can deduct on my Fed 1040.

Chris_QPW

Great point @Boatnmaniac and @NotACPA , and one that I really didn't think to mention.  Every one of my bills sends the bill to me in email long before it is paid.  I would certainly take action before they even charged anything.

And one remark about cashflow.  When you pay bills individually from a checking account you have to monitor the cashflow for every one of those bills.  With the majority of my bills being paid by the credit card, I mostly just monitor that payment for cashflow.  Not to mention I get cash back on that card.

But I would also like to clarify something that was said here:

Jon said:

Chris_QPW said:

Rocket J Squirrel said:

Simple - I don't trust my billers, especially utilities like gas, electric, phone, cable, & internet. I want to eyeball each bill before paying it. Sounds like you're a more trusting soul.

I have had my bills paid by automatic payments for over 20 years.  I have never had an incorrect bill payment.

I did once. The whole thing is a long story but the short version is that I disputed a fee on a cell phone bill, the company agreed on the phone they would remove the fee but did not & charged my credit card for the full amount. It was a huge hassle to get my money back, eventually I had to go to the store where I bought the phone & it took one of their employees an hour on the phone before they got through to a supervisor who could credit the charge back to my account. 

So I'm with @Rocket J Squirrel on this one - I want to decide for myself how much money to pay for a given bill rather than letting the biller just charge whatever they feel like. 

The "disputing" of the bill if it got all the way to it being charged, wouldn't be with the biller, it would be with my credit card company.  Yes, the first step would be to contact the biller, but the second would be to contact the credit card company.

For someone to charge a different amount than you agreed to is fraud.

Like I said I have never had an automatic bill that is wrong, but I have certainly had "strange charges" on my credit card and disputed them.  At that point the biller has to prove that their charge is legitimate.  That is if the credit card company doesn't outright close the card and issue a new one.

This has been a nice discussion, but I don't want to imply that other people's way of doing things is "wrong", it just seems like a lot more work to me.

It is just like manually entering every transaction and then downloading them, seems like a lot of work that isn't really need to me.  But certainly, is a viable way of doing it.

BTW I'm curious.  Has anyone decided not to pay the amount of a given bill because they thought it was wrong?

I'm not talking about you contacting them and working out a solution.  I'm talking about, you just deciding not to pay them (or at least not the full amount).

What I'm curious about what was the reaction of the biller?

Jon

NotACPA said:

But the biller is going to charge "whatever they feel like" in any event. It's my responsibility, when I receive the bill, to review it while I input it into Q.

If I need to challenge something, THAT'S the time to do so ... not when the bill is actually paid.

And I still get paper bills for EVERYTHING.  That's part of being a former Audit VP ... the "paper trail".

But that's exactly what I did. I reviewed the bill, challenged the amount, the CS rep I talked to agreed the amount was wrong & that they would fix the amount before my CC was charged...

and then that DID. NOT. HAPPEN.

The most charitable interpretation is that the CC had already been charged by the time I received the paper bill in the mail and the customer service person I talked to did not notice it was too late to modify the charge. A less charitable interpretation is that they just straight-up lied to me.

The fact is, things don't always work the way you seem to think they do (but see my edit below). You may choose to believe something like that will never happen to you, and you might even be right - after all, in over 40 years of paying bills it only happened to me once. But when it did, it was such a headache to fix that I still remember the details almost 20 years later. Once was enough.

The only other thing I could have done was tell the credit card company to refuse the charge, but that would not have been entirely correct. After all, the rest of the bill was still valid, it was only part of the charge I was disputing. And I wasn't to the point where I wanted to burn bridges with the cell phone company - I wanted to come out of this with a working cell phone, not a paper weight.

At this point, I would much rather fight with a company over how much I owe them than over how much they owe me. The latter fight in my experience is much harder to fight.

Edit: And it just occurred to me that we're talking about different kinds of automatic bill pay. If you're having Fidelity automatically pay your bills on the due date, then you still have control over how much gets paid, which is a much better position to be in. If you haven't resolved the issue by the due date - or if you haven't received the bill by then - you are still able to tell Fidelity how much to pay.

Rocket J Squirrel

Chris_QPW said:

BTW I'm curious.  Has anyone decided not to pay the amount of a given bill because they thought it was wrong?

I'm not talking about you contacting them and working out a solution.  I'm talking about, you just deciding not to pay them (or at least not the full amount).

What I'm curious about what was the reaction of the biller?

This is not a good way to handle a billing issue. It's all computerized, of course, so if you don't speak with a human, the computer will simply note that you didn't pay in full and tack on a penalty and/or interest. A phone rep can override the computer in your favor if you're nice to them and have been a good customer.

Chris_QPW

Rocket J Squirrel said:

Chris_QPW said:

BTW I'm curious.  Has anyone decided not to pay the amount of a given bill because they thought it was wrong?

I'm not talking about you contacting them and working out a solution.  I'm talking about, you just deciding not to pay them (or at least not the full amount).

What I'm curious about what was the reaction of the biller?

This is not a good way to handle a billing issue. It's all computerized, of course, so if you don't speak with a human, the computer will simply note that you didn't pay in full and tack on a penalty and/or interest. A phone rep can override the computer in your favor if you're nice to them and have been a good customer.

Yes, I agree, and that is why I don't really get the point here.  Who can really "pay what they want?".

Either way you are going to have to deal with it the same way, by either convincing the biller to change their mind or by blocking the payment.

The fact whether you scheduled the bill, paid by check or it is an automatic payment doesn't change much of anything when it comes to a bill that is wrong.

NotACPA

@Jon, your point seems to me to be almost entirely about the Customer Rep not following thru on the commitment made to you ... and not really about autopay.

Had you not been on autopay, but initiated everything manually, and disputed the bill ... you would have been in exactly the same situation when you first received the bill.

Jon

NotACPA said:

Had you not been on autopay, but initiated everything manually, and disputed the bill ... you would have been in exactly the same situation when you first received the bill.

I don't think so. I've had other situations where I disputed a charge before the bill was paid, and in every case the front line CS reps I talked to had the power to fix the bill. But in this case, once the bill was paid it was a whole different ball game because none of the people I talked to had the authority to give me my money back after I had paid it. I spent hours on the phone to no avail; I had to go back to the store & it took one of their employees an hour to get bumped up to a level of management that had that authority; I, a mere customer, apparently could not talk to such a person directly.

I've run into similar attitudes in other places wrt returning money to customers. One trivial example: I buy milk at the grocery store in glass bottles which have a $2 deposit. The bottle is scanned at the register just like everything else & the deposit is added on automatically, no special handling required. But when I take the empty back to the store to get my $2 back? I have to go to the customer service counter & talk to a manager. They simply don't trust the regular checkers with the power to give customers their money back, even when it's a routine transaction & there's no dispute involved.

Chris_QPW

@Jon you disputed the payment.  The representative told you that they had fixed it but didn't and got charged to your credit card.

Have you ever had the same situation, and then sent in what you thought was right, instead of what was on the bill?

Chris_QPW

BTW If I disputed a bill, and they said they corrected it, I would expect to see that corrected bill before my payment date.

EDIT and if I didn't get that, I would stop the automatic payment.

NotACPA

I think you almost just proved my point.  Had you disputed the bill when you first received it, things would have been MUCH easier.

Autopay is irrelevant to your issue.

Jon

@Chris_QPW No, I've never had that exact situation - in every other case I've been successful in getting the bill adjusted the first time. I expect what would happen is I would have gotten hit with some sort of fine for underpaying the previous month, and I would call in & point out the previous months bill was supposed to have been reduced, and after verifying the fact on their end they would remove the fine.

I got close to this situation one time where I simply failed to pay a bill at all one month (due to carelessness on my part) and got hit with a late fee. When I called up to beg forgiveness I was able to get the late fee removed from the bill; I sent in the amount of the bill minus the late fee & that was the end of it.

Have you ever been in that situation & had it go worse?

Chris_QPW

Jon said:

Have you ever been in that situation & had it go worse?

No, I have never been in that situation, and that is why I was curious about it.

My wife did fail to pay a credit card bill on time that she said she would manage on her own (Macy's credit card, not lot on it).
Got hit with interest payment, and "lesson learned".  

Nothing there is dispute.