# Thoughts on a Fidelity CMA replacement? **URL:** \ **Category:** Investing\ **Created:** [January 16, 2025, 5:35pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/thoughts-on-a-fidelity-cma-replacement/6895 "2025-01-16T17:35:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mgm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mgm](https://community.clark.com/u/mgm)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 5:35pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/thoughts-on-a-fidelity-cma-replacement/6895/1 "2025-01-16T17:35:29Z")
I’m looking to replace my Fidelity CMA for the following reasons: \*Fidelity has implemented a 16-business-day hold on all checks and inbound ACH transfers. \*Some claim this doesn’t apply to inbound ACH transfers where the money is “pushed”, not “pulled”, but I tested, and that makes no difference. \*Fidelity changed this policy without any warning and even lied about it and pointed fingers at Ally before finally admitting what was going on. \*It was up to me to figure out why transactions were failing, ATM withdrawals were being denied. \*Their customer support sucks. Answering the phone is not good customer support. Actually being helpful is good customer support. \*Even better than customer support is _having\_no\_reason_ to\_call customer support! e.g. I don’t believe I’ve ever had the need to call Vanguard about anything! \*Their systems apparently cannot tell the difference between a 25 year customer with many accounts, direct deposit, etc. and a fraudster. Requirements: \*Free inbound/outbound wire transfers. I’m suspicious that all platforms will start putting huge hold times on ACH transfers. \*The ability to earn high interest on unused money. I’m currently doing this by having the Fidelity CMA core position as SPAXX, and transferring larger unused amounts in/out of FDLXX. \*Early direct deposit. \*BillPay. SoFi seems to satisfy all these. Wealthfront all but the BillPay. I guess I could provide each payee my routing and account number, but I think then that’s a danderous open-ended ACH, right? Any other ideas? ---
**Author:** ![H200h](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e79b87/32.png) [@H200h](https://community.clark.com/u/H200h)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 9:52pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/thoughts-on-a-fidelity-cma-replacement/6895/2 "2025-01-16T21:52:59Z")
You might want look into a combination of a local credit union and Vanguard. My local credit union pays 3.75% on a high-yield saving account and has checking accounts with free bill pay. I can transfer six times a month online with no fees and no hold time. If I need a better return I can just transfer excess cash to a Vanguard account. The credit union charges for wire transfers but not for EFTs. ---
**Author:** ![mgm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mgm](https://community.clark.com/u/mgm)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 10:51pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/thoughts-on-a-fidelity-cma-replacement/6895/3 "2025-01-16T22:51:12Z")
I see now that Wealthfront joint accounts have no direct deposit or bill pay. That’s likely a deal killer for me. ---
**Author:** ![ochotona](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.clark.com/ochotona/32/293_2.png) [@ochotona](https://community.clark.com/u/ochotona)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 12:25pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/thoughts-on-a-fidelity-cma-replacement/6895/4 "2025-01-17T12:25:08Z")
> [@mgm](#): > > \*Fidelity has implemented a 16-business-day hold on all checks and inbound ACH transfers. > \*Some claim this doesn’t apply to inbound ACH transfers where the money is “pushed”, not “pulled”, but I tested, and that makes no difference. I’m going to have to test this… and I will test ACH and Wire to Fidelity. If pushes get held, that’s bad. ---
**Author:** ![mgm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mgm](https://community.clark.com/u/mgm)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 1:04pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/thoughts-on-a-fidelity-cma-replacement/6895/5 "2025-01-17T13:04:37Z")
Fidelity early direct deposit also seems to have changed. IIRC, the money used to be fully available the day before payday. Now, the money is not available until the actual payday. How is that “early”? ---
**Author:** ![mgm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mgm](https://community.clark.com/u/mgm)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 2:10pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/thoughts-on-a-fidelity-cma-replacement/6895/6 "2025-01-18T14:10:13Z")
> [@ochotona](#): > > I will test ACH and Wire to Fidelity. If pushes get held, that’s bad. I am testing again as well. I made multiple transactions at once, and it became impossible to reconcile the deposit amounts/dates listed in Cash Management/Upcoming activity/ and the individual transactions. They bucket things and maybe even apply some formula. Which brings up another topic: If you have anything more than limited infrequent deposits (e.g. paycheck), it’s impossible to enter transactions and balance your account in personal finance app, unless their is an app that manages this new deposit funnel concept where deposits are vested over time and have a different cash amount/date. Regarding wire transfers, I was very surprised yesterday to find out that I could not wire to one of my local credit unions. Fidelity gave an “unrecognized routing number” error when I tried to enter it. It did allow it to my other local credit union. The $0 wire fee at Fidelity is very nice, but it’s limited. One thing is for sure, if you have a check to deposit, DO NOT deposit it with Fidelity!!! Deposit it with a real bank/credit union. ---
**Author:** ![ochotona](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.clark.com/ochotona/32/293_2.png) [@ochotona](https://community.clark.com/u/ochotona)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/thoughts-on-a-fidelity-cma-replacement/6895/7 "2025-01-18T14:38:50Z")
I let Credit Union or Online Bank handle the misc. checks, Zelle, PaylPal, Venmo, input and outputs. I don’t want Fidelity to see any of that. Their “Security AI” might impute some kind of bad behavior. Reminds me when I read of a law officer years ago saying, “Yeah, JPG files stand for child p0rn”. OK, many child p0rn images are JPG… but not all JPG files are illicit in nature! I’m sure Fidelity’s AI security officer has AI hallucinations. ---
**Author:** ![mgm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mgm](https://community.clark.com/u/mgm)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/thoughts-on-a-fidelity-cma-replacement/6895/8 "2025-01-18T14:51:03Z")
> [@mgm](#): > > I am testing again as well. I took another look, and enough transactions have cleared now that I can understand what is in the “Pending deposit” bucket, and I see now they are not applying the 16-business day hold to an ACH push.