The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: remizidae on August 25, 2018, 06:12:49 AM
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I opened a new bank account to get a signup bonus. What is the best way to get money from my secondary account to my primary bank account or online savings account? My bank charges a $3 fee for electronic transfers, so I'd like to avoid that.
Can I write a check to myself? That would require buying checks. I could also withdraw cash from one account and deposit it at another, but that would require trips to two physical locations (make that three if I go over the ATM withdrawal limit of $500).
Would appreciate any tips.
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Sorry for the double post! One of these can be deleted.
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Initiate the transfer from the bank that doesn’t charge for a transfer. The direction (deposit or withdrawal) shouldn’t matter.
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What gizmo said. You can "pull" by initiating the transfer from your primary bank, rather than "pushing" it from the new account with the fee.
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Yup, avoid fees whenever possible. Otherwise if both banks offer Zelle transfers you should be able to move the money almost immediately.
Venmo can work if you can move money around between two people.
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We also have 2 checking accounts. One account charges transfer fees, charges a service fee if there's no direct deposit, charges for checks, charges for bank transfers, charges a foreign transaction fee, charges ATM fees if not its own machine, & does not pay interest. However, we keep it because it has brick & mortar locations everywhere, it accepts cash deposits, & does not charge for notary services, which we occasionally need, BUT we avoid ALL fees. We have this checking account on 'auto pilot': we have it set to make automatic payments for all bills that will only accept a bank draft & have fixed amounts. It is funded with a monthly direct deposit of just enough to fund the auto payments. We keep a small buffer in the account to avoid an overdraft & we never write checks out of this account. Since it carries a lower balance than our primary checking, we have linked PayPal & Venmo to this account as well.
Our primary checking account is for all other transactions. We use Schwab for this -- it is an online bank which provides free checks, refunds all ATM fees anywhere in the world, does not charge a foreign transaction fee or a checking fee, does not charge a transfer fee to/from other banks, and pays interest. We fund it with a direct deposit, mobile deposits from a cellphone, & occasional bank transfers. We try to pay as much as possible online to avoid writing checks, which can be hacked, & we only use a debit card to obtain occasional pocket cash.
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Initiate the transfer from the bank that doesn’t charge for a transfer. The direction (deposit or withdrawal) shouldn’t matter.
Thanks!
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Yup, avoid fees whenever possible. Otherwise if both banks offer Zelle transfers you should be able to move the money almost immediately.
Venmo can work if you can move money around between two people.
Is Zelle typically faster than a bank-to-bank transfer? That could work if I send money to our joint account under my husband's name.
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Whenever I have done a Zelle transfer it has gone through within an hour or so.