If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already heard the good word on opening a Schwab checking account and are wondering how to get everything set up. If you haven’t yet, read about it here.
While a Schwab checking account is currently the best option for traveling worldwide, the sign up process is a bit more work than most of you will be used to. That said, follow this step by step tutorial and the process should be fairly painless. A few notes before we get started:
- This was mentioned in the previous article, but just to be clear and mention it again: Opening a checking account with Schwab requires a hard credit inquiry.
- Why? Because a Schwab checking account must be linked to a Schwab brokerage account (of which you are under no obligation to actually use).
- Unfortunately this account is only available for US residents, if anyone has recommendations for those in other countries feel free to comment below.
Tutorial: How to set up your new Schwab checking account
Step 1: Sign up!
Click here to open up the application page in a new tab. You should be seeing information on opening a new Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking Account (that’s a mouthful!). Feel free to look over the details, fine print, reviews (does anyone ever trust reviews shown on a companies own website?), etc. Once you’re done reading choose an Individual or Joint account (whichever applies to you) and then click Apply Now.
The next page will mention opening a Schwab One brokerage account and a linked Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking account, which is exactly what we want. At the moment this is the only way to open a checking account with Schwab. The page mentions that you’ll need a few things to get started:
- U.S permanent resident address
- Social Security Number or Tax Identification Number
- Employer’s name and mailing address (if applicable)
Unless you have some form of Schwab account already, click No, I’m new to Schwab.
Continue through the sign up process by completing your personal information, reading about account features, looking over the terms and conditions and lastly information on funding your account.
Step 2: Set up an external account to fund your checking account.
Once approved for your account, this is where things start to get tricky. You’ve just opened a new Checking and Brokerage account. As mentioned in my notes, you do not need to actually use the brokerage account. The remainder of this tutorial will only guide you in using the checking account, inquire with Schwab if you’d like more information on the brokerage account (I have not used mine). You must fund your checking account before you have access to do anything else with it.
So, your account has been approved, right?
Good, let’s work on funding the account to gain access to your checking account. Log into your new Schwab account, you should see a screen similar to the one below (if not just click on Accounts at the top left).
From the Accounts page, go ahead and click on Transfers & Payments as shown above. (Notice my brokerage account is completely empty, as I don’t use it!)
From here click on External Accounts.
Your Individual (Brokerage) account will most likely be selected. Change it to your Checking account and then click Add External Account.
Click Enroll Online and follow the prompts to start the enrollment process. Some banks allow instant verification (it did not work for me), but most will require trial deposits. I also ran into an issue with Chase bank not working with either verification process. A physical form would need to be filled out and mailed back to Schwab with a signature. I decided to forego this process and use my GSBank account instead, which worked with the trial deposits method. If you run into an issue with verification, I’d recommend calling Schwab directly as their customer service is excellent (1-800-540-6718).
Now that you’ve set up an external account, Schwab will initiate one or two trial deposits into your external account.
Step 4: Verify trial deposits
After 3 business days, one or two trial deposits should appear in your external account. Don’t worry if it doesn’t happen in exactly 3 days. Your external bank may take some time itself to show these deposits into your account. Once you’ve got the deposit amounts showing in your external account, go back to the External Transfers section we used in step 3. From here you can click on Verify Trial Deposits as shown below.
Go ahead and verify the deposits and follow the next few prompts to acknowledge and consent to linking this account. Once you’ve completed verification you can move on to step 5 and actually fund the account.
Step 5: Fund your checking account
Again we will be using the Transfers & Payments screen, but we can now move forward and use the Online Transfer tool to finally fund the checking account.
Select your newly verified External account and transfer into your Schwab checking account. Be careful not to transfer into your brokerage account, you need to choose checking. It doesn’t matter how much your transfer into your checking account, any amount will do. All that matters is that you fund it with something to initiate access to your checking account.
Step 6: Wait
When you initiate the transfer from your external account to Schwab they will put a hold on the fund for 4 days. After this time you will see that you have access to your checking account. Check your Accounts page, it should be shown under your brokerage account.
Once your checking account is funded, you will automatically receive your ATM/Debit card (and even a box of checks) in the mail.
A note on transparency
For those not already familiar with this website, know that it was developed as an experiment to try and become a travel blogger from scratch. Any type of advertisement, affiliate marketing, etc. will be explicitly stated so. That being said, I have no current affiliation with Schwab and receive zero compensation for this post. This information is being provided because it’s an account that I currently use myself.
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