[sarcasmic]

I didn't see 'cash management accounts' on the list, but I think these are among the best products. They're not too common, but more are appearing now.

There's the classic ones that combine various investment products and slush balance that's insured by a bank sweep in the same interface, and the new ones that abstract completely away from the underlying storage of the money, and provide some familiar features (debit card, bill pay, ACH transfers) and perks (high interest rate, no fees).

The latter kind is a great, low-risk, low-effort store of spending money for people with unpredictable income and/or spending who have little time or cushion to invest in products with higher returns and need the liquidity. It's a compelling alternative to a traditional US checking account at a large bank, where most of this demographic has their money.

[toomuchtodo]

Is this disruptive? Fidelity and Schwab both have great, free, cash management accounts that refund all ATM fees domestically (Schwab even refunds international ATM fees, making it great for nomads).

[sarcasmic]

It's disruptive as this kind of product moves downmarket, at least in the sense of mindshare and marketing, if not always in terms of customer segment. These accounts may be common knowledge among people who invest online and interface with brokerage firms, but others might not know about them.

The recent marketing tactic by newer firms is to convince people to migrate from checking and savings accounts, to catch the demographic that has (for whatever reason, presumably related to cashflow, lack of info, or generational anxiety) already decided that online investing may not be for them. Perhaps they'll change their mind once they're past your acquisition funnel.

[ddoran]

Can you give some examples by name? I'd like to know more. Thanks

[sarcasmic]

"Classic" ones: Schwab [1], Fidelity [2]. Vanguard recently announced they're discontinuing theirs [3].

New ones: Square Cash [4], PayPal Cash Plus [5], SoFi Money [6], Aspiration [7], Simple [8], unreleased and cancelled Robinhood product [9].

These couldn't be more different: one is ripoff-tier, one is so-so, while the rest are pretty good.

[1] https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/accounts_prod... [2] https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/fidelity-cash-manag... [3] https://www.investmentnews.com/article/20190304/FREE/1903099... [4] https://squareup.com/us/en/legal/cash-ua [5] https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/legalhub-full [6] https://www.sofi.com/faq/#money [7] https://www.aspiration.com/get-account [8] https://www.simple.com/help/articles/goals/protected-goals [9] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/robinhood-quietly-stops-us...

[nknealk]

I can throw in my 2 cents here as a Schwab customer.

Schwab will let you buy CDs at any bank via a brokerage account linked to your checking or savings. Basically, they'll transfer the money to whatever bank has the CD you want, and transfer it back to you with the interest at expiration. Ditto for T bills. It's an excellent product to increase yield without taking on default risk

[airstrike]

Which ones are the rip-off and so-so platforms, in your opinion? Thanks

[sarcasmic]

I'm a SoFi Money customer.

PayPal Cash Plus has a ton of features, but there's lots of fees [1][2]. You earn no interest. It's not a good deal, other than it being familiar.

Square Cash, now known as the 'Cash' app, is a strange hybrid of a P2P payment network and a spendable balance that gives a debit card and you can direct deposit into. You earn no interest. It's odd. It targets a hip young consumer who wants ease and convenience and doesn't know any better. It has... some... virtues? Just not ones that make it worthwhile to use it instead of some rival that earns interest.

Depending on your exact use-case, it will vary which one of these is ripoff-tier and which one is so-so. I have a low opinion on nickel-and-diming fees for convenience features, so I find the PayPal Cash Plus offering the most grievous. Square Cash just has a weird use-case that isn't my use-case.

[1] https://www.paypalobjects.com/digitalassets/c/website/ua/pdf... [2] https://www.paypalobjects.com/digitalassets/c/website/ua/pdf...

[airstrike]

Thanks. I use Square Cash to pay the cleaning lady on occasion, so I guess that's one use case. I suppose if I kept more of a balance I would look into interest rates and all of that

[dillondoyle]

I use Schwab investor checking. I love the free ATMs and saving on international fees. BUT it does not give any meaningful interest on balance and it's hard to get cash.

I do LOVE the support. Compared to my other bank's Visa card it's completely different support and Schwab is hands down way better. It feels like 'wealthy important person' support lol

I also use Wealthfront and Robinhood and recently put a small amount of cash into Wealthfront's high interest cash account. The problem is there is no card or similar spending functionality, and Treasuries seem to pay slightly more and similar time to 'liquid usable cash'