Fidelity Investments Inc., also referred to as Fidelity and earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American financial services corporation with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. The institution was established in 1946 and is one of the most prominent asset managers in the world. Up to now, the institution has grown to accommodate millions of traders in the whole world. We shall see how to transfer money from Fidelity to a bank account later.
Fidelity allows investors to trade in bonds, mutual funds, stocks, ETFs, and options. The company also allows traders to buy fractional shares, giving them an option to diversify into higher-cost stocks when they purchase a slice of a share rather than the full one. Therefore, people with minimal money can still make their living via the business, thus leading to financial developments.
You can open your Fidelity account online, whereby you do not pay any account fees, and there are no minimums to open your account. You can be sure that you will get exceptional service from the dedicated crew. Fidelity offers a Cash Management Account, which is a brokerage account. Apart from trading, the account gives you an opportunity for your everyday spending and short-term investing needs. It is, therefore, an alternative to traditional checking accounts.
Requirements Needed To Open A Fidelity Account
You cannot open a Fidelity account or even an account with any other financial company without providing the necessary details that ensure that only genuine people can open accounts. You require the following:
- Social Security number
- Address and employer’s name, if applicable
- Bank account details to fund the account
- $2,500 investing minimum
There are zero fees to open or manage the Fidelity brokerage account, as I mentioned earlier. However, you cannot escape the equity trade fee, around $7.95 per trade. If you do not possess an account to fund your transactions, you can open a free online checking account with no opening deposit or credit check with online banks such as Chime or Chase.
Various Accounts Offered By Fidelity
Fidelity offers various account types that can be of benefit to you. They include the following:
1) Brokerage Account – The Fidelity Account®
It has no fees and no minimums. It allows you to trade in bonds, mutual funds, C.D.s, and IPOs.
2) Cash Management Account – Fidelity® Cash Management Account
You can open one to save, spend, and manage your cash. Deposits are eligible for FDIC insurance. FDIC insurance ensures that your money will not be lost if the company collapses.
3) The Fidelity Account® for Business
Offers low-cost brokerage, mutual funds, comprehensive trading, and cash management features
Other accounts include Rollover IRA, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Inherited IRA, and Inherited Roth IRA.
Apply For A Fidelity Account – The Process
You can get started online by filling in the necessary details. The following is the process to apply for your Fidelity account. Have a look.
i) Fill in your personal information
To fill in your personal information, you must first visit the Fidelity website and navigate the Open an Account section. Select “Individual account” and click “Next”. Since you are a new service user, you will need to fill in personal details such as email address, street address, Social Security number, and so on in the spaces provided.
You should also enter your employment information, i.e., if employed, and indicate how often you will be trading. Next, you will need to answer whether you are related to any broker-dealer, stock exchange, or Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Also, you will need to answer whether any of your relatives is a director or a 10% shareholder of a public company. It would help if you answered “no” to the questions to be safe.
ii) Set up your account settings
The next thing is setting up Fidelity’s account settings. Here, you will quickly send the move to the next step. Most importantly, you will have to answer questions about your email preferences, such as whether you would like to receive Fidelity newsletters or not.
iii) Review and confirm your account
Reviewing means checking information to see whether everything is okay before submitting your details. You must also check the terms and conditions to familiarize yourself with them. Click ‘Yes” at the bottom of the screen to submit.
iv) Fund your account
Now that you have completed opening your brokerage account, the next thing is to fund it and start trading. You can use a bank or another brokerage account.
Procedure To Transfer Money From Fidelity To Bank Account
Once you have traded enough and need to withdraw money, withdrawing to a bank account is the best option. You can choose either a wire transfer or the electronic funds transfer (EFT) to withdraw money.
An electronic transfer involves the digital transfer of money. The transfers can occur between accounts of the same company or a different institution. On the other hand, a bank wire transfer involves an electronic money transfer where banks communicate to exchange information. Wire transfers require you to transfer money using the routing number and account number of the recipient.
For wire transfers, the employees of the sending and receiving banks review the transfer to make sure that the account has the necessary amount of money to cater for a transfer and that the receiving bank can accept the funds.
Once you choose to transfer funds, you can enable your account for either EFT or wire transfers. You need to link Fidelity with a bank and then choose whether to transfer funds using EFT or wire transfers. You can still enable both transfer methods. Once finished, you can then begin your transfer.
Wire transfers are the best since the transfers occur the same business day if you submit the request by 4 p.m. E.T. Fidelity charges no fees, but the receiving bank may charge some fees to receive the funds. You can withdraw up to $100,000. EFT transfers are free, and you can send up to $100,000 per withdrawal. The transfer takes 1-3 business days to complete.
The wire transfer method is proper when you want to transfer money to someone else’s bank account. Most wire transfers are irreversible, and once initiated, you cannot reverse them.
Other Ways To Send Money From Fidelity Account
Wire and EFT transfer methods are not the only ways you can use to transfer money out of your Fidelity account. Other ways you can use to transfer funds include:
- PayPal
- Venmo
- Square
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Samsung Pay
You can also use paper checks to transfer funds from the brokerage account. Even though checks are outdated money transfer mediums, some people still prefer using them. The only problem is the lengthy transfer period.
You can also deposit checks in Fidelity. To deposit a check, you need to take and upload a photo of the check to the company’s Mobile App or deposit it directly at any local Fidelity investor center.
Final Thought
Fidelity Investments Inc. is an American financial services corporation headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company allows you to trade in bonds, mutual funds, stocks, ETFs, and options. You can open Fidelity with no account fees and no minimum deposit. Fidelity is safe due to the various layers of security that the company has invested in. Furthermore, you can obtain a debit card from Fidelity and use it for numerous transaction activities.
