I don’t single out too many credit cards here at CreditMattersBlog.com, but Charles Schwab has rolled out a new credit card that may be of interest to some of you. Hat tip: persevering. Plus, Bob Wang (a reader) wanted me to do a write up of this card. How can I turn Bob down? Anyhow, the card’s name is a bit unwieldy, so I’ll call it the Schwab Invest Visa card. There are two features that stand out with this card: the ability to earn 2% cash back on all purchases (unlimited) and no foreign exchange fees. Here are some of the features from the credit card: * No limit on the cash back you can earn. * No minimum monthly purchase amount. * No annual fee or foreign exchange transaction fees.If you receive an initial credit limit of $5,000 or more, you will also receive Visa Signature benefits as well. Fine-print alert: If your account does not receive an initial limit of $5,000 or more, you’ll receive a platinum plus account. Whether you you receive Signature benefits or you get the platinum plus account, your cash-back rewards and other perks are unaffected. The initial limit will only determine whether you also receive Visa Signature benefits as part of your Schwab card. Now, here is where the 2% cash back comes in. In order to receive 2% cash back on all of your purchases, you must open a Schwab One brokerage account. If you don’t open a brokerage account, your card will not be able to generate cash rewards. Instead, you’ll be put on a points program. According to Schwab, “the Schwab One brokerage account has no monthly service fees, no minimum balance requirements, low-cost trading, plus 24/7 online and customer support.” Therefore, Schwab has made it easy to receive the 2% cash back. You simply open the brokerage account and start enjoying your 2% cash-back card. While, you’re at it, you may want to open a Schwab high-yield investor checking account, too. There is a combined application for the brokerage and checking account, which can be found here (link). Here are some of the checking details:Earn 1.50% variable APY— that’s 3 times the national average.No ATM fees. We reimburse any ATM fee you are charged— worldwide.Enjoy free standard checks, free online bill pay and a Visa Platinum Check Card.Get full-featured FDIC-insured checking for up to $250,000.Also, there are no minimum balance requirements and there are no account service fees. You can open the checking account with $0. With that out of the way, here are my warnings. I would assume that you’ll receive a hard inquiry for each product that you apply for. This card is underwritten by FIA Card Services, Bank of America’s subsidiary. FIA/BOA is well known for pulling Experian — though it varies, I imagine, by geography. If you apply for all three products, I would assume that you’ll receive three hard inquiries. And even though there is a dual application for the brokerage and checking account (using the link I provided above), I’d just count on there being a separate pull for each product. If you only receive one inquiry for the dual application, great. But don’t count on it.
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