Best Way to Manage Fidelity SmartCash Account - QP2009R2?

That investing account may not be so useless after all. Check out this forum. Lots of good stuff about the mySmart Cash Account:

Yes, the SmartCash account is very useful, a great deal, and of course, has Fidelity's excellent customer service. However, several Fidelity reps have told me that it's not designed to function as a brokerage account. That is, we're not supposed to use it to purchase even money market funds. To do any trading at all, we're supposed to open a separate brokerage account which can be linked via the SmartCash Cash Manager. My complaint is not with Fidelity's account, it's with how this account integrates with Quicken. It's the *Quicken* investment account that sits empty and useless if I configure it to use a linked checking account.

Regards,

Margaret

Just hide it in Quicken; that's what I do.

Another alternative is the Schwab version of this type of account. It functions in Quicken much the same as a regular checking account, including auto reconcile. I have both Fidelity and Schwab for different reasons.

When I hide an account that is activated for OSU, none of the accounts associated with the same financial institution download. I first noticed this with my credit union, so I simply deactivated OSU for those accounts I wanted to hide. I'm finding the same problem with Fidelity when I hide the SmartCash investment account (still activated for OSU), the linked checking account does not receive downloads.

Anyway, after I opened the SmartCash account, I learned of the Schwab account. Right now I'd rather not add yet another financial institution to my list. (But thanks for the tip.)

Fortunately Quicken (at least 2009R2) can easily and seemingly accurately translate the transactions when I create or remove a linked checking account.

Thx and Regards,

Margaret

Thanks for the insight. I had never considered this possibilty, much less experienced it. [And I also have not tested what you say.]

If your observation represents intended Quicken behavior, I sincerely hope that Intuit will consider changing the way Quicken works.

If what you're seeing is Intuit's mistakes, I hope those experiencing the same problem will post their problems at Intuit's support site.

My linked checking account receives downloads even though the investment account is hidden (but activated for OSU). The difference might be because I have four additional Fidelity accounts and when I OSU those accounts, the linked checking account is also updated. I have noticed, however, that I am unable to update just the linked checking account. It gets updated as part of the multi-account Fidelity update.

How about unhiding the investment account for the OSU convenience, but then moving it way down to the bottom of your account list? I have a couple of accounts down there that I forget about from time to time.

You don't have to completely hide the account, you can just hide it from navigation (it will be grouped in Other Accounts with a zero balance) and you can select the Investment Account not to display within your Portfolio view.

I hide credit cards that I use infrequently within the navigation and still do OSU. If suddenly I have a none zero balance for those groups of accounts - I investigate. Like I just used the card to show some activity on it so that the issuer would be less likely to close the account (my Discover Card that I have had since they were first introduced for example).

Oilcan

-----Orig> When I hide an account that is activated for OSU, none of the accounts

My linked checking account receives downloads even though the investment

account is hidden (but activated for OSU). The difference might be because I have four additional Fidelity accounts and when I OSU those accounts, the linked checking account is also updated. I have noticed, however, that I am unable to update just the linked checking account. It gets updated as part of the multi-account Fidelity update.

How about unhiding the investment account for the OSU convenience, but then moving it way down to the bottom of your account list? I have a couple of accounts down there that I forget about from time to time.

Thanks Oilcan and everyone else for your responses and suggestions. I learned a bit more about managing investment/cash accounts in Quicken. It sure would be nice, however, if Fidelity could tell Quicken that the SmartCash account really is only a checking acount. Keeping my fingers crossed,

Margaret