How to escalate a problem at Charles Schwab beyond the phone rep?

August 28, 2022 5:13 PM

I have two accounts with Charles Schwab: an investor checking account and a designated beneficiary account [which is used for trading, which I don't do]. When trying to transfer funds online from the checking account to the trading account, which I use as a savings account, it says I cannot do so because my checking account is restricted. More inside.

I make this online transfer routinely, 5-6 times per year and have never had a problem.

I've called the support desk 5 times in the last 3 business days. Of course, the reps do their solicitous dance, but they have no power and put me on hold while talking to another area to try to resolve the issue.

This problem has gone unresolved for 3 business days. How can I get some action? I understand they may need to research what's happened, but 3 days????!!!!

posted by lometogo to Work & Money (5 answers total)

Charles Schwab has physical offices. Maybe go into one of them?
posted by leotrotsky at 5:20 PM on August 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

I've had similar problems with Vanguard a time or two. What I've done is say to the support desk person, "Can I talk to someone higher up?" They then transferred me to someone who actually helped me.
posted by SageTrail at 6:55 PM on August 28, 2022

Of course, the reps do their solicitous dance, but they have no power and put me on hold while talking to another area to try to resolve the issue.
Do they come back to the call and tell you what is going on? What happens then? Are they saying it is/will be fixed at some point?

If they aren't warm transferring you to this other place, ask them who they are talking to and if you can talk to that department. Literally, ask for the phone number. They may not be willing to give it to you, but it is worth a try. Maybe this is an internal dept that doesn't talk to customers, but they should be able to explain to you what that dept is. Either way, call them tomorrow, explain you are frustrated but remain polite. The company is the problem and the person on the phone is trying to help you. They may not be able to escalate until they have tried to help you. Again, that is not their fault.
posted by soelo at 7:04 PM on August 28, 2022

I had these same kind of frustrations at a similar investment company, doing transfers and withdrawals by phone. I had constant frustration (though very polite reps) because there was often a built-in delay. In order to avoid waiting for physical checks for withdrawals, the ability to transfer funds from one account to another without a rep had to be set up on paper, with physical signatures, and was a bit of a process. I resisted this, I can't even remember why, but probably mostly impatience. But I relented eventually and it was absolutely worth the trouble. Forever after I have been able to transfer funds easily across accounts and to and from personal bank accounts outside their institution, even in the middle of the night or on weekends. Maybe ask the reps if there is a way you can do this so you can complete transactions without their intervention - possibly they can even set this up using ducu-sign electronic signatures, which I was not able to do pre-pandemic, making the process easier still.
posted by citygirl at 8:21 PM on August 28, 2022

the trading account, which I use as a savings account

Just an aside, not knowing exactly what accounts you have, your trading/"savings" account is likely not FDIC insured. You probably want a savings account to be FDIC insured. It looks like Schwab does offer actual savings accounts, which are FDIC insured just as your Schwab checking account is.

I've got a Schwab checking account and a Schwab joint-tenant brokerage account, but have never put any money in the brokerage account (except maybe $5 when I started the account and then transferred that $5 to checking and have kept a $0 balance for the last 10 years). I use Ally for an online savings account, and even though interest on savings accounts is never great, my current Ally rate looks to be about 6x the current Schwab savings interest from that link above.
posted by msbrauer at 8:18 AM on August 29, 2022