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Fidelity - Link External Bank Account

Observant1
edited June 27 in Other Investing
I attempted to link an external bank account to one of my Fidelity accounts today.
After entering the required information online, a message was displayed stating more information was needed.
An option for using Finicity (affiliated with Mastercard) to link bank accounts was then provided.
I prefer not to use third parties when linking financial accounts.
I called Fidelity, explained the current situation, and mentioned that I didn't experience
previous issues when linking bank accounts.
The Fidelity rep alluded to increased security measures implemented by the firm.

The following sequence of events transpired¹.

1) Fidelity sent me an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Authorization Form via their secure email.
2) Printed 4/6 pages of the form.
3) Using pen, completed form.
4) Using phone, took picture for each page and for bank statement.
5) Copied pictures from phone to PC (phone not used for financial transactions).
6) Navigated to Fidelity's secure email to upload completed form and bank statement.
7) Attempted to attach five .jpg files but was only able to attach two—exceeded total upload size of 13 MB.
8) Sent two additional secure emails in order to upload all five .jpg files.
9) Wait a few days for request to be processed.

I appreciate that Fidelity has stringent security measures in place for linking bank accounts.
However, their corresponding online process is cumbersome and somewhat time-consuming.
The process would be much more efficient if the EFT Authorization Form (PDF) was modified
to allow electronic editing (e.g. Docusign) and automatic online submission.


¹ Alternatively, Fidelity could have sent an EFT Authorization Form via postal mail.
I'd complete the form and mail it back to Fidelity along with my bank statement.

Comments

  • gman57
    edited June 27
    Wow, when I linked mine it was a few clicks, enter routing number, account number, maybe one or two other steps and done. Although that was back in 2020.
  • Observant1
    edited June 27
    Several years ago, I linked a bank account to the same Fidelity account.
    Didn't experience any issues—only took a few minutes.
  • yogibearbullyogibearbull
    It took several days to link may Fido 403b to a bank - there was no online process.
  • catch22catch22
    edited June 27
    Way back in the early days of PayPal, two transactions were set to send 3 or 2 cents between accounts to establish a linking with a bank account.

    Fidelity message board about this subject starting 7 months back.

    There is also a notation about Finicity becoming involved in a class action lawsuit (about 1 year ago) regarding the sharing of customer information.
  • catch22catch22
    Hi @yogibearbull My experience with 403b vendors is that they cause a lot of extra work for transactions. Pretty much everything is done through filling forms to be mailed to the company. Me thinks they don't want to lose customer monies to another organizations.
    When I rolled my 401k from Vanguard to Fidelity; a 3 way phone call providing all necessary verifications for my identity took 20 minutes. I don't know if this is available in 2025.
  • Observant1
    edited June 27
    @catch22

    Thanks for the link to the Fidelity message board.
    I received the same message that was referenced in the OP.
    IIRC, micro-deposits have always been used to validate linked accounts
    at every financial institution where I was a customer (including Fidelity in the past).
  • msf
    micro-deposits have always been used to validate linked accounts

    As I posted elsewhere, it seems that these micro-deposit accounts can appear "spontaneously" years after the link is established. (Automated systems revalidating the link.)
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