Thread: Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express card a mistake?

I actually have both. I got the Retirement Rewards first and had the bonus cash deposited into my Roth IRA. Then I decided I would rather open a Fidelity SmartCash account (essentially a checking) account and have an Investment Rewards card that would deposit the bonus into that since I can move whatever money I want into the Roth whenever I want. Unless you have a compelling reason to do otherwise, I recommend this strategy.

However, I don't think you are prevented from having Investment Rewards bonus deposited into a Roth. I also don't think that Retirement Rewards bonus has to go into a retirement account. I think the distinction is really one made more for marketing purposes than anything else. I would go with what Fidelity says about this. Pin them down on an answer; they work for you.

If you want to test it on your own, just enter the account number for whatever Fidelity account you want as the rewards destination in the appropriate place on the FIA Card Services website and see what happens.

BTW, your rewards deposits can be set up to sweep automatically if you want. However, there's about a one-month lag for this to happen after you reach the reward threshold. While mine is set up to be automatic, I usually go in before it happens and do it manually because I'm impatient.

BTW, a My SmartCash account is free to open with no minimum deposit and no fees, even free checks.

I came really close to finally opening a Fidelity account to get the Investment Rewards American Express card. I think in my case it will be best to hold off a few months because I have had 3 hard inquiries already this year. I am so seriously considering it though, that I called Fidelity to ask a few questions about account fees and also asked if there are any plans to discontinue or reduce the credit card rewards and the rep I spoke to said no. Then again, he would probably not be privy to such info but it is still nice to hear.