I opened a Fidelity mySmartCash account in December to consolidate my bill pay and other activities. The e-bill feature they have is much better than what E*Trade currently offers, and the mySmartCash has the possibility of easing my cash flow between multiple savings accounts.

But I’m having a hard time using Fidelity because the website doesn’t do a very good job of showing me how much money I have in there at any one time. Tonight I wrote them to complain:

Hello,

My “Recent Payments” box in my Bill Pay section does not match my “Recent History” in my smartcash account. My “Recent Payments” shows three payments:

2/20: $242.64

2/24: $223.85

2/24: $39

My “Recent History” shows only two payments:

2/20: $242.64

2/24: $39

Yet the bill for $223.85 is shown as “paid on 2/24/2009”. The bill for $39 also shows “paid on 2/24/2009” so I’m not sure why two bills paid on the same day don’t both show up.

Additionally, even if this is just a case of the bill not yet registering in one part of your system, the balance total would be wrong. The current “total” balance shown is $361.98; if and when the $223.85 bill registers, the “total” should show $138.13. Yet the “available balance” shows $222.98. I’ve deposited $966.52 since recently opening this account. My history says I’ve withdrawn $643.57; add in the expected withdrawal of $223.85, that would be $867.42 withdrawn; that should show an “available balance” of $99.10. It’s not clear where the additional $39.03 is coming from.

My experience with the Fidelity website in the less than 90 days I’ve had them gives me tremendous pause, and I’m extremely hesitant to continue using this service, as I don’t have great comfort that the website is showing me complete and accurate information at all times. Please help me understand the situation and provide me with some level of comfort that might convince me to move the rest of my banking and brokerage from E*Trade to Fidelity.

Thanks,

Yeah, I should probably keep my mouth shut about the $39 (and it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that a third part of their system hasn’t picked up the $39 payment and $0.03 in interest, for example).

A bank site should be up-to-the-minute. There’s no technical reason it can’t be. If this puny website can show you the absolute latest information, they can too.

Let’s see if things resolve themselves, and what Fidelity has to say about it.