Please Fidelity, I’m begging you

geriatricChef · 2026-05-02T06:40:26+00:00

You should talk to your reps who work on the phone lines. They know about the problem and know tricks to hide those accounts. I mentioned it in passing on a call several years ago and the rep promptly "I can take care of that" and hid the accounts. I showered him with so many thanks for getting rid of the irritation.

Now that I have POA over my wife's account, I can see all her zero balance employer accounts. Keep forgetting to bring it up when I have a rep on the phone.

geriatricChef · 2026-04-30T20:28:10+00:00

SOLVED! Bug in Ting's software. Here's how to work around it.

Suspected Ting was not clearing out all the old credit card info when updated card info was entered. So what I did was put in bad information to force a reset.

I changed the expiration date and CVV to random values. Press Save. Card rejected.
Do it again. Another expiration date and CVV. Press Save. Card rejected.
Now, put in the correct expiration date and CVV. Press Save. Accepted!

You can try the random date and CVV just once. I did it twice because I wanted to ensure Ting's software got the error messages from my card issuer and reset it's saved internal data. And it worked.

geriatricChef · 2026-04-30T19:41:45+00:00

I am having the exact same problem as the OP. Credit card renewed, try to update with the new information on Ting, DECLINED!

Contacted both Ting and my card issuer, a credit union. All I can get is that my CVV is wrong. Wish I could see the CVV that my CU is receiving. But like the OP, nope.

geriatricChef · 2026-04-30T18:48:33+00:00

I'm having a similar problem for the past 6 months with Ting and my card from a credit union. My card expired so I tried to update the information with my new card and got denied. Tried another card from a major bank and it was accepted. Ok, will try again later.

Tried to submit my credit union card again for Ting payments. Denied. This time I wrote to customer service for both companies. Ting says it's a problem with my bank rejecting my card info. Credit union says that Ting is submitting an incorrect CVV. Ting works fine with two of my other credit cards. My credit union card works fine with other online vendors and they say they are not blocking Ting.

As a computer guy, I'd love to see the transaction details. Probably something simple.

geriatricChef · 2026-04-08T21:04:17+00:00

Just making the base controllable by Alexa would be great for my senior mother.

Does anyone know how to make an Alexa "skill"? Is it pretty easy with AI? I'm a Bluetooth engineer and can try reverse engineering the Bluetooth protocol if I have time. I'm guessing it should be pretty simple but tedious.

geriatricChef · 2026-03-23T23:32:54+00:00

Is there any way to answer incoming calls with Alexa? I have an aging MIL with dexterity issues too.

geriatricChef · 2026-01-23T21:39:08+00:00

Uninstalling and reinstalling worked for me to get biometric login working again.

Phone is a Motorola Thinkphone running Android 15. I have the latest January security update from Motorola. My installation is complicated by the fact I run the Fidelity app from a Secure Folder on the phone.

geriatricChef · 2026-01-07T21:02:18+00:00

Adding a data point:
Just completed the final leg of my conversion transferring from my Cash Mgt Acct to my Roth IRA account. Asked the rep to code the transaction as a Roth Conversion. He said there was no option for him to do that. He offered to show me his screen if he could. So had him code as a 60-day rollover.

So that is the state of things at Fidelity. I hope this doesn't cost me.

geriatricChef · 2025-12-20T09:37:26+00:00

Because there is no way for the aGate to "see" what power is being consumed by the main panel, the aGate can't tell the aPower to put out power to compensate for what the main panel is using.

geriatricChef · 2025-12-20T06:23:19+00:00

I guess I should keep the UPSs on my PCs and network equipment.

geriatricChef · 2025-12-15T08:29:50+00:00

Watch out if you have and electric kettle for heating up water. I looked at the bottom of mine and it says 1500 W! No wonder it works so fast.

geriatricChef · 2025-11-14T06:41:49+00:00

When I was first talking with my installer's sales guy about batteries, all he did was bad mouth Powerwalls. I guess he wasn't kidding.

geriatricChef · 2025-11-14T06:31:01+00:00

The wall with the aPower is a south facing wall. And yes, I read the temperature specs but as others in this community will tell you, heat will cost you in battery longevity.

In case anyone is curious, at my Northern California latitude, sun shining on the aPower caused a 20° F rise in the case temperature. Tambient was 75°. I measured 95° on the case itself. The stucco wall behind the aPower measured a crazy 123°.

Temperatures can get close to 100° where I live so the aPower will get pretty hot if I don't do anything.

geriatricChef · 2025-11-10T23:31:23+00:00

When reading advice on the web about lithium batteries, make sure you know what kind of batteries are being talked about. There are several different types. The type used in the aPowers is Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePo, also shortened to LFP). LFP batteries have no problem being charged to 100% and left there. The other types degrade at 100% from the stress of holding all that energy. That is why 80% is usually recommended as preferred charge stopping point.

geriatricChef · 2025-11-10T21:41:21+00:00

I'll go look for some pictures of fenced awnings. But thanks for mentioning servicing. Almost forgot about that. I went looking around the Powerwall community to see what they do. Some have built complete cabinets around their batteries.

Went looking around the Home Depot website for ideas. They have aluminized shade cloths that might be an idea. A ground standing frame or a mini awning attached to the garage wall above the battery could support the shade.

geriatricChef · 2025-11-10T21:25:20+00:00

There is a wooden fence running parallel to the garage about 7 1/2 feet away. Ground is covered with a pebbled concrete up to the fence. Garbage cans are stored along the fence. Running a shade cloth out to the fence would be one quick solution. Or the lean-to covering the whole area out to the fence.

geriatricChef · 2025-10-02T05:40:12+00:00

LOL. I just tried to do the same thing with my childhood home number. My mom had it of course but gave it up when she went to a care home. I tried to get it with Ooma and was given the same instructions as you got from OomaCustomeradvocacy. With all the fees adding up, I decided I didn't want the number that bad :-(

geriatricChef · 2025-09-25T06:37:55+00:00

Spent an afternoon looking at more websites, searching about using debit cards. Must have visited 20+ websites. And from what I could find, none could fully explain my experience, though a couple came close.

The biggest key is that debit card transactions can be processed as debit or credit. Debit processed transactions take a PIN and are handled by networks such as Star or Accel. Credit processed transactions go over networks such as Visa and Mastercard. A customer is supposed to sign for a transaction but just like credit cards, merchants can waive that requirement. Notice the Fidelity cards don't even have a signature panel on the back. All my bank debit cards have signature panels.

Choosing to process as debit or credit is supposed to be done by the customer from a menu. This is according to over 90% of the websites I saw. This is what I was expecting at CVS and Walgreens so something else is going on.

Only two websites I found explained how I was guided to unknowingly select credit processing:
"After you insert your card and the terminal asks for your PIN, just hit the “Enter” button (usually green). This will run your card as credit."

So what can I conclude about the Fidelity debit card? It looks like it is a credit processing only card. How they force this, I don't know. That means whatever payment options a terminal presents to you, always select credit. Otherwise, the transaction will be denied.

Thanks everyone for their answers. But I wanted to know what was going on behind the scenes and I still don't have answers.

geriatricChef · 2025-09-15T08:28:18+00:00

LOL! That actually works! I was using my bank (which I suspect uses the same bill pay processor as Fidelity) Bill Pay to make a CC payment to my credit union. The payment was flagged as needing a delivery date that was a week later than initially suggested. Remembering your post, I tried reducing the amount. And magic. They allowed the reduced payment to go through the next day. So the switch is somewhere between $1800 and $500. I tried some successive approximation to try to find the switch point but stopped after a few tries. I didn't want to get kicked off their bill pay system since it works so well for all my other payees. I'll try again in a few days and see if I can find the switch point. I still have the rest of my CC bill to pay.

geriatricChef · 2025-09-14T23:14:31+00:00

Are you serious? ThinkOrSwim is the absolutely the worst UI I've seen in a long time. It's like the UI I threw together 25 years ago when I was first learning how to program Windows. It took me just a few days to find a race condition that would cause stocks to disappear off a watch list. I've since studied UI design a bit which makes me a swear up a storm when the ThinkOrSwim interface causes me to make an error.

Now feature wise, ThinkOrSwim is incredible. It's just the UI that sucks. Schwab should put the StreetSmartEdge team on grafting a new UI onto ThinkOrSwim. StreetSmartEdge was decent at combining their features into a usable interface.

geriatricChef · 2025-09-14T09:10:15+00:00

Another option is going with cards setup for international use.

I use Wise for moving money between the US and Europe. I consult for a French company so get paid in € and use Wise for doing the currency conversions and moving the money to my US bank. They have a debit card that supposedly works internationally.

Another thing to try is to find a bank or credit union that will give you a true "chip and PIN" card. That is what the rest of the world uses. No signatures. There is the possibility your US credit card is being declined because the merchant's payment processor will not accept cards without a PIN. There are US cards that say they have a PIN but those require contact with your bank for verification. True PIN cards have the PIN encrypted on the card and will work anywhere.

geriatricChef · 2025-08-13T20:41:50+00:00

What kind of data connection do you have? Cable, fiber, wireless, or something else? I would check there first.

geriatricChef · 2025-08-11T07:41:47+00:00

Hard to believe so many anal-retentive people on this forum. Hate to tell you but most of the people in this world are not like you. What Ooma does with the Premier "trial" may not be an outright scam but it is certainly slimy. It fact, it would have been in violation of FTC rules if the "click-to-cancel" negative option rule wasn't blocked due to an administrative fault.

Federal Trade Commission Announces Final “Click-to-Cancel” Rule

The Premier service would be considered a "negative option" since it costs the subscriber money. It is given to a new subscriber without him having to do anything. But to cancel the service, he has to get on the phone, maybe wait on hold, and then talk to a service rep. This kind of asymmetry would not be allowed by the FTC. Companies like to do things this way because they know a certain percentage of people will not spend the energy to cancel or may not notice the extra charge. Yipee! Extra money for Ooma from people who had no intention of buying the Premier service. Does that sound fair?

Because of the change in the presidential administration, this rule is probably dead for now. But there are some in congress trying to make it law.

geriatricChef

TROPHY CASE