I am looking to move some money from my local bank’s savings account into a hitgher interest account. Checked out Ally and the interest rate is 0.84 which is a lot higher than I currently get. So does anyone have any opinions on Ally?
Might be a good idea to google them. One site doesn’t seem very complimentary.
On a whim, I looked Ally up on Wikipedia. They don’t seem real stable:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ally_bank
I’d find another bank.
I use Ally. It’s a simple tradeoff: their rates and terms are extremely, extremely competitive.
The downside is weak customer service, and no physical locations (note that this means there’s no way to deposit cash easily).
I haven’t had any horror stories at all.
How do they seem unstable to you? Sure, in their present form, they’ve only been around since 2010, but in the form of the finance arm of General Motors, they’ve been around since 1919. And given the FDIC insurance, what concerns you about stability?
I got an account for them, when the rates were much higher*. No real complaints. The are essentially a GM, which seems negative, but really that’s like hating a DMV employee because you don’t like your governor.
If I need to deposit money, then I do so elsewhere and transfer electronically. I haven’t tried doing it through them. I think if you mess up your password X times, you’re locked out and have to call them. Pros and cons there.
“Not stable”? Do you plan on putting more that $250,000 in so that you’re not insured? If a bank fails and the FDIC can’t cover it, then there are bigger problems going on…
*At least 4%?
I have a CD with them, and it was recommended by another friend who has several accounts with them.
I plan to eventually have my saving accounts there, and perhaps another CD and perhaps IRA.
I wouldn’t have it as the regular checkings account, though, considering that I may have trouble depositing money and checks.
I do know that my friend, who had all his accounts with Ally, had little trouble depositing and obtaining money. Ally used to (I hope it still does) refund him for any transaction charges imposed by other banks because of the use of their ATMs. And at least for my friend and I, the customer service has always been good.
I used to swear by Ally, and kept a serious amount of money in them until something really scary happened. One day I tried to transfer a few thousand from Ally to my broker, and the online site gave me a strange error and told me to phone in. So I did, and as I was talking to the helpful person on the phone, who was acting like it was no big deal, suddenly, she got as cold as ice, and said “you need to call this phone number tomorrow between these hours. I’m not allowed to talk to you any more.” I basically went WTF and tried to get more information out of her, and she hung up on me. I called back, demanded to speak to a manger, and after a lengthy wait and a lot of questions, they did the same thing: “you need to call this phone number tomorrow between these hours. I’m not allowed to talk to you any more.” Then when I tried to log into the Ally site to find any more information I could, I found I was locked out of my account - completely, with a notice to call a different number. As I had a lot of money in Ally, I was understandably concerned.
So I called both numbers, and they were busy - there was no queue to sit in, they were just busy. Eventually the hours of operation ended…and I never got through to anyone. And as it was a Friday, I had the entire weekend to sit and worry - there was no brick and mortar place I could run into, no one answered the phone, no one answered mail, etc.
Long story short, it took until Tuesday the following week before I got through to one of the numbers - it turns out it was fraud protection. It turns out that the following had happened:
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Nearly 3 months prior, when I made my last transaction to my broker, it was flagged as “suspicious”.
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An e-mail was sent to me to inform me I had 48 hours to contact security, or my account would be locked.
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I never received the mail; it must have gone into the spam folder.
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Since I did not call in in that time, my account was locked.
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Since then 30 days elapsed with no contact, my account status was set to some sort of uber-lockdown, which meant not only could no money go out of it, but it ceased earning interest! When you are in uber-lockdown mode, NO ONE is allowed to TELL you you’re in that mode except security!
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In order to unlock my account, I had to fill out a form, notarize it, provide notarized copies of my drivers license, SS card, Passport, and other bullshit and send it all in.
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Nearly 3 weeks after the whole thing started, they unlocked my account, but refused categorically to pay the interest owed.
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I called an informed them I was closing my account, and someone on the phone helped me move all my money out immediately. I wrote a long letter of complaint (said letter was never answered.)
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A week after I moved all my money out, I received an e-mail telling me it was suspicious that I had moved all my money out, and my account would be frozen if I didn’t call in within 48 hours…
Sound encouraging? Since then, I’ve never used a bank which did not have a brick-and-mortar presence in my city. Any boost in interest is not worth the loss of peace of mind.
When my brother in law died, they were a pain to get the money out and into the estate account. Most places were great, a phone call to get an address, a death certificate and the court document that said my husband was the personal representative, and the banking information. Ameritrade and Ally were bad. (Ameritrade we are still dealing with 15 months later - we are down to just $5.15 in the account though, so it isn’t like we are really chomping to get that one closed down.
Now, banks deal with account holders passing on every day. This isn’t really difficult - the executor contacts you, you tell him how to get the death certificate to you and any other paperwork you will need to prove you are the person who gets to liquidate, and you close the account and send him a check. (Its nice if you say how sorry you are over the phone when they call, not necessary but nice).
Thanks for the input. As always much appreciated.
Same here, back when they were GMAC. My local bank now has higher rates, so the Ally savings account now has less than $100 and was/is used for PayPal verification.
No problems, no complaints, but I suspect you could do better locally if you shopped around. I personally like knowing the people at my small local branch compared to just dealing with a website, but that’s just my preference.
I’m sorry to hear of the people who have had poor service, but I doubt that a local bank with branches would provide better service - other than a hapless live employee to harangue.
PayPal has suddenly decided that it is no longer accepting checks. They claim that it is because people are no longer using them, but the truth is probably because of their association with Visa.
So I need a bank that I can deposit these checks in, preferably electronically. I’m constantly shuttling between Chicago and Kansas City. I’d prefer one that has the best ATM policy.
I’ve had an account with Ally for years (since they were GMAC)- I have a money market and made regular deposits - never have had a problem. I also transfer money in and out of my Ally acct to/from my Chase checking. I once used wrote one of their checks to buy a car - again no problem. Brick and mortar banks don’t seem to have too many knowledgeable or helpful staff anyway.
My experience exactly.
I recently set up an account with them.
The primary reason for me was their offer of reimbursing you for all ATM charges. They don’t run any ATM networks, so they simply offer to repay any transaction fees if you use anyone’s ATM machines. Since I am traveling more, this seemed like a simple way to handle ATMs.
The account set-up process was relatively involved since you aren’t in a branch talking to anyone. They have to follow all the Government rules just like any other bank. Involved but simple and their customer support was quite helpful.
They push their interest rates, but like all banks the rates are only noticeable for very large accounts. Unless you care about and extra $0.04. That said, their rates and fees certainly are better than any other bank I deal with. But all the fees and rates are so low right now that I don’t pay any attention to them.
Now that I have an account and an ATM card (my first ever!), Ally changed their policy. 
Only the first $10/month is reimbursed. And they joined an ATM network. Upon consideration, I decided that unlimited isn’t necessary for me. I don’t expect to use the ATM very often, 10 times a month seems likely. So while I wouldn’t open an account with them now, I will keep my account and see how it goes.
Ally’s parent company, Ally Financial, is one of the largest players in automobile financing. I say this because I kinda suspect that the bank is an afterthought. Part of me is surprised that that Ally Bank hasn’t been sold to some larger bank, so Ally Financial can concentrate on its car loan business.