pros:
1)high(er) interest rates
2)no fees and free atm withdrawals
3) great customer service

cons:
1) several days to perform a transfer from bank to bank
2) limits on MMF funds (which I find rather reasonable seeing as though the money I put in there is money I want to grow and not use for the most part.)
3)no immediate accessibility to the funds I deposit (most deposits take 2-3 business days)

I’ve had some issues lately with my card, (main issue is I lost it) I called the service center, they sent one immediately and I received it sooner than expected. Additionally, the customer service lady was really ncie and stayed on the phone while I checked my account online to make sure there weren’t any fraudulent charges on there.

Just a bit of unsolicited advice, if you do conduct transactions on ANY account, regardless of whether it’s an online transfer or payment, make sure to take the reference number and or print out a copy of the confirmation page. It’ll save you some trouble in the long run and ensures banks remain accountable for their actions. Kind of hard for them to say it didn’t occur or back track when you have a confirmation number regarding the transaction.

I’ve just initiated a transfer to the Ally plain savings acct a moment ago. The money should be there by the 14th of December. I do not expect any problems with this transfer either. Then, we’ll just let these two accounts sit, untill we need the money.

We still prefer to do all other banking activities with a brick and mortar bank, however, and this is where I see a lot of the problems people are having with Ally. I just don’t see the advantage of an online bank for bill-pay, depositing pay cheques, ATM cards, loans etc. when problems have to be dealt at arm’s length – phone, e-mail, chat….Whatever advantage is gained by a little more interest in a checking account (vs.a physical bank’s) pales in comparison with the ease of a “walk in” bank and talking to people face to face.

But for savings that can sit and accumulate, yes.. Ally has a clear advantage. And that’s all we’ll do there.

Ally Bank is an awesome place. I have had no problems and I have been with them for 3 years. The people that write the negative reviews are the ones that have shitty credit scores or can’t keep from overdrafting their accounts so they blame the bank.

If you have the credit score and can budget, then Ally is a perfect place to open an account.

You’re right. They are NOTa member of BBB – and- they have so many complaints. I’ve been looking for an online bank, but Ally will not be the one. They must be putting all their money into advertising.

I ended up going with them after reading this thread and some review sites. In general, they get good reviews and far fewer ones than most big banks:

Was about to open up several accounts with Ally because of their great rates, no minimum balances, and no fees … and then…..

Last minute decided to check the BBB (Better Business Bureau) on them. Ally stated that they were accredited members of the BBB, but if you go to BBB you will see where they clearly are not. I contacted Ally to confirm that the BBB address listed was indeed the same Ally, and it was. However, they boldy lied that they were BBB members. When I told them I looked it up on BBB myself and the site specifically states that they are not members, the customer support person tried to change subject….. very shady.

So then I look down the BBB page and find that they have had 78 complaints on that company in 3 years and 37 in the past year! I pulled up other banks on the BBB site to find that many had no complaints but the average seemed to be 1-3 every 3 years. 78 is EXTREMELY high!! They couldn’t become a member if they wanted to with that kind of rating. So, I ask the customer support person about the number and he says it’s just because they are an online bank and that they are continually improving.

After that experience I’d experienced enough to know that you’d be facing a greater risk of encountering problems by banking with Ally. I’m sure some people do experience great service and top-notch satisfaction but if you look at the odds, it’s a gamble that I’m not willing to take.

1) Received duplicate orders of free checks
2) Did not receive my online statement for the month of June due to computer issues at Ally. Should receive by the 27th of June, 6 days late.
3) Have experienced issues with Ally Perks loading on the website.
4) Experienced an issue with online bill pay that where the payee information was not recognized after initial set-up was fine. The situation was rectified.

Otherwise, I have been receiving my interest payments and my experience has been hassle free. Customer service is pleasant and a relief compared to all other banks I have dealt with. I am rooting for this bank, but I see some internet banking issues and the vast majority of negative reviews concerns me some. I have been using Ally for 4 months now. We’ll see what happens.

Just take responsibility and know where your money is and double check everything. The rates are good and the money u earn is better then anywhere else around. If customer service does not understand an irrate customer ranting about something needing to be fixed. Maybe next time try working with the customer service people to find a solution instead of playing the blame game.

Food for thought.
You open your original account which has amounts A and B. $1000.00
Then you try and open another account with amount C and D $100.00.

Logically amounts for your second account are verified with C& D amounts not your original account A & B amounts.

So by using A & B amounts the programming re-verifying = $1000.00 instead of $ 100.00

The programming is sound its the logic of the user that faulted. Customer service is correct sorry for your frustration.

I started my online application which went well up until the instant verification was needed to link to my external account. The website told me to call the customer service which is available 24/7 nice.

1. I was connected after 1 minute wait time (minimal to those who have had to be put on hold forever) and spoke to an American customer service person who was very polite and professional. The representative was straight forward and walked me through the process within 10 minutes I was up and running and had my account setup online.

2. I received my checks my debit within 6 days with no problem. I was able to activate my debit easily and have had no problem with the format of my checks.

3. The money transfer only took a total of 4 business days so about the time I got my debit and checks the money was in my ally account from my external account. It took 2 days to have them deposit 2 small amounts and one withdrawal from my external account which I verified online at the ally website. Once linked I started the transfer process which took 2 days.

4. I called customer service because I received my signature card that I needed to return to them to verify backwitholding. I again only waited 1 minute and the person on the other line was American. Easy done no confusion and she told me just mail it back (5 minute conversation)

5. 5 days later I call to see that they received it cause snail mail I dont trust to have it get to the right location I call again to ally wait 1 minute and again person on phone was American. She put me on hold for 30 seconds which is reasonable considering I was asking her to look for my signature card to verify it had been received. She responded they received it. I asked her a few other questions which she was very informative or if she did not know the answer she checked within 30 seconds or less I had my answer. Very professional.

This has been a great experience for me so far and would recommend ally. Plus side I making 5X the amount of interest a day with Ally and still have my BOA account for quick purchases. =)

To be more specific, I have already opened two accounts with them, but I can’t get them funded. I gave them my routing number and account number. After clearing up the fact that they used the wrong routing number (completely different from MY bank’s routing number), they asked me to verify the amounts of two micro-deposits made to my account. There were six deposits. I couldn’t guess the right combination of two, I got locked out, and now I’m supposed to start over again.

…among many other frustrations, wrong answers, and generally confused representatives.

And I’m just trying to GIVE them my money. I can’t imagine what they’ll do (or forget to do, or do wrong, etc.) if I tried to get money out.

Don’t do business with this bank if you have crappy credit score. It looks like a numerous people have been denied because of this. I haven’t though.

You’re funny. But seriously, give everyone else a break and don’t open an account there. The world will be a better place.

I’ve been getting the same run-around as many of the commenters here, and I’m just trying to open an account. I got pissed off enough to look for a place to post a warning about this bank, and here I am, a little late to the party.

I had my money market and checking accounts with Ally for a few months only, but I never ran into problems with them. I prefer to use their chat to ask a quick question if I ever get confused, and their website has areas to improve upon, but mostly things go smoothly with them. Once they took ~4 days to post a check I sent in as a test, and I decided never to do that again as ACH is so much easier, and I am keeping my local bank account for random check deposits until Ally lets me send check images. Their Bill Pay seems to work fine, and I haven’t run into any problems linking to other accounts and sending money in or out.

I have no experience with their CDs, and so far I am quite happy banking with them. The percents are decent enough so I am not looking to switch, and I would recommend them.

Thanks
Jesus T.

No issues as of yet! They pay the interest on time and have good customer service! I have a great credit scor and a great loan relationship with gmac.

For those who are having issues: try another bank, you don’t have to have ally you know :p. You obviously picked them because you like what you see!

Well 3 weeks later and I didnt get any debit cards, but I got other correspondence from Ally during that time so it’s obv. the mail is working properly.

I call back about not receiving the cards and the customer service rep FLAT OUT LIES and says that they show the (2) debit cards were sent out. I KNOW 100% THAT WAS NOT TRUE (I will explain why later)

I am cordial anyway to the rep. and he says they will send out another 2 debit cards. I made double sure to explain (1) card per each account.

Now 5 days later I receive (1) debit card and 3 days after that I receive the pin #. It was about 10 days and I wondered where the 2nd debit card was. Judging by my previous experience with Ally a few weeks earlier, I was pretty sure they never sent out the 2nd one.

I proceed to call customer service back again and explain to them that I only got 1 card and not 2. The customer service rep. checks and says they only sent me out 1 card but its “hooked up” to both accounts. This is CLEARLY NOT what I requested so I calmly explained that I wanted another debit card to be hooked up with the 2nd account and they said it will be yet ANOTHER 5-10 days. This is the third time already.

So now today what do I receive in my mailbox? (2) sets of checkbooks from Ally bank dated the day after the last time I called. I never requested checks, in fact I mentioned clearly a few times do not send me paper checks. So what the idiot customer service rep did was send be sets of checkbooks instead of the debit card I wanted.

So I call back again today, (4th time Ive had to call these morons) over at Ally and ask why did I get 2 checkbooks that I never ordered, and specifically told them numerous times to NOT send me checks. Why did I receive checkbooks instead of a debit card? I was sure at this point they never sent out the 2nd card not they sent checkbooks instead.

This customer service rep this time JUST FLAT OUT TELLS ABOUT 10 FULL FLEDGED LIES. Starting with – “there was no money in the account so that’s why the card never got sent” uh excuse me I said but there was money in both accounts when originally requested. I only took out the money because Ally kept screwing up my simple request for (2) debit cards – 1 for each account.

After knowing that she got caught in a lie the cust. service rep. said “Oh, the second time I ordered cards there was no money in the account” TRUE but I only took the money out of both accounts because they screwed up. But why would they send me 1 debit card anyway if they had that policy in effect. Which means that it doesnt matter if money was in the account or not, she was just trying to cover up for the fact that they never sent out 2.

I then went on to request another debit card for my 2nd account which does have a zero balance. (I took all the money out because they kept messing up)and she said they wont send me a card when the account balance is ZERO. ANOTHER LIE!!!! Then how did I get the 1st card idiot?

She just kept making tings up off the top of her head and every LIE/Point she tried to make was quickly disputed. Every point I made was valid and Im very sure they keep a record so she had no ground to dispute anything I said so she juat had to resort to making up lies.

In hindsight, after I talked to the last rep. I realized the other reps I had talked to in the past were making up facts, because they all said different things.

Summary – 1 month wait to get my 1st debit card from Ally. Its been 45 days from my 1st request and I havent received my 2nd debit card.

Ally bank reps. LIE LIE LIE

ABSOLUTELY THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I HAVE RECEIVED FROM ANYONE IN ANY INDUSTRY EVER!!!!
Reply

All seems well. I see there is nothing but negative reviews on here.

I also ways be safe. So I haven’t ever had any issues with them. I have been very safe to keep everything monitored, and make sure the bank has everything on record and vise versa with my other bank account.

Be knowledgeable and be careful, with anything in life, there can always be risks. You can always mistype an extra 0 and instead of having 100 dollars transfer, it is possible you hit 1000. This is the fault of humans. Mistakes happen. Fix it, then forgive.

Ally bank made it clear that they don’t have a gliche in their system, and I informed them that if I wanted to transfer $1000.00 from my external account into my Ally bank account then I would have specifically did just that. But this was not the case. Instead you use the same test deposits of $0.45 and $0.22 and this is what happens.

Has anyone else incurred this type of problem because I do not believe that I am the only one.
For professional purposes, Ally bank should have at least tried to care about this gliche or the customer but that was surely not the case. They were dumbfounded!
What else can I say, I’ve been duped by this bank, hmmm no surprise there I guess.

You have CDs maturing over the next few months. At that time we’ll automatically renew them for you and we’ll give you our best rate, guaranteed.

This simply means that no matter what the rate is on the day each CD renews, you’ll get the highest rate we offer for that CD term within ten days of its maturity date. It’s just one more way we make sure your money is working hard and earning more.

Plus we’ll add an extra .50% to your rate.
So you’ll not only get our highest rate we offer over those ten days, but you’ll also get an additional .50% on top of that. All for the full term of each renewed CD.

If you choose not to renew, you can also roll over part or all of your balance into another term CD and get the same guarantee and extra .50%. It’s just our way of thanking you for choosing Ally Bank.

My deposit did show up on the Monday due to Chase being closed on Sundays. I did start accruing interest almost immediately. I haven’t had any real issues with them, though it did take about 7 days for my account balance to be “available.” It also took them a week to send out further information by mail.

I can now understand why some people are annoyed with checking accounts. Because your account can be on hold up to 7 days. On top of that, any deposit over 5,000 can be gaurenteed on hold for 7 days.

So people, if you are willing to wait for the good interest rates, I do recommend this. Otherwise, quit whinning about things that are good. I am going to monitor my account for the rest of this month and update you guys after a month.

This appears to be a decent bank. Though, I don’t think I want to open a checking account due to how long it takes for verification, but Savings definitely, since Savings are meant to SAVE money :-)

The money isn’t there yet in my Ally account, but my guess is because Chase is closed on Sundays so I won’t see it until the end of Monday.

I have read the bad and the good. Personally, I am going to take the small risk and see where they are after a week. If my account is the way I want it, no worries. If I see something that looks fishy, I will raise hell.

As for the other customers, I can’t comment. Setting it up was a breeze, I really love all of the security.

I will update my response after a week and let you know Flexo.

And in every bank failure, every customer whose deposits were within FDIC limits was able to access his or her cash.