In the spirit of Financial Literacy Month, I’m going to cover the basics of opening up an online bank account early next week. Today I wanted to share a quick review with you guys on Ally Bank.
Previously being apart of GMAC financial services, Ally Bank is fairly new to the market. After a little re-branding, Ally has started to offer more products and services.
A look at Ally Bank and its products:
1. Online Savings Account.
The interest rate is not overly impressive, but it’s not secret that all interest rates are low at the moment. The Ally Bank savings account offers an APY of 1.29%, no minimum balance, no monthly fees, and daily compounding. It’s definitely an online bank account worth checking out.
Here’s where you can open a online savings account.
2. Money Market Account.
The Ally Bank Money Market Account comes with a free check card and a 1.29% variable APY. This account will not charge you ATM fees and your first 50 checks will come in to you for free. This is ideal for those that go through many ATM transactions in a given month.
The negative of this account is the withdrawals and transfer limits. You’ll be charged a $10 transaction fee if you go over your allotted amount of check withdrawals. The limit for check withdrawals is 3 of 6 per month. You need to watch out that you don’t go over, because those fees could really sneak up on you.
Come here to open a money market account.
3. Ally Bank CD Options.
Ally Bank is currently offering the Classic CD and the No-Penalty CD. The No Penalty CD comes at a fixed rate (1.00% for a 11 month term, you can open it with zero dollars, and best of all– there’s no early withdrawal fees. The Classic CD can be open with zero dollars, has no monthly fees, and is automatically renewed at maturity (unless you inform Ally Bank otherwise). A word of warning: you must be careful with the Classic CD. You will be charged a fee for early withdrawal. Budget conservatively and make sure you won’t have to access this money in the near future.
4. Ally Bank Interest Checking.
A fairly new concept in the online banking world is interest checking. Ally Bank interest checking includes: free online banking, 0.5% APY on balances over $15,000, no transaction fees, customer service help available all the time, and free bill pay.
It’s important to note that all of these amounts are FDIC insured up to $250,000. If you’re presently satisfied with your bank account, it wouldn’t be the greatest idea to immediately jump over to Ally Bank. If you’re looking to open a new bank account, then Ally Bank is worth looking into.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Just two additional things to note: The “No Penalty” CD that Ally offers is an 11-month term, just was a recent change. And they’ve added the “Raise Your Rate” CD to their CD portfolio. It’s a 2-year term, during which you have one opportunity to change the rate to whatever the current 2-year rate is.
I’ve been with Ally for about a year and have thoroughly enjoyed them. Their customer service is great, and the website is very user-friendly. Otherwise, they offer standard products. I have a CD ladder, MMA, and online savings with them and can’t be happier. The interest rates are terrible with everyone, but Ally is among the best of them right now.
Thanks for the feedback Anthony. Have you tried out the services of any other online bank?
Yeah, I have tried ING, FNBO, E*Trade, and iGObanking. In my experience, Ally Bank has been the best in interest rates, website usability, and customer service. At this time, I will continue to use Ally until something seriously goes wrong with them.
Oops… also meant to mention: they’ve been offering “Loyalty Bonuses” for CD renewals. I think this is a random thing. But my last 2 CD renewals got a 0.50% bump in interest rate. My next 3 CD renewals get a 0.25%. Not too bad, considering a 12-month CD is 1.50% right now. The bump makes it 2.00% or 1.75%.
I’ve been with Ally for 4 months now, BEST bank I’ve ever used. The have the best friendliest customer service I have ever dealt with, any day, anytime. Their rates are TOP for this bad economy. WellsFargo are BofA are EVIL, USBank & TCF Bank fairly EVIL.. ALLY is as GOOD as banks get. I still use my local TCF bank for 1 checking account to make local deposits.. I transfer the funds to Ally quickly. I recommend Ally to everyone, to bad they don’t offer referrals.
After setting up an acct with ally, I then initiated a fund transfer to ally (using ally’s online system). I called ally beforehand to make sure it would be ok since the 30 day time frame to deposit was approaching. I was ASSURED that as long as I initiated the transfer before 30 days, it was fine. I waited patiently for several days but received nothing from ally.. no e-mail, no phone call. I signed onto my ally acct. and now my balance showed a NEGATIVE dollar amount instead of zero. When I called them, they said my acct had been closed because I didn’t deposit money in time! BUT.. they had taken my money from my other bank! Incredulously though, they said at the same time that since the acct. was closed that they DIDN’T really have my money! My “old” bank confirmed the monies had been sent to ally. MORE calls to ally.. they have NO idea where my money is or how to get it back! I go into my “old” bank and they actually spend a LOT of time helping me figure it out although they had NOTHING to do with the problem. With the information (ACH tracking numbers that ally wouldn’t bother looking for) from my “old” bank, I call ally AGAIN ( I don’t even know how many times I called ally). This time (after mentioning perhaps banking authorities might be notified) they miraculously are able to find the money! I am STILL waiting for the money to be returned to my “old” bank. Funny.. their claim to fame.. being an ultra modern, high-speed, web-based bank.. sure seems like BS when you consider it has been over TWO WEEKS and I STILL don’t have my money back and they weren’t able to find, track, or identify ANYTHING! I had to go into an old-school, brick and mortar bank and have a REAL PERSON help me! So, an online bank may give you a little interest and allow you to use ATMs nationwide, but JUST WAIT until something goes wrong! THEN you will wish you had a REAL PERSON to help you! The winner here is oddly enough.. BANK OF AMERICA (my “old” bank)! haha! Caveat Emptor!
Clay, I’ve noticed you post this exact comment on other sites about Ally Bank. I’m trying to decide whether to go with Ally or not, and the more I see your post the more convinced I am to USE Ally. I’ve seen people complain about Ally trolls promoting the bank in comment threads, but I’m beginning to think that you must be a troll for some other bank! Maybe next time you open an account you shouldn’t wait until the 30 days is ALMOST OVER to start your funds transfer.