Re delays at Ally, this disturbs me. Perhaps Banking Guy can put something together to address this.
You see, Ally is NOT in FDIC receivership. Thus, it has no special (bankruptcy) protection allowing it to delay payment. That CD is a legally enforceable contract that the money will be paid the day it matures if you so request. That does not allow them another day or two or several days to "process." They have already had the full term of the CD to deal with any "processing," must pay on the maturity date if requested, especially if that request is put in in advance.
Well, unless the CD contract specifies up front that there might be a delay -- and I've never seen one that does.
Anything else is to make your CD longer than you contracted for -- and that would be illegal.
I went through a similar thing with Amtrust a year or more ago. But I learned of the problem a week in advance. So, daily for a week, I had nasty e-mail and other exchanges with them pointing out how it is a legal violation and I can sue the hell out of them for breach of contract, among other things. By the day before maturity, they relented and I got my money on the maturity date.
But the point is, they saw I had a real case against them and paid before they became seriously liable for punitive damages.
And I will never do business with Amtrust again. Few other people would have been able to break them as I did, and I very much did not like the exchange I had to undertake. Unfortunately, by paying me, they were able to continue their illegal practices with everyone else. Had I sued and won, I could have made it a class action that could have bankrupted them.
They tried to argue that it was part of the terms, but it was not and I showed them so.
Clearly, this kind of stuff by banks irritates me to no end! This REALLY needs to be cracked down on.