| 5 star: | (19) | |
| 4 star: | (16) | |
| 3 star: | (15) | |
| 2 star: | (18) | |
| 1 star: | (96) |
I had a wire transfer reversed but when the money came back to Ally, it was short $45. Reached out to both Ally and Bank of America (the receiving bank). Bank of America was able to prove it wasn’t their fee.
Several calls to Ally and I did get a csr to admit that it was Ally’s fee. He put me on hold to reverse the fee. When he came back on, changed his story completely and my refund was denied.
Not cool Ally. You were my bank of choice for at least 15 years. Closed all accounts and moving on. Do better.
Ally's online tools are some of the best. Their savings yields seem to fluctuate from competitive to less competitive. Understandably they require paperwork to support power of attorney. Once approved, the POA process works fine.
I recently encountered significant issues with Ally Bank that have led me to close my account. Despite requesting the closure of an old account upon opening a new one, I was unexpectedly locked out and prompted to merge the two accounts. This was particularly frustrating as I had been accessing my new account without problems until this incident.
When I contacted customer service for assistance, the representative frequently placed me on hold and suggested clearing my browser cookies, which were already disabled. This unhelpful guidance and the inability to resolve the issue promptly were disappointing.
Due to this experience, I decided to withdraw my funds and will be seeking banking services elsewhere, preferably with a higher yield. It's crucial for financial institutions to handle account management efficiently and communicate changes transparently, especially when customers have ongoing financial commitments.
I opened an account with Ally WAY back in like 2011 or so, it was just after the old GMAC went belly up and reformed under the name Ally. Been with them ever since, they have never made a mistake and I have them autopay all of my credit cards and utility bills, have never let me down. They are NOT a good bank for interest rates so I keep my main money elsewhere and transmit to Ally what I need for a specified time. Ally was actually kind of the start of the online banks and has remained reliable ever since.
I've had a savings account with Ally for years, and I appreciate the ease-of-use of their online banking and their competitive rates. Interbank transfers are easy and prompt. I'll be with Ally for a long, long time!
This bank has vindictive employees who will hinder a transfer to an outside bank if they don't like your tone of voice. Really!
Terrible bank. They refused to close my CD when I asked, and jerked me around for weeks on end trying to get my money out. I spoke with 3 different support people who all just kicked the can to eachother. Bunch of scam artists! Avoid this bank at all costs!
I was promised smooth operation of my Ally accounts prior to moving to Colombia, South America. Mail delivery from the USA via USPS takes months and Ally will not accommodate me by sending my new debit card via DHL. I offered to pay for this service but was told it can't be done. Also, you can not enter a foreign phone number in your ALLY profile so you will not be able to receive any security codes they want to send.
I love Ally. I've been with them for a few years now. The website and the phone app is really nice, and I love the buckets system for the HYSA. I really love the debit card and no fees.
My only complaint would be that I had trouble opening the account years ago. I kept getting denied because they wanted to check my credit (which I keep frozen). Also, they claimed they couldn't verify my identity. I tried every 6 months or so for a couple of years. FINALLY, one day it went through, and I was approved. Ever since then, I have had a 100% positive experience with them. I love this bank.
What's with the tiny drops? Down another .10 to 3.60%. I can see no reason for this, and I moved money out this morning. I have a bunch of CD's maturing soon as well and i'm sure that money will be headed out the door as well. I have multiple choices that pay better, and half a point isn't meaningless to me.
Ally is getting to be very frustrating for me. I have been with them since inception but i am very annoyed with them. It's death by 1000 cuts.
Most recently had what I consider an unnecessary delay in depositing a check mailed to Ally. I sent it with tracking and they picked it up in the afternoon on May 1. That was a Wednesday. As of Monday close of business, it has not been deposited. I called and was told it should be deposited by Tuesday (May 7th). At $15/day lost interest, this is not acceptable.
Like many times before, I used BankRate or a similar site that to locate the best CD rates. I chose a link claiming to have a 5.25 APY at Ally Bank. Nothing during the application process told me otherwise. So 10 days in, I was informed that my rate will be 4.5%. Response from customer service was essentially "too bad". Was the only bad experience I've had with opening a CD account in my life.
For two days now, I have noticed that all ACH transfers from Ally Bank is now taking 3 business days to process.
One CSR says it is a temporary glitch, while another CSR says 1 business day processing is a thing of the past.
the worst and dishonest trading company that I ever have had the misfortune of dealing with. They are, in my mind, criminals. I requested a withdrawal of £100,000 from my account. Within about 4 hours, the withdrawal had been put back into my account. Then my account was traded illegally with 11 trades taken and losing all the money. I complained to this company and they couldn't give a damn. I had to reach out to oliviatrader 44 at gmail com to assist me in getting back my money. Glad I have all my money back now.
Twice now in as many years I have had an Ally caused problem with a CD, phoned in and got a reference number when my issue got kicked up the line, only later to check in and find out the CSR listed the wrong CD account number on the trouble ticket. This last time, I secure messaged about rolling over an IRA CD into a longer term, and received replies that all was OK and to fill out their form, which I did and which was acknowledged. Checking on it, the CD had not been rolled to the longer term but instead the automatic renewal term. I called about it, clearly gave the right numbers, and that's when I got a reference number. A couple days later I do a call back and was told a different reference number and that my original reference number didn't exist.
The new number involved a totally different CD which did not have any issues. So not only did I have to start from scratch with the first issue, I had to clean up their mistake that involved the other CD. Also, I've noted different CSR account access abilities depend on who answers their phone. This time, the first one could read my secure messages, proven in conversation, whereas the second one could not and didn't believe me when I told her that other CSRs could, which I needed to prove my argument. One starts to wonder if this is now a tactic, so prepare yourself for it!
Happy New Year! My name is Michael Welch from San Antonio. I took out a 25k loan (9575 for the dentist and 15,000 for the dentures) about two years ago. I missed out on my payments because I lost my job and my credit score drop drastically. This affected my dream of purchasing a house for my family. I’ve got a better job, paid off the debt but the negative remarks remained. All my applications for a home loan fell through, until a realtor recommended JERRYLINK CREDIT GROUP. I contacted Mr. Jerry, he was responsive, and gave detailed information. After careful deliberation with my family, I offered him the job and I’m glad I did. They erased all the negative items and my score went up by 129 points. I have achieved my dream of becoming a home owner thanks to Mr. Jerry and his team. I’m recommending his services as promised; you can reach out to them via: JERRYLINKGROUP at GMAIL dot COM, thank me later.
Over all, solid bank with good customer service. Their savings, money market and CD products do not always off the most competitive rates, but they are good and the bank is reputable and solid. Their mobile app is good and their website interface is excellent.
The only downside is that transferring money into and out of your accounts (initiated through Ally) can take up to 3 business days, which is pretty slow and you lose out on interest during these days. Best to initiate transfers from your external institution.
This promo link below is for new customers who open an savings account. You can get 0.5% APR added to your savings account for 3 months, up to $125. FYI, after 5 uses, it maxes out.
0.5% added APR to new customers who open an Ally Savings account:
ally.com/referral?code=6P5K9H6J8H
I had a traditional IRA CD to mature. I wanted to take $ 15k out and let $5k be my RMD for the year 2023 and reinvest the rest in an IRA CD within 60 days. Seeing the rates were not going up, I tried to rollover the $10k minus the amount taken out of the mature CD for taxes. I was told that to do this I had to make the changes on the mature CD only on the maturity date. So much for a rollover later. I'll know better next year. I do have a traditional IRA CD coming due in 2025. They said if I just take out the RMD in 2024 the rate of my 2025 CD will not change.
The process Ally makes you go through to move money from an Ally Roth Savings Account to an Ally Roth CD is completely idiotic.
Other financial institutions let you simply open a Roth CD and fund it from your existing Roth Savings in seconds with no confusion. But not Ally!
Ally has a convoluted online process that is completely misleading and the customer reps don't even understand how to do it immediately.
It turns out you have to go on line and add to an existing plan. And you have to enter amount is $0. Because the only way the web page allows you to fund the Roth CD is from:
1) Rollover,
2) Contribution,
3) Transfer from IRA, or
4) Recharacterization.
But if you want to fund from existing Ally Roth Savings, you are screwed.
So then you have to cancel out of funding step 4-of-4 because Ally does not give an option to move money from Roth Savings to the new Roth CD.
So then you are stuck.
So how do you actually get the new Ally Roth CD funded from your existing Ally Roth Savings Acct?
It turns out you have to know to call and request an internal transfer. That takes them several days. Other institutions do it instantly.
And then guess what, your new Ally Roth CD will say it's an "IRA CD". It won't say it's a "Roth IRA CD". So you have know what of knowing if they screwed up and opened an IRA with the Roth IRA funds.
So I recommend staying away from Ally for IRA or Roth accounts due to their idiotic processes. There are much better alternatives to Ally.
I've been an ally customer for 10 years.
I recently purchased a house and had a close date of 12/21. I submitted for a wire for down payment to be sent 12/15. They froze all my accounts for 'fraud alerts'. I spent 10 hours on phone and could never get a fraud investigator. They wouldn't release my wire or allow me to transfer MY money to another bank. They cleared me on 12/23 after they killed my deal.
Beware. They are only good for anything less than 100k. That's it.mi only use them for ATM withdrawal now since they are free. TERRIBLE customer service.
Everyone you talk to sounds nice but they have no clue what’s going on, then they will mess up your account and tell you it was your fault. It might be stupidity or they might be doing it on purpose.
NOT ALWAYS THE BEST CD RATES BUT ALLY ALWAYS HANDLES MY TRANSACTIONS FAST AND HASSLE FREE SO I RATE THEM A A A + + +
I opened my Money Market account and two days after opening it, without having received my debit card, they made 3 withdrawals at the ATM with a debit card that I never activated or received. Ally's response was that they would investigate and in 10 business days they would contact me. It has been over a month and I am still waiting for a response from Ally.
They paid a check I wrote without any endorsement or even an account number of where the check money went. The check was in the multiple thousands of dollars and Ally says “that’s the way it is” Ally is complacent in fraud.
I am constantly moving money from my local bank to Ally and it's always cleared overnight. I just processed a transfer yesterday, wednesday and they are not going to clear it until next Monday. This has never happened before in probably 2 decades, and now I am seeing others are experiencing this as well.
Anyone know more?
Back when the small banks were collapsing in 2023 this one was mentioned as a possibility of doing likewise. A while ago mailed in a large check to fund premium account and the check just vanished, in USPS which does not fail to deliver.
I only use Ally Bank in conjunction with my investment accounts there, as this allows for transactions to and from.
The good: it's convenient if you have an investment account(s) there.
The okay: their interest rate is better than the big commercial banks.
The could be better: the knowledge and skills of their customer service reps is hit-and-miss.
The bad: their interest rate trails many, many other better choices.
PLEASE, don't ignore the negative reviews all over the web, and I highly advise against using them based of the small percentage of folks who say they had a good experience, especially those telling you to ignore the negative reviews. This company is bad energy and it's not worth the risk. They stressed me beyond belief by essentially holding $1#,### dollars of mine (life savings) hostage shortly after opening a new account. Forced me to jump on a call and it took hours of my life away, and they asked me bizarre questions and made me feel like I was be interrogated by police officers. Was hard to reach someone who I felt somewhat comfortable talking with too, as I kept getting a call center in India (no disrespect to those hard working people obviously). This bank is not your ally. Many other banks who will not cause your blood pressure to boil over. I signed up before reading reviews (big mistake I made). After reading reviews, this practice of freezing your account access is more common than imagined. And the sheer number of complaints of them essentially stealing people's money, are not uncommon. That's scary. Luckily I was able to pull 99.9% of my money back to the original bank via ACH, but not without stress. As soon as my receiving bank saw the money, I get an email from Ally saying my account on their end was closed. I stressed for another week thinking that maybe the ACH would get messed up and the money would bounce back to a now nonexistent account. Thankfully, after one week, it seems to be safely back into my bank. I check daily now just to make sure (literal PTSD from this experience). All in all, this bank is bad energy all around. Run the other way. They still owe me about $110 (initial deposit), but I'm done with this entity. Hopefully they do me right and send that $110 as a check to my house. If not, I will just walk away and let that sit in the ether forever. I just want to move on from this experience. Ugh. Worst experience in my entire life.
Just a heads up. My rating is for the investment account only. I love my Ally bank account. I use it as a checking account and hub for all of my other financial institutions.
After reading on here that you can buy Vanguard Money Market Funds through an Ally investment account, I opened one on Thursday. I was also going to purchase stock in the account. First of all the website is very clunky. For example, I had to go to Vanguard to get the fund symbol and then use it in the Ally account. But most importantly, I went to buy a stock on Friday, and the investment account website was not available. And it is still not available Saturday morning. I didn't try to call the number, so I don't know if there would be a wait, but not a good sign when an online brokerage account is unavailable for two days.
I only have a online spending (checking) account with Ally and so far it has been good. I wish the apy rates were higher like maybe at least 1.00% apy on the spending account but at least they are playing something.
They give you a free checkbook, they reimburse on $10 atm fees per statement period with 43,000 atm's nationwide and I think they are fee-free, though I'm not entirely sure.
I was a victim of fraud and instead of ally bank helping me get my money back. they closed my account for being a victim.
I was a victim of identity theft, and I am currently “squatting” in (what was) my own house for which I’ve been paying for 14 years because of Ally’s refusal to assist me. Every party involved, including the government of The United States of America from whom I receive my benefits as a disabled veteran, and the company that the fraudsters were impersonating were fully aware of the scam, agreed with my findings and were eager to get my money back.
Ally closed my accounts and (verbatim) called ME “The fraudster”. Ok, that was hurtful, but oh well. At least they said on June 2nd 2023 that they would retain my deposits from the government of The USA through August of 2023. Come July 3rd, no deposit. I called veterans affairs; “That’s strange, we deposited it to the correct Ally account on July 3rd 2023 at 0100 hr.” So, I called Ally for the second time that day, 07/05/2023 (take notice of the dates) because the very friendly customer service representative had no idea what I was talking about. Their extremely surly and rude loss prevention representative told me they had returned the check. I explained to her that I was told by Ally they would close my account so as to stop further fraudulent actions and retain my checks and ensured me that they would keep all deposits through 08/03/2023 so I could transfer the funds to my new bank account. I asked her “You do record these calls, as said, correct?” -“Yes. I don’t have access to that.” - “So… where is my check?” - “That’s between you and the Issuer.”.
In summary, to Ally bank, who would not help me through the Fourth of July I say: You’re welcome for my service”.
I opened a bank account and added money. Well then about three days later I get told my account has been locked due to suspicious activity. There was a phone number trying to be added that wasn't mine. Okay, that's reasonable. Well here we are almost a week later, daily phone calls, the same crap being said, and my money still not accessable!! I tried to do a wire/transfer since my debit card had not come in yet, and I needed this money. They told me the phone number situation has been settled, my wire I tried to do had been cancelled, and the money returned to my account. The investigation team had to see it has been returned and then my account could be unlocked. I need my money and I do not see how a bank can hold your funds and keep them!!! I wouldn't recommend this bank to anyone and would give it 0 stars if I could!
If you have money with Ally, I would highly recommend you withdraw it quickly. I don't want anyone to suffer the way I have with them. Last month I did a large transfer from Ally to Chase, I'd done this before so expected no issue. But this time, the transfer didn't make it to Chase. Initially, Ally kept telling me to contact Chase, but eventually a manager at Chase explained the process and it was clear, Ally was responsible. Called Ally back and they admitted they have to locate the money. After about a week, no response so I called Ally back. After passing their phone verification, I was told (on the phone) that my account would be locked until an investigation was complete. There's no reason to lock my account, I suspect this was to prevent me looking to see what's going on. I've now been locked out of my account for over 2 weeks, I call them every other day, talk to their reps for almost an hour every time and always get told there's nothing they can do until the "Investigation" is complete. So here's the summary. Ally lost the transfer about 25 days ago and I've been locked out of my account for 2 weeks now. No one has any answers, no one attempts to figure out what's going on. Ally had never reached out to me. I really don't know where else to turn. Is a bank really allowed to lose your money like this? If anyone has any ideas on what to do here, I’d really appreciate it.
Ally Bank sent me another email informing that the savings rate has increased. I sent a reply stating that their offer was not good enough since I'm getting 4.91% from my Money Market (FZDXX) positon at Fidelity. Plus I don't have the inconvience of locking up money in one of their CD's. They must think we're stupid. Speaking of stupid, does anyone here want to buy a gold IRA? LOL I didn't think so.
Good internet bank. But right now I'm disappointed. Wanted to get ahead of an IRA rollover into one of my accounts that's mauring 12/9, so contacted them a week ahead. All they need to do is sign the paperwork and email it back so I can get it to my old job to mail rollover check but shit have been contacting them many times and still no signature (has to be an original signature). Don't like last minute transactions. I'm basically doing all the work to this rollover. Right now I'm disappointed and anxiety ridden over this.
I was drawn to them because of the low fees and products. However, the way they deal with everyday banking issues does not send the message that my money is safe. Though customer service is usually quick to respond, it sometimes multiple calls for them to actually answer your questions.
Ally Bank has thee worst customer service. You can never get a rep that speaks proper English. You can never get simply questions answered you are placed on long holds and still issue is not handled. Getting my loan here was pretty simple but it’s not worth the hassle when needing simple answers. Save yourself the headache don’t get loans from this banking institution.
Overall, I am very happy with Ally Bank. I’ve been with them for over 10 years and can say that I really haven’t had any major issues. I hope it stays that way. In the future. This is a great place for me to keep my money.
Been with Ally for 5 years now. I really like the website and app. Easy to navigate and make transfers. The support agents have been friendly and knowledgeable in my experience. But now (2023) Ally seems to be lagging on their rate competition and customer care.
An incident I had re: checks I ordered - a month later I realized I never received the checks. I called to put a stop payment on them (charged me $15.00 which I had them reverse), then re-ordered checks. Again, I did not receive them. This happened 4 times! It literally took 3.5 months to finally receive a book of checks.
Also, I have a co-signer on my account. For some reason, my co-signer received deposit slips in the mail for MY account. And when she ordered checks for her own personal acct, she did not receive them either. Something is severely lacking at Ally these days.
I have been customer since late 2016.
Rates are great, even though with respect to the past there are some products that they promote and incentive more than other.
Great customer service, even though there has been a period during the pandemic (shortage of personnel) where it had gotten significantly worse, but now they have gotten better again.
I have been an Ally customer for years. They've had good customer service, a good web experience, and low fees. Perhaps the only drawback is that their rates are not quite as competitive as they were several years ago.
Opening and funding an account has been a nightmare. After applying online, it took two additional days to open the account. Then I tried to link to an account at my pre-existing bank. They refused the link saying that the foreign account was closed. It wasn't Geiko pulled money from that account on the same day. They recommended that I write a check from my pre-existing account at the foreign bank to my new account. Later, I got a call from their service department explaining that my account would be locked until the cheque cleared because making both the link request and cheque deposit was suspicious. Now, I have to wait five days before I can get into my account. They won't even let me close my account with them so I can be done with this and use a better bank.
I do not feel like this bank was ever my Ally.
They would promise to do things and then not do them, or they’d promise not to do something and then do exactly that. And they’d back track on these assurances/problems without notifying me. I’d be waiting and after nothing happening by the time they said it would happen, have to waste time calling in to find out they changed their mind.
They couldn’t even treat me with the basic level of respect and professionalism. For almost two years, I tried to get them to change my name in their systems to my correct name, which they kept messing up repeatedly. Numerous times, I provided them with identification documents to prove what my correct name is and dozens of times I was promise they had fixed my name in their systems, but almost two years later, they still don’t have the correct name.
Let me give you an example from the last month that perfectly encapsulates my experiences with Ally for years:
On January 26th, I received an e-mail saying my 1099-Int was ready. I spent about 20 minutes trying to find it on their website, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I then wasted about 2 hours on the phone because it wasn’t where they said it should be in on their website. Eventually, a guy told me the 1099s wouldn’t be ready until Feb 1. That begs the question: why did they send me an e-mail on Jan 26th saying it was ready if it wouldn’t be ready until Feb 1.
On Feb 1 it also wasn’t where they said it would be, leading to more wasted hours on the phone. Then they agreed to send me it via a secured e-mail message. Several days later they did, only the name was wrong. I called them and was told they would fix it and send me an updated one. Several weeks, several secured e-mail messages that didn’t work, and many wasted hours on the phone, I was told they were going to send me the corrected 1099 via normal e-mail later that day.
Nothing came that day. Nothing came the next day. So two days later I called in. After spending about half an hour on the phone, I was informed they wouldn’t be correcting the form. They said since they never had the name right in 2022, they weren’t going to change it on the form for 2022.
Since they repeatedly made mistakes in 2022, they decided they weren’t going to fix the problem now in 2023. To get to this decision, they wasted almost a full, 24-hour day’s worth of time. Does that sound like an institution that is my ally?
I've been with Ally Bank for several years and have never had issues with them until the last few months.
On February 9/23 I wanted to close a high balance, no penalty cd and transfer the money into a hgher paying no interest cd. I was told that I couldn't do that because it was a high balance and that the money would be held for 3-5 days as it needed to go through their internal back office. On February 15/23 they finally funded the new no interest cd and then told me I had to wait for 6 days before I could access my money per legal requirement. February 23, came and I called to transfer my money to these new higher interest cds. where I was told that it will take another 3-5 days to process before I can access my money. It will be the beginning of March before I can access MY MONEY. THIS IS ILLEGAL. THEY ARE HOLDIING THIS MONEY SO THAT THEY CAN COLLECT HIGH INTEREST ON MY MONEY, BUT I AM UNABLE TO ACCESS IT and receive the higher interest rate. I am angry and frustrated at their lack of supervisory staff and their lack of knowledge.
Recently the bank has notified customers of its rate increases in increments of .10 % ( yes, negligible .10 basis points ) . I find it insulting and deceiving ! It announces its petty increases with great fanfare ! As of 2/24/23 it increased to 3.50% APY its deposit rates from 3.40% , recently done on 2/1/23 . Briodirect , a subsidiary of Webster Bank and also an online bank has returned 4.10%since 1/10/23 .
Quite obviously , where one should park their money!
I had a very frustrating experience when opening a CD account with Ally Bank. Initially, once I submitted my application, I received an automatic message stating that the transfer from my other bank account could not be made and that I needed to contact the customer service line. Upon calling, my new account was inexplicably blocked, and the representative I spoke with told me that I could not make any changes to the account at that time. She ensured me I won't be charged any fees later for any changes since I just opened an account. She also reassured me that the block would be lifted in a few days. However, the transfer proceeded anyway and now I have to pay a $2000 fee for making changes to my CD.
When I tried to contact the customer service line several times, I was forced to wait on hold for extended periods every time, and it took several attempts before I received confirmation that the transaction would be reversed with no fees because of their system fault. Unfortunately, it's now been three weeks, and the issue is still not resolved.
Overall, I was extremely disappointed with the lack of transparency and poor customer service from Ally Bank. I would not recommend this bank to anyone based on my experience.
I just opened my Ally checking account two weeks ago. Since then I’ve done regular ach bank transfers from my chase account to my ally account. No issues, I’ve even done Zelle from my chase to my Ally. This evening when I attempted to actually Zelle FROM my ally account TO my chase account, everything went wrong. It said my Zelle was on hold. I call customer service and they ask to verify my number, they then say that the number isn’t registered to me (it is). Then they say my account is locked while being investigated, why was there no investigation when my money was going IN the account. So now they have over 1k of my money and I have no clue when I will have access to it again. RIDICULOUS!!!
We had an account with Ally after we sold our home to hold the money until we bought another home. A year later we were ready to buy a home and because they have so many restrictions on how much you can transfer, we wrote a check from our Ally account to our checking account to then complete the home purchase. We went on the Ally web site and sent a secure message to give them notice. And what do they then do after my bank received and credited my account, they pull it back. Needless to say it caused us a lot of work and delayed our closing. With Ally they are happy to get your money, but they don't want to return it.
They used to be good when we first got with them. They did a big update that shut down our cards because the system changed our card info so our physical cards stopped working....(mind you this was while I was just finishing my tires getting changed on my car) caused serious problems cuz I basically had to pull 400 dollars out my behind on the spot) had to wait weeks to have access to our money again because we couldn't even zelle it anymore because the account was locked during that time to,and they couldn't unlock it for us..... Many people had the same problems..customer service got very slow..zelle stopped being instant permanently and I constantly have so many pending charges on my account ..and some immediately deduct while saying pending and others don't so I never know my true account balance which caused me alot of issues before I realized it wasn't actually deducting all the pending charges. And money doesn't deposit direct anymore either ...even if u pay for an instant deposit..all they have is a descent savings in my opinion...but go anywhere else. Good luck ??
After being contacted by Ally Bank to get me to open an Ally Invest account, I finally made the time to sit with them (via several phone and Zoom meetings). From the get go, the discussion was about opening an investment account and how Ally Bank was the right bank for me. In all, I spent about 10 hours over several meetings total with their rep. What's worse, in some of our meetings I divulged personal information for my wife and myself, and they even had me go as far as to open an investment account with them to begin to implement their "plan". Just as I was about to fund the account, I received an email (and later a letter) stating "Based on a review of my account with Ally Invest, we have decided to terminate our relationship with you and close your account... " When I called them the rep stated they can not divulge the reasons for the termination! WHAT A JOKE!!!
(Edit 02-11-23) Consider your brokerage core account. Sure, some bonds pay a higher rate of return but the point of this exersize is safety where money market funds are fixed at $1.00. Even in times of negative rates, all brokerages will shore up the dollar. This is an account where you can write checks, pay bills electronically, buy & sell investments, get a 2% back credit card, get a debit card for ATM cash, and have just one pool of money (core account) rather than checking & savings. I've set my core account at Fidelity Investments to SPAXX (money market) because since the last Fed action, the 7-day yield is 4.17%. This means you will receive the average yield over 7-days (same as APY) on idle money you've set aside for bill payments, savings, or whatever. I for one have stopped chasing risky high-rates advertised all over the internet. Often, they won't let go of your money, have ACH transfer limits, don't compound daily, or have deplorable customer service. A brokerage core account has none of these negative issues.
Edit 03-17-23 - The 7-day yields for SPAXX (4.23%) and FZDXX (4.46%) have remained constant during this period of bank failures.
I checked with Ally about the "promotional term available through" claim. Ally said "Currently the Annual Percentage Yield on our 13 Month Select CD is 4.60%. Please be advised that all rates quoted are variable and subject to change at any time." So regardless of the website claim, the offer could disappear anytime. There might still be a 13 month term CD, but rates not guaranteed. Sneaky, IMO.
If you want the offer, maybe not wait.
If you have a kid in a custodial account for them with Ally, don’t let the kid use that account through your app they’ll close all your accounts. Also, don’t send money anywhere to buy bitcoin because they’re close your accounts for that too. They used to be a really good bank, but this is just wrong. Don’t trust them.
They were good company had no promblems for 6 years and now they messed up my accounts made my payments on time took one of my payments put it on the other account making my other account late went through hell trying to get them to fix it and now I went to make another payment and the web site told me that i have an account issue so I called again to figure it out and they tell me that i have to due a certified payment and I was like what so I looked at my credit to just curious and they had marked my accounts 30 days past due they have never been 30 days past due
I have been a customer with Ally since it started. I use it as a hub. Just a heads up. The ACH transfer time from their money market account is longer than from checking or savings. It shows right on the timeline when you set up the transfer. I needed to move some money to NASA FCU for a CD, and I was up against the Ally transfer limits. The money market account transfer was 2 days, but checking and savings were next day. As in, over the weekend I initiated a transfer from my money market fund. According to Ally it will go tomorrow. Yesterday I moved funds from money market to checking. Initiated from my checking account, and the funds are there today.
I've had a checking, online savings, and money market savings account with Ally for almost 10 years, and never had an issue.
The app is great, the website is functional. I like the "bucket" feature in online savings to keep certain balances allocated separately. Mobile check deposit works perfectly. Deposits go through quickly and they are transparent about the availability of funds — some right away, and the remainder after a couple days for larger deposits. Internal transfers happen instantly. Unlike many banks, checks are free, and you can get them as many times as you need. I moved and requested new checks so that my address would be correct, and received them with no problem. They had an easy and straightforward process for updating a legal name change, as well. If you need to call, the wait time is displayed at the top of the website and is usually 1-2 minutes.
The interest rates for online savings and money market savings are adjusted frequently without having to monitor it and call to get the better rate (unlike Capital One). Ally is not usually the absolute best interest rate available, but usually near the top for large banks.
The one real downside is that Ally continues to restrict withdrawals from savings accounts to 6 per month, even since the federal rule was suspended. It's not the end of the world, but it is a bit annoying when other banks have lifted this restriction and Ally maintains it, even though they don't have to.
Have opened several accounts over the past year with Ally; it's painless and effortless. With great customer service to boot.
In comparison, tried to diversify and open additional accounts with Live Oak Bank (LOB). Big mistake. I couldn't even make it past the application process, despite financial credentials.
Don't waste your time, seriously. Ally much more user-friendly than LOB; or as I refer to them, as Dead Oak Bank (DOB).
Back in 2020, I disputed a charge on my debit card for $1680. The bank gave me that same amount of money to compensate me for my loss. Quite a while later, the merchant finally corrected the issue with the debit card transaction. I sent the bank a message telling them that the original debit card transaction was resolved and that they should withdraw $1680 from my account. They told me it was too late and they had no way of taking the money back. They just let me keep the $1680 for free.
Be careful to do business with Ally Bank.
I have been trying to close a jumbo CD (close to 300K with 2.5%) with penalty. Ally rep now says it need 5 business days for back office to close an account. Agents do not have a clue and secure messages are getting ignored. Any suggestions what to do if they are not willing to help even after 7 days?
You lowered rates when the Fed just raised them
A real dumpster fire bank.
Ally Bank frauds attempted to prevent me from cashing an Ally bank check written to my mother's estate, even though I had a court order from a judge. I'm filing a complaint with the Federal Reserve Board. Do not recommend Ally bank at all whatsoever.
Spent an entire day starting at 8am trying to get a wire transfer completed. In the end I'm told it will not be completed until Tuesday 2 Jan 2023. due to their errors (not getting it entered until my 4th phone call to them) this will cost me $1000. I know it is the end of the year but they are open for business)
I banked with Ally for almost 3 years & could never quite get used to the time it took to get funds credited to my account after a deposit. And it didn't matter what type of deposit, instant transfers took around two business days, direct deposits would go thru Monday if they were scheduled for Saturday or Sunday. Which was always hard knowing that other banks would deposit my co-workers checks on the Friday before. Ally has NEVER paid my direct deposit two days early but I dealt with it. Then on the 19th of December at 10pm my direct deposit went into my bank account. I tried to make a $6 purchase with my ATM card but it was declined. I looked on the app & nothing was out of the ordinary. After two more attempts I used another card. I called Ally customer service to resolve the issue but the rep told me he was unable to help me & hung up on me. Frustrated, I called back & went thru a series of questions to prove my identity. I passed & the problem was resolved, I was told. I tried to use my card but again it was denied. I called back the next day at noon & went over everything again. Finally got answers. The fraud department locked my account & froze my card. All was fixed except a new card had to be issued. On the 23rd I finally got my expedited card. I was excited to finally have use of my money again but my excitement ended when I tried to activate the new card. It was EXACTLY the same as my old one! I called Ally again, this time crying. It is already the 23rd of December. Ordering a new card is the only option I was given to fix this issue. I have zero access to my money at this moment. I cannot transfer or wire from it due to some restrictions places on my account. Zelle won't even recognize I have an account anymore & out of sheer desperation I attempted to open a second account in order to move the money to have more control or some control over it but I am blocked from that too. I tried to write myself a check but upon cashing it, I was denied. I'm still waiting on a transfer to go thru to PayPal. Every customer service person I spoke to, except the first one has said the issue has been corrected but only seems to make it worse or does nothing. My holiday plans are ruined since I cannot travel without money. I cannot finish my Christmas shopping & blame Ally 100%. Their fraud department called me 3 times prior to them freezing my account. I authorized the charges everytime. They ignored me & canceled my card anyway. The last rep told me I could transfer via wire transfer for a $20.00 fee, which I was blocked from doing but why should I have to pay that? I've already paid fees on transfers that have yet to go thru & all my Christmas plans are ruined! Plus, my bills are not getting paid either. I have had it with this bank, their incompetent customer service & their policies or procedures with "fraud protection". After numerous calls I still have restrictions, red flags & limitations on this account as I am still unable to move money out, however strangely has no issues being put in! As of Friday morning this bank will no longer be handling my paychecks. I plan to empty the account soon after receiving a card that I can actually use & then taking what ever steps necessary to close it for food. Ally checking is free for a reason! You get what you pay for!!! Free isn't worth this nightmare & lost Christmas memories.
I am starting to feel like some people here that wrote the other reviews. "Look elsewhere"! I am starting to feel that I should look elsewhere too to invest my money. I have wasted too many hours with this bank just to speak with someone only to get no resolution to have my money put back in my account. Each call is normally at least over an hour-long wait. I have an account that was closed by accident because they misunderstood my instruction. It has been over a month and my money has not been deposited back into my account. I have called so many times, 1 time when I was put on hold for a total of over 4 hours long, and the problem was not resolved. To this day, the issue has not been resolved. I have called a couple of times and was told someone will call me back, but no one did. Maybe Ally is growing too big too fast. I sent close to 10 messages that did not get responses. When I finally got responses recently, they don't mean what they say in the messages or on the phone.
Attempted to log in today only to discover the phone number I recently added was taken away. I had to add a phone number because my email addresses were taken away last week. My other options won't work becaue those phones have an internal battery and will no longer take on a charge. On the same page, there is a Feedback link. So I click Feedback and a blank box appears. Typing does nothing --the blank box stays blank and no characters appear. It's like "don't bother us, we don't want to hear it". Call by telephone? Yeah, right.
Per a few calls with Ally, I am really starting to question as to whether Ally is completely overwhelmed or is not training their CSR thoroughly.
One call was in order to rescind a CD prior to its maturity date. I was well aware of the EWP amount and Ally even states the amount online however the CSR (using obvious calculations from Mars) inefficiently and incorrectly was giving me an EWP much higher than the actual amount. She even started arguing with me so in recognizing what I was dealing with I just told her I did not want to cancel the CD and instead I just did it online. Shockingly...the EWP amounts were exactly what I thought they were. Beware of some of their mathematical 'geniuses' there.
On Nov 4, I received an email from Ally, which states in part:
"We need you to add a phone number to your security preferences
As part of our continual efforts to keep your account safe and secure, we're making changes to the security code delivery settings for your Ally account. In short, we'll need you to update your preferences.
In order to log in moving forward, you'll only be able to receive an authenticated security code through a text message or **phone call**, not email.
What this means for you
You'll need to add a preferred phone number to your Security Code Delivery settings. Follow these quick steps:
• Log in to your Ally account
• Select Profile and Settings
• Select Security Code Delivery
• Add a phone number as security code delivery option
Yet, when I followed their instructions, the website only permitted adding a phone number for text, no option for phone call.
When I contacted them by secure chat, due to extensive wait times for phone call inquiries, I received, several days later, the following response
“I am sorry. Security code delivery preference only showing the option to for text SMS message and no phone call option. Our Tech teams are aware of an issue. We are working to resolve the issue. I am sorry but we cannot help with online access through this channel. Please give us a call and we are happy to help. Online Security is a top priority for us, and we are happy to help.”
I am not waiting around to see if they eliminate email authentication before they fix their botched phone options. Given their extensive wait times for phone customer service, I don’t want to deal with that just to gain online access.
I do not want text authentication as I find it inconvenient and there was an extensive discussion of SIM card theft and other text shortcomings on this site when Live Oak went to text only authentication, so there is no need to reopen that discussion here.
The past few months I been having issues logging in on there phone app, a couple times even the web app, for my checking and savings. I found a bug where when I added my debit card to apple pay, it wants to send me a security code to a old email, that I already updated in my security code preferences. I Instant messaged Ally, they confirmed the bug and told me to call to fix it, but from reading from others the hold time is long. I also noticed some of the bill pay I was going to send was going to be a physical check, instead of electronic. I recently leaned that Ally was hacked last year (I was not affected), but there response and timing was not that good, the YouTube Lon.TV has a good video about it.
So I switched to Capital One and everything is working out better than expected.
I have been a customer of Ally for 10 years with the FDIC limit including my IRA. They are accessible 24/7 with representatives across the country. Have there been any glitches? Of course, every bank has them. My main criticism is the serious lag time reaching a rep, often 2-3 hours when they are swamped. Otherwise five minutes or thereabouts. The second criticism is their refusal to be competitive in this current rate-changing environment. 2.5% APY on a large deposit will not receive a standing ovation. Transfer speeds and limits are reasonable. My only rationale for leaving are the rates. That said, when you compare to local banks still living in a 0.01% APY world and read the nightmare stories about Bask, DollarSavingsDirect, NASB, LendingClub, savebetter, Brilliant and other rate leaders, it is probably a good choice for those not trying to squeeze the last penny from their deposits. They are not perfect, none are, but after a decade with them, haven't had any major horror stories.
Well first of all I've had a hard time getting financed. For the fact that they were able to finance my vehicle made a huge difference to me ( Aprroved after credit clean up ) . Anytime I've had a question or an issue about anything whatsoever all I had to do was to Simply pick up the telephone and place a phone call to the customer service line where an actual human being and not a robot directed me exactly what to do and what steps I should take to solve the issue that I would be having at that particular Moment In Time. That says a lot to me.
Another vote for reliability and speed. Customer of several years. So far, for me the best website of all the online banks I have tried, even though there are better looking interfaces. Everything I need is accessible online: Beneficiaries and changes, breaking a CD, detailed process log of transfers, cancellation of transfers without having to call in, etc, I haven't had to call in for anything in years. ACH transfers for me always within 24 hours (business days) with immediate (!) availability of funds as soon as they hit the account, i.e., within 24 hours. I haven't had hold times even for six figure transfers. Rates have fallen behind for now, so I moved out my funds, but at identical rates, my money always goes back to Ally. I'm just waiting for them to hit the 3% threshold to pull everything back. After trying another online bank because of a much better rate but with an online presence that leaves much to be desired, I can appreciate Ally's online presence, speed and, at least for me, seemingly non-existing hold times. Now increase your rates already!
Note: This review refers only to savings accounts/CDs. If you are looking for a checking account with debit card, be warned, look at the ample reviews referencing a serious security issue with Ally debit cards, and consider going somewhere else.
Recent events have beckoned me to join your camp of 1 and 2 star reviews. So, I join you in solidarity. Blame it on Covid, Trump, Putin, O'Biden, inflation, high crime, or paying people to not work, recent conditions have been less than stellar. I have therefore practiced what I preach and using the thrust of mighty foot power, made a speedy exit. My balances are Zero opting to rejoin Fidelity Bill Pay using SPAXX as my core account. (As of Oct 31, 7-day yield is 2.65%) However, I have to retain my Ally account since Social Security direct deposit is very slow and won't reflect my changes until Jan 2023.
For the last several months, scheduled deposits have been placed on hold with no explanation. I am not able to transfer or withdraw the money I have in my account. Holds are placed on Zelle and my debit card with zero justification. When I started with this bank, it was great but as time passed, it has only gotten worse and dealing with this bank is an absolute nightmare. I am currently on hold after waiting for over an hour to speak with someone regarding yet another hold on my account. I will be getting all my money moved and closing my accounts. I HATE THIS BANK!!!!
Used to have an auto loan with this shitty bank. They reported false information on my credit file when I asked for help during a brief period of unemployment...did they care? Nope. Filed late payment after late payment after another even though they said they would put on loan on forbearance. 4 years later I'm still waiting for this banks trash to fall off my credit report so I can move on with my life.
Stay clear of this shitty bank. They're not in the business to help people whatsoever so if life happens don't expect them to be there.
Have been trying to reach Customer Service for three days by phone and internal messaging. Have tried at different times of the day and the phone wait time now has gone up to 76 minutes. It did not use to be this bad because this is my second time with Ally.
Ally bank will you deny you access to your money!
I had been using an Ally bank account as a savings account. Apparently there is some requirement that you access your account on a regular basis. I had set up my account on their online app, which does not work well, it is very glitchy, difficult to login, often in countering sign in errors, that require you call them and experience a very long whole time. I had elected to have my statements and correspondence done electronically. I did receive my statements and promotional materials from them online, but apparently they do not send notices about your account electronically, and failed to inform me that my account had gone dormant . If your account remains dormant for too long, they will disperse your funds to the state government as unclaimed funds in the state in which you live. I discovered my account had been closed when I logged in to check my balance, I called LA bank to Find out where my funds were, they indicated they had sent them to the state, but could offer no advice on who I should call to reclaim my money, telling me that I could Google it and figure it out. I did finally figure out who to contact, only to be informed that there is a rigorous process I must go through to verify the funds are mine, and that I could expect to wait about a year and a half to get this issue resolved. Oh my bank has essentially cut me off from accessing my nearly $30,000 of savings for the next year and a half, of course at no interest. Shame on Ally Bank! Their customer service is very poor! Their app is terrible! As well as their communication with their customers! I would be very wary of depositing any money with them!
Have been with them for many years. Was single account holder. Filled in the form to add my wife as joint holder to get 500k FDIC insurance. Got more money now by the grace of God.
Got a curt letter that my application is rejected! No explanation at all.
Will be closing my account.
Whoever is in charge of their IT should be fired
Sure- I can log in and see my balances
But I can't DO anything more often than not
And there is at least a 45-minute wait for a phone rep
And no chat
I can't really expect much as I only have pennies with them and I do get Webroot which I appreciate
But how hard is it to make your entire website function?
If it was only occasionally down that would be fine
The last 4 times I tried- i can't use it as a hub when their website is not working for transfers
I recently moved to Japan for a year. I spoke with a representative and informed them that I would be on an extended stay in Japan. They assured me everything was in the system. I also told her that my phone number would be ported to google voice while I am gone. She told me I could have most security issues handled through my email and I also gave her my Japanese number just in case. My card was blocked and would not work. I messaged for help on the app and they sent me to the fraud department. I called them, which costs money since I am overseas, and they took 30 minutes to answer. Then the fraud department told me there was no fraud case on my account and there was a mistake. They then sent me to another department that took 40 minutes to go through. More long-distance charges. Then when I finally got on with someone they said they couldn't verify my identity as the texts wouldn't work with an international number or google voice. She then asked me a bunch of questions but that still didn't work even though I answered them all correctly. They have now totally locked my account and I can't even get into it to transfer the money out. Before I called them I could at least log in and now I can't do that. They have a disgustingly long wait time to call in. I just attempted to call back and this time I was disconnected. Each time I am charged! I am now stuck in a foreign country where I can not get access to my money and they won't pick up the phone. Also, I find it very coincidental how every time they say there will be a survey after the call they hang up and I never got a survey. I also tried to review on their own website but it wouldn't let me because it locked me out of the account. I am stuck without access to my money in a foreign country! This is not ok!!!
Ally works as a great hub account due to their plentiful external connections (I have yet to encounter a limit unlike other bank's ridiculous 2 or 4). Additionally you get "upgraded" to same day ACH after transferring a couple hundred between external accounts.
Their web software is good and only hampered by their own inability to prioritize better features. You can do almost anything you'd need day-to-day online like open accounts, set CD instructions including early withdrawals for NPCDs, and paying billers or people via eCheck. They've added more features than are necessary like customizing your dashboard at the expense of making their eBilling actually usable/useful. All this without nonsense fees or minimum balances as we all know there is literally no marginal cost for each account in the computer age.
Where they fall short is competitive rates. There was a shining moment in the past where Ally was the rate leader. Now they're content to pump/waste that money on TV advertising and are content w/ below average rates for internet banks (that are still good in the aggregate, but I'd rather bank all in one place if I could vs. chasing rates).
Where they're straight up awful is customer service. Don't expect a response unless you send it twice and wait a week. Thankfully I've not needed to deal with them on the phone but I'm sure they use your standard outsourced call center with awful scripts and a general inability to do things quickly w/o a run around.
Ally is slow to raise interest rates and fast to lower them. They are as bad or worse than the Fed about dragging their feet on interest rates! I have moved most of my money to another bank that pays 2.75% on an online savings account. 0.65% more than Ally. I plan on closing all my accounts at Ally by the end of this year. The one thing these people understand is the flight of capital to other banks that pay more. That gets their attention! Unfortunately, they have access to taxpayer dollars from the Federal Reserve which is one reason why these banks don’t compete for depositors as they used to 30 years ago. I think that is a very bad practice because it takes the competition out of banking!
I would also like to say that their customer service is the worst! Hold times of 30 minutes or more to talk with a representative! Rude representatives! I had a representative lock me out of my account because she was incompetent and I asked her if she knew what he was doing. After I spoke with her I tried logging into my account and my password was not valid. I had to call and speak with a supervisor to get access to my account. I do not recommend this bank!
I have been attempting to transfer my IRA to another bank. Since July 29, 2022 they have made up reasons why they can't do it, Stay away from Ally.
Ally sent me an email saying that my account is restricted and to call the fraud department. I called and they could not tell me why my account was restricted. I was told that I will get a call in 1-2 business days, I did not find this acceptable and called back. This time I was told that they did a review of my account and will no longer be working with me. I explained I had 2 deposits that will be going into my account today around 5 that I need in order to pay my rent. They basically gave me the big middle finger and told me that funds can come into my account but not out and once they actually close my account they will send me a check with those funds. I asked could they just close it now so that those deposits would kick back to the sender and was told sorry there is a process it has to go through.
As a single mom this has really put me in a bad place, the money that was coming into my account today is all the money I had.
Enrolled my Ally Checking in their “Overdraft Transfer Service” many years ago but I had never taken advantage of it. Two days ago, an overlooked credit card payment caused my Checking to be overdrawn by $995. Ally automatically transferred $1,000 from my Savings account to cover the negative balance. I am pleased it worked out exactly how it’s supposed to.
Have had Ally for about 4 years and use it as my main account for direct deposit and paying bills. Everything was great; the ease of use, ATM fee reimbursement, Zelle access, higher interest rates, etc. But, this year I have had fraudulent activity on my debit card, two of which were in the last 3 weeks. A quick google or twitter search show I’m not alone; there are thousands of Ally customers currently experiencing the same problem. It’s so bad getting through to Ally on the phone (which is required to report) is nearly impossible; took me two days of calling multiple times to finally get help for the incident a few weeks ago. Quickly received a new debit card & hoped that would be the end of it but, it’s not-another fraudulent charge was attempted yesterday on the brand new card. Luckily, I “locked” the card immediately after activating it because all of the reported issues, so the charge was declined. I received no notification this happened-only by manually checking my debit card transaction activity did I see the attempt; my settings have always been to notify me via text & app notification of all transactions, including declined. I’m confident the recent massive influx of fraud targeting Ally customers is a result of an internal hack or compromised security of their system; I literally have had my new debit card for only a couple weeks & not even used it once, so seems nearly impossible to be compromised on my end. The whole thing is very concerning, but absolute worst part of all is Ally refuses to acknowledge the obvious major problem (see tweet replies to people reporting the problem, they generally respond with something like “sorry this happened, lots of banks across the country are experiencing a higher number of fraudulent activity” basically saying “no big deal, nothing wrong here”… they also have not made any effort to communicate or notify their customers regarding the issue, even though it’s overwhelmingly clear Ally accounts are specifically compromised.
This, coupled with the inability to get through on the phone, has resulted in losing my confidence & trust in Ally. Until a few weeks ago, I was a very satisfied account holder and expected to be with their bank longterm, but that has all changed and I will be closing my account.
Lagging behind, they are taking it for granted that people are going to stay with them while not earning the competitive rate. Sorry Ally, consumers also want to make money while you are making money from their money. I took a large dough out as I am getting much better rate in other banks. Help yourself switch out.
I have quite a bit of money in Ally and have been with them for years. I currently use a PO Box for my address, as I do with all my banks, and they decided they do not like this and closed my account. Not only that, but instead of simply transferring the funds to my linked Bank of America account, they are sending me a check for this large amount of money in the mail.
I am now terrified that I will not get the check with USPS the way that it is. So for 2 weeks I will just stress out over this.
For 2 years, I have recommended them highly to everyone that I know. No longer! I will be filing complaints with entity that I can file a complaint with.
Unbelievable!!
Over the course of more than a year, I have experienced multiple errors, extreme lengths of time waiting for corrections, incorrect information and various system malfunctions.
For the last 4 days, Ally Bank has not been accepting my Zelle, Venmo or Paypal transfers in. Being an online bank, there is no other method of depositing funds that will clear immediately other than transfers. Now my account is overdrawn and there is no way for me to add funds, other than send them a check, which will take at least a weeks to deliver and clear. I have about 10 automatic withdrawals coming up since it’s the beginning of the month, and I am told they will all be rejected
due to Insufficient funds. If you value the ability to make deposits in a timely manner I suggest you stay well clear of this bank.
I have a joint checking account through Ally Bank with my son who is in college. In April, two charges for $407.00 (total $814.00) were deducted from the account from a Western Union in San Francisco (we are in Florida). We reported the fraud to Ally Bank immediately. In June, we received a letter from Ally that they conducted an investigation and determined the transactions were authorized and not fraudulent, so they would not refund the $814.00. I asked them how they determined the charges were authorized, because they were certainly not authorized by my son or myself. They said they could not share that information with me. I contacted my local sheriff to report the fraud, and they said in order to open a case I needed to get a fraud affidavit from Ally Bank. Ally Bank will not provide a fraud affidavit because they are stating we authorized the charges. I have no idea what to do next to prove these are fraudulent charges and get our money back. If Ally Bank will not help, who can I turn to?
My mom recently passed away and we've been trying to transfer her IRA to my dad (her beneficiary) and have had an awful experience with Ally Bank. We've spent extremely long time on phone hold (hour+) often getting transferred back and forth from one ill-informed and often rude representative to the next. Last time, we complying with their email request, we call a specific supplied number providing a given reference # and were again transferred twice (each time holding for more than 1/2 hour) to incompetent, discourteous representatives that, needless to say, were totally useless. We’re heartbroken and very disappointed with Ally Bank.
Ally Bank has very competitive rates and I am overall satisfied but I will list my only concerns:
1. The wait time for phone and chat support is very long. When you finally reach a real person, they are professional, knowledgeable and friendly.
2. I have ordered three debit cards for my Money Market account. The first two were “lost in the mail”. Hopefully the third one will arrive this week. This was sent via priority mail.
3. The transfer process from other financial institutions is too lengthy. It usually takes three business days for an electronic deposit to post. My expectations are one to two business day, Mobile check deposits should be instant, especially if your account balance exceeds the amount of the check.
Thank you
I submitted information for an Ally online bank account application. I was denied an account, citing their inability to verify my identity.
Strange that I was born here in the US many years ago, have a 6-figure income with a stable career in healthcare, established mortgage with a major bank, paid off auto loans (early), constant credit card offers, great credit rating with all the major credit bureaus, etc... Just not sure who can actually qualify for these accounts.
I attempted to call and speak directly to a representative, and the computer on the phone said that my wait time was estimated at 42 minutes.
THE GOOD:
I've been an Ally Customer for years - via acquisition first - and then became a "double customer" when they acquired my brokerage. For basically-free, interest-earning checking and savings accounts, they are the best I have found.
THE BAD:
Their website and (especially) their app has bugs and aren't nearly as easy to use as they should be. When I've reported the bugs, they've politely blown me off. Also, the brokerage's clearing firm, Apex, makes mistakes when reporting your taxable activity to the government. I mean, taxes are complicated, but not THAT complicated that their accounting bugs cannot be fixed over the years. I've never understood why they can't get it right.
Ally doesn't know how to convert the custodial account to a stand-alone account when your minor is no longer a minor. Two different reps gave me VERY different instructions. I've spent hours on it and gotten nowhere. My 18-year-old can open a bank account at any bank on the planet EXCEPT Ally.
THE UGLY:
When I needed to withdraw funds to buy a house, Ally let me down badly. I started trying to wire the money to the title company on Monday morning. Ally Invest won't allow "third-party transfers," so I had to wire it to my Ally Bank account. It took entirely two days to achieve that step. And from when I requested the wire from Ally Bank to the title company, it took well over 24 hours, even though I had told them of my closing time and asked for anything they could do to help me meet it. They didn't even call to verify the wire until 24 hours after my request. I looked like an idiot at the Thursday closing because the funds weren't there. I was embarrassed and am now looking for a new bank.
And finally, I was trying to pay off a loan. Set up a bill payment on the Wells Fargo loan for $50,000 (yes, fifty thousand). Didn't show up for weeks. I called Ally. That's when I learned that they MAILED the payment - seriously - Ally didn't do an electronic transfer TO ANOTHER U.S. BANK; they mailed a fifty thousand dollar check. So I asked them to stop payment on the lost check. They said they had. I sent a new payment. THEN THE "STOPPED" PAYMENT WENT THROUGH, and I had written a FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLAR HOT CHECK because of it. I talked to Ally again, and a "typo" had been made that allowed the supposedly-stopped check to go through. Inexcusable.
Best case, Ally is incompetent. Worst, they're evil.
Savings rates simply not competitive as Ally's used to be.
Ally invest closes accounts without reason and notification to clients. I was one of these clients. Tuesday morning 06/21/22 when the indices down premarket 2 percent or so they randomly closed my account and froze my funds. Its now the 27th and I still haven't seen my funds and have to buy my investments back between 15 and 25 percent higher depending on the stock. I was not maxed out on margin, had not been warned about anything, had not violated any day trade rules. Many staff were rude and just said, we can close any account any time without notification. Although the reality of this may be true, it greatly affected my family's personal finances, it cost me nearly 25 percent of my entire savings without me having done anything. Their current BBB profile has dropped to a 1.13 rating and even that's too high. Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this company.
I've been a customer with Ally for nearly 10 years and they froze my account because I initiated a wire transfer. I never had problems sending wire transfers before. It's been several days that I can't login to my account or access my money. When I try to use my debit card to do something like make a purchase or pump gas it automatically gets declined.
I called their "fraud" department and answered the security questions but they keep saying they are looking into it and never get back to me in a timely manner. Luckily I have funds in an external account that I can use to allow me to live. I don't know how long more this is going to go on for but it's unacceptable. I will be moving my money elsewhere.
Before the recent interest rate increases, I sent a message to Ally suggesting they keep abreast of said changes and follow suit else risk the loss of their customer base. So what are they paying on savings on June 20, 2022? 0.9 percent vs 1.25 or more at other institutions. Well as the old saying goes "you snooze, you lose". The majority of my money at Ally as well as monies of several other accounts have departed for greener pastures. When you move your money in search of a favorable rate, be sure to see if your funds are compounded daily and what the daily withdraw limits are. Especially if you trade stocks and at times, need to move large amounts.
I don’t know if it’s just me or it happens to other as well. My problem with Ally bank is transfer the money; it takes 3-4 days. If I start the transfer on Monday then it’d take the cash out on Tuesday and then deposit on Thursday while other online banks like LendingClub, Bread, Marcus would take only 1 day to transfer the money.
Ally used to be an excellent hub with good online features and nice customer service. I have been with them since the GMAC era (6% APY:)). No more. Other than an ok interest rate, it lost both (and all the nice) attributes over the years. Sad!!
They limited the number of linked external FIs, with a mysterious maximum (10-15 links? and the 20 links for life-silly!!). For those who have more than 20 links before the limit was set, it is an unending torture, I cannot have even nine links due to system glitch that it "remembers" my previous deleted links.
Their customer service has worsened to "NO CUSTOMER SERVICE AT ALL" since many CSRs/managers are only there for their monthly checks. One CSR simply hung up on me rudely. My ACH link issue took them two months now and nobody is working on my ticket!! Their Executive Customer Relations phone number (888-318-4622) is fake without response at all. Remember: If there is any issue, Ally is there to mess you up and ignore/drop you like old shoes.
Customers/New Applicants Beware!!! Hint: Alliant CU, with a smaller asset size, is much more customer-friendly and reasonable!!
P.S., Ally's timely response to comments in this thread is a first-step, but it tends to be very superficial as well:)
I am trying to purchase a house. I sent in my wire request over a week ago and the wire still hasn't been sent. Every time you call, it takes 45 minutes on hold before you get to speak to a person. That person will tell you your issue is handled--but it is not. I am about to loose this deal because this bank will not send my money
I did research on which bank would be best for joint account with my husband. Ally was rated one of the best with great customer service. I’ve been banking with chase for 20 years but they recently changed their accounts and we’re going to start charging monthly fees. I haven’t paid monthly fees ever and if I can avoid it I plan on it. So my husband & I opened a joint account at Ally. We did our 2019 taxes late so we just got the check in February of 2022 and we used that to open the account. Ally called and asked questions about the check. Why? I don’t know. They told us it looks suspicious so it’s going to be on hold for 7-10 days till it clears. Ok, we’re new customers, we understand. In the meantime, we’re processing our 2021 taxes as well and we figure we might as well use this account to have direct deposit since we closed our other joint account at chase.
10 days go by and our account is still on hold. I call and they say it’s taking another 1-3 days. 3 more days go by, I call and they say they a picture of me & my husband holding our ID cards along with other documents. Ooookkk…. This is weird. Fine, we submitted what they asked for. I call another week later & they still don’t unlock it they don’t give me any reasons except we look suspicious. So I ask for a manager. They can’t get me to a manager because they’re not available. What??? When are managers not available? So I call every week for the next 6 weeks and leave messages and talk to different reps and no one has answers. I never get a call back from any managers after I leave multiple messages.
What kind of customer service is this? I ask to close my account and they deny me that right because it’s still on hold…. So now they are just holding my money for what reason? I can’t do to the branch because it’s an online bank. Yeah, as soon as they release my funds I’m running so fast and far from Ally, I will never do business with them again!
Agree w previous post - started off well and now a fail.
Was great customer service, now long waits and nice but unhelpful staffing.
A supervisor told me today that they were hacked a few months ago and now are super strict about withdrawal limits $1000 or $2000 after 50 minutes on the phone w supervisor after asking me why I needed MY OWN MONEY - not helpful trying to pay our home contractors in cash. And I was still declined at the bank trying to make a withdrawal. Also App crashes, website says my Debit Card "not active" at times.
I keep seeing 1 Star complaints about Ally. I am not advocating for them, and have had my own problems. But, I have other banks where it has been worse MUCH WORSE. Other Businesses besides banking have problems. We see it in the Media all the time - People Quit. New People don't get hired. I suggest using Ally Chat instead of calling
I have been a savings and investment customer with Ally for a couple of years now. 3 weeks ago I tried to get a check from my investment account. The request "didn't go through" . I spent an hour on the hold with customer service who said they were getting it fixed and would have a check issued in a week. Nothing happened, this is after I have already waited a week. I called again and was put on hold for an unmanageable amount of time so I went to "my dash board" on my account and pressed chat. I ended up chatting with a supervisor for literally 2 hours she asked me my account number and my address along with several other things. At the end of the 2 hour chat she told me that I was speaking with ally bank and that she could not help me that I needed to contact investment. This was an hour or more after I gave her my investment account number. I also gave her my "case number" which she admitted over an hour later she could not find. I told her that I wanted to talk to her supervisor and she said I could not but she would put in a request for a customer relations person to call me. She told me that would take up to 10 days because mine was low priority and gave me another case number. Three weeks out and I still do not have the money from my account that I requested. I asked via email for a status request and I get an auto reply that somebody will get back with me in 3 days. I am 60 years old and have been involved with banks since I was 15. This is the worst experience I have ever had. Do yourself a favor and stay far away Ally they are not customer service oriented they just want to sell you a car loan or a mortgage loan and once they got ya, they're gone and you are garbage to them.
Mailed in a check for several zeros to temporarily park sale of house money. No record of it, had to stop payment with the payor which is never easy. Customer service said it could have gone to either of two different locations from mailroom even though the site had just 1 place.
Before posting this review, I have given enough time and opportunity to Ally to get their act together and I have also notified [email protected] but it seems that Ally dont care anymore.
I have been with Ally for many years, the amount of funds that I have maintaining in investment, checking, savings etc. - I could easily have a dedicated account manager with any other bank (which I will do now)
Ally bank is OK until you run into issues. I knew Ally services gone terrible but did not knew until I called.
Here is some serious feedback about multiple issues - hope this will help others.
1-If you deposit a bulk amount check (I deposited Bank of America check), Ally will put a long hold, break the bulk amount, deposit bulk amount in parts (bits and pieces) on separate dates, you will never be able to track the actual amount,
good luck asking Ally representative - they have standard answers?
2-Ally does not like and could not verify external recognized Citibank back accounts. Received Email after two days? Here is one line description. "We couldn't verify your Citibank, checking account with the account information you entered"
3-Zero customer service, cookie cutter answers for basic issues, they dont have skilled resources
4-Long hold times
5-No supervisors - false promises supervisors will call you, it has been 5 days no one called?
6-Open case with Ally NO FOLLOW UP, NO TRACKING, and you figure out case status when you call them and then they will move it forward?
7-Rude Customer service, seems they have been getting lot of negative callers
8-No Accountability, no responsibility, no leadership no supervisors, no management
I've been a customer for several years now, and never ran into any issues. If you only need to do basic stuff, like depositing money, transferring between internal/external accounts, Ally makes it very easy and convenient, and I never ran into any limits/restrictions doing that.
I opened a bank account with Ally in 2016 as they were recommmended as having some of the best rates as well as great customer service. And they have been great to me this whole time.
However, I have had such a terrible experience with them over the last 9 days that I will be contacting a lawyer about if they continue to be unpleasant with me.
It started out as a wire transfer. It was delayed for "review" for an undetermined amount of time. I was on the phone with their customer service, a supervisor and the back office for about 7 hours over the last 9 days. They locked me out of my bank account for "Suspicious activity". Not once did they try to call or email or in anyway verify I was the right person. Supposedly my account was all handled today and again they locked me out of my account! This is the account that I get my DD at and pay bills. And they did not give a time when it will be unlocked, just "we will review it then we will take it from there". They are acting like it's not MY money. I'm not sure what changed at this bank but I would recommend Capital One, local credit unions, etc.
Disgusting service now.
I have reported it to the appropriate regulators to ensure I get my money from them eventually
Has anyone else noticed that lately Ally's online banking website is unavailable frequently?
Happened to me a few minutes ago (tried to access twice) and again last week
I have been an Ally customer using 11 month no penalty CDs for years. I decided to buy a home and needed to close the CDs and transfer money from Ally to the title company for closing.
Ally froze my account for "suspicious" activity (closing large dollar CDs) and was I was totally restricted to access anything in my account by phone or internet login. The real estate transaction could not proceed and my wife was so stressed out she was hospitalized.
In desperation, I tried to transfer funds out of Ally through the Fidelity Investments website (I had created a link at Fidelity with my Ally account when I opened the Ally account) This strategy worked. We lost out on the real estate purchase but at least we got our life savings and did not need to hire an attorney.
Ally is by far the worst bank and worst customer service I have ever experienced. They will flag your account.apparently for withdrawing too much and restrict all access to your funds, even if you answer all of the security questions correctly. There is no supervisor or anyone with knowledge or power to override the account flag. Beware. Like Russian banks, they will restrict withdrawal. Ally is awful.
Good luck if you try to connect Ally Bank from another bank or financial institution. Your first red flag is that the other bank or financial institution i.e., Robinhood doesn't list Ally Bank. Have to dig for Ally Bank. But if you are lucky enough to find it, it will error out saying not allowed. Ally Bank is an old General Motors bank. Stay away.
I was reading about the discontinuation of overdraft fees and the new overdraft protection policy. In the text found online, they are still talking about a limit of 6 transfers per cycle. Regulation D was discontinued back in April 2020 --TWO YEARS AGO! As for linking savings to checking with overdraft protection in $100 increments, there is no place on the website to sign up for said protection. Calling for help on the phone is worthless as all you hear is extremely garbled and annoying music while on hold. Very ridiculous and not very becoming of a financial institution. It makes one feel like you are trying to communicate with a back alley pawn shop rather than the professed "Ally".
With the Fed claiming they have "tools" to control inflation, expect to see several rate hikes in 2022-23. In anticipation of this, I've written to Ally Bank advising them to consider keeping abreast of the changes ahead to retain customers. In response, I got a series of pre-written paragraphs that convey little useful information. There was one item though that I found rather troubling where they stated that they would NOT match competitors savings rates. So, it looks like it's back to the races. Whoever offers the best return will be getting the cash portion of my portfolio. Just a pittance mind you for covering bill payments and emergencies. Of late, the Automated Clearing House (ACH) has drastically improved speed.
Twice now (the only two times I have ever tried in my 4 years as a customer) Ally has taken TWO business days to process my request to send an outgoing wire transfer. Both times I used their web site to put in my outgoing wire transfer request BEFORE they even opened for business that day and BOTH times the wire was NOT sent out until the following business day. And you have to keep your cell phone with you the ENTIRE day whie you patiently wait for them (the wire department) to personally call you to confirm the details of your outgoing wire. Both times when I tried to get my funds wired out of Ally that day, I called into their customer service line after waiting 6 full business hours and not yet hearing anything from their wire department. Both times I was told that "they had an unusually high number of outgoing wires right now and that they would get to my request as soon as possible". But that they couldn't guarantee that the funds would be wired out that same business day because it was getting close to the outgoing wire cut-off time. And the customer service rep would not tell me how many other wires were ahead of me in their queue.
Sadly, both times when I have requested an outgoing wire, they didn't contact me until the following business day to confirm the details. This is so very frustrating!! The reason I specifically use a wire transfer is when I must transfer a large sum of money quickly and securely with no hold on the incoming funds by the receiving financial institution. A wire is unlike an ACH transaction with may take several days for the receiving institution to decide that the incoming funds are legit and that they are now available for use (ie to roll into a CD).
Other than their two day outgoing wire dis-service, I have been very satisfied with Ally in all other respects as a good choice for a hub account as well as a good (fairly competitive) place to stash funds (in their savings account and/or no penalty CDs) that have earned fairly high and pretty competitive interest rates over the 4 years that I've been a customer.
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An awful experience all around. I've been trying to establish an estate account with Ally Bank after the sudden and tragic death of my mother who had an account there. Their Estate Department has done nothing but lie about "elevating my case" or just hung up on me when I've called. They have all of the paperwork from me to establish the estate account and nothing has been done. I just got off the phone with an associate who was extremely rude, asking curtly if "and does (name) have last name by any chance?" after having been hung up on by another associate. They've claimed to have elevated my case twice. One of the associates said the previous associate had not actually elevated my case.
If a company allows its customer service representatives to treat grieving family members like this, how do you think they treat their normal, everyday customers?
I will never have any business with Ally Bank after this experience. As soon as the money has been dispersed, I will close the estate account and never open another one. Nor will I ever suggest for anyone else to open an account at Ally Bank given my experience.
Tried to refinance auto-loan with existing credit union - Ally denied the refinance and neglected to contact me or my CU to inform us, and made it impossible to find out the reasons why.
After spending 5 hours on the phone with customer service, someone finally informed me that it was because it was made out to the wrong address. After spending 2 more hours on the phone with them, they provided me with another address, which also ended up being wrong. I'll be waiting a full month and a half for my loan to transfer, now - because they posted the wrong information (first time), and provided me with incorrect information (second time).
To top it all off, they've threatened to send my account to collections, while double-charging me for the month of February - stating that it was for a previous month that was unpaid (the month stated occurred prior to my auto-loan - meaning, they want me to pay them for a month that I didn't even own the car). I've offered to pay them the amount that was owed for the month of February (being that my refinance hasn't taken yet), and they told me that my "account is locked", and that the only way for me to make a payment, would be to go to Wal-Mart to have it sent "certified".
I have fought tooth and claw to find out why this is happening, and I've yet to speak to a single person who can provide me with the same consistent information.
I'm hoping that there is a predatory lending lawyer, who can help me move forward - because my Credit Union is unable to help me, and I certainly don't expect Ally to do anything helpful about it.
In summary, Ally is good, until problems arise and you suddenly can't access or transfer (IN/OUT) your funds. I could best explain Ally bank as amateurish, start-up company with good potential but ignorance and lack of knowledge about few aspects of banking. On one occasion, I wired money into Ally Bank account, only to find out that Ally doesn't support that activity (even though they state they do!). It got ridiculous to the point where I did 3-way conference with Ally and my other bank, and the Ally representative simply didn't know how to process wire-transfer of money. Instead, Ally treats it as regular, bank-to-bank transfer, which takes 2-3 business days (wiring money takes about 15 minutes to transfer money). Second problem, arose when Ally blocked my access to account due to "suspicious" activity - multiple calls to Ally to verify and unblock account went unsuccessful, and it took over 4 MONTHS (!) for my account to be unblocked and for me to access my funds. This is all due to limited case review workers on Ally's side. My options were (1) wait, (2) hire a lawyer, and (3) contact state attorney. I was hours away from pursuing option (3), before I accidentally found out through self-login that my account was deblocked (Ally didn't send any email/text notification to notify me I can access my funds.)
I gave 1 stars but in the reality they deserve Zero (0). The bank is not competitive at all, with so high grade of confusion, rudeness and high incompetece. I am holding an auto loan which was never reported by them to the ctedit bureau. O am paying on time and sending exyra money to shoryen the loa. The reps are umprofessionally trained and act as oncompetent, supervisots ate grasping straws telling no slutions. They cannot even find my social security numbet asdociated with the account. Do they spund professional?
Stay away from them as i xee the stock rates are plunging to the abyss.
Been with them for years. It's savings, so mostly the money just sits. Hard to have a problem with that. But last week I needed to transfer some funds to my external checking account. I made a mistake doing the transfer -- my error -- so that instead of going from savings to checking, the order was to move savings from checking. As soon as I realized the error, I called to notify them. The girl wouldn't believe me, just kept saying that the transfer went through fine. I explained repeatedly that it COULDN'T go through fine, because there weren't enough funds in the checking account to cover it. But she did nothing. So I initiated a new transfer, done correctly. Sure enough, the next day I received a message saying the initial transfer had been terminated for lack of funds, and that a hold was being placed on my account. Could no longer move funds to or from my checking account. So clearly the rep never noted anything in my account. I sent an email explaining the situation and asking them to remove the hold. They replied saying they would review it in 1-2 business days. Whatever. But then they went on to say this:
"Please be advised, any additional failed transfers within 6 months will result in a suspension that must be enforced for at least 3 months. If this occurs, you will not be able to initiate transfers via Ally Bank and will need to initiate all transfers to/from your Ally accounts via the external institution?s transfer system. If after 3 months you have successfully initiated a transfer into your Ally Bank account, you may request the suspension be removed." Seriously, if I accidentally transpose the "to" and "from" in a transfer one more time, they're going to keep me from accessing my own money? This is SO a deal breaker for me!!!!!
I have had a very active account at Ally since its inception. I opened an account with zero balance at a credit union and was going to fund it from Ally. I initiated the process to link the account. When I went to check the trial amounts, my account had a negative balance of $34.67. The rep speculated that Ally had withdrawn the trial amounts before sending them, which caused my account to be charged with an overdraft. No apology. When I asked if they would credit me the amount for the overdraft if his speculation was correct, he said they "could look into doing that". Again, no apologies. Really??
I made a recent deposit to my bank account well under the daily limit, from a check I received for trading in my old car. It said the check was approved. A day later my account is locked, so I call to find out why, and they tell me I have to call the "back office". I have to wait though because their hours are Eastern and I'm Pacific. So I call the next day and wait 30 minutes to be told "we have to clear the check with the dealership" to which, I ask, "but the check has already been cleared?" And I get a roundabout answer that the funds have to be authorized. I have never in my life deposited a check under the daily limit and had my whole account FROZEN. And now it's been 4 days, I'm without funds, and I have no indication of when it will be fixed. "We don't have a time window we just have to wait for them to call us." Who is they? Why are we waiting so long for this? As soon as my account is unlocked I am moving banks. I have bills to pay and this is unacceptable.
Ally bank has horrendous customer service and grossly under-trained representatives. They constantly block my account for “suspicious activity” that is not even remotely suspicious. They do not work well with Zelle and cannot properly explain their own guidelines to customers. The first time I lost my debit card, I tried to activate the new one and it kept saying I was entering the wrong information over and over. Customer service could not help me. They finally escalated the call to a supervisor who told me there was a glitch in the system and I had to enter my birthday backwards (the year first and then the month). I lost my debit card again last month (which was about year later) and it took 5 weeks to receive the debit card because the first one never arrived. The debit card wasn’t working properly because Ally kept saying the zip code was incorrect. Since the bank has no physical locations, I had no way to withdraw money and had to frequently Zelle friends and family to get cash out or transfer money to cash app/Apple Pay. Ally then proceeded to block my account for fraudulent activity even though I confirmed all the activity and explained it. I hadn’t been able to access my account for 4-5 weeks because it took that long to get a new debit card in the mail. Now that I have the card. It doesn’t work properly and I still can’t access my funds because my account is now blocked. To add insult to injury, the fraud representative who advised that my account is blocked was rude and antagonizing rather than trying to de-escalate the situation. I’m obviously upset. It’s the holidays, all my money is in this account and this woman simply tells me to wait for an investigator to call me? I strongly advise looking elsewhere for your banking needs
I use Ally bank for my personal and business use, and everything's been fantastic. Highly recommended!
They froze my account for no reason. Now, I cannot make payments. I've already made about 11 calls to find out what is going on. Everything they do is transfer me to different departments.
Ally sent email saying my email was change from yahoo to hushmail. I called saying that I did not make the change and told to wait for security to call, well that been 5 days and still no call. I had to pay my credit card bill with my other bank
After going round and round with various reps for Ally on a simple question of interest payments and reporting to the IRS, I find that their representatives are very uninformed. This includes supervisors.
You will have to decide whether a few basis points is worth the wasted time and aggravation.
Me, I'm switching banks!
Customer service from Ally bank really is crap. I had an issue with a check of mine (wasn't signed properly) and it showed up as fraudulent in my account. Tried contacting customer service and it was nearly impossible. Once I got ahold of customer service, it took them so long to fix my issue. Eventually it was fixed, since it was an honest mistake, but the process just took so long. This is literally with me being apart of this bank only for a month, I immediately made the switch. Just a bad time
Ally has been by FAR the worst experience I have ever had.
I deposited a check into a new checking account which came directly from my job's payroll. Ally labeled the check as fraudulent, closed my account, charged me for a "fraudulent" check, and their customer service will not help when we call them.
They have told me that the fraud is now associated with my social security number, despite there being NO FRAUD.
SAVE YOURSELF LEGAL TROUBLE AND GO TO ANOTHER BANK.
Bank to Bank transfers take 5 days
Check deposits take 10 days to clear.
Support is non-existent.
Eager to take you money, not so much to allow you to take it out. Avoid at all cost!!
I scheduled a wire transfer on 8-4 early morning to a gardener contractor for some backyard work. The wire never got approved on 8-4 and still shows a review status on 8-5. I was about to call ally and see what’s going and only found out they locked my account without any notification. I called their support on 8-6 and got transferred to their back office and answered several security questions. After the agent finally has assess to my account , she later found out she didn’t have the authority to do anything and advised me to continue to wait. At the mean time I may end up having to cash out some of my funds in brokerage account just to pay for the home remodeling.
I used these guys years ago to get a car. Thye told me I could refinance and gave me a date when I could. When the day came they wouldn't let me. Don't believe anything they tell you.
As unfortunate as some of these bad reviews are I am actually a little bit relieved to see other people go through what I'm going through. Not because I wish these situations on anybody but because I am so confused and appalled at allies response to my situation. A few weeks ago I opened an Ally account. I didn't have the time to get to it but I finally funded my account for $500 from one of my other bank accounts, two days later I got pulled over and had a small warrant that I had to go to jail for I ended up in jail for about 5 days. When I got out of jail it was late and I didn't have time to pick up my personal property I.e my cell phone laptop or backpack. All my money was in evidence so I had to frantically try to retrieve some of my Ally money. After I funded my account my debit cards were supposed to be sent out but it could still be 2 to 3 days away I was told by the teller which makes sense. But she did walk me through trying to zelle somebody and then they could pay me a friend an associate somebody I know. I called back a couple times going through the motions trying to figure it out I had to change my password and device that recognizes the account because my phone was in police evidence. The Ally associates were very friendly and very helpful it wasn't complicated at all but when I tried to use zelle for some reason it wouldn't send the money the system was down and kept saying. I tried about four or five times all typing in the correct password never doing anything wrong. It didn't work so I waited a few hours and tried one more time this time I was locked out of my account for security reasons. Now I could easily see that they see overuse of the account and logging in many times as suspicious so I said no problem I'll call them in the morning or the account might be unlocked by then. And here's where the problem start I called the next day and was told that due to suspicious activity my account is frozen and it's probably going to be closed I explained to them the whole situation and not only that I explained to look at my notes because every time I logged in with the exception of once or twice I was on the phone with a teller I was told that it looked that way and this should be an easy fix and that they would call me back. Over the last 4 days I have not received one call from them but every time I call I hear the same thing we're investigating and once we're done investigating we will close your account and send you a check I told them that I've worked for banks like this before and I know that they are allowed to unlock my account while I'm at the ATM so I can at least pull my money out if they're going to close my account they already closed my savings account because there was no money in it ( go figure ). as to my checking account I was going to have to wait until it was closed before they would send me out a check I told them that there was nothing to investigate because there wasn't, I didn't do anything wrong my account shouldn't be closed let alone still not have access to my money, but if they want to close my account fine close it send me my check or give me one time access to get my money I can't sit here waiting to get my money it's mine it came from another account in good standing there is no reason other than them seeing me login a bunch of times which has already been explained to them nothing else was wrong with my account. I got a little frustrated after the 8th call but I stayed respectful and I kept asking them what were they investigating what was the investigation about nothing happened and this teller had the nerve to tell me or ask me do I even know what the meaning of investigation is and that we're getting nowhere with this she has no time and hung up on me she hung up on me! I'm telling these people that I can't even pay my rent and she hung up on me. She didn't even have the empathy enough to understand where I was coming from even if she had no ability to give me my money or release the funds and the crazy part was she was in the loss prevention she was in the only department that did have the ability to help me in a way that if they decided suitable could actually make something happen. Although money is my biggest concern and I will be getting my money back this is going way past that I've been insulted and lied to by different tellers with different information maybe they were ignorant of the rules or really just lying to me, but either way I will be involving my mom's lawyer. Luckily for me he's a family friend and he won't be charging me anything I don't know how much help he can provide but it's going to be more than me he used to work at a bank. To everyone out there that has been screwed over I feel your pain what hurt me the most though wasn't the money it was the fact that they knew I had $0 and I had just used all my money to fund an ally account and start a new relationship with another bank and because of a few logins the algorithm kicked me off no person would have done that. Oh and the last person that really mean loss prevention lady really to get me in the end she said just because it usually takes two to three weeks it can even take up to 60 days to get everything taken care of she said that very spitefully so I know that was to get me below the belt. Thanks Ally I usually have about 3,000 in my bank account I'm just at a little broke spell right now so I'm glad this happened earlier when I didn't have all my money in there. Imagine having money but not having it because someone said no he doesn't need it right now!! It is stealing. Please someone tell me otherwise so I'm not losing my mind.
I received a letter on June 21 dated June 11, 2021 from Ally Bank. "During a routine update to our website, a programming code error occurred that inadvertently resulted in your username and password being exposed to third parties with whom we have business relationships. We immediately locked your account and password, so that an updated password created by you would be required to access your account."
This may be true for others. It wasn't for me. I had used the account frequently and had not any trouble logging in.
"Upon detectingg the error on April 12, 2021, we immediately udated the program code to ensure it no longer included username and password information." As I said earlier the letter was date April 11, 2021!
"All third parties with whom we have business relationships have agreed to delete the information inadvertently provided to them." I wonder how MANY third parties received my personal information! I've had good service from Ally in the past, but this has left me with little confidence.
I was drawn to Ally because of their rates. Customer service has been passable. The ease of getting checks and ATM cards not so great. My direct deposits are taking longer to be credited to my account than at previous institutions.
But Bill Pay really should be avoided. While the agreement spends paragraphs talking about what you are responsible for they skim right over the part where your money is removed from you account and given to a 3rd party - whether the check was received let alone cashed. And while the agreement says you should monitor your transactions it doesn't tell you the transaction will NEVER give you any information about when the check was sent, when it was cashed, etc. You will only have the transaction where the 3rd party removed the money from your account. Ally's best offerings - I could call them for each transaction and they would give me the transaction number and then I could call the payee for them to ask their bank about the transaction number - this of course is useless since a paper check was in theory sent to the payee. Their bank is not involved at all. Ally says it is all up to the 3rd party like they have no responsibility. The third party gets to decide on their own how the payment will be sent and when the money is removed from your account. Shifting my banking back to someone else.
The worse of the worse, I wish I can give zero stars. Chat support is never available. Takes one hour minimum to call 800 number. They will give you a hard time to withdraw your money. I feel sorry for anyone that ends up using this company. Worst company ever!!!!!
Paying late payment penalties & interest on income tax due to Ally's incompetence & negligence. Simplest issue - supposedly failed security questiornaire. Sent wire online. Got e-mail later casually asking me to call the bank (I bank with Wells Fargo & they immediately call me themselves even on non-urgent issues). I call, answer security Qs, they input it into computer without double checking answers with me first. Apparently 1 of the 3 answers wrong, so "specialist will call back in 48 hours max". It's been more than 48 hrs & the whole point of paying fee to send wire is it's sent urgently. Agent on the same call refused to check spelling of answers when I offered. Called back multiple times & still wire not sent. What kind of failed bank cannot resolve a simple security questionaire issue
I paid off a title to buy a car. Ally held the title and when it came to mailing the title, I asked if they could ship it UPS Next Day Air, and I would pay, they said no. Then I was told it would ship with a tracking number, it DID NOT!!!!!!!!! It has now been a week since they alleged they mailed it, but it has no tracking number, so who knows!!!! I still have not received it and it is time sensitive. What happens if it is lost in the mail? I have never dealt with such disregard for customer service or gross incompetence in my life. I will never finance through this bank, and if you do, beware of the negligence!
if you want headaches, use this bank. PLacing holds on federal tax return checks, limiting debit card amount to under $500 for 90 days (car payment keot getting declined) SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW electronic wire transfers, and SLOOOOOOOOOW debit card mailing. This bank is pure CRAP, i only switched because I filed for BR and was afraid my other bank account might be frozen thank goodness it didn't!!
I've been a customer of ally bank for about 3 years, and am now switching to a new bank. Everything was great until there was an unauthorized transaction to my account. Someone made a POS purchase at a Home Depot, but I never went to that Home Depot and I had my card with me the whole time (never stolen). I reported the fraudulent transaction as soon as I saw it and requested a new card. Ally deposited the disputed amount 10 days later, but a few months later, they withdrew it claiming the amount was authorized and that their decision is final. No way I can appeal it. I don't know how someone used my debit card for a POS purchase at Home Depot, but it wasn't me. I can't believe there is no way to appeal. I didn't authorize it! Very disappointed that there is apparently nothing more I can do. So instead, I'm warning you. Find another online bank that actually cares about their customers.
Ally does many things well but some quite poorly. Ally customer service needs significant improvement and soon
The most common phrase with Ally is --- "DO YOU MIND HOLDING FOR 3-5 MINUTES". Unfortunately this "hold" happens multiple x during each call. Ally needs to allow their employees to resolve issues which isn't the case currently.
I recently did a mobile deposit from a large domestic insurance carrier for just over $200 that was rejected 2x. Let's be clear:
Spoke to multiple Ally representatives including a supervisor
After multiple calls (over 1.5 hours spent on the phone- mainly on 3-5 minute holds).
Check was clearly payable to me
Check is/was a reoccurring payment from a "stretch IRA from a deceased family member.
Initial Ally representative did not know what a stretch IRA was
Ally repeatedly and incorrectly stated check was two payee payable -- IT WAS NOT.
Ally had accepted this same check, with same wording on multiple prior occasions.
Ally repeatedly stated it was a "automated check scan issue", stating to resubmit, only to have it rejected again.
Ally although admitting this rejection should never have occurred (twice) seemed POWERLESS to resolve asking me for dates of previous submitted checks from this US insurance carrier. After supervisor involvement I protested it was not my responsibility to research prior submission dates on checks that Ally had accepted.
FINALLY Ally reconfirmed their records that prior checks had been accepted and the deposit was honored.
Ally from initial call KNEW and ADMITTED the problem was with THEIR mechanized scanning system. ?Instead of immediately correcting they wasted my time and their resources.
THIS IS SO VERY UNACCEPTABLE
My team at ALLY while getting my mortage where SPOT ON!
Emailed and called to perfection. All the ONLINE task were daily and well done to make it easy.
MY TEAM
KHALIFA
JO
MICHAEL
Made it a very simple process. SO HAPPY WITH ALLY HOME LOANS!
Why is Ally Financial management allowing all this negativity to be posted against their bank that they represent. Consistent negative reviews against Ally Financial is a strong oversight from corporate leaders and very bad press for Ally Financial and its future attraction to new customers.
Maybe it is time to weed out some bad employees and to reinstate stronger work ethics and customer relations training so that customers can return to having a more confident and consistent working relationship once again and having peace of mind that our finances are safe and secure. Thank you.
Strongly Supporting Ally Financial !
Personally speaking my family and I have had no major problems with any of the Ally bank staff for the past 10 years including making transfers . Any problems that may have occurred were addressed in a timely and professional manner. As a business owner myself I know how hard it is to please everyone and I am no where close to being on a national level as Ally Financial. Just looking out for my bank who looks out for me and my family, God bless !
These people are horribly dishonest scum, the services are non-existent. Customer service is honestly the worst, not just for banks, but across all industries. Save yourself the misery and Bank with literally any one else!!
If you have a VoIP telephone, code numbers can not be received. Why I don't know. But, you will need to use a non-voIp cell phone for 2-step authentication.
Overall, Ally has been a great online bank and a better option than some of the bank chains in my area. I've been a customer for about 8 years. They offer great interest rates and have great service overall. I have had very few unpleasant surprises with them, and they seem to be making their web experience better and better. If you ever need to get a hold of someone there to talk, it's fairly easy.
The only drawback I've had is perhaps using the mobile app for submitting checks on rare occasions, where there has been a hiccup, but I have never lost money, maybe just had to wait a little longer than I had hoped. Also, if you ever need a same-day banker's check, you can't really do it, but they can express checks in a few days.
Overall, I can't complain. I pay my bills and do bank transfers effortlessly and without worry, which has not happened with other online banks for me. I highly recommend them.
I switched to Ally because I am moving and need a bank that can be accessed across the country. I used their mobile app to deposit a check and the check was originally held for two days and then without notification, I noticed the account still did not have anything in it and was being held for an additional 5 days.
I reached out to customer service for an explanation and have not received any communication back.
Luckily I was just testing it out first so the majority of my money is still accessible at my old bank, but now in light of this hassle, and lack of customer service I feel I have to find another solution.
This bank has the most astonishingly incompetent customer service. They are not even able to change a PIN number for a bank card without transferring you to an automated line that never works. And then they try to explain it is because expiration dates have to be entered yy/mm, as opposed to the normal mm/yy. Stay away from this bank. STAY AWAY. This is the worst experience I have ever had with a bank. Save your pain for something worth it and go use an actual bank because this isn't one. They're a complete and awful joke.
Just did a transfer out and it will be 3 business days....and I am not a "trouble" customer. Thought they were a one or two day transfer bank.
Ally could not provide me with my 1099INT statement until 19 Feb despite my making three (3) separate phone calls requesting it. They could not provide me with a hardcopy by US Mail, they could not provide it for downloading from their website, and they could not provide it to me by email. This held up filing of my income tax returns (and my refund) by three weeks. This is unsat. I'm going to close my accounts there because they can't seem to handle the most basic requirements of banking business.
I have been an Ally customer since they first started. I have deposited many, many checks using their online deposit process. Suddenly, the system will not accept any of my check images. I am using the same equipment I have always used. Photo library, no. Take image, no. I tried for 3 days, 2 different checks, both issued by institutions (typed). So I called, and after much holding, I was told the images were fuzzy. I was able to deposit the checks successfully at Barclays and GTE, using their online deposit processes, so I believe this is an Ally upload problem, but they insisted it is my fault.
I have noticed lots of fake reviews on sites about Ally giving it a 4.5 stars etc. I have been fighting with them for over two weeks on a bank check that I mailed back to them I ended up not needed. Now they cant find it. Despite them acknowledging their mistake on the address they gave me. Now they want to hold me hostage while they figure out what to do. In the mean time I have thousands of dollars sitting out there in limbo. I have no less than 5 calls to these people and about 8 emails. Continue to get the run around. Have filed a complaint with the OCC.
My mortgage was recently sold to Ally Bank and the first month, I have had issues. I have always paid my mortgage in two payments in online bill pay. One for the monthly bill and one with additional principal. They took my additional principal, clearly noted as such on the check, and applied part of it to a future bill and the rest to principal. When I called to get that corrected, they reversed the payment and said the only way to guarantee the payment is applied correctly is to pay through their app. Two days later, I have to call back because they didn’t apply the principal back to the policy. They get that corrected, but somehow pulled another payment from my checking account, applied it to a future bill, and caused my checking account to be overdrawn. After speaking with a supervisor, she was absolutely zero help and said I must have made an additional payment, and all I can do is submit a bank statement for them to look into. Now I’m having to play middle man between my checking account bank and Ally trying to get the payments corrected, figure out how an additional payment was taken from my checking account, and get overdraft fees refunded.
Ally only cares about how much money they can take from customers no difference than any other bank. Why does it take them 5 days to do a Zelle transfer when other banks do it right away. They say you have to be registered. Have other accounts at Banks been registers with Zelle for years now but it still takes 5 days every time. Customer service is the worse if you can talk to someone all they tell you is go to task or look at the FAQs that will tell you what you need to know. Done with this can’t get my money transferred when I need it like they promised they could do.
I am in the process of closing my savings and checking accounts with Ally Bank and moving to another bank. I had the worst customer experience immaginable with my mortgage.
My mortgage was approved and ready to close. 1 business hour before my scheduled closing my real estate agent called and told me I couldn't close (not my bank). I then called Ally every hour for 3 days giving them suggestions on how to solve the problem. They gave up at one point until I continued to push them. Finally they listened to me and came up with a solution to satisfy the title company and mortgage company. Along the whole process my idenity was no not verrified multiple times.
I highly suggest you take your banking business elsewhere.
I have never used a bank that made it seem like your money was actually theres. Let me explain.
I was looking for a spending account separate from my main household finances. Ally Bank has been around for a while and even though they at first failed in opening brick and mortar locations, and even closed their West Covina, CA location, I was willing to give them a try. There were many reviews saying it was a good low fee bank.
So I setup a portion of my paycheck to be direct deposited into my Ally checking account. I was in the market for a new monitor and it cost under $1000. I went to check out and I was declined by my bank.
It turns out Ally has an arbitrary spending limit for new accounts that limits transactions to $500. This includes ATM withdrawals! So I had to come up with imaginative ways to pay for the monitor at a HUGE INCONVIENCE. I even called customer service and no there is empowered to help customers. That was strike 1.
The next one is that Ally again telling me how I should spend my money, is DECLINING ALL EBAY TRANSACTIONS. I would like to buy something on Ebay yet it keeps getting declined. Strike 2.
Furtherrmore their online app does a horrible job of keeping yuou updated on your balance. I overdrew the account a couple times. Then they chided me saying again, YOUR MONEY IS OURS AND WE WILL NOW HOLD ALL NEW DEPOSITS BECAUSE YOU SUCK AS A CUSTOMER. Yeah I exagerated some elements there but the humour was not lost on me.
Sure we are all suppose to dilligently keep check registers to track our balance, however seriously who does that? Bank of America which is my main account has giving me NO SUCH GRIEF. I guess I shall have to open my own BofA spending account instead.
Their fees are preferable to a bank who is an obstacle to me using my own money. Stay away from this horrible bank unless you purely want a savings account.
Ally Bank has met all my expectations and commitments. Bonus was paid as promised and funds transferred have been timely. Yes, interest rates have dropped but in line with other banks.