Fed Meeting: Another Rate Cut - Review of Impact to Savers
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Barclays vs. Ally Bank: Which Online Bank is Better?
GMAC Bank Changes Name to Ally Bank - New 2.50% 9-Month No-Penalty CD
Update 3/03/10: Savings Account and MMA APYs have fallen to 1.30% (were 1.39%). No-penalty CD APY has fallen to 0.99%. Refer to Ally Bank's website for the latest rates.
GMAC Bank has changed its name to Ally Bank with a new website at Ally.com. With all the bad press related to GM and GMAC, I guess the bank decided it needed to separate itself from GMAC. However, Ally Bank remains "part of the GMAC family of companies." Here's a press release describing this change.
The old website, gmacbank.com, now points to ally.com (they also have allybank.com). They must have paid quite a bit to get this 4-letter domain name. The new website seems to be fully functional. I just logged into my account, and everything seems okay. I don't know if this is new to this website, but they now allow you to select electronic statements if you don't want paper statements mailed. Also, you can set up alerts to warn you with an email when the balance falls below a certain level.
The savings account and money market account rates and features appear to have remained the same. They continue to have no minimum balance requirements and no fees. This was implemented several months ago. There used to be a $500 minimum balance to avoid a monthly fee.
For the certificates of deposit, they removed the minimum balance requirements. You can now open a CD with $0. I'm not sure why anyone would want to open a CD with less than $100. If a CD rate is 1% higher than a savings account rate, you would only make $1 more per year with $100.
The CD rates remain the same except for the 9-month CD which has a very competitive rate of 2.60% APY. The 1-year CD rate continues to be one of the best rates in the nation with a 2.80% APY. I have more info on the CDs in this previous post.
New No-Penalty CD
There's a new No-Penalty CD with a 9-month term. The rate is 2.50% APY which is very competitive even without the no-penalty feature. Here's how the No-Penalty CD FAQ describes this feature:
you can withdraw your money 6 days after funding - and anytime thereafter - and you won't be charged a fee. Just remember, if you do make an early withdrawal it must be for the full balance plus all interest earned.
And they seem to make it easy to withdraw the money. According to the FAQ, they accept instructions by phone, secure email or regular mail. Before this website change a reader had mentioned they were no longer accepting instructions for CD closures by their secure email.
One thing that has not change is they still don't offer IRAs. But they do offer some other types of accounts that not many online banks provide. According to their FAQ, they do allow custodial accounts and trust accounts.
I've had accounts at GMAC Bank for the last three years, and I've been very pleased with the bank. In addition to the history of competitive rates, they have one of the best ACH transfer services with fast transfers, short holds, and easy linking of new accounts.
I wonder how much the GMAC name had hurt the bank in attracting deposits. I'm sure with the bad publicity of GM and GMAC, depositors have been scared away. This has probably contributed to the high deposit rates they've been offering the last year. They were not always this competitive. If the new name helps, they may not have to be quite as competitive.
If GMAC goes bankrupt, what happens to Ally Bank? As I've mentioned before, if may not result in a bank failure. When Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy last year, Lehman Brothers Bank continued to operate (see post).
If you stay below the FDIC limits, there's not much to worry about. Ally Bank deposit accounts are FDIC insured (FDIC Certificate # 57803). On the new Ally website, there's a new page describing how you can go over the basic FDIC limits (currently $250K) and still be insured.
Rate History:
Update 3/03/10: Savings Account and MMA APYs have fallen to 1.30% (were 1.39%). No-penalty CD APY has fallen to 0.99%
Update 2/17/10: Savings Account and MMA APYs have fallen to 1.39% (were 1.44%)
Update 2/09/10: Savings Account and MMA APYs have fallen to 1.44% (were 1.49%)
Update 12/08/09: Savings Account APY has fallen to 1.50% (was 1.59%). MMA APY has fallen to 1.50% (was 1.55%).
Update 11/25/09: Savings Account rate has fallen to 1.59% (was 1.64%). MMA remains at 1.55% APY. 12-month CD remains at 1.90% APY.
Update 11/13/09: Rates have risen! Today's rates at Ally Bank: Savings Account - 1.64% APY (was 1.55%), MMA remains at 1.55% APY, 12-month CD - 1.99% APY (was 1.95%), no-penalty 9-month CD - 1.49% APY (was 1.50%).
Update 10/30/09: Rates have fallen. Today's rates at Ally Bank: Savings Account - 1.55% APY (was 1.70%), MMA - 1.55% APY (was 1.65%), no-penalty 9-month CD - 1.50% APY (was 1.60%), 12-month CD - 1.95% APY (was 2.00%).
Update 10/16/09: Rates have fallen. Today's rates at Ally Bank: Savings Account - 1.70% APY (was 1.80%), MMA - 1.65% APY (was 1.70%), no-penalty 9-month CD - 1.65% APY (was 1.75%), 12-month CD - 2.00% APY (was 2.05%).
Update 10/02/09: Rates have gone up! Today's rates at Ally Bank: Savings Account - 1.80% APY (was 1.75%), MMA - 1.70% APY, no-penalty 9-month CD - 1.85% APY, 12-month CD - 2.05% APY (was 2%).
Update 8/07/09: Today's rates at Ally Bank: Savings Account - 1.70% APY (was 1.75%), MMA - 1.65% APY (was 1.70%), no-penalty 9-month CD - 1.85% APY, 12-month CD - 2.00% APY.
Update 8/28/09: Today's rates at Ally Bank: Savings Account - 1.75% APY (was 1.70%), MMA - 1.70% APY (was 1.65%), no-penalty 9-month CD - 1.85% APY, 12-month CD - 2.00% APY.
Update 7/31/09: Today's rates at Ally Bank: Savings Account - 1.75% APY (was 1.85%), MMA - 1.70% APY, no-penalty 9-month CD - 1.90% APY, 12-month CD - 2.00% APY. Refer to Ally Bank's website for the latest rates.
Update 7/17/09: Today's rate cuts at Ally Bank include: Savings Account - 1.85% APY (was 1.95%), no-penalty 9-month CD - 1.90% APY (was 2.00%), 12-month CD - 2.05% APY (was 2.10%)
Update 7/10/09: Today's rates cuts at Ally Bank include: Savings Account - 1.95% APY (was 2.00%), Money Market Account - 1.70% APY (was 1.80%), no-penalty 9-month CD - 2.00% APY (was 2.05%), 12-month CD - 2.10% APY (was 2.25%)
Update 7/03/09: Today's Ally Bank rate cuts include: Money Market Account - 1.80% APY (was 1.85%), no-penalty 9-month CD - 2.05% APY (was 2.15%), 12-month CD - 2.25% APY (was 2.30%)
Update 6/19/09: Rates continue to drop: Savings account rate is now 2.00% APY. 12-month CD rate is now 2.30% APY, and the no-penalty 9-month CD rate is now 2.15% APY.
It is pretty ridiculous to do something like this an not tell your customers well in advance. Also, the gmacbank site is not forwarding for me at this moment.
Things look fine at Ally.com, but I'm not impressed with how they did this.
I was there last night with no mention of the new name.
Added a link at gmac and presidential with a rewards checking.
The presidential amounts showed up today. GMACs did not.
Dont see any downside to the 9 month no risk deal.
Old routing is good until Nov 1, 2009. Hope this helps.
By the way just got a mail for the changes. I like the FAQ section as you can do a search. Website looks good but I don't really like the purple color.
I see the issue you are pointing out when you try to 'open account' from the no-penalty cd product page. You can get around this by going through the "Open Accounts" link and selecting "No-penalty CD" as the account type. I just did it without issue.
I agree. I just sent them a general feedback message complaining of the purple color. I hope more people write to them about it and let's get this annoying color changed.
Question
Will I still be able to write checks on my accounts?
Answer
Yes, if you have check-writing privileges now (Money Market Account and NOW), you can still write checks at any time - your GMAC bank checks will be honored until November 1, 2009. We will automatically send you your new Ally Bank checks with new routing numbers. You should begin to use them immediately and be sure to destroy your old checks. The new routing number on your checks is 124003116. Not an MMA or NOW customer? You need not take any action.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ally.comSome of the later 2007 and 2008 entries are not safe for work, or are at least very questionable for work depending on what your work thinks about thong butts advertising "adult swingers."
not a fan of the new interface or about the new name....
Gimmie a break!
Also, does the proximity of where the cd's are and where you live have any negative impact?
And, how do you purchase and collect the funds (once matured?)I am old school and prefer walking into a brick and mortar building to do business.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
They moved some things around. You change your account names by clicking "change nickname" next to the current name. You can't see your list of linked accounts until you click Transfer Funds.
Since I use cash-back credit cards to pay for nearly everything and auto-pay them directly from my Ally account, it's the only bank I need. My Visa Checkcard works at Aldi and it's great being able to use any ATM.
I actually like having two accounts. I only keep what I need in the MMA for checks and ATM/Checkcard so it's safer.
This really is the best bank around (tried several) with consistently high rates, fast transfers and unique features. I guess when your former parent has ruined your reputation (thanks UAW and Feds) you have to try harder.
I assume CS will be incompetent. They claim they are putting extra effort into it. Let's hope so.
I LOVE two things about Ally bank:
nice rate and superfast ACH transfers.
http://www.ally.com/help/faqs/general.html
Ally's FAQs say it is not necessary to "contact other financial institutions linked to my account because my routing number is changing." But I wonder of this really applies only when using *Ally's* transfer system (as opposed to transfers from elsewhere where Ally is the target). The fact that old MMA checks will stop working on Nov 1 add to this suspicion. A lot of people could be in for nasty surprises if my suspicion is correct and they don't clarify.
Indeed, didn't their old FAQs have specific instructions about setting up your GMAC accounts on another bank's system? I though that's how I learned that you can't use the Online Savings Account as a push/pull target from elsewhere unless you tell the other bank that it is a checking account.
1. top notch CSR. They try to make sure every issue was resolved. They answered all the questions that I had such as whether paying credit card bill (initiated from credit card website) is a check transaction or ACH transfer. It's the latter, which means you can do 6 of these.
2. unlimited # of linked accounts and fast ACH transfer. It has now become my transfer hub.
3. check writing. I don't have to transfer funds to checking account and lose interest any more in order to pay large bills such as mortgage, credit card bills. The MMA rate 1.70% is the same as my dollarsavingsdirect rate.
However, my minor complaint is if I initiate a transfer for tomorrow, I can't cancel it. I need to be extra careful when making transfers. And if I initiate a push transfer, it takes 2 days for fund to appear on the linked account. It takes 1 day for dollarsavingsdirect.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with Ally.
If I get my final interest when I think I will, it will be a total of (12) days after I requested by phone a direct bank transfer of it.
If you are going to close an Ally CD be sure to do it by transfer to an Ally savings account. Have the Ally savings account directly linked to your new savings account. I hate to think of how much I would have lost if I hadn't done this.
Why bank with Ally for a savings account, anyway? The Fed limits them from paying top dollar. That's why they're mysteriously at least .01% less that comparable savings accounts.
I've been fine with American Express. Withdrawls only take (1) day instead of (2). Straightforward?