GMAC Reported To Have Agreed to Deposit Rate Limitations

Interesting about the rate cap figure, because Imperial Capital Bank is under serious restrictions too for their trouble and yet they are still offering 1.24% on savings. So not sure how it's enforced. But they have gotten the cease and desist order and all the rumblings of a closure and yet still have a rate well over average and over the stated limit.

Kinda like price fixing, huh? This Big Bank Con needs to end. You need somebody to watch the watchdogs and then somebody to watch the watchdog's watcher. It's ALL fixed - for maximum bank profits. Break 'em up and open the system to public transparency.

We will find out on Fridays when Ally adjusts their rates, won't we?

I am using Ally as a hub anyway, do not care much about their rate.

This is one of the few banks that are still advertising on TV recently as rates have dropped. I guess we will start to see fewer of their ads too.

I see Ally bank ads on about half the websites that I visit. A very, very heavy, and unsustainable, ad campaign.

They are trying to get as many new customers as they can before they get constrained.

Two things to watch out for on Ally Bank's "no-penalty" CD;

1. If you funded it via an ACH transfer and close the CD before 60 days have passed, they will only pay out via ACH transfer to the original financial institution. That is fair since ACH transactions can be rescinded in 60 days.

2. Their process for CD closure is, by some odd coincidence, slow and error-prone. That is *not* fair.

The highly-touted 24x365 phone center can't do the closure themselves - the agent requests the closure from another department (only open 9-5 on business days) that takes a couple of business days to actually initiate the outbound ACH transfer. (ACH transfers usually take two days to complete after they have been initiated - that is not the issue here.)

Rather than fill out a form, the agent sends an email using a template. In my case, the agent's email gave instructions on what to do with the money upon maturity - instead of requesting an immediate closure. The agent knew that I wanted immediate closure - even asked me politely why I was taking the money out.

I called every day to check status. Every day an agent would say that the money would be sent the next day. Eventually one agent looked closely at the email and discovered the first agent's error.

A couple of days later, the unreachable special department finally initiated the ACH transfer.


I am getting out of that bank.

I opened an account at a local credit union and called Ally to wire the funds from my money market account to the new credit union account. Ally wanted me to send a form to them first and even if I downloaded the form on line that it would take two hours for them to get to it. So much for trying to wire money out of an Ally account.

Then I wrote a check to open the account. I come to find out that the credit union has put a twenty day hold on the funds availability. They said there was not information on the checks that Ally prints for their customers. There is no address or phone number of the bank. I thought a routing number would be sufficient. I provided the Ally phone number to the credit union, hopefully that helps.

"3rd Rescue Considered for GMAC"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/business/29gmac.html?hp