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Ken Tumin founded the Bank Deals Blog in 2005 and has been passionately covering the best deposit deals ever since. He is frequently referenced by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications as a top expert, but he is first and foremost a fellow deal seeker and member of the wonderful community of savers that frequents DepositAccounts.


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Ally Bank's New IRA CDs and IRA Savings Account

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Ally Bank has just launched four new accounts and services this weekend. I did a quick overview of the Ally changes yesterday. Today I'll focus on the new IRAs.

We have been hearing about Ally IRAs since September 2010. I'm glad Ally has finally released them.

You can see all of Ally's IRA offerings in its IRA overview page. You can choose from the three basic types of IRAs: 1) Traditional, 2) Roth, and 3) SEP. Inside an IRA, you can choose three types of accounts: 1) savings account, 2) standard CDs, 3) Raise Your Rate CDs. The No-Penalty CD does not appear to be an option.

Currently, all the IRA rates are the same as the corresponding regular account rates. I don't know if this will always be the case. Sometimes institutions will have special IRA rates.

The IRA CDs have the same mild early withdrawal penalty as the regular CDs (60 days of interest). In Ally's new disclosure, I don't see anything that waives this penalty if you're over 59½. Here's what it says when they would waive the penalty:

This penalty does not apply in the case of death, disability or legal incapacity of any owner, or, in the case of a required minimum distribution (RMD), you may withdraw the amount of the RMD without incurring an early withdrawal penalty.

Remember that you can do an early withdrawal of an IRA CD without withdrawing from the IRA. For example, if interest rates rise, you could close the Ally IRA CD (with penalty) and place the funds into the Ally IRA savings account. From the savings account, you could open a new IRA CD with a higher rate.

I used Ally's online chat service to try to get more details on the IRA opening process. Funding an IRA is more complicated than a regular account. There are three basic ways that you can fund an IRA: 1) rollover, 2) direct transfers, and 3) contributions. Ally's IRA forms popup has forms for all of these. If you apply online, I was told that you should receive these forms mailed to you in a welcome package.

I chatted with two Ally CSRs, and they didn't seem too familiar with the details of IRAs. So I can't give you any more details on account opening. If you do open an Ally IRA, please comment below on your experience.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Ally has updated its account disclosure to include IRAs. Make sure you read through this for IRA requirements.

FDIC Coverage for IRAs

For FDIC deposit insurance coverage, it's important to note that IRAs are considered a separate account category than non-retirement accounts for deposit insurance purposes. For this retirement account category, it's important to note that deposit insurance coverage does not increase for any beneficiaries who may be named in the bank records. Ally has an example on its deposit insurance page which shows how a husband and wife can insure up to $2 million with single accounts, joint accounts, retirement accounts and revocable trust accounts. In a previous post I have more details about using beneficiaries to increase FDIC coverage.

Other Ally Bank Changes

Please refer to my previous post to see a quick review of all of new accounts and services at Ally Bank. I'll be writing more about these new services in future posts.

Related Pages: Ally Bank, IRA rates, CD rates, savings account

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Comments
Bozo
  |     |   Comment #1
Basically the rate of your generic bond fund. Which is to say, it's OK. nothing to write home about. On the whole, however, I do prefer locked rates on CDs compared to bond funds. I do suspect your garden-variety bond fund will tank later this year. But, then, I thought bond funds would tank by now, so I'm not exactly Nostradamus. Which is why I hedge my bets. My best hedge this year (thus far) was cashing in $215K on February 18 and buying that 2.5% APY 15 month Dime Savings CD.  While the account from which I transferred the money is down (not a whole lot, but a loss is a loss), the Dime Savings account just keeps cranking it out, over $400/mo. A buck is a buck, so to speak. I also made a few bucks going short the market (twice, actually) when it was in its "up-the-down-staircase" mode, but that's akin to catching lightning in the bottle. You have to get lucky. SDS (a short position on the S P 500) was quite good to me.

Best regards,

Bozo
karinabartram
  |     |   Comment #2
Many investments one can make outside an IRA can also be made inside an IRA. The trick is finding an institution that can help you make the investments you want. A savings account is not really appropriate for an IRA.
Bozo
  |     |   Comment #3
To: Karina

Re: Investments in an IRA

Not sure why you suggest "savings accounts" (read CDs) are inappropriate for IRAs. Gosh golly, using the "age in bonds" theory of prudent retirement investing, one should have one's age in bonds or cash, the balance in equities or alternative investments. How one spreads that "bonds/cash" allocation around depends on one's view of where the bond market is going as opposed to the predictable (albeit lame for now) yield on a CD. I guess I'm pretty lame by your standards, as I have 75% of my "bonds/cash" allocation in CDs. My bond component is yielding 2.8% on average; my CDs are averaging over 3%. Close, but the cigar goes to CDs. When CD yields on offer dip below bond yields I can get through Vanguard, then I'll have to decide. But, all things considered, I'm not a fan of bond funds. When interest rates spike (and they will), bond funds will tank.

Just my $.02

Bozo
Anonymous
  |     |   Comment #4
Just opened an IRA with Ally (2 yr. raise your rate).  Brancie (woman's name) was knowledgeable and walked me through with no problems.
Anonymous
  |     |   Comment #5
There may be other newer posts than this that make this irrelevant, but I just happend to see it. As soon as Ally offerred IRA accounts, I opened a traditional IRA at Ally, and have since done multiple trustee-to-trustee transfers into CDs. I don't remember any problems opening the IRA, and you only have to fill out a single-page form to do the IRA transfers. Very easy and very smooth.
Anonymous
  |     |   Comment #6
can anybody tell me whether ally bank required ssn's for ira beneficiaries? per the rep i talked to, the beneficiary's ssn is required & at least 1 beneficiary is required (can't leave beneficiaries blank). however, since sometimes reps give the wrong information, thought i'd ask here at bankdeals. i don't like the idea of having to give ssn for a beneficiary, since they are not the customer. Thanks.
Anonymous
  |     |   Comment #7
Just talked to an Ally rep and was informed that a transfer of an existing IRA to and Ally savings has a 5 year hold or subject to a federal penalty regardless of age. Personally I don't move money around much but my gut is telling me this market is in for a rough ride, and there is no where to hide with say a Fidelity unless you want a money market which pays close to nothing. There is also a penalty for a conversion during this 5 year hold should your tax position improve which I hope do by moving to a different state.

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