ALLY Bank ACH Has Defaulted To 3 Business Days

NewStar | Mar 27, 2024 | 22 posts since 2018

For two days now, I have noticed that all ACH transfers from ALLY Bank is now taking 3 business days to process, no more 1 business day processing.

One CSR says that it is a temporary glitch, while another says that 1 business day processing is now a thing of the past.

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111 | Mar 27, 2024 | 672 posts since 2019

Just now I "modelled" an ACH transfer on the Ally website (which you can do without actually initiating it) - sure enough, a transfer to another financial institution that took 1 day on March 5 now would take 3, in either direction.

Whether it's CSR lying or incompetence, they need to fix it.

gratitudecd | Mar 27, 2024 | 83 posts since 2022

IF that is true I am leaving Ally ASAP.

samiam | Mar 27, 2024 | 56 posts since 2018

Which banks and credit unions have one day ACH?

bobert456 | Mar 27, 2024 | 187 posts since 2022

Careful, there are two questions here:
1) how long does for an ACH to complete
2) after the deposit, how long is before I have access to the funds for withdrawal or transfer back out?

I just had a VERY FAST ACH from Fidelity, just to learn that it would HELD for 3-5 business days. It can be used for trading at Fidelity, but not for access otherwise.

bobert456 | Mar 27, 2024 | 187 posts since 2022

finding ACH hubs is a moving target. ALLY is VERY good, except for the limited number of links that can be established (something like 16), and they are almost always 3 BUSINESS DAYS to complete, so weekend are in addition to that.

I will be watching the responses to see if others are happy with their favorite ACH HUB

bobert456 | Mar 28, 2024 | 187 posts since 2022

in ALLY's defense, this started with my need to do a LARGE ACH into ALLY .... said it would take 3 business days, over the weekend, and good on Monday.
-Did an edeposit check for max allowed daily. It shows up next day, but funds still take 2-3 more business days to be fully processed.
-checked today about doing a smaller ACH from same account, and SURPRISE ... only one day. Even did a second, same account, ONE DAY. So it may be that ALLY still has some one-day for smaller ACH amounts. Try breaking your ACH up into smaller chunks to see!!
-They do not publish their algorithm to users, or apparently even to customer service.

MAKNYC | Mar 28, 2024 | 324 posts since 2015

I agree with your Fidelity experiences. Every one of my ACH transfers into Fidelity happen same day if I enter it in the morning. I’m actually a bit surprised there isn’t more animosity toward Ally here (if this change is true). I’ll play the cynic here. The change has nothing to do with security. They have taken a page out of Charles Schwab’s book and made every effort to maximize their opportunity to earn off of the float at the expense of their client. If you request an ACH transfer today and they immediately deduct it from your account, but don’t deliver it for three days…..walla! Interest income….no offsetting interest expense. At current rates that’s well over $15 of profit to Ally (if only 3 days) on a $50k transfer. And let’s not forget….most 3 day windows will include a weekend in there, so really 5 days! “Free ACH Transfers” not so free after all with policies like this. Like 6 to 5 Blackjack or triple 0 roulette the average customer doesn’t comprehend the math/financial significance to this policy. If tighter security was their concern they could send an email to the client immediately confirming receipt of an ACH transfer request and then if they don’t hear from the client within 3 days deduct the amount on day 3 and send it immediately to the receiving firm.

Kaight | Mar 27, 2024 | 1,192 posts since 2011

Thanks to the OP for this heads up.

I am a very heavy user of Ally Bank ACH transfers. Have not experienced a problem or failure in the past; all smooth sailing. Nevertheless and regardless:

I can confirm the message in the OP. Transfers I've done many tens of times overnight are now showing up with the three day delay. I suspect this could be an exasperated, end of their rope, anti-fraud measure by the bank. And as always in such situations, honest people become collateral damage. The bank simply does not care.

111 | Mar 28, 2024 | 672 posts since 2019

Regarding Ally ACH transfers -
The Good - I can live with their limit of (about) 16 links, and their fairly high daily dollar limits. Also, I've never had any transfers denied by them, accounts locked, etc.
The Bad - Their algorithmic differences between 1-day vs. 3-day transfers have always been unintelligible.
The Ugly - Recently their algorithmic differences between 1-day vs. 3-day transfers seem to have changed for the worse. And worse, their CSRs can't or won't explain exactly how they have changed, or why.
Not Acceptable!

John19 | Mar 28, 2024 | 397 posts since 2022

Ally is no good as a "hub" bank anymore, you would never hook up a new account to Ally and expect fast transfers. So many good accounts like Bread, CIT, Citizens, Fidelity have faster push/pull transfers.

NewStar | Mar 28, 2024 | 22 posts since 2018

UPDATE:

The 1 business day ACH processing shows up briefly this morning, now everything has gone back to 3 Business Days processing. Perhaps there is a glitch that they are working on.

BTW, I found out that it has happened before, a member named aiasantha reported the same issue on January 02, 2020 (see link below).

https://www.depositaccounts.com/banks/ally-bank.html#promo40599

111 | Mar 28, 2024 | 672 posts since 2019

Mine is still "broken" - meaning, an ACH transfer that took 1 day on March 5 is still identified as taking 3 days today. Whether that means Ally hasn't fixed all accounts yet, or the data for my link to that particular bank now falls outside some date window in their algorithm - it's impossible to tell due to their lack of transparency.

NewStar | Mar 28, 2024 | 22 posts since 2018

I edited my post above. The 1 Day processing appeared briefly this morning, now everything has gone back to 3 days processing again.

111 | Mar 28, 2024 | 672 posts since 2019

Thanks. Ally is staffed by idiots.

Kaight | Mar 29, 2024 | 1,192 posts since 2011

Update:

My earlier post, above, appears as of this morning to have been in error. Well, at least I was just able to schedule a transfer on an overnight (1 business day) basis. That is normal and it is "the way things ought to be".

So perhaps it's not a policy change at all. Maybe Ally Bank IT is just dealing with a system glitch of some sort? I hope so. I have a pile of transfers coming up as we move into April next week.

gratitudecd | Mar 29, 2024 | 83 posts since 2022

Well when I did it yesterday it was 3 days where it would always take 1 day! I hope you are right @kaight. We'll see.. but if this is a policy change I will pulling out and going to my other institution especially with no warning

deeMatrix | May 14, 2024 | 16 posts since 2018

Has this been determined to just be a system glitch or Ally policy change and still ocurring? I have over 14 accounts linked which most, if not all, previously had 1 day transfers but now all are 3 days. I know calling is useless on this issue.

enduser | May 15, 2024 | 711 posts since 2015

So it was a glitch...
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/ally-no-longer-offering-next-day-transfers/

but...

Most likely if an error occurred with one of your transfers. As punishment you will now have to endure 90-days of 3 day transfers before the clock resets back to 1-day transfers. And if another problem occurs within those 90-days the days counter resets back to day one again. It must be a clean 90-days of no issues for you to get your 1-day transfers again.

also not all F.I.'s support 1-day transfers for an ally pull... see here:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/hub-accounts-ach-transfers-capabilities-fees-limits-across-financial-...

outtempster | May 16, 2024 | 32 posts since 2010

Ally Bank is 3 day ACH processing. I called their customer service twice to ask what criteria to make it 1 day, they answer is they don't know. the algo determines it. If your transfer meets 1 day, it'll say 1 day. So far it's always 3 days for me, regardless small or big amount.

If you want to deposit into Ally, it's better to do ACH init from the other bank. For example, init in Ally on Mon, it will withdraw from your other bank on Tues (you can see from your other bank), you will see it show up in Ally on Thur. I did this and monitored it multiple time with different bank. However, if I init from another bank on Mon, the fund is gone from the other bank on Monday. Depending on the bank, the fund show up in Ally on Tues or Wed. So, 1-2 days faster if I init from another bank.

If you init from Ally for withdraw, the funds are gone from Ally, but it won't be send to exchange until the next business day, then it either shows up in your other bank on the 3rd day or 4th day (depending on other bank). So, in this case, it's either the same time or 1 day more as init from another bank to pull money from Ally.

I only init from Ally if the amount is big. And if I am opening a CD with good rate, using wire transfer saves money (you can calculate on the interest you lose for the days that the money is in transition).

111 | May 17, 2024 | 672 posts since 2019

So... this thread about Ally Bank ACH transfer issues has now been ongoing since 3/27/24. I and several others have posted our findings (and our frustrations) multiple times since then.

On 3/28/24 I posted -
"Regarding Ally ACH transfers -
The Good - I can live with their limit of (about) 16 links, and their fairly high daily dollar limits. Also, I've never had any transfers denied by them, accounts locked, etc.
The Bad - Their algorithmic differences between 1-day vs. 3-day transfers have always been unintelligible.
The Ugly - Recently their algorithmic differences between 1-day vs. 3-day transfers seem to have changed for the worse. And worse, their CSRs can't or won't explain exactly how they have changed, or why."

There's been some back-and-forth between those who experienced 1-day transfers, vs. 3-day transfers.

So my question is this. IF most others agree that what I termed "The Good" about Ally transfers is also what they generally see as advantages, and IF their negatives are generally what I identified as the negatives I saw - well then, has anyone come up with a decent replacement for Ally?

This thread contains some kudos for Fidelity and a few others, but there are also important caveats mentioned. Just curious whether anyone has found the Holy Grail.

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