Comments on: Ally Bank Review w. 800+ User Reviews

By: CeCe

CeCe — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:13:57 +0000

Just closed my accounts with these crooks, beware people, they lie. No hidden fees..HAHA, yeh right…They overwhelm you with paperwork, you fax, but they tell you they did not receive it. Too much personal info getting lost. They can make a mistake, but you can never or you will be penalized People. .

By: tochi

tochi — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:25:46 +0000

I opened CD accounts with Ally bank years ago because their interest rate is among the best. Their service agents, both call and text chat were helpful. The wait time is none or less than 1 minute. When I needed my fund I just faxed a wire transfer form which was obtained days before. (Yes, I had only one no penalty CD account with Ally at that time, no checking or saving) 2 hours later I received verification call to confirm my identity and all vital fields on the form. Around 4:30 pm EST that same day the fund was available in my receiving bank account. They did charge $20 wire fee and another $10 from my receiving bank. Considering I could have my fund in the same day I requested, I was happy to pay those fees because I did not want to wait for the check mailing and clearing time. I’ve heard many bad stories when getting money out of Ally bank but my experience with them was wonderful. I wonder if my 0.4% higher rate (rate was dropping) made the difference.

By: SM

SM — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 20:44:59 +0000

After checking with BankRate.com and seeing the rates for Money Market and CD Rates for short terms, I decided to check the bank reviews for each bank before deciding of where to invest. Ally was my top pic, but not after reading all the negative review and frustration that people have experienced. Wow a bank that doesn’t know what it’s doing!! I have always belonged to a Credit Union, and have mistrusted banks, and virtual banks in general. I need to make a better rate in interest for my mother. But can’t afford to lose her money or have it misdirected, or not be able to cash out a CD at maturity. I will look into ING, even though their rates are less, they sound more secure and professional in their dealing with the customer.

By: Sheila

Sheila — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 03:40:03 +0000

My husband and I were looking for an online money market for the higher rates and decided to try out Ally Bank. Well, our first transaction was an epic fail. We tried the edeposit with out tax return money which failed apparently due to us not co-signing the check. Which is odd, because any other bank will usually take a deposit signed by just one of the people to which it is written. So, after 5 more phone calls and 5 more business days past the 2 business days it should have taken to get deposited, we finally got the check cleared and in in the account. This was worrisome to us because you have to write that it’s for Ally edeposit only on the back of the check, making it worthless to deposit anywhere else.

Not that was worrisome enough but I was happy with how it got resolved and the customer service people are actually really helpful and seem to be fairly intelligent. So, I was going to try to transfer some money to a non-Ally account we had activated. Turns out that was down. Seriously, does anything work with this bank! So, we decided to close this account due to the lack of truct we have with this bank. The kicker is that the lady told me to stay on the line if I wanted to take a survey, which I did, and was disconnected. This also happened with my husband in a previous phone call. Guess you really don’t want to know what we really think, huh? Anyway, proceed with caution are my parting words if you are planning on opening an account with Ally.

By: Austin

Austin — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:48:21 +0000

Please do not let this bank screw you over. They clearly do not know what they are doing. I have spent the past half hour going through various sites checking reviews for this bank. I began looking because I have very little money to open an account with and need someplace to siphon the money I make online into. Since I began surfing reviews, however, and they seem largely BAD. Very bad. You don’t have to take my word for it though, just google it.

By: K

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:04:43 +0000

Just to clarify – on my previous post, the sentence “their online site has handled thousands of transactions for us without a single mistake” was referring to ING, not Ally. Ally’s error rate is more like 1/6 (17%) which is rather frightening for a bank. And my search today of the BBB website indicates that: 1) Ally is not registered with BBB unlike a large number of other banks; 2) the BBB rates it a C for the number of complaints against them – 89 in the past 2 years. This puts Ally in the bottom 2 of 358 banks nationwide, according to BBB.

Given the rash of recent postings about problems with Ally’s CD closings and problems transferring money out – either they have a very new bunch of customer reps who are not doing the job right, or they are deliberately trying to prevent people getting their money. Given that Ally is really GMAC which is really General Motors, and GM is now under the gun to try and start paying back the bailout money before Obama has to answer to the voters, I suspect Ally is starting to go into a serious debt situation. They have millions of locked in CDs out there for up to 5 years at much higher rates than they afford to cover with other investments, no one is borrowing, and the government teat is about to be cut off.

Now their web site is completely down with no prior advance notice – a real bank warns its customers in advance if that is going to happen for maintainance etc. Seriously thinking about closing the remaining two Ally CDs early and taking the interest penalty.

By: Johnson

Johnson — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:59:35 +0000

It is very true. Their service is terrible. The online chat is a joke. I think I was talking to someone in China. The telephone assistants are good; however, they have limited authority. My big difficulty is in freeing up money when a CD matures. At one point I had the $250M with them. I am now about to close the account completely. Their rates have dropped and I don’t like waitin 10 business days to be able to write a check on my cash.

By: Johnson

Johnson — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:55:51 +0000

I have two CDs maturing this month. It has been 4 days now since I asked that they be deposited into my money market account which I can use to write a check. I was told it would be another 2 to 4 business days before the money would be available. Ally claims they have a backlog of people cashing their CDs and are behind in the transfers. Beware of Ally – you may not be able to get your money back when you want it. I will close my account with Ally after this experience.

By: Ward C

Ward C — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:41:12 +0000

I love American Express and have never sent them a positive email. I love to drive my car, but I have never sought out a forum to send flattering emails to the maker, either.

Real people usually only seek out these type of forums when they are 1) extremely angry with a service provider and want to get even, 2) considering a service provider and want to see what real people have to say, or 3) are employed by the company in social marketing and get paid by the hour to post anodyne, “hhmmm, it’s just pretty darn good service” comments on these sites.

Me, I am in category 2 and Ally/GMAC seems have a very high percentage of us among current and former customers (just look at this whole site). If you are in category 2, beware. If you are in 3, I hope you are getting paid enough to offset the shame of pretending to be real person to mislead others.

By: Donna

Donna — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 01:07:20 +0000

Just closed my Ally account again today. I tried to open an online savings account last week. They did the test deposits and withdrawal from my checking account several days ago, and sent me an email that my Ally account was open, but I never received an email to verify the test deposits. Their website just kept saying that the transfer was pending. The alternative was to give them my login and password for my checking account at my brick and mortar bank, which I was not about to do. My initial test deposit of $100 was never drawn from my checking account. So, after waiting several days, I called them to cancel the withdrawal and close my account. I was told that my account was never funded because I never verified the test deposit amounts. In order to close the account, I had to verify said amounts. I was guantareed that the withdrawal would be cancelled. The very next day the $100 was drawn from my checking account. I called again and was told that the transfer back to my checking account would take 2 days and my Ally account was indeed closed. Was also told that I should have never verified the test deposits and just let the time lapse. Today, I also received in the mail signature cards with my SS# on them to be signed and returned. How safe is that? I lost all faith in this company with their delays, false statements, untrained customer “service” reps, and lack of communication. I would hate to think what they might have done to my entire savings. Beware.