After being GMAC Bank first and then changing it’s name to Ally Bank, everyone’s no doubt seen the new advertisements that emphasizes no fine print. With the bank being connected with General Motors, the first thing I can think of is whether my money will be safe. Of course, I went to research further before my readers could be ripped off with this bank so this review represents my opinion of putting money with its savings account offering.
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Safety of Ally Bank
First things first, Ally Bank saving accounts and CDs are all FDIC insured so our money is safe for up to $250k per account. There are ways to increase the amount covered even further, but you would need to open individual, joint, and accounts under other entities such as a trust to get a higher limit. (Another way is to just open accounts across different banks, which might be easier.)
Products Offered from the Online Bank
Ally Bank offers 2 main products that we are really concerned about – an online savings account and a certificate of deposit with above average rates. The extremely good interest rates for this type of product and the bank being FDIC insured prompt me to open an account with them.
When I opened an account, it was also nice to see that I can actually open multiple savings accounts and certificate deposits all on one screen. No more submitting multiple applications and spending time filling the exact same form more than necessary.
Ally Bank is Another Excellent Option
There’s really many options out there to compete for our money, but it’s nice to see a bank with competitive rates with a simple interface. The name GMAC may spook you in opening an account, but the safety of the FDIC guarantee should provide comfort, especially since you are getting more interest by going with them.
After 2 years of originally reviewing this bank, I am still an Ally Bank customer. But before you decide, make sure that you read through some of the other user reviews below. Though most people only speak up when they have a problem, you can get an idea of the types of issues people have with their accounts.
- Ally Bank – Official Site
Other News You May Want to Know About the Ally Bank
Is GMAC Really GM?
Many people asked me about this already, and I actually had the same question myself. I always thought that GMAC Financial Services was part of General Motors but I was wrong. GMAC is actually a standalone banking operation that provides lending and banking services. The difference with GMAC to a traditional loan company is that instead of offering mortgages and home equities to consumers, GMAC offers loans and lending to GM and Chrysler dealers to finance their operations.
Ally Bank is just one of the online banks we reviewed on MoneyNing.com. Click here for the full list of high yield online savings accounts we have experience with.
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Really the only redeeming thing about Ally is their 24/7 phone services and the fact that you can use any ATM and be reimbursed for the fees.
Depositing checks is a nightmare if you count on being able to use the money soon at all. They don’t start processing your deposit until the next business day, and even when its approved they put a hold on it for another full business day. This means you can deposit a check on a Thursday afternoon and not be able to actually use it until Monday and there’s nothing you can do about it. What’s the point of an online bank if they still stop everything they’re doing just because it’s the weekend?
The mobile app is unreliable at best and crashes all the time on my android and the website goes down for “maintenance” fairly often meaning you can’t even check your account balance or do anything else.
Seriously, stay away from this bank unless moderately good customer service is the only thing you are looking for. I’m moving my account because the small upsides to using Ally are completely overshadowed by problems no online bank should have.
Ally back dated my title one month. By the time I got my title, the 15 day registration period expired. I hope their employees get treated the way they treated me. Payback is a b.
Instead of Ally, go bury you money in your yard. It will be more secure, and you will have better access.
It has been a week of calling every day to Ally Financial. They cannot give me my payoff on my loan, and have begun hanging up on me when I call. My lease expires in three days, and they are still absolutely clueless on what the payoff will be. Turnabout is fair play. Good luck Ally on getting any more money or my truck unless you do a complete reversal of your rude, incompetent, and 100% frustrating customer service.
Finance with anyone else, even your local loan shark. I cannot imagine any other company providing worse service than Ally.
I am not an employee of Ally Bank or any of it’s associates, just getting that out of the way. Oh and I’m not an auto loan customer or looking for a mortgage. Seems like many of the negative reviews on here are from people who send Ally payments and aren’t using them for saving and routine banking. I have been a customer of other banks for 40 years and I like what Ally offers, they are accessible, I can call someone any time of day. I work, my wife works, we have lives and our lives don’t stop at 4pm, in fact our lives begin at 4pm and noon on Saturdays. When I call Ally the people I talk to know how to answer my questions as well as any bank teller does, and nobody is glaring at them from the line of people behind me in line, or on the phone, and my kid doesn’t have to come with me, and I don’t have to find parking or time… I can do it all when I have time…. BEST PART HERE >>>When I put money in my bank I expect that I am able to remove that same amount of money from my bank<<<. In fact I prefer that while my bank is using MY MONEY to make their shareholders money that they remember where they got that money and that that money isn't THEIRS and it's NOT FREE. Ally pays interest, and they pay interest on even $100 in a savings account. To the people who have overdrawn their accounts and now have to wait for deposits to clear, yes that sucks, been there did that; it's not the bank's fault and not a strike against them because they manage risk. So for those of us who need to budget, because we don't make so much money that we can forget how much we spend, Ally lets you have as many savings accounts as you need. That way I can take my earnings, and every week split it up into buckets (the old envelope method) for gas, for electric, for rent, for car insurance, for co-pays, for groceries, whatever. Then when I need to pay the bill i transfer the money into checking and use my debit card (AND I DON'T GET CHARGED TO USE IT) and while the money is accumulating it's collecting interest… See this is how banking is supposed to work. It is for people to use their money and save their money without loosing their money. HUGE HUGE HUGE. And if I want a CD it's available and the rates are some of the best available, and if I want go with a more advanced product that doesn't involve daily or weekly interaction like a trust or brokerage account, I can go someplace else… Or not, they have that too, but I suspect it's not their strong suit.
I think Ally Bank is an excellent online bank. The service level I have received since I joined has been top notch. I just wrote a full review about a simple saving account I opened with them at my site, http://personalloansonlinehq.com. I plan on keeping my account with them for a long time unless something major happens. My credit Union is among the best and still does not offer these kind of rates.
I opened an Ally checking account last year to test out the online banking scenario. All was fine until last week. I have been depositing checks and set up direct deposit and even tried their bill pay. Everything seems to work well. Last month I had a small overdraft which Ally paid and it left my account over drawn by less than $20.00. Errors happen and it wasn’t intentional. Last week I received a small paycheck and deposited through the online option Ally has. No error messages received or notices, it was a normal every day deposit. I heard from Ally 2 days later through email saying that my paycheck was being held for 5 business days due to my account being overdrawn in the last six months. Now mind you, it was not overdrawn when I submitted the deposit. This included a weekend so it was actually held for 8 days. I called for an explanation and was told that if you over-draw your account, for any reason and for any amount, your account will be flagged to withhold funds for up to 7 days or longer for a period of no less than 6 months.
I wouldn’t of minded so much but there was no warning or message that said this was going to happen. This was a small check and it didn’t affect me but it was principal. Who is to say I am not a single mom living paycheck to paycheck and suddenly have no access to a paycheck I just deposited? And I only get paid once a month! Because of a overdraft that happened a month or longer ago? And no one even bothered to tell me my account was in this status? This could potentially be devastating to someone not expecting it to happen.
Everyone you talk to is just a call center employee and not a banking professional, so each time I called I received a different answer. I will stick with my brick and mortar credit union where I live and keep the Ally account for something, not sure what good it is but maybe in the future they will get better.
My neighbors had a mortgage with them and I would have never known if this Ally company didn’t call me, which they had no business doing in the first place. As was mentioned above the lady that call me did have a thick Hispanic accent and didn’t seem to understand what I was saying to her. The point is that they called an unlisted number (Mine) of someone, who is a total stranger, just because I live a few houses down the street. They insisted my house is right next to their “customer,” so I should know them and be able to give them a message to call some toll free 800 number to get into contact with the company! When I asked her how she got my phone number, since it’s unlisted, she said they did a “grid search.” Why did they pick me??? I just moved there. Why on Earth would I go over to someone’s house to tell them a bill collector called? Come on people….If a company calls you and tells you they’ve “lost track of their customer,” but they tell you the person lives down the street, and that person they are looking for has been there before you moved in; it becomes quite obvious it’s a bill collector and the bill collector is playing games. I reported them to the BBB and it looks like it’s ok to look up private phone numbers to search for customers. This has to stop. There needs to be a law in the unethical manner Ally uses.
Hi Lee,
I have had that happen to me as well, getting a phone call for my neighbor’s debt. It’s embarrassing for the neighbor. Banks have been doing that for decades. When their debtor is avoiding phone calls, the bank can and does look up phone numbers for other homes in the neighborhood. They can also mail YOU to have your neighbor contact them. Just tell the bill collector to take your number off their list as you are not obligated to contact their debtor for them.
Just an added comment on my posting of January 15, 2014. Yes…..I finally got my interest check for my CD. It took over a month to get the correct amount and a check in the mail for the total interest. It took hours and hours on the phone: “Can I put you on hold for a few minutes while I check this out?”……was the routine that I experienced over and over and over and over and over with their various personnel who answered their phone number……and believe me…..you may get someone in Florida…..or Michigan…..or somewhere else when you call that 800 number. I will never do business with a bank that is not a bricks-and-mortar place again. I can walk into a local bank and take care of this transaction in 10 minutes! Now I anticipate setting aside days and days to get receive my actual principal when this cd matures!!!!! What a nightmare.
I’ve been an Ally customer for years and very happy with the service. HOWEVER. my last two transactions were totally messed up by them despite written instructions. I was told a supervisor would call within 2 days. That was 4 days ago . Another phone call and a on line chat has been a waste of time. On line chat said the supervisor should call back within an hour! . No one can find a supervisor, fix the problem or make the needed changes which were clearly written in a letter with the renewal and additional funding. No direct line for a supervisor, No voice mail, nothing but a run arround. Seems that their customer sevice has fallen by the wayside. PS was told to stay on the line for their customer survey and was then disconected. Seems they only survey those who
don’t experoience problems- Great way to get great ratings by disregarding the problems!
They must of changed call-centers.
I will never, ever, ever invest with Ally Bank again. I took out a 2 year CD and wanted the option of receiving a yearly check of my interest only. First they sent a check with the wrong amount. Then they promised to send another check with the correct amount. It took over 2 weeks to get it in the mail, and many, many, many phone calls. They said they would send it FedEx overnight…..a complete lie. I’ve spent literally hours with them on the phone, just trying to get my interest money. Forget investing with them. I am only thankful that I didn’t do a longer term CD.
Honesty, in my 1+ years of dealing with Ally for all my banking needs, I couldn’t be happier. I had one snafu that was my own fault, but beyond that, I’ve had zero issues. Their customer service is second to none and I really don’t understand all the negative reviews here. I feel like we’re using two totally different banks.
My advice? Give them a chance and see for yourself. I recommend Ally to my friends and those who have opened accounts have been very happy with their own experience as well.
Why so many negative reviews for Ally? I don’t see that many positive reviews for them. No bank is perfect and really only people who have negative experiences post reviews.
Misinformation from Ally customer service reps concerning a new product offering of Ally for IRA accounts cost me several thousand dollars. Time and again I was given start dates that turned out to be false. Deception or incompetence, I don’t know which. Ally is really a terrible bank. They hired a pretty good advertising agency but other then that, they are just terrible. My advice, go to a real bank.
Ally is the worst company ever with the absolute WORST customer service. Hands down. I refinanced at a lower rate, lower monthly payments and much better customer service with a credit union.
OK, so I don’t know what Ally bank is (I assume they are a part of a bigger financial scheme), but they are BY FAR the worst financial company I havere had misfortune to be a customer of. Because my credit sucked when I bought my sorry ass Nissan Altima in 2010, I was bounced to this bank of death called Ally. Their website failed on ne about 10 times in the past 3 years, which resulted in late fees and penalties. And it always say “we are continuing to work on Ally Services online website”, a lame-ass excuse of an online experience. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL! The dumbshitt that will be taking your phone call is in goddamn Philippines, clueless and without any ability to resolve anything, unless you ask for a “supervisor” (aka a himan in the continental US). I cannot wait to re-finance my auto loan, even evil Chase is light years ahead of stupid Ally, run by hillbillies, outsourced labour, corporate greed and preferred vendor kickbacks. Bitch, can u tell I am pissed? Hoe, I am.
A couple of things, Alex. Ally bank didn’t have anything to do with your loan- it was with ally financial. Ally bank- in the us, ally financial- call centers outside us. Also, no one forced you to sign a loan with them. You should always research before signing with a company. Lastly, they offer a few different ways to pay and they usually offer no processing fees for it being done by phone if you contact them.
Shannon, Ally Financial charges $15 to make payment by phone (seriously) The website to make payments is ALWAYS down. (read other complaint websites) Ally Financial was GMAC before. When we got out loan I trusted the GMAC name.
On other consumer complaint websites there are complaints about consumers who got a loan, drve away with car and were told later loan wasn’t approved and they had to accept another lender offer.
DO NOT TRUST ALLY FINANCIAL!
I suggest you file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Be very careful dealing with Ally. They are Awful.
My service with this bank was horrid. I was only trying to set up an account. Sensitive documents may or may not have been received, long waiting periods, and other problems plagued interactions.
Worse yet, I had to call for any information/updates, because ally did not try to contact me even once. When I asked, I was put on hold multiple times and given vague answers.
I am taking my business elsewhere and warning others about this “business.”
File a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
I was never late on my car loan with Ally but because of financial hardship I had to file bankruptcy. I reaffirmed the car loan with Ally Bank because I needed to have my car to go work, my loan again was never late or repo. Well, after bankruptcy Ally changed my Loan account number and changed their customer service too, treating me as a criminal and not even sending me a Statement to my home and blocking my access to the bank website so I was not even able to see my car pay off amounts!! I tried to speak to them and asked why that happened after a long waiting time to their “special bankruptcy line” and several rude cust serv reps told me that bankrupt cust are not important to them, because we decided not to pay the car loan and because of delinquency/bankruptcy credit history. Yep Ally Bank is AWFUL! HATE THEM NOW! Still don’t know how much is my pay off amount.
Suggestion for you: File a complaint with the consumer financial protection bureau! they give me multiple payoff amounts. you will never get the correct amount. have you been sent to the “loss mitigation work it out dept”?oh the will speak of a good deal but REFUSE to put anything in writing! “there are no guarantees” “you have to take my word” do a web search fpr other unhappy ally auto customers, its amazing how many negative complaints they have about Ally’s shady practices.
While I don’t have an Ally bank account, I’ve had unpleasant/non-helpful/fruitless dealings with them and their “fraud hotline”.
An Ally bank account was used to make unauthorized (illegal!) deposits and withdrawals from my own (non-Ally) bank account. I sat down with one of my bank’s representatives and we called Ally by speakerphone – the small lobby of my smalltown bank had a dozen or so customers there, and they could overhear the inept response and lack of any help/direction/cogent response from the person at the Ally Bank call center – we even asked for a supervisor. All we were able to get from any of them is that “our hands are tied”… which was pretty odd. They told us that they couldn’t put us in touch with anyone at Ally Bank that would be able to assist us or answer fraud-related questions for us. The representative from my bank felt that it represented very poor customer service – or very poor representation of the bank.
Later I called the Ally Bank Fraud Hotline/number, and they told me that they weren’t Ally Bank actually, just a 3rd party contractor hired to collect “Ethics” information and such. They seemed cagey, evasive and noncommittal, and I wasn’t going to give them any information of a personal nature.
We did go ahead and fill out the paperwork for fraudulent activity – my bank was very helpful with that. I plan to go ask the local police for clarity in what the law says – though since this is interstate – it is probably a state or federal crime, rather than local.
It seems someone had provided your account to Ally bank and Ally bank tried to verify with the account owner. Most financial institutes do this by making two small amount deposits and withdraw them immediately and ask the user what those amounts are. Only true account owners know the amounts(like ‘password’) to pass the verification. In your case, the one who input your account apparently could not pass the verification so Ally bank would not do further transactions to your account. It could be a fraudulent activity or unintentional mistake but it was not Ally bank’s fault. It had done its due diligence to protect your account.
STAY AWAY FROM ALLY BANK!
They stole $13,000 from me and are stonewalling all communications and lying to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about my case.
BEWARE – BEWARE – BEWARE – BEWARE – BEWARE – BEWARE – BEWARE – BEWARE – BEWARE – BEWARE
I’m curious at why you think they “stole 13k”…. Repo’d car, a check on hold, not returning money fast enough…. Lol. They can’t lie if you can show you gave it to them and then it is just gone (with no proof of the fuss reaching you). You need to file with the FDIC if they have- since they are FDIC insured just like every other major bank in the us.
THEY WILL LIE! i know its unbelieveable but ally is taking advantage of risky customers. look at this page and read the links to the articles.. m man paid off his trcuk, had the title and ally repo’ed his truck for ONE PENNY! and there are more and more stories like that. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ally-Autos-Unhappy-Customers/367933486670751?ref=hl
CHRIS how are they lying to the CFPB? im dealing with ally / repo and the CFPB. maybe i can help you???
there are so many people having the same issues with ALLY FINANCIAL (auto) Please check page out and read the articles. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ally-Autos-Unhappy-Customers/367933486670751?ref=hl
RECORD your phone calls with ally!!! remember they are recording you too. They told me “your first two payments dont count” thats why they added additional payments to our contract. my jaw dropped when they told me that, and yep- it was recorded!
I chose Ally because of the good interest rates and low fees and have been pleased with this. However, Ally scores a 0 for customer service. Ally has an ongoing problem with their online deposit system. Often the response to a deposit is that it cannot be processed but a reason is not given, but when attempting to make the deposit again, it says this cannot be done because the check has already been deposited. Often it is impossible to get the online deposit system to appropriately orient a check: turning it sideways and making it impossible to crop to comply with their standards. While it is random, I encounter these problems for about 25% of my deposits, with it sometimes taking an hour to deposit 4 checks. I have filed complaints, with the only response being, “Sorry for the inconvenience.” There is no attempt to determine the cause or to correct it. As this is unacceptable, I raised the issue of closing my CDs. The response is that even though they are not complying with their contractual obligation to be able to conveniently make online deposits, they will enforce the contractual obligation that I forfeit 60 days of interest.
I’ve used ALLY for about two years now. In general, I like them, but there are some serious problems with them as a bank that is causing me to look elsewhere.
1) Wire transfers – I recently bought a house, changed my address on the ALLY site, and then tried to do a wire transfer (time critical!) for the closing costs. Because I changed my address, I got flagged for fraud, and had to wait for that department to clear it before they’d do the transfer. Also, you can’t initiate a transfer online – you have to FAX them the paperwork. Seriously?
2) Deposits. Depositing money into Ally is a major PITA. My wife and I deposit into her Chase account, and then I transfer it over if I need to.
3) Did I mention Fraud? I travel – a lot. Every time I use my card out of state, I get flagged for Fraud. Every. Tme. They insist I could call them beforehand to notify them, but it means I’d be calling them every week. Not convenient. They also insist that it’s MasterCard that’s doing it, not them, which is BS, since MC is just implementing the rules Ally has requested – which are excessive.
I intend to switch, but I also intend to keep some funds in this account and use it for free ATM access – which is highly convenient.
Ally auto finance is the worst people to deal with. You are told one thing but, then they do another. No one there seems to be able to answer any question that you have. Whether it be a basic question or a difficult one they put you on hold for ever and ever. No one there seems to know what they are doing. I would rather pay double interest than ever deal with these people again. No one knows English it seems. GMAC mainly deals with them so, I will go back to Ford’s only. If you are considering Ally just pass them on bye.
I opened an account with Ally last week. Already after 1 week, they have lost my account. I tried to log in, but cannot. I called them, and after 30 minutes on hold, I was told they cannot find my account. I was told to call another number! Still trying to get my acct … I will withdraw the money asap! Thankfully I only opened it with $100.
My account was locked yesterday afternoon, to which I found this article where a lot of people were complaining about the fraud department… this had me a little jarred and worried after my calls went unanswered. Of course, it turns out the fraud department works out of Pennsylvania and I was calling pretty close to 5pm there. This morning, my call was returned by 10am. Turns out it was locked for a fair reason and the call barely lasted two minutes and my account was unlocked. The individual on the phone was VERY courteous.
I think all the headaches from the fraud department stem from this individual, Allison, listed in most of the posts. I dealt with Marina, whose last name I’m not even going to try to spell. I will agree that having it so that only one person can help you is ridiculous. However, I called customer support last night and they said if Marina didn’t return my phone call today, they could reassign the case to someone else in the fraud department.
So, while I think the fraud department could be a LOT better (you know, 24/7 for example), my experience with them was a great one.
Good ad agency, lousy bank.
Good ad agency, lousy bank.
I opened an account with Ally bank about two years ago. It was FANTASTIC for the first year. Customer service was great, there were a few hiccups, but nothing major.
At first Ally was just my allowance account. I would put the amount that I wanted to spend each month (not including bills) and deposit money on the first of each month. The interest checking made me change my mind about that and I started using it as my primary bank account.
I am in graduate school and work for my father. My employer/ father deposits my money in my account on a monthly basis. He lives in Nigeria, we are Nigerian. Apparently that is a HUGE problem for Ally bank. I understand that there are quite a few people in Nigeria who make a living stealing hard-working people’s money, but I am not one of them.
I noticed that my debit card would be turned off and my accounts frozen every time I made an online purchase (this did not happen in the first year). I called the bank calmly the first 4 times it happened and explained the situation, they were happy to help. The next few times it happened I was sent over to the fraud department. I was confused, why are they being rude and mean and unwilling to help a customer?
I offered to show them documentation of how much my father makes so they can understand that he worked for this money and it wasn’t some sort of money laundering scheme. I asked them to tell me what proof they needed so that this all could stop. I was told time and time again that there was no issue, and that no one was watching my account.
Fast forward 6 weeks and my identity gets stolen. I did all the research, called the bank with every bit of information I found, filed a police report. I called every company. I found out the guys name and address. I called the bank with this information and they thanked me. Two days later my account has been closed because they suspect I spent the money myself. The man bought over SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS worth of contact lenses (among other things). I have 20/20 vision. I feel they profiled me without even giving me a chance to defend myself. I felt like a criminal even though I did nothing wrong.
Don’t bank with them if you plan on keeping a balance over $3000 USD and Don’t bank with them if you know anyone outside of the United States of America.
File a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau! http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
Worst banking experience ever. I was told to research and ask for a refund in regards to fraudulent charges on my account. Deposits and transfers take weeks to process. Only 1 supervisor working at 9AM EST during primary business hours and would get to me in 24 hours. Wife tried to open an account after we were married and it took 4 months for them to get the account open. Would never have followed through if my accounts were not already open. Shopping for a new bank!
I first became a member in 2010 when I purchased my vehicle. I had to deal with them becuase they had my car title and I still owed on my vehicle. Well they kept making errors and I let them pass thinking they were little mistakes any one could make them. Okay so the year comes when I finally paid off my car. I was so excited to finally be done with them right…Well no!! I called them to make sure they knew my car was paid in full and to ask when I would receive my car title. No, they sent me a Lein release explaining that my car was paid in full and that they had LOST my car title. Well I called them to ask what happened where is my car title?? They put me on hold for 30min yes 30 min!! and finally came back saying we are sorry we sent the lien release letter explaining you paid your vehicle that should be enough to get another title. I was upset not only was I paying the car for 3 years and dealing with there ignorance. I waiting for the moment to finish paying it off so they could give me the title and officially say my car is mine. Well no that didn’t happen. I live in Oklahoma and Ok is not a title holding state so I have to go back to where my vehicle was registered last in which was Alabama. I have to pay to replace my car title and go through the process which takes 3-5 weeks just so they can review and another 5 weeks to mail and give to me. I don’t think Ally banking should be in business. I mean they can’t even keep track of a car title how hard is that.
me too! i paid almost 500 a month for over 6 years and they take my car, FILE A COMPLAINT with the Consumer financial protection bureau! http://www.consumerfinance.gov/.
They are taking advantage of risky customers. I’m serious FILE A COMPLAINT! he CFPB started investigation into ALLY back in March of this year. for “inflating sub prime auto loans” and other things.
I’m sorry to say that, after being a customer for over two years and singing Ally’s praises to groups of friends and on social media, I’m leaving Ally Bank within the next two weeks. I had great service when they first launched, but recently I was attempting to get a larger sum of money out of my account (because I needed to put a deposit down on an apartment). After picking numerous touch tone options and speaking to three people, I was moved to Phil, a supervisor.
He was awful. Absolutely awful.
I was clearly upset and stressed, but Phil showed about the level of empathy as a desk fan. Rather than trying to talk through different options, Phil chose to repeat the same terms and service information over and over again. At no point did he apologize for the inconvenience or explain why my limit could not be raised. He just kept being exceptionally rigid and condescending.
Look, I get that there are fraud protections in place for cash withdrawals. I do, and I appreciate the concern. Yet, for some reason when I called back and spoke with Katelyn the story was completely different. All of a sudden there were options. We could go through the fraud department, but we could also wire the money, figure out a debit arrangement, set up a transfer to another bank for certified checks, among others.
To make matters worse, Phil then did what I can only assume is an act to get me off the phone, claiming that reception had been lost. Funny how reception is lost when I had full 4G bars and could actually here my echo in the Ally phone system (I make calls from the same location all day, every day – never a problem). I then heard him announce that the connection must have been lost and that he was hanging up, which then lead to the last straw – he didn’t try to call me back.
If someone is upset and you lose a connection, the sign of great customer service is you calling someone back and not forcing them to go through the phone tree again. If Ally wants to treat me like a number, because they’re growing, then that’s fine, but don’t claim to be my “ally” and all about service.
To summarize, the product is great and you do get good rates (relatively), but when it counts, Ally is awful. You should use another bank.
Ally bank was great until I had a problem with a merchant who was only authorized to make a one-time, non-recurring fee as a draft and now they draft my checking account regularly every month regardless of the terms of service they disclosed. Ally Bank has been less than helpful in stopping this fraud and the fraud investigation unit personnel treated me as if I was the criminal over the phone. I have filled out an affadavit for each charge that was made after the first and only valid charge, I have sent a letter to Ally Bank revoking any authorization for this merchant to make drafts which included a copy of the letter I sent to the merchant stating the same revocation. I sent these certified mail. No response. I have filed FTC, IC3, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reports about this fraud. The charges come around the first of the month but since I have mailed the revocation a new charge of the same type has appeared only 2 weeks after the last one. I also included a printed copy of the merchant’s terms of service since the fraud investigator wasn’t capable of spending 2 minutes to go to their website and read it. The investigator obviously refuses to investigate my claim that I paid any charges I signed up for and that the charges I am disputing are above and beyond the terms stated by the merchant. It leaves me to wonder if they are involved with the fraud, maybe getting a kick back in return for not properly investigating fraudulent charges made by this company which has been purported to have scammed 2 million out of consumers already. Then I find out that Ally is in the current bailout package that is costing us 85 billion a month. Now I have to find out if they are using this fraud against me and reporting it to Chexsystems as if I am the wrongdoer. Nothing to do but close the account as they cannot be trusted to act in the customer’s best interest.
I have been an Ally customer for almost 2 years and don’t have any problem with them. I opened 3-4 CDs with Ally and electronically transferred money to my Ally account and park the money there to get higher interest rate on the money. I never have any problem with transferring money in/out or opening my CDs. I don’t use any other services (checking/loan/etc) from Ally so can’t comment on them. I also have positive experienced with their online help and phone rep. I’m not an employee of Ally nor getting pay for writing the comments.
I recently opened a checking card with Ally Bank and it is the worst banking experience I have ever had. I received a welcome packet on March 4th that Ally says they mailed on February 26th but have not received my debit card and checks that they claim they mailed one day after the welcome packet. If the debit card and checks were mailed one day after the welcome packet then I should have received the debit card and checks within a day or two of having received the welcome packet but I have not. Furthermore, I just received an email from Ally thanking me for sending them my signature card that I mailed to them on Tuesday , March 5th. It only takes two days for my mail to get to them and be processed so why is it taking so long for me to get my debit card and checks? Ally makes it easy to deposit funds but virtually impossible to withdraw funds. Ally told me if I was not satisfied with the time it is taking to get my debit card and checks then just close the account. WOW!
After reading some of these comments I have decided that it is much safer to do my banking with our local commercial banks here in town. I can walk into the bank building and speak with a Customer Service Rep. in person. Also, I only want to do business with 4 and 5 star rated banks, which is all we have here. The return of my money is much more important than the return on my money! So thank you to everyone who post their comments on this website. They have been very helpful to me in deciding that On-Line out of state banking is not for me.
I HATE this bank, period. Since I have an an Ally account, nothing but issues. I have closed all my accounts today and will be moving to back to Wells Fargo and Chase. I have learned to love banks that have a face to face option, and, that doesn’t hide behind its “policies”. If that means I have to pay fees then so be it. Its worth it to me to have something Ally is missing, CUSTOMER SERVICE. For those of you who love Ally and have had no problems, great. However, its only a matter of time.
When applying for an acct online they say it takes 3-5 business days after u get a reference number… I waited 5 (Feb 18 was.president’s day) still nothing… thanks ally. So while everyone was off on presidents day, there are too many soldiers that drudged on… when Ally was… well there ya have it
First of all I have had my car initially financed from GMAC and they switched to ALLY. Until recently within the last 2 years I was rarely late on a payment and then I lost job after job and ran out of deferment on payments. Needless to say I began to fall late. I never went more than 3 months past due and last night when I became 3.5 months past due they came and repossessed my car. I NEVER received any kind of notification. In fact the last letter I received from them in the mail was from back in August 2012! I also just made a payment on 12/4/12 of $344.18 (which included my car payment and late fees). I started calling ALLY this morning at 7am when they started taking calls and was on hold for 47.05 minutes and talked to a representative Erma and she was beyond RUDE! She had no empathy at all for my situation and I could barely understand anything she said with her heavy Indian accent. I asked to speak to her supervisor and she replied “he is going to tell you the same thing!” I said that I still would like to speak to her supervisor. So she transferred me to Vince the “assistant supervisor” and he wasn’t any help either, also with a heavy Indian accent!!! He wouldn’t let me talk and kept interrupting me. He said that the tow place hasn’t released the information yet and that he couldn’t do anything until then. I then asked if he could call the tow place and he rudely declined because they hadn’t received anything from them that stated that they had my car. So I insisted again and he said “I’m going to release the call now, I cannot help you” I pleaded with him to help me cause I FINALLY got a new job and it starts today. He said again “I am releasing the call” CLICK! I was soooo mad!!! I called the tow place and the lady Courtney was super nice and couldn’t understand why ALLY didn’t have the information yet. So after I got off the phone with her I proceeded to call ALLY back and was on hold for 1 hour 12 minutes and 37 seconds and talked to Donna. She was actually kind of nice! She got all my information and then called the tow company to confirm the information WITHOUT ME EVEN ASKING!!! I got the payment made via money gram (that customer care rep was super nice). I then called ALLY back and was on hold for 1 hour 8 minutes and 1 second and a representative John answered and took my reference number of the payment and called the tow place to advise them that I was paid in full and could pick up my car. I called the tow place again and they advised me that they do not release repossessed cars on Fridays and Mondays (probably because they want to charge for storage fees over the weekend) I calmly asked him what is preventing him from giving me a car that is legally mine? He said that he was in the Topeka office and would make an exception and drive to Olathe to release my car for me. How thoughtful of him! WHATEVER!!! It is now 3:27pm and I am finally home with my car that is PAID IN FULL!!! I can also supply phone records of NO attempt to contact me.
Just in case anyone was wondering what I had left to pay:
Past due: 1053.72
Late fee: 26.46
Repo fee: 350.00
Total: $1430.18
THIS HAS BEEN AN ABSOLUTE HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE AND I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND YOUR COMPANY TO ANYONE NOR WILL I EVER USE YOUR COMPANY AGAIN!!!!
Once again, someone ranting about Ally Financial for their car loan. This whole thread is about Ally BANK which has nothing to do with car loans. It’s an online bank and that’s it! I have had an Ally BANK account for a few years now. No issues with automatic payments to my mortgage comany. No problems with deposits or transfers. The interest rate is about .9% right now for the money market which stinks in general but it’s still way better than the .1% most local and internet banks are paying. Ally also offers e-check deposit. You can scan checks at home and deposit them electronically. No need to mail in with a deposit slip. It works great 95% of the time. Ally is not my main account but it is where I keep most of my cash since the interest rate is superior.
That’s true, Tsport. True in the sense that department of motor vehicles isn’t the same thing as City Hall or Cheerios golden oats and regular cheerios aren’t the same product. But Ally Bank, GMAC Financing and Ally Financial are all part of the same conglomerate. Ally Bank collects deposits and pays interest on them. Ally Financial and GMAC Financing use that wad of cash to make loans. They need both sides — deposits and loans — to be in business. So they are all part of the same business. The way they treat customers on one side is probably indicative of how they will treat them on the other. I have never been angrier about the way I was treated by a company than I was by Ally Financial, which is why I keep monitoring this board. You, on the other hand, I suspect are being paid to post about them. Not that there is anything wrong with that. PR people have to make a living, too.
Ally Bank and GMAC are two different entities.
One is where you bank – and they have been exceptional. Especially compared to places like BOA etc, who nickel and dimed me each year to the tune of about 400 dollars. With Ally Bank, I got money put in my account in terms of higher interest, and other features. In the two years I have been with them, they have been exemplary in their customer service, and services provided. And not a dollar was charged. So – in effect, I have been saving about 400 dollars each year since we dumped BOA for Ally. American call centers, and prompt call back for any calls. And a very fast and efficient online chat service – which is what I use to contact them mostly.
One of the best decisions we ever made. And I have no other connection to them – other than I spread the good word any chance I get. That’s how much I hate BOA and all rich traditional banks.
For the record, I finance my Chevy with GMAC (that relationship started about 4 years ago). And I have nothing bad to say about that either.
And Ward Cee – I can tell you that you might be a paid shill for the other big banks, BOA for example. If you can get one person from not joining Ally, you might be driving that one person to BOA right? You don’t even have to name the bank that is paying you to do this.
(See, two can play this game of personal insults. Learn to accept there are plenty of genuinely happy customers who bank with Ally.)
Saying that Allied Bank and GMAC are two different entities is completely true. But that doesn’t mean they are not connected. They are both part of Ally Financial.
Sorry that you took my suspicions about being a PR poster as an insult, Play. Let’s see if you are still drawing that salary. By the way, Ally’s new TV campaign about the worst thing that could happen cuts really close to reality. Love the advertising. Hate the company.
You are absolutely right, Ward. Regardless of the services provided, all the accounts-loans included- are associated with the same institution. (During the GM bailout of 2008, Ally bought out a small portion of the Treasury Dept.’s stake in GMAC and rebranded it under the name Ally Financial Inc.- as of last year, taxpayers still owned 74% of the company and it was the only bank to fail the Fed’s “stress test.”) Ironically, those who have dealt with Ally Financial would never open an account with Ally Bank- they pretty much screwed themselves on that one.
18 days ago I traded in my jeep to a dealership not affiliated with Jeep/Chrysler. Trying to get Ally to release the jeep plates to put on the new vehicle, close my account which they are now saying is in default, respond to repeated requests, faxes, phone calls by the dealership and me is like asking the mob to explain their money laundering. For anyone who doubts the insanity of doing business with them, check out the myriad of complaints handled by BBB-no surprise that Ally Financial is not accredited by them.
File a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau! http://www.consumerfinance.gov/
I have an online auto loan account. The online site to manage your loan information is SO CONFUSING….the first person I talked to at Ally Bank didn’t have a clue how to work it either! The second person that I talked to had such a thick accent, I had a terrible time understanding him and he wasn’t even very familiar with the English Language that he was unable to understand me. SO FRUSTRATING. There is NO WAY I would ever mail off money to this bank for a savings or checking account. It would be about as good to just throw your money in the waste basket!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/01/allyfinancial-cfpb-idUSL1N0BTM2N20130301
I have been trying to get my money transferred to another institution for two months. Ally has been very uncooperative and keeps insisting that the account number for the other institution is off. I got both institutions on the phone at the same time and to confirm all numbers were correct and they still failed to complete the transfer, again stating the account number was wrong. I also requested that my CD be transferred to my checking account when the 2 years were up. They did not do as instructed and now insist if I take my money out i will have to pay hundreds in “early withdrawal” penalties. I have spent at least 9 hours on the phone over these issues and still can’t get them to give me my money. I am reporting them to the Utah Department of Financial Institutions.
I have been an Ally customer for a few years now. I dont have any complaints. Their rates are alway sin teh top tier nationwide, 24/7 phone support, ach, popmoney. I am very satisfied
I have had issues opening accounts. I opened two savings accounts and two custodial accounts. The agent closed one of the savings accounts to which funding was going to be made, so now my initial deposit is stuck in ACH land. After opening the custodial accounts, one was mysteriously closed. They seem to have trouble opening accounts. It is frustrating because the reps on the phone seem to have no authority to do anything and send “requests to another department” who is responsible for doing anything to the account. Although Ally tells you the wait time to speak to a representative, they fail to tell you that the representative is not able to do anything for you. I now tried to fund the accounts. Just be aware that nothing is as easy as it sounds.
Ally has the most annoying website I’ve ever used. After almost completing the online application, they asked for a “secret question.” I entered, “What is your father’s middle name.” A red triangle stated that was not an acceptable question, but their right hand column menu about creating such questions gave me no help. This gets better! I then called the 800 number, and was told that there would be a six minute wait for an associate to speak with me; a minute later the same robo-voice told me the wait would be 10 MINUTES. I said goodbye, and bade goodbye to Ally. Bad enough that a “high yield” one year CD pays less than 1%, but should they be so cavalier with someone with a beginning 24K to invest?
I just opened a new CD account and was presented with the same “secret question” issue after entering “What was your first dog’s name?” So I started a chat session and was promptly connected with a representative who told me that the problem is punctuation — I changed the “secret question” to “What was the name of your first dog” — no apostrophe or question mark. Works fine! But after setting up the account, I tried to add a beneficiary — clicking on the “add beneficiary” button does nothing. Oh well, the transfer won’t happen ’til next week and I have no plans of dying before then, so it can wait a few days 😉
Run away FAST!! Customer service is AWFUL. The way they treat customers should be a crime.
Actually Laederjakke your story is the perfect metaphor. Like the seashell, a certain financial company makes a lot of fantastic promises. And like the crab, the reality of its complete lack of regard — and possibly even hostility — towards others ends up biting you. In my case it was the wallet instead of the ear but painful nonetheless.
Hope your daughter jumps back in the water. I will never jump back in with this bank.
@Britt28 wish I had read this before. Ally bank really sucks when it comes to opening an account. It goes into a black hole. After 5 calls and 3 faxes, still waiting. I am going else where. Please don’t fall for them…
I found that Ally had the best rate at the time for a high interest savings account. After submitting an application, I was contacted a week later that they were in need of a copy of my license. I faxed it over and about a week later was contacted that it was illegible and needed to be faxed again. I enlarged the license even more and tried again, and received yet another call that it was illegible. This happened once more, and this time I requested a mailing address as this seemed a bit ridiculous as I had made the license as clear as possible. I attempted to fax it a fourth time and spoke with a representative who stated it did come through clear this time. I waited a week and received another call that I needed to fax over the license of the secondary on the account. I asked why this was never explained two months ago when this all began. They just apologized, but explained that it was necessary.
I decided that with all the red flags and getting nowhere with my application, I should look elsewhere. A couple days ago I received a letter from Ally stating that since they attempted multiple times to contact me for documentation they would decline my application. Ha!
This lack of customer service and better business practice has guaranteed that I will not be giving a dime to Ally bank, and I caution others to avoid this headache.
Hello,
Did want to write about GMAC Bank (now ally bank).
They are NOT a good place to bank – from my personal experience.
For a couple of years, they charged, and then refunded some money under the heading of ‘backup witholding’.
Finally I asked why is it you charge me, only to refund it back – after a protracted series of email requests and phone calls – it surfaced that since I was not a US citizen (yes have a green card) – their software does it and at this time my only recourse is to claim it back on my tax returns with the IRS/govt. That day I did leave them and happy to do so – no other bank has since charged me that ‘fee’ of backup witholding – and no – I did not take a refund from the IRS/govt – I can afford to let that pass!
Thank you
Spent 2 weeks setting up account, sending in signature cards, etc. After my employer direct deposited my first check ally closed down our account claiming we had “business activity” because of the direct deposit! Then the lady Nicole in the fraud department was absolutely rude to us and treated us terribly. She wouldn’t listen, continued to talk over us, etc. These people are insane! Avoid at ALL costs! Ally bank is terrible!
What happened to the money from the direct deposit? Did you get it back from Ally? Also did you ask them to define ‘business activity’? I’ve never heard of a bank closing an account because an employer is paying by direct deposit.
I found the fraud unit to be quite rude and hostile as well.
Ally still makes excuses why they don’t have features they promised – just teasers, while not delivering anything. On top of that I just had an experience where their loss prevention/ fraud department gave me a major attitude with the “I don’t care” attitude about them taking my money hostage. They froze my account without any warning. I lost access to my bank account, bills weren’t getting paid, couldn’t access to set up bills, couldn’t get cash out from ATM, etc. all b/c I had called in the general customer service dept raising my concerns about the billpay not working correctly (payee information was being altered without me doing it – such as payee address and acct number – which resulted in some of my bills not getting paid. Was able to find multiple case of similar glitches once I started investigating). The general customer service dept’s hands were tied as they also didn’t know what was going on and couldn’t get access to my account. Turns out that the fraud department started looking into the issues I reported, froze my account without notice, and left for the weekend as their FRAUD department only works 8am~5pm ET. I was left without access to my account all weekend without notice. Again, no bill pay, no access, no ATM use. When I finally got a human being from the fraud department on the phone on Monday, the gal who was handling the case took a tone with me (defensive). So I asked to speak with the supervisor – who all he did was try to get rid of me and totally had the “I don’t really care” attitude while giving me excuses. No sincerity for what they put me through what so ever. The general service department was clearly trained much better to be professional and be polite and apologetic when they couldn’t help. However the fraud department was unprofessional, insincere, and just a 8-to5?er who didn’t care.
I am leaving Ally not only because they promised features they can’t deliver but because of the billpay issues I’ve experienced, along with the most terrible customer service I received from the fraud department. They took my account hostage without notice and they didn’t even apologize, just saying “that’s our process” – what a cop out to blame the “process”. I’ve spoken to other friends who recently also joined Ally. They told me their nightmare stories and we’re all leaving. I can’t stay with a bank I cannot trust. No way I can trust my money with this bank – I’m just so shocked they get away with this. They spend all their money on advertising and promising features they don’t have. Now I learned that their “process” is messed up and they don’t have respect for their customer and their money. I baffled they can get away with this.
Luna you are very incorrect. I used to work for the bank and have never lived outside of the us. all help centers for the bank are in the us, with one in Canada. on top of that the banks physical office is in fort Washington Pennsylvania. if you sent an email using the site while not logged into your account- that is unsecured as you are not authenticated. imagine if someone that was not you used the general email from the main page and said they were you– would you be happy if they gave them your log in info? if your account is frauded, then it can take a few business days bc they need to research whatever triggered it and also contact you. this is probably going to be delayed due to the hurricane an power and staffing issues and them concentrating on the people affected. before you make slanderous accusations- you should do research
Ally Auto has call centers outsourced in the Philippines. Ally Bank is in the U.S., and has call centers in the USA.
Take your money OUT.
This bank is SCAM.
They do not have physical address, they have customer service in INDIA they won’t do nothing for you they just fill requests.
Here is my problem: Ally locked my account because I change my address, so I they gave me a couple numbers to call. They asked me to call the Allison Urquhrit Loss Prevention department. Can you believe that?
This person after numerous calls I will say 15, NEVER CALL ME BACK.
Sent an email to Ally bank from their website and this is what I got back:
Thank you for taking the time to contact Ally Bank.
We are unable to answer any account information or process requests via this unsecured email channel because we really want to protect your identity and account information. Please give our Contact Center a call. We will be happy to assist you with this issue.
If you have any additional questions, we are here for you 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Our toll free number is 1-877-247-2559 (1-877-247-ALLY) or you can always visit us online at http://www.ally.com.
Have you read that? “Unsecure email channel”
Now after 2 weeks I don’t have access to my account, and the only person who can unlock or close my account is Allison xxx nobody can do anything for you.
TAKE YOUR MONEY OUT AND RUNNNNN!!!!!!!
I switched to Ally from Wells Fargo since they claimed the were not going to scam me or rob me of my own money. Last month I overdrew on my account by $8.00. I was in the negative and literally had no money to my name. I was in a really bad place and was unable to pay my bills. Within a week, I finally received and deposited a check for over $4000. I received notice that Ally will not allow me to access my deposit for over 7 business days saying I have overdrawn on my account repeatedly. This is infuriating. This is a lie. I have overdrawn ONCE! it has been over a week since my deposit and I am STILL unable to access my money- MY money. I have called Customer Service and have been informed it is out of their control and it was the “computers” doing. Yes, they were serious. Customer service actually blames the computers. I am now late on my rent, electric bill, car insurance, and school tuition. After I get access to my money I am closing the account and never looking back. Thanks for nothing.
I needed to have verification of my CDs in this bank for approval of my new mortgage. We followed their instructions – have mortgage lender send in a fax and they would return the verification. This was on Friday, Sept 14. Now we are waiting. It’s been a week and there’s absolutely no news. We called and called, and was told there is nothing they could do/nor get in touch to find out when it will be done. So be careful before you invest with this bank because of bad banking employees who do not care. Shame shame Ally Bank.
I’m sorry to see your bad experience with Ally. Both my husband and I have had separate accounts (online savings and CDs) with them for quite a while and have had no issues. I called them a few times and was very satisfied with their responses each time.
We also had morgage processed in August with a local bank and they took the online statements as the proof. Could you try that with your mortgate provider? We were never asked any direct bank verification. Of course, each lender handles differently.
When ever there are negative comments (more than 1) means the Bank/organization should look into it. Ever hear of the saying – “An unhappy customer will tell 10 others” If one wants to try and keep their good standing with the public whether the customer is right or wrong – they should at least try to work it out somehow. It does not mean let the customer take advantage, but it is a repution the gets around. After reading these blogs, I also am going to keep looking. I have been a member of 4 different banks in my lifetime and I have never had 1 complaint about any of them. I have been a merchandiser and sales rep for about 20 years.
Out of all my experiences dealing with banks and financial services, I can tell you that Ally bank is by far the worst experience I’ve ever had. Do NOT be deceived by their seemingly high interest rates and clever marketing of putting customers first. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is further from the truth. I opened a savings and checking account with them, and because of the high interest rate, I recommended my wife and dad to do the same. A week later, my dad’s account was locked without any notification. When my dad called, the customer service rep refused to tell him why they locked the account, and referred him to a “fraud” specialist. The problem is, the “fraud” specialist could never be reached nor would this person return his voicemails. A few days later, both my account and my wife’s accounts get locked – again, without notification or warning of any kind. To make matters worse, I made the mistake of already putting in my hard-earned savings – over 10K worth – into the Ally account. Now these money robbing “allies” basically locked out my money, all WITHOUT telling me why. Again I called, and after waiting on the phone forever, was given the same run around as my dad – nobody can tell me why the account is locked, I need to talk to the fraud department, and of course, nobody from the department is available. Left a voicemail and..surprise surprise, no callbacks. I’m still trying to reach them so I can get my money back!
Keep in mind we’re just a regular hard working family with absolutely no credit problems or criminal backgrounds. I have investment relationship or accounts with most major banks, both physical and online, and was never treated this way. I mean there were bouts of bad service, but nobody has ever denied me money that’s literally mine. I’ve never felt so abused by a company in my lifetime. Do you know any other bank that will lock your account and freeze all your assets WITHOUT telling you? I feel like I’m some sort of a drug dealer, and the FBI is cracking down on me. It’s one of the worst feelings ever. To top of all off, the customer service representatives on the phone were incredibly rude, and they like to transfer your call without telling you that they’re doing so. Literally, they told me “I’m going to put you on hold,” and the next second, I’m getting “you have reached the loss prevention unit, please leave a message.” Absolutely infuriating when you’re trying to recover money that’s yours in the first place! “Loss prevention unit,” why does a bank need this when I’m the one who’s putting in the money while they’re holding it hostage? And I need to convince them I’m not some sort of the criminal so I can get the money out!!?
Again, do not ever, ever bank with this company. Don’t be like me, do some searches online first and read all the complaints. A bank like this deserves to go under.
As a past employee and someone who has accounts at many banks, I just want to say a couple of things. First off, what is happening means something threatened the security of your account so it has been locked. This could mean that someone called in trying to access your account information and incorrectly answered security questions. It could also be that an attempt to remove funds by someone that is not you happened electronically. There are many reasons this can happen and it is to protect you. Secondly, many banks have protocol like this and the reason for the wait is that they have to gather information related to the incident before speaking to you to verify your identity and make sure your money is secure. I’m sorry that this was a bad experience for you, but instead of seeing it as them thinking you’re a bad person, think of it as them making sure you are not going to have your money stolen by a bad person. And hey, you’re earning interest 🙂
Thanks Rachel for explaining the security freeze situation. It is inconvenient for the customer but it is the right thing to do to protect accounts. I certainly hope that you are right.
It’s so hard to know which of you is being paid for your comments: the initial negative comment (seems a little over the top) or the 2 fluffy ones that followed.
To the latter two comments, the fact that the accounts were locked was not the issue. It was the lack of response by the “fraud department” that appeared to be the issue. You responded like employees of Ally which makes me more likely to believe the original negative post.
I am on here looking for an online alternative to my current local bank. While Ally looks good on paper, the multitude of SPECIFIC negative comments and the EXTREMELY FLUFFY positive comments leave me skeptical at best. Ally people, if you are reading this STOP POSTING FAKE POSITIVE COMMENTS AND JUST DEAL WITH YOUR ISSUES!
I am terribly disappointed with Ally Financial. I have a car loan through Ally Auto and wanted to sell and get the lein released from the title. Well to make a long story short, there are no centers around and you have to mail a certified check to Ally, they then take 2-3 business days after they deposit the check to start processing the paperwork, then it takes 3-4 days to get to you. The whole time I am being asked for my SS# when I try to inquire about when I can give my prospective buyer a clear title. Forget the customer service call center, they barely speak English! Terribly disappointed- someone needs to get control of this, it is a train wreck waiting to happen. My guess is they will be out of business within the year. So much for banking without a satellite office for the customer’s convenience.
Ally is an excellent bargain offering great rates on savings and cds, refunding ATM fees, and allowing overdrafts to be withdrawn from other accounts with no overdraft charges. Customer support when technical problems exist is non-existent, however. When I opened my account, I was able to fund a new cd from my savings account online. For whatever reason, this system quit working at Ally for my account. I am still able to do so for my wife’s account. So, it is a problem with Ally and not how I am attempting to do it. I tried to resolve this issue for a year and finally gave up and quit opening up cds in my account. A month ago I began having problems making online deposits (scanning checks using Ally’s eDeposit). When I attempt to do so, I began the process in which I tell it I want to make a deposit and to which account and hit “continue.” After that, I get a screen in which a gray line makes a circle until the system times out. For a month and after 4 phone calls, I have tried to resolve this. Each time I speak with a customer service representative, I am promised I will get a call (sometimes told in the same day but no later than 2 working days) from technical support. I have yet to speak to anyone in technical support, and the customer service representative says only a technical support person will be able to help. So, I now have a checking account in which I have no way to make a deposit except through the postal service. That is unacceptable. I am posting here because Ally has no way of submitting feedback online to them and the customer service representatives simply apologize and promise I will get a call from technical support. It may be time to close my account since I cannot make convenient deposits.
Worst banking experience EVER! Deposited $12,000 IN-STATE personal check from my parents. ALLY has put a 12 day hold on the funds even though the money has already cleared. Customer Service is useless and would only say…they can not help me and thanks for banking with ALLY. This 12 day hold will cause the $10,000 deposit on a house I’m buying to bounce in which ALLY will charge me a fee!! These people are NOT your ALLY! Had I known they were GMAC I would have known better than to do business with them in the first place. All this on top on deposits by mail taking 14-21 days to clear!
When my wife first lost her job last year we paid the “minimum due” for the account. We were told by an Ally auto financial representative that if we made the minimum due payment that there would be no abnormal postings to my credit score and we made 3 such consecutive payments. I am in the process of buying a new home and I was contacted by my financial adviser who told me that my Perfect 720 credit score has dropped to s 648 due to 3 “late payments”. I contacted Ally a total of 6 times receiving a run around from foreigners I could scarcely understand just to be told that there was nothing that could be done. These fraudulent charges to my credit have resulted in my projected mortgage total increase of 8000$ over the life of the loan.
Sorry to hear about your situation. The minimum due would have been your monthly payments listed on your statements. If you paid that and have the proof, then I would speak to a lawyer. Keep in mind that a perfect credit score is actually 850 and that 650-750 is an average score. At my worst debt I had 710. Also this page is for Ally bank, who has nothing to do with your loan. So good luck out there.
I recently opened an acct with this bank. They told me my initial deposit is not available until 10 business days. I said I needed my money to live on and they said that it was their policy and it was stated on page 35 of the pdf file of acct information. you can go to facebook and like the page I Hate ALLY BANK
Applied for a Joint Checking Account Sunday 7/8/12. Called in for an update 7/10/12. I didn’t get an email or phone call, but they wanted me to send in my fiance’s driver’s license to verify address. I asked the representative if he can see on file/notes if anyone has contacted me regarding this, he said no…I asked him how would I know I needed to send it in, he said someone would eventually call me. So someone acknowledged that I needed to send something in, but YET did not call me to ask me or my fiance about this (not even an email mind you). I tried to brush that off and send in my fiance’s driver’s license asap.
I called back Thursday 7/12/12 for an update, and nothing. They’re telling me another department reviews it and hasn’t gotten to my account yet. At this point we are approaching 4 business days….They say 3-5 business days, so I figured I should wait till next week. Wednesday 7/18/12 rolls around (now 8 business days later). I was thinking weird no one has contacted me yet…I checked my email nothing either. So I call for an update and now they’re telling me it’s 3-5 business days from last Thursday. Why is it from Last Thursday? So we’re on day 4… (technically 8th business day). So tomorrow should be day 5…If I don’t hear from them tomorrow I will cancel my application….
The representative was a bit argumentative with me because I asked “why” questions in which she said it’s another department and not her fault. You represent the company and it is your fault…If your process sucks, apologize and own up to it. If I have no way to contact the other department directly then it is indeed your fault.
Actually as I am writing this I am thinking I should cancel to go with another bank. If its headaches like this upfront imagine later on……………….oh boy………
This is a terrible “bank.” I transferred an IRA. lured by the “higher interest.” The “bank” lost the paper work three times and each time said it was my fault or the fault of the transferring bank. While I “transferred’ the IRA, Ally said it would call it a rollover which has tax consequences. Repeated calls and emails to Ally resulted in multiple “we are sorry ‘YOU’ are having a problem. The “bank” has no customer service. The “bank” has no one with any authority to correct “ITS” problems. The moment my IRA matures (because if I pull it now, I will lose principal) I will be out of Ally at the earliest possible opportunity. I guess you get what you pay for and here, it is a total flop on customer service and what seems to be an inability to coordinate its own activities.
One of the worst banking experiences I have ever had. The customer service stinks. The people who answer the phone can not deal with any issue. I transferred an IRA CD and the transferring bank has sent documents twice as have I because Ally said it did not receive them (despite the transferring bank sending the second set by UPS) and I sent two sets of documents. The latest missive from the bank was documents had to be sent again. I specifically asked the bank to send me the exact documents it needed and I was told to go online to get them. I asked again that they be sent to my email because there is an obvious disconnect. I was promised them in two hours two days ago. I asked for an email to send the documents to if I ever receive them and I was told everything had to be mailed…even though the document repeatedly mailed have been lost. Maybe they promise higher rates but it is at the loss of customer service….of worse, its a nigysob moment for them.
Just paid off my vehicle, and to be honest, I couldn’t be happier to get this bank out of my life. There is always some sort of error with their website and contacting customer srevice is a total nightmare. The customer service is horrific…you have to talk to 10 different people (just for simple inquiries), often their computers are “down” and it is obviously outsourced to another country as no one speaks English. Just awful.
Even though they share the domain Ally.com; Ally Bank and Ally Auto are two different divisions of Ally Financial both with their own systems and customer service. All of Ally Bank’s customer service centres are located in North America, (4 in the US and one in Canada).
Wow, discussions about money matters sure do stoke up the emotions. I have been an Ally/GMAC banking customer since 2006 when I switched from ING. I can’t comment on Ally’s services for home mortgages, trust accounts, or other more complicated products – my experience with them is strictly in certificates of deposit and online savings. Overall I have been satisfied.
*Pros*
-Very competitive interest rates on CDs and savings. 5x-10x higher than a brick and mortar bank.
-Less crummy fees than most banks.
-Have called customer server a dozen or so times to reconfigure accounts. They’ve been friendly and helpful.
-Website is clean and easy to use for basic functions (transfers in/out, new accounts)
*Cons*
-Good lord this bank sends me a lot of paper in the mail! If I stacked it all up in a typical year, it would probably be a foot tall.
Good luck getting a lein release sent quickly by mail. I sold my vehicle and was told it would be 10 days for processing and (originally) 3-5 days by mail. After 17 days(yes 17 days) I called. I was informed that it actually takes 7-10 days by mail. Today, after 22 days, I’m still waiting and the individual who purchased my vehicle is getting anxious. WORD TO THE WISE: IF AT ALL POSSIBLE HAVE IT FAXED INSTEAD OF MAIL!!!!
I have been an Ally customer since 2010 when my husband and I opened an online savings account with them. One of the things I actually liked about the account was that it was harder to get my money out of my account compared to our Chase and USAA savings accounts because we use our Ally account as a long term savings account. We don’t normally take money out of there except for planned purchases so the 2 business day rule really isn’t a big deal to us, in all honesty it’s been beneficial so we don’t haphazardly spend the money in that account without having to convert to a longer term CD. Any time I’ve ever called Ally, I’ve been connected in under two minutes without having to go through the automated stuff first and they have always helped me with no issues. I am really surprised to see all of the negative reviews because we have had a wonderful experience and are looking to open more accounts with them in the future. And just to get this out of the way- I am not being asked/paid to give a review by anyone. 🙂
If you read the negative reviews carefully, people have problems with Ally when there is a slight misunderstanding. Everything was perfect in my case too (See my review), until one day I woke up and didn’t have access to my money. Ally froze both checking and savings accounts, I had to go through their ‘security department’ review and then wait for 2 weeks until they finally return all my money (about $25 K) via ACH transfer to my Bank of America account. And to get the money I had to actually file a complaint with OCC.
Alex
We had the experience of doing business with them. It’s been over a year since I got rid of them but the resentment at the way I was treated still lingers. In my opinion this company is incompetent at best and whatever you call incompetence when it is consistently in the offending party’s financial interest at worst.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
About the bbb – a company can pay for it’s rating. So it is nice to know that a company doesn’t. Also you should look up the complaints of other banks on that site. for example BofA has had 5614 complaints that were resolved (so this does not count the remaining open complaints) in the last 12 months. Also only 256 of 1285 Locations are BBB Accredited for BofA. The bbb is not what it used to be. If you have enough money you can buy anything.
Also GMAC is not general motors. It’s frustrating to see the assumptions people make and see them spread like wild fire. I have had a hangup with this bank a couple of times in the 3 years i have banked with them. But guess what? It’s an online bank and that means things dont work the same way as a bank I can walk into and get things done immediately.
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.
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.
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.
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. .
I am thinking to open an Ally account. I am especially concerned about the fees since I was burned
several times by those big banks. Quite a few people complained about “fees” assessed by Ally,
but none mentioned specifically what kinds of fees were they. This makes me wonder how genuine
these complaints are and what are the motivations of these people.
I can transfer my money into my Ally Account in a matter of minutes. When I want to get it out, “well that’ll be a few business days” or you can send them a form by fax for a wire transfer but I tried that twice and they just say we never received it. I ask if I can email it to someone and they say we can’t give out our email addresses it has to be faxed. I ask how can I get confirmation it was received and they say “call us after a few hours and we’ll check to see if we got it”. Guess what! I call and “Please hold” “please hold” “please hold” and an hour later “no we can’t find it” STAY AWAY!!!
Transfered my money out of ING in a matter of minutes
My husband has been dealing with Ally for his car loan for the last few years, and I would swear that they’re deliberately trying to make us pay late fees every month now that he’s near the end of his loan. Every month he has to call in an fight with them for an hour just to get a payment made; every month he tells them he wants this to come out automatically, the same day every month; and every single time the payment doesn’t come out as scheduled. We’ve decided to pay the minimum on our other debts so that we can save up and pay off his car in one go just to avoid dealing with this company. They’re crooks and have the worst customer service of any company I’ve ever seen in my life.
I don’t care about their CD’s, Bank accounts or other options. I stand by the fact that auto loan department sucks, they ruined my credit by losing my routing number, then reported me 60 days late on Experion even though it was their fault. They kept the late fee’s and their outsourced customer service is lame and they suck!
I have just recently opened (2) CD’s with Ally and it was a very good experience. The customer service rep that I talked with on the phone was professional and she made sure she was talking with me by checking all my security questions. I was leary of Ally at first thinking how can a bank have such high interest rates while every other bank’s rates aren’t even in the same universe. I’ve already accrued more interst in 2 weeks then all of last year with another bank. I will most likely open a savings account with them soon.
Ally Bank is by far the worst banking experience in my life. Ally’s fraud department unleashes a torrent of early morning calls from untrained, unprofessional thugs who are supposed to be checking unusual transactions. Instead, they come across much more like a boiler room of con artists turned bill collectors. The fraud department that is calling clients all day is neither trained in customer service, nor security. Besides the most abusive language that I’ve ever heard from a bank, they gave out my checking balance to a caller without checking the identity, and then closed my account based on a phone call also without checking identity. I could not believe that it was a bank that I was dealing with. Ally’s fraud department caused me to feel that not only was my money threatened, but my life as well. Truly dysfunctional at best and perhaps one of the worst operated companies in the world.
Wow! SO surprised to see some of the negative comments about Ally on here. I assume as in most cases in life that some people WILL come across a negative experience. This however has NOT been the case with my own personal experiences in dealing with Ally Bank as a “new” customer for the past 90+ days.
I chose to open a free online savings – no minimum balance savings acct with Ally after doing a simple Google search for “best free online banks” which narrowed my search down to finding an online bank that would NOT require a significant initial deposit. As a matter of fact, I opened my acct with no reqd deposit. I chose to apply for the acct online but since have had the majority of my communication w/Ally via phone. (@Jay if you visit the Ally.com websitte they show several contact numbers for them. I believe the call center is in Oregon but the two addresses I have for them are 1 in Philadelphia, PA and one in Horsham, PA)
I cannot HONESTLY more avidly express my personal recomendation for this bank and their high level of customer support personnel. I am NOT an employee of ANY bank or ad service…simply a disabled single mom who is slowly trying to regain my “footing” financially after waiting 6+ years for my social security to finally be approved.
They are JUST offering some new feature which enables you to access your funds – honestly I can’t recall the name…but it would allow me to transfer funds via e-mail believe it or not, which would have gotten my funds to a friend who needed some help about 2 days faster than an acct transfer. I wish I had fast access to the new info maybe David will post about that service for you all to read.
Sorry to ramble on, I was curious to read the Ally review and wanted to share my personal experience. I’m so glad that DAVID(moneyning) shared my enthusiasm.
CD Scranton. May I ask why you were on this site. You aren’t looking for a bank, you are already, a customer. So, what was your intention. Please help us understand, so that we won’t right you off as a plant. If you are for real, convince us please!!!
Charlie, CD Scranton is here probably for the same reason I came here. I came across this site quite by accident, and saw this barrage of criticisms, some of them valid, but a lot of them fairly baseless.
I decided to add my experience with Ally which has been positive so far – about 3 years now. It is like an automatic raise of about 600 dollars – that’s how much BOA used to charge me to give them my money. Really.
Ally gives me money to bank with them instead. So far – it’s been a no-brainer.
I signed up for automatic payments and they took one out when due and took another one 2 days later. They informed me that they would not be able to send a check for 10 days. Go figure !!! It came out so easy but I wont get it back for awhile.Its Christmas time and I really needed the money, but they would not help at all. Plus I got an overdraft fee from my bank. They were kind enough to wave that, being I never go over what I have in my checking account. As soon as the hoildays are over I,ll be finding a new bank, and dont recommend Ally to anyone. And come to find out, I wasnt even talking to anyone in this country.
Has anyone got a USA contact number or email for ally in the auto financing dept, I have been directed to India for hours on end with false promises for the last three months getting nowhere. the only way i can see at the moment to get their attention is to suspend my auto payments Any help would be very appreaceated
My husband and I opened a CD with ALLY which matures 10/19/11. I called 3 days ago to see how I can add to it at maturity and no one seems to be able to locate my CD. It has been turned over to the fraud department, but no one will tell me why. Has anyone ever heard of this happening? I’m worried sick.
Hello
What happened with your CD account. I am currently experiencing the same problem.
Amy
This blog used to be run by Ally Bank but it is now under the care of a person named David Ning (really?). I don’t think it will be up much longer, because of all the negative postings. Ally Bank lied to me consistently for over a year about the introduction of an IRA product that was of interest to me. The cost to me for this string of bs was between $4K and $5K. Better banks and better deals can be found using bankrate.com. Ally has cute commercials but they’re not worth your business.
Just to set the record straight, MoneyNing.com was founded and ran by me (David Ning) since 2007, long before Ally even became an online bank. The company was also never involved with the operations of this site.
Thank you David, I stand corrected. I will assume that you are not an employee of Ally or any of it’s associated companies unless I hear back from you to the contrary. If you are not employed by Ally, please let me know what the objective of your blog is because I am really interested. You can tell by my posts that I was very angry about Ally continually giving me schedule information and then changing it only to change it again and again. Anyhow, thanks for your reply and correction.
I am fortunate enough to run my own business so I’m not an employee of Ally or any financial institution.
I started MoneyNing out of curiosity of running a blog and a passion about strengthening my personal finances, but the site has grown to what it is today. If you poke around a bit, you’ll see that the site hosts a ton of articles discussing a wide range of topics on money matters and some of these reviews are just a small part of my site.
I’m sorry to hear about your bad experience with Ally but on the other side of the coin, I’ve been a customer of theirs since they started the offering and had no problems. Thanks for sharing though since the aggregate of your dealings with the bank in addition to my own is what will help other people get a truer picture so they can make their own decision on whether to sign up.
First of all how do I know you don’t work for Wells Fargo or for another competitor to Ally. If you google bank reviews (negative or positive) you are taken to many different blogs. I didn’t see this blog was only limited to negative comments
Everyone Listen carefully. You cannot rely on anything posted on this site. Anyone that visits this site can leave a comment without authentication or authorization of the individual. I can post comments right after one another with a different name and you would not even know. With that, how can one trust a site like this. I sent a message to the administrator of the site but they didn’t get it.
You will never know the true identity of the person behind a message, weather positive or negative. A better place to find out information about Ally is the BBB. Also, if you are skeptical, try opening an account with limited funds and use the services for a few months and see how they perform for you.
Perform due diligence by using known methods of checking companies out, not by using this site.
Regards,
RJ
Yeah, blimey dude! Ally Schmallie . . .I have a tendency to believe that a lot of these comments are accurate but just proving your point that I can post multiple comments under multiple names.
No offense GG, but your post sounds like a commercial for Ally to me. There’s even a nice bone about ING being good for balanced credibility, and then the ding that they are being bought out. If you are reading these reviews with an interest in banking with Ally, I recommend going beyond this review to see what other (real) customers experienced.
I’ve used internet banks for a very long time – first Netbank, then ING (still use it as a backup) and in the last 6 mos or so Ally. I also have experience with several traditional banks.
No bank is perfect. Many years ago Standard Federal “accidentally” withdrew $6,000 from my savings – which I didn’t catch until a few months later, since this was a “rainy day” semi-dormant account – and instead of apologizing, they blamed me for not checking my statements every month. It all came down to a rather suspicious explanation of “teller error”. And to add insult to injury, they didn’t make up the difference in acquired interest until I called the district managers’ office. But NetBank was by far the worst, at the end.
ING is a great bank, never had an issue with them, but they refuse to let you write paper checks, so having them as a main bank is not practical.
Ally, so far, seems to be fine. I did have an issue with a bounced deposit check from another institution – this was a bank-issued check, Ally claimed the check was canceled by the other bank, the other bank denied that. All I know there was a screw up and two banks blamed each other. Ally CS did try to work with me to resolve the issue, and after two weeks the other bank suddenly offered to refund my bounced check fee, which makes me think they found a problem on their end without acknowledging that. Otherwise, Ally seems to be just as good as ING, at least as far as banking is concerned (didn’t deal with investments in either bank). Ally’s advantages are paper checks (which they provide for free) and the fact you can use any ATM and they will refund the ATM fees at the end of the month (there’s a limit but I am only using it 3-4 times a month so I don’t ever hit it). ING has a built-in $1000 credit so that if you overdraft you only pay small interest amount vs large overdraft fee. Also ING uses a (supposedly) more secure login method, although no US bank I am aware of is using the secure token technology they employ in Europe. Ally is easier to get in touch with, they offer instant chat option through their webpage. Ally also offers a slightly better rate on savings and few extra CD options. Bottom line is, both are fine. However I just read that ING’s US branch was bought out by Capital One, which doesn’t have such a stellar reputation.
I have to agree with Ward Cee – the post by ‘GG’ is nothing more but a hidden paid commercial for Ally. As a real customer of Ally Bank I had nothing more but troubles with Ally – see my posts before.
As a company owner I know how important it is to post the ‘right messages’ everywhere to balance negative reviews (I won’t hide – my company also has some negative reviews. We are not perfect).
So with all due respect, GG, it was a really nice try. However, you missed only one tiny yet big detail – customers that don’t have problems, usually don’t post messages. Why would they? If they are happy with the bank, no need to google negative reviews about Ally. So next time try to come up with something that sound more reliable. And please give my best regards to Ally’s arrogant managers.
Alex:
With all due respect, I would refrain from generalized statements on what satisfied customers will or will not do. Furthermore, the concept of a ‘satisfied’ customer is elastic. Some of us may be mostly satisfied, others extremely satisfied etc. As a customer of Ally, my wife and I are mostly satisfied with their offering. Practically speaking, I am not switching to another bank any time soon.
Can they improve their service? Yes, particularly in the area of billing: they (like other internet banks) offer the useful service of linking to your utilities, mortgage provider etc so that they can display the amount due and the date due on your eBill home page. You can then at a glance find out what is due when and for how much.
Unfortunately, their ability to retrieve / refresh this information is spotty. As an IT Architect who has spent most his career in the financial sector, I’m willing to bet that this offering is outsourced and their integration with the outsourcer is poor; a common occurrence in this sector, I’m afraid.
Compared to a few other banks we have dealt with (HSBC, Union Bank, Chase, to name some of the big players and Everbank to name a smaller player) ALLY is a good choice. Their internet access is simple enough for my wife (not a computer savvy) to navigate; their ability to accept scanned checks (done that successfully), their local and courteous customer service (as far as we are concerned) is (again compared to other banks) very satisfactory.
I would have liked to go with ING, but, frankly, Capital One scares me, so ALLY came as my best second choice and thus far it has been a mostly positive experience.
Hope this helps.
Egan
06/11/11 on FOX news at noontime yet another ‘bully” marketing commercial using children one gets an icecream cone the other “not a new customer” gets none….when will these idiot promoting anguish vrs. intelligent customer service!Where did your marketing department get their educatio? This world has become far too rude and needs to wake up to the fact that it is not cute but, offensive. How about polite customer service when someone calls try putting a smile on faces (adults and children)…..maybe a can buried in a secret place is not such a bad idea to go back to afterall…YOUR Co. sure provokes that type of thinking…..oh, and by the way, your RUDE receptionist informed me that ALL ads with children had ben pulled and had been replaced with adult actors…WRONG….and would that be less ofensive really….ally correctly spelled would be bully!
Things must be getting wonderful at Ally if that is all you can find to bitch about!
Hahaha I agree with bill. Who cares about the children in the commercials? I want to know if they’re a reliable bank.
Oh look at this! Another ‘negative’ review!! Yeah Betty, don’t bank with Ally. They are better off without you calling them all the time unable to locate their website.
I’m surprised that this blog is still up. It used to be run by Ally Bank but it is now under the care of a person named David Ning (really?). I don’t think it will be up much longer, because of all the negative postings. Ally Bank lied to me consistently for over a year about a “new product” that was of interest to me. They strung me along. My opinion of this bank is that they are a bunch of lying scumbags. Just saying.
We have an old car lease with GMAC LEASECO Corporation. GMAC/ALLY is a holding bank. No name on the lease but ourselves exists and no one honored the lease but us. They mob rule, hide information, have my private information in another country, and no way to negotiate. This is a weakness in security. For the life of me, I cannot understand these people taking our taxpaying money and then treating us as citizens and customers in this way. Where is their conscience? WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS BEHIND THE EMAILS, TELEPHONES, INTERNET PAGE . Even if you don’t see the white of our eyes…WE ARE NOT STUPID…Lawsuits claiming massive fraud when they foreclosed on mortgages on the way for this bank. You can hide behind the internet, but you can’t hide or run forever. You will be in the same position as you were before robbing us….and you will go down treating people like you have.
If the auto loans are in forgein countries why isnt the interest charges staying here to. Its our hard earned money thats paying for the loans and all extra money should stay here no t in some foreign country same as all companies that finanice anything here. If they have a building in Utah is it just a calling center? Tell us where the “brick and mortor” building thats got its name on it and you can walk in and see a rep. there and discuss your account with them…(no such place and probably wont be).
I took a loan from Ally on my Dodge to get a lower price and pay it off early. It has been a nightmare to try and pay the bill. All the phone calls for the car loan are outsourced and when I have tried to pay it off I get sent to several departments and have to tell my story over to each person. It has been so frustrating. No one is consistent with the regulations within the departments. I have asked to speak to a branch in America or a corporate number, but they are not allowed to give it to me. They have been promising a refund for a payment for the last three months and I have to call weekly and have them constantly tell me it will be sent out in 3-5 business days. I wish I could have someone in corporate listen to the hours of conversation that has occurred. Their add says, “I love my bank”, well, “I HATE THIS BANK.”
Just does not sound like Ally. I have had nothing but good dealings with them. Maybe call here in the USA. Not sure what is the issue but maybe you are calling the wrong place.
K
If you read the comments from real customers on this thread, it sounds exactly like Ally Bank / GMAC. Their ethics are questionable, errors are always in their favor, customer service is non-existent.
a weird that you hate the bank when you don’t have an account with them. your auto loan is not through ally bank- they have no loans.
I have an auto loan with Ally and have to say its the best auto loan package I’ve ever had. Interest and additional principal calculations are dropping my principal at twice the rate as another auto loan I have with Santander (who’s horrible, never get a loan with Santander!). Customer service has been very helpful, though admittedly hard to understand at times. I can’t speak to the banking division but I’m about to open an account to test them out. Hopefully the experiences I’m reading here are those of the few and not the many. I’ll find out soon enough.
Ally Bank and GMAC are two different entities.
One is where you bank – and they have been exceptional. Especially compared to places like BOA etc, who nickel and dimed me each year to the tune of about 400 dollars. With Ally Bank, I got money put in my account in terms of higher interest, and other features. In the two years I have been with them, they have been exemplary in their customer service, and services provided. And not a dollar was charged. So – in effect, I have been saving about 400 dollars each year since we dumped BOA for Ally. American call centers, and prompt call back for any calls. And a very fast and efficient online chat service – which is what I use to contact them mostly.
One of the best decisions we ever made. And I have no other connection to them – other than I spread the good word any chance I get. That’s how much I hate BOA and all rich traditional banks.
For the record, I finance my Chevy with GMAC (that relationship started about 4 years ago). And I have nothing bad to say about that either.
The worst mortgage refinancing experiences I’ve ever had. I had a GMAC mortgage and decided to refinance to a lower rate. 5 months of worst experience. After providing every possible info to them, they found another and another missing info. They lost certain files after another processor took over my file. After 5 months of back and forth phone calls, faxes we finally had a settlement date appointment. The dept. head assured me that they had all of info needed. I took time off from work to come home by 2 pm for the settlement. However due to some additional BS they never showed up and never bothered to inform me of any delays. I called and threatened with a lawsuit for intentionally delaying the process. The dept. head appologized for the screw up and reschedualed for the next day. Even the title company that came to my house for settlement told me that GMAC/ALLY is the worst company to deal with when it comes for remortgaging and financing…
NEVER AGAIN…
I have been trying to refinance my home since Dec. 4, 2011. My current mortgage is with GMAC. The loan amount is very low. Ally Bank seemed happy to help me and seemed to know what they were doing. I sent all the info asked for. I had an Appraisal, and now nothing. Now they tell me they can’t find all of my info. Well, that’s very important info to be floating around. I have spoken with several people. No one is taking care of the issue. I know they are busy, but that is not my concern. Right now I am in Limbo. No Loan and No Answers. No one is calling me back. I’m stuck waiting, while my information is who knows where. This whole experience has been a terrible nightmare. Very unprofessional. I will never recommend Ally Bank.
i don’t have any negative comment to say, by just lookin at the basic reviews.this is very (temptin) to open an account with ally.its devasating to hear about these complaints,hope they clear them up.
This bank is not very orginazed. We tryed to set up a trust account and when I called checking on the account and asked to talk to someone in the Trust account department I was told that the operator could not transfer me.?? She did put me on hold and ask that department my questions and then came back on the line and told me what they said. I found the process very strange since they told me on one of the many calls to fax some paperwork to them and they gave me a specific number. Of course the fax never got there, even 2 hours later??? I told them to send everything back and I would find a different bank. The lady on the phone said she understood and then asked if there was anything esle she could help me with…She didn’t help me to begin with so why start now… I was very frustrated… DO NOT BANK HERE… BEWARE..
Was seriously considering opening an account…think I’ll keep looking.
I have been an Ally Bank customer for a while now and I love them. Now with the ability to scan a check and send it in to make a deposit and you don’t have to wait on the mail – I love them. I have not had any issues and they are very friendly when I have any questions. I actually just had to dispute a charge today from a company that keeps charging me and they were more than helpful. It took a while to get all of the information gathered with them to do this but I previously worked for US Bank and know it takes just as long through them to do this. I would say don’t reconsider. It has been a wonderful option for my family thus far!
Being able to deposit a check with their mobile app is only convenient if you can wait a few days, sometimes up to almost a week, before you need to use that money. If it’s past 4 pm ET they won’t start processing your deposit until the next day, even if you live in another timezone. Then, even when the deposit is approved, they put a hold on the funds for another business day. This means if you try to deposit a check on a Thursday afternoon you won’t be able to use that money until Monday or even later if it happens to be a holiday weekend.
This is actually the entire reason I’m in the process of moving my account elsewhere. Personally I think its ridiculous that a check deposited to an online bank can be processed and approved on Friday but be unavailable to use because of an arbitrary hold until Monday or later. Apparently Ally even with its dedicated 24/7 phone services stop all other operations just because its not a business day.
Stay away from this bank if you plan on depositing checks often or if you need to use that money soon after you deposit it.
Holds on checks are standard policy & procedure throughout the banking world, whether it be an online or brick/mortar branch. If you bank with a small town bank, they may have looser practices (especially if you’re a long-time customer) for deposit holds, but that is an exception these days. To anyone considering a new bank, look up their deposit hold standards before opening an account. No institution places arbitrary holds on a deposit on the fly; it’s always based on their policy for type of item being deposited, amount, and whether or not the item is drawn on their institution or not.
I have been with Ally since it was GMAC Bank. I have been extremely happy with them and glad to be one of their customers. I have never had an issue with them myself and I tend to think that many problems people have had, they caused themselves. Of course not all of them, but many. Heck nothing is perfect, if it was, there wouldn’t be erasers on pencils or a delete button on your keyboard when auto-correct fails, hmmmmm….
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.
Or….real people…like me…..actually want to help other people make an informed decision on what kind of screwed up things may happen with a bank like ALLY that claims to be honest with people you know “people sense”. Also, i would be glad to go on national TV anytime to explain how they screwed up (in my situation) and how they may not be as honest and/or forthcoming as people think. Yes….if everything goes well with other financial institutions then, no, i won’t waste my time and effort to complain, so if everything ends well and ALLY fixes their screw up that i had to deal with then i will be glad to post that everything was good in the end…but that will remain to be seen!
There are a lot of people that do say positive things about a business when they have a GREAT experience. True, 70 percent of people that submit a review are inspired to do when there is a problem. But the remaining 30 percent are people that want to make sure that someone else knows where to find a good company. So far, my experience with ALLY has been no better than working with their notorious blender.
I’ve noticed an awful lot of sunshiny, glowingly positive reports of Ally-which has been the opposite experience I (and many many others I personally know of) have had with these folks. It’s very curious that in these positive reviews the reviewers often make strange comments that seem very similar to trying to speak to Ally ‘customer service’.
Be very careful dealing with Ally. They are awful.
Please report to CPFB >> http://www.consumerfinance.gov/ (consumer protection financial bureau)
Please follow this FB page. A lot of good info about Ally Auto, investigations, complaints, etc.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ally-Autos-Unhappy-Customers/367933486670751
Don’t let them sweep it under the rug!
i am not saying they are perfect…but please get your information correct……the bank does not deal with your auto account- at all…and the bank is completly in the US….however the auto division of ally financial is out of the country and has your auto loans—if you call the bank- you are calling someone in north america
I had an auto loan with GMAC and then they switched names to Ally.Loan was paid off 6 months ago and my title was sent to me stamped paid. Found out today from my insurance company that there is a lein on my car. Called Ally and got some 3rd world rude idiot that told me that they keep a lein on your car so you can get a replacment title in case you lose the original,which also means they mess up your credit rating not to mention that they also could possibly could claim your car if they want to. I think that is not right and have put a bug in a major news networks ear to do a little snooping into this crooked company.
your calling not a bank but bank repersentive been told over and over no brick an motor building here in US all is off shore cause if you could call them you wouldnt be going somewhere in europe. I to have had trouble getting information on accouts with car and call 3 different countries till I got one I wanted and then had to give my life information to them before i could get the information I so needed. All it was interest I had paid over each year then was told it would take anywhere from 10 days to 2 months to get the information in the mail which I really needed not words from some forgein country that didnt know what they were talking about……………….. make any sence????????????????
the bank is all in north America. all help centers are also in north America. the bank does not handle your car loan- ally financial does. ally financial is a parent company of the bank. you are posting on the bank review site. try again and bitch atthe rigt place about your car loan. also it sounds like you don’t speak English very well either…
It gets better. My husband just picked up my mail and even though we already sent our SS#s back though the mail to them they sent them again. Oh, and with a wrong address. They used our Pysical instead of mailing and I have told at least three reps to use the mailing. It’s a good thing the Post Office knows us. Oy. What is wrong with these people. They sure are taking a lot of chances with my info despite our making it painfully clear how we feel. Now I am just plain furious again.
I opened my account in April 2013 and was able to fax in a copy of my SSC and ID.
Hi Bill. This is gonna be long if you want specifics. A couple of things I felt were sneaky or deceptive are. 1) If you ask specific questions before you set up an acct. and are told one thing and exactly the oposite happens after you set up, that is sneaky or underhanded. This means you already have done all the work to set up. Also getting money bak out IS harder than they tell you before hand as well. Our particular issue was privacy and specifically our SS#s. My husband is a Police officer of 14 years and does a lot of ID theft cases. Virtually everything a person would need to steal your ID will go through the mail together unless you set up email only accts on-line, but they don’t tell you that until it allready has been mail and in my case 13 calls later. Even then you will have to send it back through the mail, no faxing ect. Someone said all banks do this and that is not true. Neither my Key bank or my parents credit union have done this to us. 2) I noticed the first few calls we were given the option to rate Ally. However if you get “call backs” on problems or the service person knows you are unhappy with your outcome you don’t seem to get the same chance to rate them. You just get dissconected. That tells me those good rateings are scewed. I have got things worked out now and my acct has been unfrozen. The reason we were told it was frozen was because of too much activity. There was a lot of activity because each rep gave us different info and told us to do or try something different than the one before. Many gave bad advice we later found out didn’t help. For example we were told we could fax senstive info back and we did, but nope you can’t do that. We were also told they didn’t recieve the fax then another person said he saw it clearly had been recieved. The inconsistancy took thirteen contacts for one single problem. I feel like there is no continuity to training these workers. Not that I think that is the workers fault. I am not as mad as I was but I still have regret overall.
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