I opened an account with ally because of their good interest rate and promise of decent services. They have not delivered. My account was frozen for "suspicious activity" and I was not notified until I started getting overdue notices on bills I thought had been paid. Their smartphone app crashes constantly making it hard to tell if they receive deposits or not. Their communication is terrible, emails are responded to very slowly and the people at the call center can be downright rude. An online bank to having unreliable software is inexcusable.

Two words: Debit card. I noticed lately that I carry very little cash, if any. It's just so convenient. We can now use the internet to communicate over great distances, and Ally bank has whole-heartedly embraced that fact. I opened a checking account with them about three months ago, and I've observed their entire system revolves around the internet.

Since they don't have a brick and mortar presence, they don't incur the expenses of one, and can give that money to you in the form of a higher interest rate. I had a savings account with USAA before, and my Ally checking account had an interest rate 4 times higher than my USAA savings account! That's a CHECKING account with FOUR TIMES AS MUCH INTEREST as a SAVINGS account!

The only problem I've noticed is that with the debit card, you may get in the habit of not carrying cash, and without and ATM or card scanner, you can't access your money. To fix this, make sure you get in the habit of always carrying $10 or $15 in your wallet when you have access to an ATM. A debit card means nothing if you don't have an ATM, which leads to the last thing I love about Ally: ATM fee reimbursement. Ally acknowledges that if you join, you'll use your debit card A LOT, so they don't have a limit on the number of ATM fees they will reimburse.

*Note: The rating I gave their customer service was meant to be interpretted as "neutral / don't know". I've never used their customer service because I've never needed them.

I am a freelancer, so my income is not steady, last week I was paid for some work I did, I thought it would be a good idea to pay all my bills, that way I wonâ??t have to worry about them the rest of the month. Which turned out to be a big mistake.

The next day my debit card was blocked for "suspicious" activity. I remember I was at the store and couldn't pay, my card kept getting declined. When I got home, I checked the account, it showed I had sufficient funds, so I sent Ally a message, asking them why my card was declined.

Two days later they finally replied, saying there was suspicious activity on my account and that my debit card had been blocked, for me to call some fraud protection number to get it unblocked.

I checked my account again and didn't see any "suspicious" activity, just bills and a few grocery store charges - I don't know how any of these would be considered suspicious, especially since they show up in my statement every month.

If somehow paying all my bills on the same day triggered some suspicion, what they should have done was flagged the account until a human could verify - whether or not there really was "suspicious" activity - not block it automatically.

That is just irresponsible and stupid. And the worse part of it all, is they now wanted me to take time out of my busy schedule to call some number and try and fix their mistake.

They didn't apologize or anything. The rep I exchanged emails with did nothing to help, she was just like - well, theres nothing I can do, you have to call the number.

Finally, I broke down and called the number - and guess what? They hung up on me! So I have no idea if my account has been unblocked or what. I could contact them again, but what good is that gonna do?

I've decided to look for a new bank, I cant be a part of a bank that does something like that. Its disappointing, I was such a big fan of Ally, recommended them to everyone and now I feel like such a fool for thinking they were any different.

I open an CD acct, and mail the deposit in according their instruction. Several days later, they cleared my check, but i can't see any money in my ally cd acct. So I called them, and give them the transaction number on the back of my check( at first they insist that they not deposit my check!! ) and they told me they put the money in suspend acct!! I put the acct # very clearly on both side of my check, and they just told me that they dont know what happen nor no idea why the money go to suspend acct. And I have to wait till Wed to see if they really put my money back ( coz I called on Friday)! How can I sleep through weekend while I feel like I lost my money.

My experience with Ally wasn't too bad until my account got locked and I had to deal with their "Customer Protection" department. The bank clerk there treated me like a Gestapo officer, just assuming I was trying to defraud someone. The exact opposite of helpful and understanding. Not to mention it was really, really hard to get hold of her - way too many calls were needed to reach her, and way too much time wasted. Save yourselves the time and nerves and don't bank with Ally.