“New customer - great service so far”
I've been with ING for some time, also tried a stint with E*Trade which was horrible and recently opened a new account at Ally. The rates seemed decent and the MM option was needed without concern for balances.
Day 1 was a Sunday afternoon and I had a problem setting up my account with Quicken. I called and got someone on the phone within a minute who promptly resolved my issue.
Day 4 inquired via e-mail to confirm account and routing info for direct depost. I received a response back in under 5 minutes.
I've never had that quick of a response time. The jury is still out for any difficult issues to resolve but so far this is an A+ in the customer service arena which to me is VERY important.
“Hey Ally, show me the money!”
I just opened my account speaking to Jerry, what a fun personality, a real person! If my interaction with Jerry is an indication of what doing business with Ally is going to be like then I am totally psyched about finally making some money in this crappy economy. Let alone my current bank's sad saving account is only 0.05% APY! I just locked in for 1.64%!!!! Woohoo!!!
“GMAC Bank and now a happy Ally Bank Customer”
I started with GMAC Bank because of their top 12 Month CD rate at the time . . . GMAC Bank was good, but the Web site was hard to figure out and navigate - that has changed now.
Since the name change to Ally, customer communications, Live Chat, and customer service has improved my experience considerably. I have accounts at ING Direct, as well . . . but when I needed to transfer money out of country to family in a hurry, only Ally was able to have a live person available immediately to help me AND they had the account features to meet the need. Ally helps me out whenever I need it.
“Ally bank: Quarter mil xfer $ limit ”
10/17/09: Ally Bank has reduced the APY for the Online Savings Account
from to 1.70% from 1.80% at the beginning of the week.
I opened a OSA this past week. Verified banks via trial deposit,
started money movement, all went fine. I like the simple, clean web
site User Interface. Compared to the cluttered chaos of citibank or
tdameritrade, it is quite nice. They show you the current interest
rate your money is earning right there at account status, not hidden
(ever try to find the rate Citibank's Ultimate Money Market is presently
paying? -- impossible!) so you'll easily and immediately see when they
adjust the rate.
They show you the current w/d counter for the statement period (says
"Limited Transaction Count") right there at account status, so you know
when you are close to hitting the federal law limit, 6 w/d per period.
I've never seen this feature from any bank before.
So far, it is just like their commercials, "story" and banner ads state:
nothing hidden, being 100% straightforward with the customer.
- unlimited number of linked external accounts
- Quarter mil xfer $ limit (website msg is "Amount must be 250,000 or less")
- ACH deposit start to earn interest immediately (i.e. "good faith")
but will take 3 business days to clear the source bank.
- ACH w/d show up in destination bank in 3 business days (so I'm told)
- Alerts possible for "Regular Deposit" and "Cross Balance Threshold"
Other activity automatically generates a status email.
One glitch: a visual-only rendering imperfection of login & "security
image" dialog boxes on firefox 1.5 & 2.
Ally bank: please implement "next day" ACH for deposit and wd/! Countrywide's
late Savingslink account had this feature, so I know it can be done.
“Great Banking, so far!”
My first experience with Ally was to open an online CD Thursday 10/08/09 via a funds transfer from my Wachovia checking. I've been tracking the transaction closely to see how long it would take for Ally to deposit the funds and to ensure the terms were accurate. It appears the deposit is pending today 10/13/09 with the terms and conditions being accurate. Since Monday was a bank holiday, I am very pleased with the transaction timing; so great banking so far! I'll continue to post updates.
“I love the Ads!”
I have to admit, I just loved the Ally Bank commercials and finally decided to open an account. Been very happy with the service and like the No Penalty CD a lot!
“Great bank with good customer service.”
I had small CDs with GMAC (Ally's predecessor) and since the rebranding, have added savings and MMA accounts. The customer service has always been great, with all questions save security issues answered by the first person who answered the phone.
They have a great ACH transfer system and good rates, though they have been pressured to lower them by the FDIC, lately.
“Consider My Comment Befroe You Enroll at ALLY”
I've been with ALLY (previously GMAC ) bank for a few years now. Good interest rates, easy to transfer money to linked accounts, friendly customer service, etc. But for me service has diminished greatly since the name change to ALLY.
In early August '09 I was speaking to customer service about a pending transfer, when the rep asked me about 2 identical debits from my account made within minutes of each other. A good catch by the rep because they weren't mine! At my request the debit card was cancelled and replaced with a new one as a precaution. My account was then locked from any outgoing withdrawals while the Fraud dept. investigated. I signed and returned a form denying responsibility for the charges ($140 total).
It is now late August and my account is still locked. Numerous calls to customer service have been fruitless. They aren't allowed to discuss my account, only the Fraud dept. can. I've been told twice now that I will get a call back within 48 hours. I'm now on hour 36 of the third promise of a call. I've talked to supervisiors, nothing. Not even they are allowed to speak with the super-secret Fraud dept.
So I have 10k I can't access and can't get any answers! My next call is to the State AG. First chance I get, I will close this online account. The feeling of helplessness when something goes wrong is not worth the interest earned!
Beware this bank !!!
“Bait and Switch.”
In my opinion...
Their commercials and marketing all says something like "No gimmicks! No Promo Rates! No Hidden Fees!" etc.
They keep dropping their rates. No "Promo" rates my butt. Maybe they have covered themselves with fine print, but I am no fool. I took all my money ($XX,XXX+) and put it back into ING Direct where atleast I know someone is not trying to fool me.
“Recommended”
I can't find much bad to say about this bank. I've been with them since they were GMAC. The switch over went fairly smoothly, at least from my perspective... although they could have given their current customers a bit more warning ahead of time, but it all worked out fine. The site is very user-friendly. I can easily transfer funds to and from external accounts. I only use this for savings so I don't know if they have online bill payments or how useful it is. But for my purposes this has been a good bank to stash my savings. Kinda sucks they dropped their interest rate, but it's still a decent rate compared to what other banks are offering. Overall I'd recommend it.
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