Ally Bank Online Banking Review (www.AllyBank.com)
Online banks offer convenient personal finance tools in order for you to easily access and control your funds. However, they’re not all the same. As one of the first established banking institutions online, Ally Bank has earned its admirable reputation for good customer service, reasonable fees, and high interest rates on both savings and checking accounts. Similar to other online banks, it doesn’t have any physical brick-and-mortar branches, but it is however an FDIC member just the same.
Online banking institutions like Ally are in a unique position to provide high yielding accounts since they don’t have a need to pay employees at various branch locations and the expensive of running an actual physical location. Instead, Ally depends on user-friendly advanced automated tools online. Here are some of AllyBank.com’s best features:
• Interest Checking
Ally Bank’s customers are able to open a checking account that earns interest and come with a MasterCard debit card and free checks. There’s no minimum balance required, annual maintenance fee, or monthly charge.
• High Yielding Savings
Similar to an interest-bearing checking account, Ally Bank’s savings accounts do not require a minimum balance or opening deposit along with any monthly maintenance fees.
• Money Market Accounts
Money market accounts offer a Visa debit card and are free of monthly balances and fees as well as the need to submit a minimum deposit. Outbound transfers are restricted to six for each statement period, including debit card point-of-sale purchases. But, ATM withdrawals are unlimited.
• Multiple CD Options
Ally Bank provides three CD options, including No Penalty CD, Raise Your Rate CD, and High Yield CD.
• Commercial Financing
Through its parent company, Ally Financial, Ally Bank provides commercial financing options for businesses with a minimum of $50 million in revenue. These involve term loans with certain fixed principal amounts that have to be repaid within a particular timeframe. Ally Bank additionally provides revolving credit lines that can either be repaid or tapped given a preset limit at the customer’s discretion.
• Overdraft Transfers
You can choose to set up your checking account if you wish to link to an Ally money market or savings account and opt-in to their free-of-charge service that if an overdraft should occur, your funds will automatically be transferred to your account worry-free in $100 increments.
• Auto Financing
Customers can log-in separately for auto loan financing. Ally Bank has an entire suite of products to choose from regarding auto financing for individual people and/or groups that either lease or buy.
• Trust Accounts
Ally provides both irrevocable and revocable living trusts that can work effectively to retain gifts for certain people or to preserve wealth.
• Retirement Accounts
Ally Bank’s IRA accounts let you invest in regular CDs, Raise Your Rate CDs, and savings accounts. Each of these follows the same protocol and come in the same length of terms, similar to their non-IRA equivalent. Are you a small business owner? If so, you can choose to open a traditional, Roth, or a SEP IRA at your discretion.
• CD Laddering Tools
Ally Bank’s CD Ladders are created to mitigate a key drawback of their long-term CDs: their inclination to tie up customer’s funds for several years. Ladders include the same sized CDs where the terms vary in length from between 1 – 5 years. Once they mature, each CD is then renewed according to your maximum specified term, making sure you have open access to it at the same time each year.
• Popmoney Feature
Ally Bank’s Popmoney feature allows you to easily transfer money between your savings or checking accounts and other U.S.-based banking accounts of your family members, friends, business associates, or third-party vendors. There’s no requirement to divulge your sensitive bank account information, just your phone number or email address using this user-friendly and mobile platform.
• Mobile Banking
Ally Bank’s services are both mobile and user-friendly. You can conveniently access every aspect of your account(s), including automatic bill-pay, transfers, balances, and use their ATM finding tool from either your smartphone or tablet.
