Ally Bank Checking Accounts

See ratings at BBB & in news reports. Banking-related sites give a higher rating than deserved. DOJ & CFPB actions against Ally for discrimination & shady business practices. SiteJabber has a lot of reviews, too. Don't be fooled by sites that seem consumer-focused but can be manipulated by the entities you're researching.

Ally Bank froze my checking & reserves accounts because I clicked on their "link accounts" button on my dashboard. Sounds dubious, right? Sure, until you read those other reviews and realize this outfit has done it again and again.

I deposited a couple thousand dollars in ALLY Bank checking and reserves accounts to try it out. The checking deposit cleared fairly quickly, the reserves acct. deposit took a ridiculously long time. I never made a withdrawal, wrote a check against the fund, or a debit card transaction with ALLY Bank. I made 3-4 tiny bill pay transactions (amounts less than $2) to test the bill pay system they offer. They all cleared in a reasonable period of time. Then I clicked that button.

I received no warning or notices--emailed or USPS mailed--of my account being frozen. That button had no instructions, warnings or disclaimers associated with it. I hadn't logged into my account for a few days, possibly a week. When I did try to log in again I realized I had no access to my accounts. Locked out! I called and after getting the runaround several times, providing my ID info every time, spoke with someone in the Fraud Prevention & Loss Dept. They gave little to no information. I provided, at their insistence, detailed proof of my identity, including capitulating to their demand that I provide them with a statement from my primary banking institution. It made no difference. They wouldn’t escalate my complaint to corporate/management or provide any contact info for those entities. They wouldn’t provide the name of a contact for LPD with whom I could try to resolve the issue. Repeatedly left on hold, repeatedly disconnected.

My accounts have been frozen for weeks. They will not release my funds, they will not provide me with details, they make it impossible to speak with anyone at their corporate office. They have no brick & mortar branch in my region. I stated that I wanted to close my accounts based on this experience. They would not close my accounts.

I’ve since read online reports of issues with Ally bank, CFPB and DOJ actions against them, and class action suits, along with BBB and other complaints about their freezing accounts and “stealing” or “holding hostage” money. It simply can't be legal to freeze customers' accounts for trite or arbitrary reasons, without warning or notice, and refuse to refund their deposits indefinitely or even discuss the issue with them to reach resolution.

I’ve filed complaints with the FDIC, my Attorney General’s Consumer Complaint Div., the CFPB and now BBB. Additional steps will be taken, not only to recover my funds, but to help prevent this from happening to others.

Every month Ally returns my payment but reports it as late. The money is there and available. It's like they're purposely screwing my credit. I would not recommend using them.

The worst experience I have ever had with a bank. Hands-down.

I quit Bank of America because I was being charged for new fees for reasons that their reps couldn't explain to me. A friend recommended Ally to me - she liked earning interest. Cool. So I signed up.

Two months later, I regret it more than almost anything else I have ever done in my life. I am not exaggerating or being cute.

First, I tried to buy new tires and get an oil change. I spent over THREE HOURS trying to get this done. My card simply would not work. I called Ally many, many times. I was put on hold for 20+ minutes and then hung up on. I was hung up on when I called back. When I got someone to talk to me, I got a different explanation and solution every single time. Finally, it was explained to me - on, oh, my fourth or fifth call, after trying the failed solutions the other reps had given me - that I was not allowed to spend more than $500 in a day for the first THREE MONTHS of my account, so long as I was using the debit card, as I was so smugly informed that I had "signed up for". However, I could go to an ATM, withdraw $400, then put the other $400 on the card. What?? How does withdrawing money from an ATM prevent fraud more than just spending it on the card? Whatever.

One thing I noticed is that Ally has this odd habit of not actually showing you where your money is being spent, and how. First off, if a transaction is pending, good luck finding out what it is. You will be shown the location of the merchant and the amount spent. That's it. No merchant name. Good luck if you spend money online, because you have no way of knowing if a transaction in California was you or if someone out there hacked into your account. Only when the transaction is finished, will you MAYBE get a hint of at which merchant the money was spent. Sometimes it will tell you. Sometimes it won't.Share an account between two people, and this gets very frustrating. We are constantly going back and forth, trying to figure out who spent what where I chatted with a rep about this, and they told me that this is a bug they're working on. They are not making progress on it.

Another thing is that they delight in holding onto your money. I had a transfer from a friend through Venmo to help with a large bill. Any other bank on earth will have that money in your account either that day or the next, at the very latest; usually it's immediate. Ally made me wait THREE BUSINESS DAYS. Which I absolutely did not have time for. Precisely zero explanation was given from any Ally rep I spoke or chatted with. That was just the way it was. I ended up being late on the bill because of this nonsense. At least I did receive the money eventually; Ally also refuses to work with my Venmo account to send or spend money.

Be prepared to break out the old 90's transaction book. Ally moves at a snail's pace, and I don't even mean just with Venmo. I paid an AT&T bill a week ago. Ally just took out the money today. There have been times when it's been so long between a transaction and the time that it's paid that I simply forgot about it, until I found my account balance had gone down a week - or even longer - later. It won't even show up as a pending transaction in the meantime. This also means that I panic over whether or not something has been paid, since I don't even have a pending transaction to show me if it has. You will have to sit down with pencil and paper and record all of your transactions yourself. It's 2022 AND I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DO THIS. I keep finding odd financial gymnastics all over my account - this getting charged after this, even though it took place before that. I strongly suspect that numbers are being re-arranged against my favor. While having things like, say, utility bills come out slower than other transactions isn't unusual for banks, what's odd about Ally is just how long certain transactions take.

Service is terrible. Their people seem happy that you're frustrated. Their go-to policy on explaining things seems to be to tell people that that's just how it is, and you just have to live with it. Their other method is to have each person you speak to give you a wildly different explanation. Their final method is to simply make you wait and then hang up on you. Sometimes you'll be told that "Yes, we see your transaction, we just haven't processed it yet" as to why the money you spent or received several days ago isn't appearing in your account. Okay, so you know that there's a pending transaction (that, again, is taking infinitely longer than any other bank), so why can't I see it? Because lol, sucks to be you, that's why. Can this or that be fixed, can I know what this money was spent on, can I know why these transactions are ordered in a bizarre way, can this just be fixed - the answer is always no, and they can't or won't tell you why. They just reiterate that that's how it is, learn to live with it.

It has been a very long, very painful two months. We have an appointment on Saturday to get a new account at a local credit union, and hopefully leave the absolute fiasco of Ally behind us. This experience has taught me a very valuable lesson on how a company can call itself whatever it wants, and be the exact opposite of that name. Good riddance, Ally. I hope the government gets the motivation to examine what you do to people.

I spent approximately 30 minutes on the phone to cancel a series of checks that did not reach me in the U.S. mail. I also confirmed that they were ordering new checks. I purposefully called three weeks ahead of when I needed them. Two days later, I noticed a $15 "stop payment" fee. I contacted Ally Bank via chat message and the customer service representative said that was in error and they would refund it. They did refund it. Luckily, I called to confirm that they actually ordered the checks. Sadly, they had not and I needed the checks to write a check at a new apartment for rent. The third customer service agent could not explain what happened with the request to order new checks, but said I could order them for a $29 fee (since now I needed them within 5 business days. I ordered them, but it should not take three customer service agents to a) cancel a series of checks and b) order new checks. Between the fee, which the second agent said should not have been charged, and the first agent not ordering the checks as she said she did, I am planning to change banks. This is very unreliable customer service.

Today Ally double-debited my account for two transactions. It wasn't the merchant's fault, it was totally Ally. After waiting 15 minutes to chat, I was told to "yeah, we're having a problem", and that I needed to dispute the transactions online. But their dispute page did not work. There was no action, or message, after I hit the Submit button. There is also no dispute capability in the iOS app. I've moved most of my money out, except of course for the amount that is still missing from my account, but I expect that to be returned eventually. I'm really glad that I had enough in there so that they didn't charge me an NSF fee. I gave them two stars because they were really great until today's fiasco.

Since March 16th 2022, I’ve been experiencing horrible customer service. Customer service team including all the supervisors are all incompetent. Providing incorrect information on release dates on funds, creating errors on accounts, lack of follow ups when call drops in the middle of the call. I highly recommend not doing any business with Ally.

Long term client with Ally. They closed my account without ANY explanation or notification via mail or mobile app. Stayed on the phone for 2 hours with customer service and supervisor and they could not find any plausible proof as to explain to me the reason why my account was randomly closed .

I never experienced such poor service and I’m in great financial standing . Never experienced such nonsense.Ally is the worst bank. Service is below par. Representatives are non professional and do not solve problems. They highly inconvenience you. Forced to wait 7-10 business days for my funds via check from my primary account. Clients beware. They will close your account before they even make the effort to properly assist you. Do not bank with this useless online bank. Trust to keep your finances with more reputable banks.

Davianna or whatever her name is is the worst ever. They all give super misleading information. She got angry I called her lies out and said they will terminate my account. This is a joke, when she was saying earlier during the call “we don’t rush our investigators” when I said it’s past the date you promised she said they’ll close my account. What a joke of a bank. Customer service 0.1/10

An awful experience all around. I've been trying to establish an estate account with Ally Bank after the sudden and tragic death of my mother who had an account there. Their Estate Department has done nothing but lie about "elevating my case" or just hung up on me when I've called. They have all of the paperwork from me to establish the estate account and nothing has been done. I just got off the phone with an associate who was extremely rude, asking curtly if "and does (name) have last name by any chance?" after having been hung up on by another associate. They've claimed to have elevated my case twice. One of the associates said the previous associate had not actually elevated my case.

If a company allows its customer service representatives to treat grieving family members like this, how do you think they treat their normal, everyday customers?

I will never have any business with Ally Bank after this experience. As soon as the money has been dispersed, I will close the estate account and never open another one. Nor will I ever suggest for anyone else to open an account at Ally Bank given my experience.

Horrible issues with the card being declined even though I had plenty of money in my account. The service person said it was an error in pen code that was acting up.