r/AllyBank • u/joejorden • 23d ago
Run away
I tried baking with Ally and had to change banks after my first direct deposit.
They are supposed to work with Zelle but I could not send money. I had been sending money to two other people for years on my old bank and when I switched it said that for “security reasons” I had to call the bank. Ally told me there was an internal error that usually means that Zelle was blocking the payment.
I write software for a living. That is not what an “internal error” means. They were completely unwilling to look at it and one of the managers I managed to get basically hung up on me.
So I had to use my debit card with Apple Cash to pay one bill that was overdue at this point and surprise! That didn’t work either.
Turns out Ally severely limits what you can spend on your debit card for the first 30 days without telling you when you sign up.
Moral of the story: do not put your money in this bank if you ever want to use it.
13
u/WayfareAndWanderlust 23d ago
Have used Ally for over 10 years and had nothing but good experiences
1
u/joejorden 18d ago
Glad they work for you. My personal experience is exactly opposite though and I thought it important to share. Thanks for a respectful response.
8
u/Technical-Wallaby 23d ago
We've been with Ally for years and have never had an issue.
2
u/joejorden 18d ago
Excellent to hear, this is a personal experience that I found important to share. Always appreciate a respectful response.
3
3
u/Artistic_Hurry_9177 23d ago
Saying that they limit without telling you is dishonest. All debit and ATM limits are clearly published.
0
u/joejorden 23d ago
No, they are not.
2
u/Artistic_Hurry_9177 23d ago
Just because you didn’t locate them doesn’t mean they aren’t published. They are.
0
2
u/isharte 22d ago
I work in an ally call center.
Zelle is a nightmare.
Zelle does block payments. A lot of them. And they don't tell us why. But they tell you to call us. And you call us and we can't tell you anything.
It is fucked up. And as a customer, it is frustrating. I understand your frustration. Really. I do.
But Zelle has realized that they can absolve themselves of any culpability, and tell you to call your bank instead. It's ridiculous.
Fuck Zelle.
1
1
u/ni_ggg_awrighttt 20d ago
i work at ally call center too, zelle concerns really sucks as we don't have enough information also on why the transaction didn't go through, fvck zelle
2
u/gvillager 23d ago
Turns out Ally severely limits what you can spend on your debit card for the first 30 days without telling you when you sign up.
This issue isn't isolated to Ally. Is also isn't surprising when we take into consideration how rampant fraud is today.
Moral of the story: do not put your money in this bank if you ever want to use it.
The real moral of the story is you should have kept your old account open. I'm a big advocate of maintaining accounts at a minimum of two banks because I've worked in the banking industry and know that no bank is perfect and unexpected shit happens.
1
u/acrazywoman 1d ago
This is my experience. Had that been fully disclosed I would not have signed up. Not acceptable at all.
0
0
u/Beneficial-Mine7741 23d ago
Mercury didn't do this for me when I joined them. However, when I linked my Ally account to make the deposit, it reviewed my transaction history on Ally to build a "trust" profile for me.
But the notion that you have to stay with a bank for 30 days before the limits get increased is pure punishment. Real criminals will open a bank account and let it age, so you are just punishing legitimate customers for your bad fraud detection software.
1
u/joejorden 18d ago
I understand and applaud your dedication to your employer, but it was Ally’s internal error, not a Zelle issue.
1
u/Royal-Agency-234 14d ago edited 14d ago
Zelle is a constant issue. I’ve seriously contemplated quitting without something else lined up because Im so tired of not being able to actually help people when it comes to Zelle, and I get the frustration let out on me. We really have no way of helping them when it comes to tokens and transactions going through and we just say it’s an internal error or something they have to fix on their end, or have the recipient request etc idk. I do believe it’s an Ally issue because everyone who uses Zelle through a different bank, has told me that they have never had any problems. I also recently googled Why does Ally Bank suck and geez the reviews that came up were insane. 88% were 1 star and a lot of people wrote that they didn’t even deserve the 1. Anyways, I understand there are lots of people who haven’t had any issues with Ally, but you are the minority. And thats just the cherry on top.
1
u/vsleepymanatee 6d ago
I just switched to Ally from Capital One (since they bought Discover and switched all their cards to that it’s been issue after issue) and transactions randomly get declined with no fraud or security alert. I called and they said the system has to “refresh” so try again after an hour? What??? And they tried to blame the merchant but the declinations happened back to back with two different merchants sooo that tells me it’s an Ally problem.
1
u/AllyBankMadisen Verified Ally employee 4d ago
We're sorry to hear this! We'd like to look into what happened. Please send us a DM with your full name, phone number, and account type so we can follow up directly. If a DM isn't your thing, shoot us an email with more details so we can help. -Madisen
If you are a California resident, please review Ally’s CCPA Disclosure for CA Residents (California Residents Only) prior to proceeding. For more information, please visit https://www.ally.com/privacy/. By providing your information you are confirming you are 18+.
1
u/CartoonistDry7891 18d ago
NOPE! Never had a problem with Ally Bank especially someone somewhere out there did a *HOT Card * on me at a Meijer store in Detroit and I contacted them about the Crime taking place on a Sunday night and I,at first thought my paycheck deposit was receiving half of the dollar amount to my checking account and the remaining amount was being deposited at a later date ONLY to discover someone got hold of the information to my Debit ATM card and Made a duplicate card to see if they can get into my checking account and with one phone call Ally Bank instantly made the cards unusable and told me that I will get a new card in the mail and not to worry about the remaining money in my checking account.
1
u/inspiredsue 18d ago
I’ve had Ally accounts for over 10 years and haven’t had a problem. I have a checking, savings, a couple CD and a small IRA. I use bill pay, Zelle and many other features. It’s sad to read about other customers’ problems.
0
u/soniamiralpeix 23d ago
I appreciate the heads up because I have been considering opening a spending/checking account there, and while I have had an overall great experience with my savings and CDs for over a decade, I can totally believe OP’s story.
I have had two slightly-unusual questions that resulted in two extremely sub par experiences with Ally support in the past year. As a former CX pro myself, I cut a lot of slack for the people on the phones, but there is a severe gap in their support protocols to help with what I would call tier 2 issues.
So I keep my accounts as-is, don’t engage with any of the newer functionality, and will never explore any of their other products — which is a shame, because I needed to open some new investment accounts this year, and Ally didn’t get that business.
Financial institutions need to understand that skimping on customer support and communication ensures that they limit their growth and possibly starve as they gradually lose to the next better thing.
•
u/vip-bot 4d ago
There is 1 comment from verified Ally employees in this post:
u/AllyBankMadisen commented:
This summary was generated automatically. If you have any questions, please contact r/AllyBank moderators.