Chris Black

Review of ALLY FINANCIALS – DETROIT, MI

Trying to offset some of the flood of negative rev...

Trying to offset some of the flood of negative reviews, because while they're not perfect, they're definitely not 1-star worthy.

It's true, Ally is not your typical branch banking experience. If you're looking for hand-held perfect and in person customer service, you'll want to go with a local credit union, especially one that doesn't have a call center. However, if you're like me, a bit techy, and manage 90% of your finances online, and don't care as much about person-to-person service, Ally is great. I switched to them primarily because they had the best rates on savings accounts and CDs out of anyone, especially major banks/credit unions who haven't changed their .10% since the 2008 recession. Important to note that part of the reason they have these rates is because they HAVE NO BRANCHES or HAND-HELD SERVICE.

My only negative experience (which is why I deducted a star) was when I was trying to close on my house. I submitted a wire transfer request during my closing appointment in the morning at 9:30-10 AM Eastern. Wire transfers typically take a couple of hours to turn around but are deposited same day. The cutoff for wires on same-day transfers is typically 3 PM Eastern, which I believe is imposed by the federal reserve, not any particular bank. My realtor and title agent followed up with in the early afternoon saying the wire hadn't cleared. I had to call Ally 3 times throughout the day, just to figure out what the status was, whether they got the request, ensuring it was authorized and not in limbo, and whether it had even cleared. It did finally clear same-day, but I would have appreciated a bit more transparency, especially during such a critical time for my family.