NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN........ALLY.CA!!!! | Ally | Discussion forum

Roc

Are you still with People's Trust? Thought you were pulling out?

Where did you get the extra $10000 (Income-Spending)?? What city is that job of yours in?

Well I'm from southern ontario, looking to change positions!!! I've made great transitions from industry to industry with my education. Your industry could be next. The financial benefits are certainly good.

Are you moving $100,000 from People's Trust to Ally.ca?

roc said:

Hey guys!!!

I just found a new bank that pays 2.00% on High Interest Savings at ALLY.CA!!!!. They are owned by ResMor Trust in Ontario so setting up an account online looks pretty easy. They are CDIC insured and also offer 1 year cashable GIC's at 1.75%.

There's only 2 other banks/trust companies that pay the same or more which are Peoples' Trust @2.10% and MAXA Financial @ 2.00%. Clearly, not a bad place to park your money!!!!

Peter, Please add ALLY.CA to your comparison chart!!!!Thanks!!!!

Roc

Roc, how can anyone transfer money in and out electronically with ally?

Thanks.

I just opened an account with Ally with my wife as the secondary account holder. There were no issues and it was just like Prag's first attempt. I was able to add additional accounts as well. Here are some answers to questions that I also asked Maxa:

Q: Do you allow OFX file downloads?
A: We allow CSV and MS Money.

Q: What are hold times on funds?
A: None. Expect 3 - 5 business days though for the other institution to have money delivered. No hold once money is in or for withdrawals.

Q: Do you allow EFT?
A: Yes

Q: Do you allow linking of accounts from other institutions?
A: Yes

Q: Are there any fees?
A: No

Q: Do you offer TFSA?
A: Yes. Either HISA or GIC.

Q: Do you allow multiple accounts?
A: Yes, no limit on number of accounts you can create.

Q: Do you allow joint accounts?
A: Yes

So I've opened my account, created others and will be sending a cheque from my other bank to them in the mail today. Then I can easily add other accounts using the method described in the previous post. I will be transferring my money from CTFS to Ally and closing my CTFS account. Hopefully Ally keeps their rates higher than the rest for a while.

To follow up on my original post quoted below, my snail mail welcome package arrived today (it included a welcome letter, a flyer that didn't really tell me more than I already knew since I'd already read the website in detail, and a postage paid return envelope). My husband also got his call back from Ally early this evening where they provided his account number. He logged in, started setting up his external account links using the test deposit verification method, and all is working well. Today is 5 business days after his original online application where it wasn't able to call up 10 items from his credit report. As mentioned before, for me my account creation was immediate as it was able to call up 10 items from my credit report.

So far, so good. I also noticed a website feedback questionnaire popped up today although I really don't see any ways they could improve their site at this point. It's duntz-easy to use. 🙂

Prag said:

My thoughts on Ally:

INTEREST RATE:
Currently 2%, which is why I decided to open an account since my other accounts at HSBC Direct and ING Direct are roughly half that interest rate at this time!

I opened the account last week and so far find Ally incredibly easy to deal with, with a very user-friendly website. Here's a brief summary:

APPLYING:
I went to ally.ca and filled out a couple pages of standard account opening questions. The next web page their system took me to seemed to electronically access my credit report somehow as it then confronted me with ten multiple choice questions regarding historical items from my credit report that only I would know. Some of them were from over ten years ago! I got them all correct, of course, and the next screen immediately provided my new High Interest Savings Account number. The site then said I could wait for the "welcome package" or immediately send my cheque. I sent my initial $50 deposit right away in my own envelope, as I hate waiting for snail mail.

Then I set up my account profile and security questions, etc, online which was very easy.

WEBSITE:
Ridiculously easy to use, simple, and very user friendly. It's been under a week and my initial cheque deposit I sent in the mail is already in there and I already have both my external accounts linked up! There appeared to be no HOLD on the funds either. On another note, they use the same system as PayPal does to "verify" your external accounts that you want to use for transfers. You enter the transit, institution, and account numbers on the website and then a day or two later the test deposits from Ally (equaling a few cents) appear in your bank account and you log back in to Ally to confirm those amounts, at which point your external accounts are immediately linked for transfers. It's so much quicker than the hassle of having to send in cheques or statements to get accounts linked up!

I also opened a new TFSA account online while in my account view, and funded it with my initial deposit amount in my HISA.

Ally is a VERY easy system to use and so far I have zero complaints, other than my welcome package sent by snail mail still needs to arrive.

SIGNUP ISN'T ALWAYS EASY:
My husband did not have as easy a time setting up his account. It wasn't able to call up 10 questions from his credit report so the website directed him to call customer service as the next step. They said they'd be doing a manual credit check and would call him back a few business days later. We are still waiting for that call and it's been about four business days. I'm all up and going with my initial deposit and external linked accounts set up, and he's not in the door yet, even though we applied on the same day.

So, for some people like me, signup is immediate, for others it's a slower process for some reason.

I give Ally 8 stars out of 10 for now!

gr8wun: Perhaps you're right that the rates will go down, but that's still 9 months of getting twice the interest rate or better compared to most other places.

If banks don't want to lose customers to these entities they need to both lose the endless fees and start offering a more competitive interest rate in their savings accounts. Savers who shop around like the people on this site do, don't mind the ongoing hassle of moving their money and parking it wherever the best interest rates are to be found, no matter how often they have to. Maybe they wouldn't bother if the rates were within .5 % of each other, but the differences are significant enough between institutions to cause people to move their money around.

I have a feeling some of the cost savings Ally has are due to careful and astute design of their application and site to limit the need to provide customer service since things are designed properly so everything is completely simple, all automated, and can truly be EASY self-service. Some of the banks and also the other entities offering higher interest rates need to make their websites more user friendly in order to truly take advantage of the cost savings of customers being able to do everything on their own without confusion, customer service touchpoints, and frustration and delay. Some institution sites are just butt-ugly, too, regardless of usability. In any case a great site reduces their need to hire as many customer service reps, and staff is a huge portion of any company's expenditures. Who knows though - I can only guess... but when I compare the hassle it is to do some things with a major bank I deal with compared to setting up the same things on Ally, well, it's obvious which one makes managing your finances easier and faster.

Also, Ally accounts are covered by CDIC insurance:
http://www.ally.ca/en/cdic