I sent Ally an initial $50k check from Bank of America to open an account. They sent the check back and charged me $7.50 for [first reason given by CSR #1] – insufficient funds (i.e. bounced check), [second reason] – illegible check, [third and official reason] I closed my account.

I kindly told CSR #1 I have VODs (verification of deposits) that I can hand them to show I’ve had more than adequate funding in my account the entire time.

I kindly asked CSR #2 what an illegible check looks like (she told me I they could not read my account numbers). Startled, I replied, my account number is printed on my checks by my bank, but I find it funny they’d take hand painted ones. She then told me she really doesn’t have access to that information (so lying is the next best thing?).

I kindly told CSR #3 that my account could not be closed because it’s not a verified external account attached to my Ally account. In which he said, did you just open the account recently? In which I responded, even if I did, it’s been open long enough for checks to have been printed and mailed to me.
Basically, I have an open and shut case with solid evidence that somewhere along the lines, Ally’s people or one of its systems screwed up.

I asked CSR #4 to whom can I fax or email this information, they told me “no one”.

Awesome! Lesson here, if Ally screws up, IT’S YOUR FAULT! Any Ally CSR, Rep or Manager want to email me with a phone number to call them, please feel free. The Better Business Bureau will be in contact with you shortly anyway.

BTW, I called BofA and asked if they had any information. They told me they never even got record of a request to withdraw funds from Ally.

Rates will keep going lower, even though the Fed will keep the benchmark rate at the current level for a while. Some banks are rather quick to move rates up when the overall environment moves to the direction of raising rates.

So I get my check and deposit it into my local bank for safe keeping. The day later they mail me a letter that I receive 4 days after that – they put a hard hold on the check even though it is an ‘official check’. I am furious at the CSR mgr on the phone last night, happens to be the same poor sap that I berated on the 13th. He finally capitulates with the above number and information.

I call the number this morning, message says the lady will be back on Monday (duh it is Monday – change your message – but her message leaves the number of her supervisor – 215-734-6287 – this is the Executive Resolution Team Supervisor). I want to talk to them because the CSR mgr says that all I have to do is talk to my bank to release the funds overnight – there is nothing Ally can do.

I sit with the poor Asst. Branch Mgr. this afternoon for 2 hours and 10 minutes as she tries and tries to get the check verified, none of the phone numbers above come up on their “411″ system as official bank numbers, therefore anyone they talk to cannot be verified as actual bank people (I am not kidding you). I enable a quasi-conference call between the local bank and Ally’s Executive Resolution Team Supervisor, and still the local bank cannot verify the anything to do with Ally, the numbers on the bottom of the check are not typical. The poor Asst. Branch Mgr. eventually gets to other branch managers in other towns as the locals are all on vacation, she breaks through to the hard hold department (she won’t give me that number)whom informs her (and I am not kidding here and the quotes are genuine), “Ally Bank is no ally of Citizens and we have problems verifying Ally Bank funds”. I am livid. My money will now be out of Citizens within a week and back to a good old credit union – check out harborone.com – their i-savings is getting 1.70 with zero hassles.

You just gave them about $50K’s worth of User Interface Design analysis for free you know. And they’re not going to bump up your CD’s rate to compensate you for the professional GUI analysis you did for them.

Also it’s hard to tell from bankrate whether Ally is now 1.95 or 1.70% yield. Dollar Savings Direct is 1.70% though.

General advice from personal experience…if you hit issues with an online application,STOP,and EXIT gracefully the current session. LOGOUT and then LOGIN and VERIFY.
If you see our wrong application online call CSR and get a live agent.Do not “click twice’. Meaning – do not re-do the application ‘hoping’ that someone (without calling CSR) will see the 2nd one and will cancel the first one.

Josephine: As I said above, maybe nothing is really Ally Bank’s fault, except this one: I didn’t complete the process of opening the CD account in my first attempt, but the account was opened anyway. But I feel that the bank can sure make things a little clearer so there will be no confusions leading to potential human errors.

In my first post, I indeed said that it’s convenient that Ally Bank allows customers to open multiple accounts at the same time rather than doing so one by one. As for adding additional fund to existing CD account, I was surprised initially that the bank doesn’t allow me to do so (believe it or not, this is the first time I have a CD account), but then I later realized that adding more money to a existing CD account doesn’t really make sense before the term difference and, maybe, rate changes. So I didn’t list that as an issue.

Every bank has its own ways of doing business. For the nearly a dozen bank accounts I own, some are extremely easy to deal with. Unfortunately, Ally Bank doesn’t belong to that category from my experience (the fact that it doesn’t allow me to change a pending transfer separates it from other banks).

I also experienced the same screen you mention (when logged in) when I went to open a new CD. While initially confusing, I just went right past it. Ally should correct that for logged in clients so they do not see the screen.

One problem you mentioned previously was adding to a CD that you already opened. You cannot do that at any bank for a traditional CD once it is open and intially funded.

I am not sure if your issues are “user error” or Ally system caused issues. Other than the one screen, I have had zero problems with Ally.

Unfortunately for most bank depositors, rates are moving down and Ally is still competitive. I still have online savings at other banks at or just above Ally’s current rate of 1.95%.

The CSR Manager when asked why this was the case, explained indeed it was shown, for if I added the interest to the previous balance I would note a discrepancy in the new balance and that discrepancy is the amount of the withholding. Outrageous.

I pulled my money – well asked that that be done – whether or not I ever get my check is yet to be seen. I was informed that I will get the 5 days interest from 7/5 – 7/13 – thats another one yet to be seen.

They also violated the law which says that a payee must be notified of the backup withholding; they never did. What irks me most that they have no interest in any customer service. I know that my measly $60k isn’t much to them, but they proved it by, in a sense saying that my account was not important to them, my business was not important, a good company would have contacted me by mail or email saying that my business is important and that if I didn’t send the signature cards I would be assessed with the withholding. But of course that never happened.

I have spent more time with these clowns over the phone than any other financial institution and it has never, ever been a pleasent experience. Now it is my one-man-crusade to tell everyone I can. I hope that others experiencing the same withholding due to ally’s ineptness will contact me at todd.gundlach@gmail.com – I plan to contact the IRS and the Massachusetts Attorney General on the withholding to see what happens. It is also worth the $20 to file a small claim, and who knows maybe it will snowball.

STAY AWAY FROM ALLY BANK, THEY ARE NO ALLY OF YOURS.