Ally: Bank, Auto & Invest

I’ve been with Ally for several years now. I have a checking and savings account with them. Even when I couldn’t find a bank to finance my car loan, Ally was the only one to trust me with a car loan. I paid off that car with no issues from Ally. I would recommend Ally to everyone that I know. I realized recently how great they are. I had not used my account for over a year, probably a year and a half. So, when I called them the other day, to my surprise, my account was still open and ready to use! Amazing!!! And their live customer support is the best! I’m seeing negative comments here, but why would you use a bank for stock investments? Maybe if you are having issues with Ally’s investment program, try using companies that focus just on that, and come back to Ally once they have mastered that option. It seems that their stock investment program may need some updating, but don’t write them off just because you’ve had issues. Ally is still a great bank option.

Most mobile banking apps have limited services available that are limited to traditional “online banking” access that require logging in from a PC/Laptop but not Ally’s Mobile App! This app has all features you would need for your banking needs such as order checks, card controls, bill pay, Zelle, Mobile check deposit, transfer money internally & externally to your linked accounts, add memos to transactions, chat real time with a banking associate and even open new accounts! I love Ally for their customer service, user friendly services and their great products! Also I can not forget to add that their app is reliable, dependable and consistent- it never goes down or has glitches like other banking apps I’ve used in the past.

The Ally app is in the top 25% of financial related apps I’ve used. Over the years, it has gotten consistently better, particularly since they moved ATM finder back into the app (instead of requiring a separate download). I do have a few complaints, though. I work for a communications company that has an app in the App Store. Sometimes, due to non backwards-compatible API changes, we need to force users to update to the latest version of the app in the App Store. But, we generally do this sparingly, with great regard for the annoyance it causes users. And when possible, we support the past few versions of our app instead of only the latest release. Ally has released 5 updates in the past few weeks (good!) but forces only the absolute latest version on users (bad!) if you open a version that was released only a day ago, you can’t use the app until you go to the App Store and update. On top of that, it seems like Ally Bank is using the Staged 7-day releases feature of App Store Connect, which doesn’t auto-update the app for the majority of users until a week after the update goes live in the App Store. The end result is a massive pain as the daily use case/experience. It would be great if the “update required” feature could be used more sparingly (maybe support the last 2-3 versions instead of just the latest?) but if that’s not an option, consider turning off the Staged Rollout feature.

I don’t see why people make complaints — I’ve used the bank for years (and frankly, this isn’t the place to be reviewing the bank itself; these reviews are supposed to be for the app) and it’s been nothing but good experiences all around. For those who are complaining that it’s not a good trading app, that’s your problem... it’s a banking app and isn’t touted solely as a trading app. As far as a bank app goes, it’s functional, easy to access statements and information regarding your account, and the features a normal banking customer would utilize are perfectly fine. I’ve never had an issue and I’ve been using the app for basically as long as it’s been around. I also use other banking apps that are much less functional and useful and frankly frustrating — such as Fidelity, which IS meant to allow trading, and falls short of what it is apparently intended to do — and various others whose features are faulty at times, request you to phone the institution for certain functions, etc. Thus far, Ally’s functionality and accessibility far outrank any other financial institution’s app that I have used to date.

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I don’t normally add reviews, but this updated has compelled me to write in. I’ve been using the Ally app since 2013. This update is simply terrible. Why would you ruin something that worked just fine? No new features were added, but now we must wade through four screens worth of disclaimers on the app’s main balance screen—cluttered and confusing. The summary pie chart is now minimized and cannot be larger by default as before. Valuable, usable space is now wasted to provide room for advertising additional products. I understand that Ally is moving to provide more financial services, including investment and brokerage accounts. Please don’t lose sight of the reason so many of us switched in the first place—good, simple, no-frills banking that just works. Since Ally has no branch, the website and app are the single most important entrees for customers to interact with their bank. Releasing a new app update that shows this much lack of thought makes me concerned.