Ally Savings Review 2024: Comprehensive Analysis
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Business Insider’s personal finance team compared the Ally Savings Account to the best high-yield savings accounts and found it to be a standard offering. It’s a good, well-rounded account for avoiding fees, but its interest rate isn’t quite high enough to match the best savings accounts from online banks and credit unions.
That being said, Ally Bank is still one of the best online banks, and its high-yield savings account could still serve you well, especially if you want a savings account with buckets.
Similar to other national brands with high-yield savings accounts, Ally pays well above the average savings account interest rate and doesn’t have monthly service fees.
Overview of Ally Savings
Ally Bank‘s savings account pays 3.85% APY with no requirements for earning interest. It also doesn’t require any money to open and doesn’t charge monthly service fees.
Ally notably has online tools to help you save smarter. You can set up savings buckets to save for separate goals, such as “Emergency Fund” or “Travel Savings.” If you also have a Ally Spending Account, you can link it to savings and set up surprise savings transfers. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Ally assesses your checking balance and spending habits to determine whether you can afford to save more. If so, it transfers extra money into savings.
Ally Savings Account Rate
The Ally Savings Account interest rate is solid, although not quite as strong as the highest options from online banks and credit unions. It gives 3.85% APY, or annual percentage yield.
The average interest rate for a savings account is FDIC National Average Savings Rates according to the FDIC, so this account offers an APY multiple percentage points above the national average. That being said, there are high-yield savings accounts with no fees that offer a higher rate.
Ally Savings Account
Fees
no monthly service fee
Annual Percentage Yield (APY)
3.85%
Minimum Opening Deposit
$0
- High APY
- No minimum opening deposit
- No monthly service fees
- Savings buckets help you save for different goals
- Surprise savings transfers help you save extra money from your checking account
- No physical branch locations
- No way to deposit cash
Insider’s Take
The Ally High Yield Savings Account is a great option for anyone who wants savings tools to help save for specific financial goals, or prioritizes an account that doesn’t charge standard bank fees.
Product Details
- Create separate savings buckets in a savings account
- Link to your Ally checking account and enroll in surprise savings transfers to have extra money transferred to savings three times per week
- Interest compounded daily, paid monthly
- FDIC insured
How Ally Savings Works
Account Opening Process
Like many online banks, opening a savings account with Ally is pretty easy and quick. You can open an account online or over the phone, and you’ll need to provide some personal information, such as a government ID, a Social Security number, and your address. New accounts are usually approved within a few minutes.
Ally Savings Earnings
The Ally Savings Account is gives you several ways to earn and build savings. In addition to its high interest rate, it’s also a saving account with buckets to help you with your budget. Essentially, savings buckets are partitions for your savings account; they let you put a certain amount of your savings into different buckets, helping you organize your money. For example, if you want to save up for a down payment on a house, you can make a bucket titled “down payment” and put some of your savings into it each month, giving you a clearer idea of how much you have saved for that goal.
Ally also lets you set up monthly recurring transfers into savings buckets, so a part of your paycheck automatically goes toward each of your savings goals.
Ally refers to other perks that come with its savings account as “savings boosters.” Being able to set up a recurring transfer into your savings buckets counts as a savings booster; another booster it offers is analyzing your progress towards savings goals to help you shape how you budget.
If you also have Ally’s free checking account, you can connect it to your savings account for an additional savings booster. Ally offers Roundups, which let you round your purchases to the nearest dollar, putting the extra money into your savings account in $5 increments. It also offers Surprise Savings; if you opt-in by connecting your checking account (from Ally or otherwise), Ally automatically transfers money it thinks you won’t need to your savings account. It will never transfer more than $100 at a time, and it won’t transfer money more than three times per week.
Ally Savings Fees and Charges
The Ally Savings Account doesn’t come with any monthly service fees, so you won’t be losing money by using the account. It also doesn’t have a minimum opening deposit, so you won’t need to have a certain amount of money to open your account.
Ally doesn’t charge fees for incoming wire transfers or any ACH transfers, so you don’t need to worry about incurring any fees for transfers into your new account. You will need to pay if you want to make a wire transfer yourself, though.
Ally uses the Allpoint ATM network to provide free access to over 43,000 ATMs nationwide to its customers. If you use an Allpoint ATM, you won’t have to pay any ATM fees. If you have to use an out-of-network ATM, Ally will reimburse up to $10 of out-of-network ATM fees per statement cycle to help you avoid ATM fees.
Ally Savings User Experience and Accessibility
Ally Savings Mobile App Features
Ally has a well-rated mobile banking app on the Apple App Store, with a score of 4.7, but its score on the Google Play store isn’t as good. It only has a 2.3 on the Google Play store, so if you’re an Android user, you might want to go with another bank.
Ally Savings Online Banking Experience
You can also bank from your computer or phone using Ally’s website. Keep in mind, though, that Ally’s website doesn’t have as many features as its app. You won’t be able to deposit checks or send money with Zelle using Ally’s website.
Ally Savings Customer Service and Support
Ally offers 24/7 customer service to its banking customers. At any time, you could call its phone line for help. You can also email customer service or use Ally’s mobile banking app if you prefer those methods over talking on the phone.
Ally Savings Security
Ally, like most banks, is FDIC-insured. This means that your money is insured in case of Ally failing up to $250,000 per person, per account type. Ally also provides two-factor authentication as well as transport layer security encryption to protect your personal information.
Ally Savings Pros and Cons
Ally Savings Pros
- High interest rate than the average savings account
- No monthly fees
- Savings buckets to save for separate goals
- Surprise savings transfers to automatically save extra money
Ally Savings Cons
- Have to be comfortable banking digitally
- Can’t deposit cash
Is the Ally Savings Account Right For You?
The Ally Savings Account may be right for you if you’re looking for a savings account with lots of perks and a decent interest rate. It also might be interesting to you if you’re trying to avoid bank fees; it doesn’t charge overdraft fees, monthly service fees, or excessive transaction fees, and it reimburses out-of-network ATM fees up to $10 per statement cycle.
If you’re not comfortable with an online-only bank, you’ll probably want to go with a brick-and-mortar bank or credit union over Ally. Also, if you’re solely interested in earning a high interest rate; you might want to consider other options. You might not get quite as high an interest rate with Ally Savings versus other online savings accounts that offer over 5% APY.
Ally Savings Account Alternatives
Ally Savings Account vs. Discover Online Savings
The Ally Savings account and the Discover Savings account are very similar — they both have high interest rates, 24/7 live customer support, no minimum opening deposits, and no monthly service fees. The Discover® Online Savings Account offers 4.00% (as of 10/22/24) APY, so your choice between the two will depend on what features you want from a savings account. You’ll probably like Ally if you want to use its savings tools, like buckets or surprise savings transfers.
Your choice between the two could come down to whether you want to open other accounts, too. Discover has a checking account that offers cash back, while Ally has a checking account that pays a bit of interest.
Ally Savings Account vs. Marcus High Yield Online Savings Account
Marcus also has a high-yield savings account with no minimum balance requirements and no monthly fees. Currently, Marcus savings rates are slightly higher than Ally savings rates at 4.10% APY. It doesn’t offer automatic savings tools like Ally, though.
If you’re just looking for a savings account (and maybe a CD), you might like the Marcus High Yield Online Savings Account. But the bank doesn’t have a checking account, so if you’re wanting to do all your banking with one institution, you’ll probably prefer Ally.
Why You Should Trust Us: How We Reviewed the Ally Savings Account
At Business Insider, we use our bank account methodology to rate bank products and services. We use a scale of 0 to 5 stars to rate bank accounts. When we rate savings accounts, we look at minimum opening deposit requirements, monthly service fees, and interest rates. We also consider the overall banking experience, examining customer support availability, mobile app ratings, and ethics.
Ally Savings Account FAQs
Ally is an online-only bank. It offers one savings account, the Ally Savings account, that offers a high interest rate with very few fees. It’s also a savings account with buckets, which helps you save for specific goals.
You can open an Ally Savings account by calling Ally’s phone line or by using the Ally website. You’ll need to provide some personal information, such as your Social Security number or individual taxpayer identification number and physical address.
Ally Bank doesn’t have any monthly service fees, overdraft fees, or excessive transaction fees. It also lets you initiate ACH transfers for free, and it doesn’t charge in-network ATM fees. In addition, it will reimburse up to $10 worth of fees that out-of-network ATMs charge. However, there are still some fees associated with the account, although you’re less likely to run into them; for example, if you initiate a wire transfer, you’ll pay a $20 fee.
Yes, the Ally Savings Account is secure. It is FDIC-insured, which means the money you put in the Ally Savings Account is federally insured, up to $250,000 per depositor, per account type.
