Ally $500 Bonus Offer

[euro]

Does anyone worry that they will use the information that you are able to come up with large sums of cash quickly, to classify you as a potential high value client and market this information to others?

The fact that they are only requiring you to let them hold the funds for a few weeks suggests to me that something more may be at play here.

-gauss

That may be true. I'll post back next Spring if I notice anything. That said, I have had an Ally account for many years, with balances ranging from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand dollars and I have never experienced any aggressive marketing tactics from them. Of course, they could just sell the data to third parties, I suppose, and I would never know.

 

[FlaMariner]

I tried but failed in attempting to open an account today with Ally.

Difficulty making it joint, difficulty because had accounts from a long time ago, difficult because of previous online access...Went on to chat and the wait time was 4 hours or more. Dashboard said customer service call center wait time was 1 minute but when I called and made it thru the phone prompts was told a 20 minute wait.

Perhaps this one is not for me.

 

[mn54]

can you and spouse open seperate accounts and each get up to 500 bonus?

 

[FlaMariner]

I'm sure you could but thinking Ally is not for me based on my frustrating experiences earlier today.

 

[xlf11]

You can also open your own single account and fill up a joint account form later through account service...

 

[daver]

Per the FAQs and customer rep, my existing joint Ally savings account is excluded from the offer since it is "owned by a trust" even though DW and I are the trustee's (TTEE). I might try to enroll anyways to see if the process flags the account as excluded.

The other option is to open a new account....

 

[swakyaby]

I have an existing Ally savings account, so I decided to enroll in the offer. I rationalized that the $500 bonus was enough to pay for all of my streaming services for the year: Amazon Prime, Disney plus, HBO Max, Tidal music, and the promo price for Hulu.

 

[audreyh1]

What are you paying for Disney plus?

 

[swakyaby]

What are you paying for Disney plus?

My current annual prepaid sub is $79.99, but the next annual payment due next spring is $109.99.

 

[audreyh1]

Thanks! I was just curious.

I had a great 6 month deal through Amex where they reimbursed $13.99 a month so I just ended up paying the sales tax (<$2), but I didn’t want to continue at that price. This bundle included Hulu (with commercials) and ESPN which I don’t watch.

 

[aja8888]

I have been trying to link my brokerage account for a draw of funds to Ally for two days now and every time I put in the data (account no., etc), I get an error message saying try later. After being on hold this morning for two hours with Ally, the rep said, "keep trying".

My brokerage account is already linked to PULL money from Ally but not the reverse.

Looks like I'll be passing on this deal unless the Ally servers cool down!

 

[swakyaby]

every time I put in the data (account no., etc), I get an error message saying try later.

I have my bank checking account as the hub where all brokerage funds transact through. It does mean it takes longer—cash moves from one brokerage into the checking account, then a 2nd transaction to move cash into Ally. But it’s always smooth, never an error message.

 

[Sunset]

I have been trying to link my brokerage account for a draw of funds to Ally for two days now and every time I put in the data (account no., etc), I get an error message saying try later. After being on hold this morning for two hours with Ally, the rep said, "keep trying".

My brokerage account is already linked to PULL money from Ally but not the reverse.

Looks like I'll be passing on this deal unless the Ally servers cool down!

I wonder if it's because it's NOT a checking account. Move your brokerage money into a checking account and try.

 

[aja8888]

I wonder if it's because it's NOT a checking account. Move your brokerage money into a checking account and try.

I don't think I would have enough time to set up a checking account to deposit funds into from my brokerage account and then set up Ally to pull from that. Both of those actions would probably take a few days, at least. And the funds push from one and pull from the other would take a week at least. The deal is over next Friday.

Ally has the ability to to work with outside brokerage accounts as mine is set up to pull FROM Ally. Ally's jammed up servers are the issue.

 

[daver]

Does Ally track the new money entering the account separately? If I have 20K in the account then enroll and add 50K by 10/31, 70K total, can I transfer funds in/out of the account at will as long as the balance stays above 50K through 1/15/23 to get the 500 bonus?

 

[Sunset]

I don't think I would have enough time to set up a checking account to deposit funds into from my brokerage account and then set up Ally to pull from that. Both of those actions would probably take a few days, at least. And the funds push from one and pull from the other would take a week at least. The deal is over next Friday.

Ally has the ability to to work with outside brokerage accounts as mine is set up to pull FROM Ally. Ally's jammed up servers are the issue.

The deal is not over next Friday, you have to sign up at ally by next Friday (should already have done it). Then you have until the end of the month to fund the ally account.

 

[audreyh1]

Does Ally track the new money entering the account separately? If I have 20K in the account then enroll and add 50K by 10/31, 70K total, can I transfer funds in/out of the account at will as long as the balance stays above 50K through 1/15/23 to get the 500 bonus?

I think in this scenario you would have to leave 70K in the account until 1/15/23, that’s what they mean by “new money”.

 

[aja8888]

The deal is not over next Friday, you have to sign up at ally by next Friday (should already have done it). Then you have until the end of the month to fund the ally account.

OK, thanks, I thought the funds had to be transferred in by next week . Great, I have time to mess with this.

I enrolled right after I got the email from them.

 

[audreyh1]

Yep, the deposit deadline is 10/31/22.

 

[aja8888]

Yep, the deposit deadline is 10/31/22.

I'm good as I can send them a check for deposit if need be.

 

[calmloki]

I think in this scenario you would have to leave 70K in the account until 1/15/23, that’s what they mean by “new money”.

It's my hope you are incorrect.

On Sept 29 we had $4562 in Ally. I had to come up with $25k to cover a bill and Ally is our hub account. Scraped $2k, $3k, and $15k from other accounts and they were deposited to Ally 10/12. On 10/13 $2k and $50k were deposited. On 10/14 I requested a transfer out of $16k (added to the amount at the other bank it will cover my $25k bill). That leaves $64438 in Ally and it is my intent to leave $50k in there till 1/15 but use funds above it per normal. If I go below the $50k maximum bonus deposit amount I will expect my bonus to be reduced, if I stay above it and they reduce the bonus I'll be sad. and cranky.

 

[xlf11]

I'm good as I can send them a check for deposit if need be.

You can do a mobile deposit or through website mostly turned around next business day. Also you can request a prepaid Ally envelope to mail the check if all things fail.

 

[aja8888]

You can do a mobile deposit or through website mostly turned around next business day. Also you can request a prepaid Ally envelope to mail the check if all things fail.

I'll do the mobile deposit as I have used that approach before.

 

[euro]

It's my hope you are incorrect.

On Sept 29 we had $4562 in Ally. I had to come up with $25k to cover a bill and Ally is our hub account. Scraped $2k, $3k, and $15k from other accounts and they were deposited to Ally 10/12. On 10/13 $2k and $50k were deposited. On 10/14 I requested a transfer out of $16k (added to the amount at the other bank it will cover my $25k bill). That leaves $64438 in Ally and it is my intent to leave $50k in there till 1/15 but use funds above it per normal. If I go below the $50k maximum bonus deposit amount I will expect my bonus to be reduced, if I stay above it and they reduce the bonus I'll be sad. and cranky.

My guess is that what will count as baseline is whatever the balance was at the time you signed up for the bonus. I could be wrong - I don;t intend to test the hypothesis - I'll just add 50k to the current balance and leave everything there until January

 

[aja8888]

Update

I went to my Schwab brokerage account where I had previously transferred money into from Ally. I attempted to do a transfer out to ally of $50,000.00. I almost got the transfer to work except a screen popup flashed and disappeared every time I tried. And then the transfer froze the screen.

I disabled all the popup blockers I could find (I use the Chrome browser) and kept trying with no success. I got an idea and downloaded the Brave Browser and gave it a try and SUCCESS! (transfer happens 10/17)