Ally Money Market - Checking+Savings+Debit Card?

[mountainsoft]

Thanks Everyone! I have opened a Money Market account and awaiting a couple of small transfers from other accounts ($1000 from savings, $250 from one of my checking accounts). I want to make sure everything is working as planned before I move everything over and start updating accounts.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PatrickA5 Yes, that's the case now. But, it wasn't that long ago that MMFs were paying pretty much zilch and places like Ally were the "go to" options to make a little money. I was moving funds monthly from Ally to my Fidelity CMA account. My hopes are that when rates go down, the MMFs won't go to zero and will remain competitive with HYSA's.

They very much depend on the Fed Funds Rate. Generally if the Fed drops rates to zero, MMF go to zero as well. In the past high yield savings accounts maintained 0.4-0.5% at least in this scenario, so we all moved our money there. I would expect this to repeat.

[PatrickA5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 They very much depend on the Fed Funds Rate. Generally if the Fed drops rates to zero, MMF go to zero as well. In the past high yield savings accounts maintained 0.4-0.5% at least in this scenario, so we all moved our money there. I would expect this to repeat.

+1,

Some of the Talking Heads think rates will go down, but will level off at some point at a more realistic, non-zero rate. It will be interesting to see if HYSA still outperform MMFs in a non-zero environment.

[audreyh1]

I suspect it somewhat depends on the slope of the yield curve.

[Tranquility Base]

Maybe I am too late and the party is over. But for future reference....


I've had a checking account and a savings account at Ally for most of ten year. For the most part, everything has worked well. Sometimes, their website seems to be locked up and I get an error message stating I can't make my transaction at that time. Even though that tends to happen at very inopportune times, those things seem to clear themselves up in a few minutes.


The other problem I have had with Ally is opening CDs. I opened several CDs earlier this year when Ally and others had special deals in the wake of various bank closures, in an attempt to try to keep money from leaving the bank. The first CD was supposed to be joint with my wife but maybe I missed something or went too fast in completing the online forms because the CD was opened in just my name. But I was able to correct that easily with someone over the phone.


A few minutes later I opened a second CD and this time I was very slow, methodical, deliberate and careful. I did not drive through any stop signs. Nonetheless, the CD was still opened in both our names. I was again able to correct it over the phone but ever since then I've just gone with brokered CDs through Schwab. The process is just faster all the way around at Schwab, even if Ally did manage to get the CD opened in both my name and my wife's name in the first place.



One minor annoyance with Ally involves bill paying with electronic funds transfers and how they notify me when my "check" has been cashed. The bill payment process is smooth enough; my issue is with the notification I receive when the payment has been made. At Wells Fargo in the past, the email notice of a debit to my checking account would tell me that my account had been debited and it gave me the amount of the debit (or check) and the name of the payee. Ally's notices only tell me the amount. I have to look up in my records to find the transaction if I can't remember it. How stupid is that? Fortunately, there are only a few monthly bills that I don't pay with a credit card so it is a small inconvenience as those things go. But it just seems to be a stupid way of doing things.


When I called Ally about it they gave me some answer that made no sense; something about the payee's information not being transmitted to Ally. Huh? I have to enter the payee in order to set up the payment. And how did Ally pay on the check, make the ACH or the EFT without knowing who to give the money to? It was not like that at Wells Fargo. (I can't believe I am saying anything good about Wells Fargo; please don't hold it against me.)



Whose dumb idea was it for Ally to start calling checking accounts "spending" accounts? I realize paper checks aren't used that often. But the phrase "spending account" just seems to destined to confuse everyone.


All that being said, I am mostly happy at Ally. I don't think they will ever have the best rates but they are competitive enough for me most of the time. If they aren't, I just park some money in a short term US Treasury. There's only so much chasing around and moving money around that I am interested in doing. So no plans to leave Ally at this time.

[stephenson]

cheesehead, which of the Fidelity MMF pays 5.2? Thanks!

[COcheesehead]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephenson cheesehead, which of the fidelity mmf pays 5.2? Thanks!

fzdxx

[stephenson]

OK - just pulled quick comparo screen shots on both ... different mix. Doesn't look like FZDXX can be used as core position, but FZFXX can.

So, I could be moving unused cash into FZDXX for a .2 or so premium over SPAXX?

[COcheesehead]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephenson OK - just pulled quick comparo screen shots on both ... different mix. Doesn't look like FZDXX can be used as core position, but FZFXX can. So, I could be moving unused cash into FZDXX for a .2 or so premium over SPAXX?

It can be used as a core substitute. I have to do manual buys, but once your core is depleted, Fido will pull from the money market. So sells are automatic. So I don’t keep anything in core, just buy FZDXX as needed.

[Dtail]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephenson OK - just pulled quick comparo screen shots on both ... different mix. Doesn't look like FZDXX can be used as core position, but FZFXX can. So, I could be moving unused cash into FZDXX for a .2 or so premium over SPAXX?

When the cash accumulates from my brokered CD's, I do move it to FZDXX. It takes about 1 minute.

[euro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dtail When the cash accumulates from my brokered CD's, I do move it to FZDXX. It takes about 1 minute.

Doesn't FZDXX have a 100k minimum?

[Dtail]

Quote:

Originally Posted by euro Doesn't FZDXX have a 100k minimum?

Yes it does, but just when one establishes the fund. There is no minimum balance once one establishes the 100k amount.
There are a few posters here who stated that Fidelity closed their FZDXX account due to possibly low balances.
Not for me, as one example there are 974 dollars in one FZDXX account and that balance has been there for years.

[braumeister]

Also, it only needs $10K to open in an IRA.

[MJ]

I've also been a long time customer of Ally. I don't believe it was mentioned here but their money market has been 15 points higher than their savings for quite awhile. In the past, their MM was much lower. I have wondered if they "bank" on existing customers not knowing or noticing the higher rate while marketting their higher MM rate to new customers. Just a thought.

[euro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dtail Yes it does, but just when one establishes the fund. There is no minimum balance once one establishes the 100k amount. There are a few posters here who stated that Fidelity closed their FZDXX account due to possibly low balances. Not for me, as one example there are 974 dollars in one FZDXX account and that balance has been there for years.

Good to know - thanks!