Is Ally pretty much the best choice for online savings right now?

I'm looking to downgrade my account at Citi and hold much less cash in their savings account earning 5bps.

More importantly, how are their transfer speeds when moving money between Ally and another bank? A few years ago I had an HSBC Direct online account and they were the worst. 3-5 days for the money to move, then even longer before it earned interest.

Transferred money from my non-Ally account to my Ally Savings on 4/8, was posted on my Ally account on 4/11. Did another transfer on 4/11, and it is still pending.

Shows interest accruing daily, based on my new balance after transfer from 4/8.

Hope that helps.

I know people are shying away from ING in the US now that it's been bought by Capital One, but the advantage with them is that you can have online savings AND checking, so transfers are instantaneous.

Here in Canada, ING is still ING (they weren't put up for sale) and I moved all my bank accounts to them; it makes life so much simpler. They might not have the absolute best rate anymore but for me the convenience is worth it.

Can do the same with Ally. I've got a Checking and Savings account with them, and regularly transfer money between them. Checking account comes with debit card and paper checks. I would assume most banks can do the same.

Does Ally offer free electronic funds transfers, both incoming and outgoing? I took a quick look on their website before posting here, but I only saw that incoming wire transfers were free while outgoing wire transfers had a $20 fee. However, I'm wondering about ACH electronic funds transfers, like transfer money from Ally to a different bank. Does anyone happen to know about this?

I believe they allow free ACH transfers, even Citi lets me do that.

Bank to bank electronic transfers are really the cornerstone of online banking. I do like Ally's features over ING Direct.

Yeah they are free. Been using them for 2 years or so, and haven't been hit with a fee. Not sure about checking, as I don't really use that account much. Just opened it up recently.

I always try to put in a plug for local banks when this issue comes up!

In all the cities where I have lived (in southern US states) there are local banks that are hungry for capital. They will pay you a great interest rate in your checking account and perhaps in a linked savings account too.

I currently get 2.5% on up to $15k in my checking, and 1% on the next $15k in a linked savings account. My parents, in a different city, have a local bank that still paid them around 3.5% last time I asked them.

Sometimes they don't even advertise online. Visiting a few local banks and asking about rewards checking might pay off!

I'm a fan of local banks and credit unions as well, but I think the main attraction of online banks like ING or Ally is the lack of fees. If you're paying $120/year in monthly fees on your checking account (which is not unusual, at least here in Canada where I live), you have to subtract that from the interest you earn in savings and checking to determine your actual rate. For many of us who don't keep large amounts in our bank accounts, the ultimate rate ends up being negative (i.e., you're losing money by keeping it in the bank).

I switched from my local bank to ING in 2010 and so far have saved $231 in fees. Even the credit unions where I live charge fees, same as any bank.

Wow, I'm surprised to hear about those fees! You're certainly right... if faced with a choice of high interest plus fees versus a free account with low interest, I'd take the free account for simplicy's sake.

I've never faced a fee before, and in the past I used to keep around $3-4,000 in my account. Now I keep more, but I think the minimum is only $1,000 at my current bank.

At my former bank, you could only have unlimited free checking, ATM withdrawls, and debit card transactions if you maintained a minimum balance of $5,000. And they paid something like 0.01% interest on it. Otherwise they charged a fee of $12/month. You could get cheaper packages if you do fewer transactions, but I pay for almost everything with my debit card so I was always going over the transaction limit and paying additional fees.

When I lived in the US I got used to fee-free checking, but I understand that it's no longer as widely available as it was when I lived there.

I have checked here in the Cincinnati area, and was never able to find any local banks/credit unions that came anywhere close to what I can get from Ally or ING. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but would gladly switch back to a local bank for higher returns.

Maybe I have just been lucky in the cities I've lived in. My sample size is definitely not big enough to draw any conclusions from.

Another good option to potentially check is Perkstreet. I have never used them but they will pay 2% cash back on debit card purchases. I think you have to keep a minimum balance of $5k to activate the interest.

At the end of the day, the 0-3% we get on our liquid money won't have much of an effect on net worth anyway. It's the compounding returns on investments, in tax-sheltered accounts, that will be truly significant in the long run.

I opened a money market. Going from 5 bps to 84 bps.

Pardon me, but what is "bps" in this context?