Ally bank website and other problems

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WiseOne
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Re: Ally bank website and other problems

Post by WiseOne » Sun Apr 14, 2019 7:02 am

Now this is interesting!

I opened a Fidelity cash management account to try it out, connected it to my bank account in both directions, added my Individual brokerage account to the overdraft list, and ran a couple of tests. First, I sent $100 to Fidelity from my bank (sent FROM the bank, not pulling from Fidelity). The cash appeared in the account (in core) and settled within a day. As soon as it showed up, I put most of it into a money market fund (FDLXX) and left just a few dollars in the core account. This trade took the usual 5 business days to settle.

As soon as that trade settled, I tried out the debit card at an ATM machine, for an amount greater than the core account but less than the amount in the money market fund. Theoretically, a debit should be covered automatically from the money market fund, and if that didn't happen for some reason, it would go to the core position in my Individual account. I expected this would be a same-day transaction, since the cash manager runs every night.

I got my cash, but to my surprise this shows up as a "cash advance", and it's debited from the account but taking the usual week or so to settle. A cash advance carries an interest charge of 26%, but other than that Fidelity's website says nothing useful about this. The amount includes the ATM fee, which is supposed to be refunded at some point. Meanwhile, the money market fund and core fund still show their previous balances and are presumably still generating interest.

This is all pretty weird stuff. I would like to use this account, but figuring out the byzantine (and undocumented) rules is going to require a lot of experimenting before I'd do anything more than test transactions. Meanwhile, anyone with experience (MangoMan?) who might know what this cash advance deal is about? Do all ATM transactions show up as a cash advance until they settle, or is this just because the core account didn't have enough in it to cover the withdrawal?
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Re: Ally bank website and other problems

Post by WiseOne » Sun Apr 14, 2019 8:41 am

Ah, I didn't catch that, sorry. Unlike you, I'd want to use the debit card to pull cash from ATM machines that aren't owned by my primary bank, to avoid fees.

I had much the same conversation with a Fidelity rep and was told the same thing, but I still thought that a test was in order. Should you ever decide to get a debit card, you now know that it apparently runs on a different set of rules from checks. And I still feel the need to check the behavior of billpay (e.g. by making a small mid-cycle payment to a credit card that also exceeds the core account balance).

I also don't know why Fidelity takes 5 business days to settle transactions, but it most definitely does. The ACH push from my bank was 1 day, but buying the Treasury MM took 5 days and this "cash advance" looks like it will also take the full 5 business days. Or longer...I have experienced up to 8 business days settlement time with Fido. Vanguard doesn't do this, and the only bank transaction I've seen take this much time is checks deposited into Ally - they allow you to use the first $200 right away, but hold the rest of the check for 5 days. This is a major source of complaints about them. Chase doesn't do this.
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Re: Ally bank website and other problems

Post by dualstow » Thu Apr 18, 2019 1:18 pm

Unable to see my tax checks (the images) for many days now. Grr.
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Re: Ally bank website and other problems

Post by WiseOne » Fri Apr 19, 2019 7:23 am

Which bank is that, dualstow?

Still testing out Fidelity. Their transfer software is seriously strange not to mention buggy. I did find that if you push from your bank to Fidelity it takes 1 day for the money to become available, but it's 3 days if you pull from Fidelity. When I tested automated investing (thankfully with small amounts) the thing failed most of the time and generated duplicate transactions with no confirmation or notification. I've used it before but not in a long time, and it looks like it's broken now.

Anyway, I've been enjoying the "Fidelity as a one stop shop" thread on Bogleheads. It appears you can get around the limitations of the CMA by creating a separate brokerage account (call it "checking"), setting its core position to the money market fund of your choice, and set the CMA to draft from this account. Keep a zero balance in the CMA and push money from your primary bank (or whatever source) to the separate "checking" brokerage. Voila, high interest checking with fast transfers and free billpay.
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dualstow
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Re: Ally bank website and other problems

Post by dualstow » Fri Apr 19, 2019 7:31 am

Ally

WiseOne’s referenced thread, I guess.
🧵 https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=266538
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Re: Ally bank website and other problems

Post by WiseOne » Fri Apr 19, 2019 7:43 am

That's the one, thanks for doing the legwork to find the thread. Happy reading.

Hope Ally fixes its software bleeps, but then again I've already given up on them which is why I'm shifting to Fidelity so I can deal with their software bleeps. I wonder if the ever-increasing number of cool features, customer base etc is leading inevitably to increasing software errors which is going to start becoming a major issue. It's one reason why I'm keeping my Chase account - their website is rock solid, and that may well be worth sacrificing a bit of interest and the occasional nasty overdraft fee.
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Re: Ally bank website and other problems

Post by ochotona » Fri Apr 19, 2019 11:52 am

WiseOne wrote:
Fri Apr 19, 2019 7:43 am
That's the one, thanks for doing the legwork to find the thread. Happy reading.

Hope Ally fixes its software bleeps, but then again I've already given up on them which is why I'm shifting to Fidelity so I can deal with their software bleeps. I wonder if the ever-increasing number of cool features, customer base etc is leading inevitably to increasing software errors which is going to start becoming a major issue. It's one reason why I'm keeping my Chase account - their website is rock solid, and that may well be worth sacrificing a bit of interest and the occasional nasty overdraft fee.
That's an argument right there for provider diversification.
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Re: Ally bank website and other problems

Post by dualstow » Thu Apr 25, 2019 1:07 pm

Fixed my Ally issues by simply switching to Firefox to log in. The only reason I tried that is because they finally emailed me to tell me I had a secure message waiting. When I logged in via Chrome, I got a mostly blank screen. Tried Firefox, and blam: all my check images are loading now.
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Re: Ally bank website and other problems

Post by WiseOne » Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:14 pm

Good to know, but that's only some of the issues - their mobile check deposit for example. Anyway, still going to switch to Fidelity. I just set up a new brokerage account for the CMA to draft from, whose core account provides the same return after-tax as Ally's account (because of state tax exemption) - and it's for both checking and savings, which are now consolidated into one account. Awesome. I discovered that you really only need the CMA for ATM withdrawals & fee reimbursements - everything else can be done from a plain brokerage account.

The one caution is that when I tested Fidelity's automatic investment feature (which I haven't used in a long time), it was an epic fail. The interface kept quitting with "unavailable" or "unable to complete your request" messages, and then I discovered that it created a whole pile of duplicate transfers with no notification or visibility until they started taking effect. I called Fidelity and got them to cancel as many as they could, but the activity resulted in a bank account freeze which I had to call to get lifted. Geez. Avoid that one like the plague guys. There was a message that the "account features" interface is being redesigned, so hopefully this will get fixed.
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