Why Ally Financial Is Our Favorite Online Bank (2024)

With generous account terms and easy-to-use technology Ally Financial stands out in the ever more crowded field of digital banks—making it our pick for Best Online Bank of 2023.

For people who are comfortable doing their banking through a screen rather than in-person, Ally offers a user-friendly website and app, both of which give you access to saving and budgeting tools that can help you reach your financial goals.

It’s easy to open and use Ally’s everyday deposit accounts, and we like the straightforward account terms and conditions. You can take advantage of generous interest rates Ally offers and not have those earnings eroded by monthly maintenance fees or a plethora of penalty charges.

As digital banks and fintechs have proliferated, choosing the best online bank means sorting through more options than ever. Ally offers a winning combination of being easy to use and delivering flexible, customer-friendly terms on its checking, savings and CD products. While it’s possible to find higher APYs at other online banks, Ally strikes a balance of generous returns with a customer-friendly platform.

Ally Savings Account

Ally’s flagship savings account lets you earn generous interest on your savings, and its terms are simple and easy to understand, attributes that helped make this account the top online savings account in Buy Side’s ranking. Unlike some high-yield savings accounts, you don’t need to maintain a high balance, and you earn the same interest rate on every dollar in your account. Ally also doesn’t add a bunch of fees that can detract from the interest you earn.

As with other online banks, depositing cash can be a bit of a pain: You can’t deposit cash directly, but you can deposit cash into another account and then transfer those funds into your Ally Savings account.

Both Ally’s Savings and Spending (i.e. checking) Accounts give account owners tools to set up budgets and savings goals using an online version of the “envelope system,” in which you segment your savings into different buckets based on your financial goals. You can also set up regular automatic transfers into your savings account to help build your balance.

Formerly called Ally Interest Checking, this is Ally’s interest-bearing checking account, which lets you earn interest on the cash you use for everyday purchases and bill payments. There’s no minimum deposit to open the account, no minimum balance and no monthly maintenance fees. Ally doesn’t charge overdraft fees, but it still offers customers tools they can use to avoid overdrawing, such as transfers from a linked savings account or a grace-period service it calls CoverDraft.

ATM access can sometimes be a hassle when it comes to online banks, but Ally account owners get access to the 43,000 ATMs in the Allpoint network. Ally also reimburses you up to $10 per statement cycle if you get charged for using another institution’s machine.

Even though interest rates on savings accounts have been climbing steadily, with some up to 5%, yields on checking accounts tend to be lower than on savings accounts, even at online banks, which usually have higher APYs. While Ally doesn’t have the absolutely highest APY we’ve found for a checking account, its Spending Account gives you the same rate on every dollar in the account, as opposed to some banks that tier their rates or require a minimum balance to earn the advertised rate. The combination of being able to earn interest and no-hassle banking make this account Buy Side’s top online checking account.

Ally Bank CDs

Ally offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to CDs, so you can grow your savings using the strategy that suits your needs best.

If you’re just looking for CDs with great rates so you can build a CD ladder with your savings, it has a wide range of fixed-term CDs with the generous APYs typical of online banks.

Ally is known for generous rates on its promotional CDs, so keep an eye on them if you’re looking for the best CD rates. It also offers options if you’re looking for a no-penalty CD or a “raise your rate” CD that lets you bump up your earnings.

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