GMAC/ALLY to ???

we went to a rewards checking account -- patriot bank in Florida has a 50k max at 4 percent for now -- 10 card tx, 1 dd / ach pay, and log in / estatements.

If you want stable rates to park your money long-time, savings account is not the right investment medium, IMO. CD is a much better investment for such things.
No bank is going to tell you whether they will have the rates stable over time or not. Sometimes, even history is not an indicator - EmigrantDirect, for instance, had great rates for years before they decided to let the rates stay low.

Just my $0.02

Still don't see a better alternative for ACH hub than Ally at the moment. To compete, it has to offer 1 day ACH (in & out) and it has to offer ability to link many accounts. CapOne only offers that for incoming ACH, not outgoing. Discover doesn't seem to offer that either on incoming or outgoing.

whats the ACH time for Alliant?

Another vote for Alliant if you don't want to deal with rewards checking.

FuzzyWombat said: Alliant requires employment at a certain company... chances are if you work for a small company, you don't qualify. What's the next best place?

With Alliant, you just have to be a member of the national or any local PTA, usually around 5 or 10 bucks. Even with no kids, you can join, often with a phone call and dropping off or mailing in a check......Or, you can join the national one for around 20 (online), or you can join it where your family members or relatives have kids......

beethovengirl said: jburger said: Still don't see a better alternative for ACH hub than Ally at the moment. To compete, it has to offer 1 day ACH (in & out) and it has to offer ability to link many accounts. CapOne only offers that for incoming ACH, not outgoing. Discover doesn't seem to offer that either on incoming or outgoing.
I *think* AMEX and Union FSB might offer 1 day ACH but I'm not certain. I tried asking in the AMEX Savings thread but I didn't get a straight answer. I'm primarily concerned about minimizing interest loss.

I got the impression Union FSB may from this thread, but no one has reported on this account recently.

FYI, at Alliant, there is no interest loss on incoming transfers but for reasons I don't understand, the transfer does not take place until 2 days after you've requested it (i.e. external acct is debited the same day Alliant is credited); on outgoing transfers, they are debited immediately and credited to external acct 2 days later. Also, Alliant limits ACH transfers to $10k per day, which is problematic for me, so I'm looking for a more flexible ACH hub.

More info in this thread (which needs to be updated):


http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/920591

AMEX would have been my choice if they had stayed at 1.85%.

I opened an SFGIDirect account a few weeks back (2.25%). It's the online division of Summit Community.

The ACH is fast, but you can currently only have 1 external account linked so you'll need a different place for a hub.

Should I be concerned if I have a CD with Ally that would mature in summer of '10 ?

AVakil said: I went to ShoreBank Direct. 2.15%

Yeah, it is 2.15% but when they were 1/2 point greater than GMAC ally I moved a bunch of AOR money via a pull and they held the funds for 5 BD without interest. It took 20 days to make up the interest lost. Always push with them.

quizzer25 said: The only thing that bothers me with Alliant is their hard credit pull. Why do they do a hard if we are not getting any "credit" from them?

Don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that this seems to be the standard practice among credit unions.

As beethovengirl mentioned there is another (huge) thread with info about Alliant, but two things I'll mention here:

(1) While it's sad the we have to call 2.00% APY "high" these days, Alliant has clearly been the most consistent nationally-available institution for liquid-account rates. For the 18 months I've had an account there, they have usually been at or near the very top. And when they sink some it's still highly competitive and then back at or near the very top within 1-4 months. Their savings has stayed at 2.00 for something like 4 months now, as others sink (or rise just temporarily, sometimes with onerous restrictions). One thing I really like is that Alliant never changes the savings rate more than monthly, at the beginning of the month. E.g., they have already announce that the rate will stay at 2.00 through at least the end of November. For that matter, the checking (which is free, virtually unrestricted, and also has transfer capabilities) has stayed at 1.75% APY during this time.

(2) Many readers who happen to live in areas that are fairly close to Alliant's Chicago O'Hare area HQ will receive free membership -- no need to join the PTA. And there is a not-too-short list of companies whose employees also automatically qualify. These are not all small companies. One is United Airlines, of course, As Alliant started as United's CU.

Tried to Summarize here. The bad thing under each parameter about each bank is underlined

Parameter Alliant Costco/Cap1 Discover AMEX
Credit Pull Hard Soft Soft Soft
Int % 2 ~1.93 1.85 1.7
Min Amount 100 5000/15000 100 100
Cust Service Excellent Average Bad Excellent
Rating 3 4 4 4
Special Req Member Costco NA NA
Int Stability Excellent Excellent New New
ACH Not an issue if pulled/pushed from Ally
Hold Period - 10/6 10/6 -

quizzer25 said: The only thing that bothers me with Alliant is their hard credit pull. Why do they do a hard if we are not getting any "credit" from them?
Stop being OCD about your credit score. Unless you're buying or refinancing a house this month, WHO THE FSCK CARES?!?

goodbad said: Sorry to ask you a silly question, Is GMAC/Ally is closing ? Is some thing wrong with this bank recently. My uncle has an account in this bank and he is worrying. Please help me.
Assuming your uncle is under the FDIC insurance limit (temporarily $250,000, but it may revert to $100,000 in the future), then he should relax. While GMAC is struggling, all of the available information shows that Ally, which as a bank has its own capital requirements, is well-funded. Even if Ally were to fail, the FDIC would either sell it to a healthy bank or (much less likely) manage it themselves until they could organize an orderly shutdown. Either way, your uncle would get all of his money bank.

Usually, the worst that happens in an FDIC seizure is that people lose access to their account over a weekend. The FDIC typically seizes the bank Friday night, spends the weekend sorting things out, and reopens the bank under new management on Monday. It's more complicated for people with money over the insurance limits, so different considerations may apply if that's the case.

Thanks to all giving me the information.
Special thanks to "ThePessimist" and "frank10b". My uncle is under insurance limit and i will let him know that he should not worry.

Great site....

goodbad said: Thanks to all giving me the information.
Special thanks to "ThePessimist" and "frank10b". My uncle is under insurance limit and i will let him know that he should not worry.

Great site....

The only possible concern (but a highly unlikely one) would if your uncle obtained an Ally CD through a broker instead of directly from from the bank.

hdpq said: Good article about Ally Bank
in today's WSJ about their rate dropping.
Since there doesn't appear to be a free way to access the article, could you summarize, please?

DummyO said: I think http://ratebrain.com/ is a great site for this question. It has seperate areas for Checkings, Savings, and CDs. You can look at interest rate history (SFGI stable since it opened - end of July) too.

It'll ping you with weekly summaries and you can get alerts for individual banks too.

Yea, this RateBrain site is pretty darn good. Also shows graphs of bank rates so you can see visually what happens to the rates...check out how often Umbrella Bank updates their rates http://ratebrain.com/umbrella-bank-1-year-cd

quizzer25 said: The only thing that bothers me with Alliant is their hard credit pull. Why do they do a hard if we are not getting any "credit" from them?
Because they want to sell you loans.