Interest Checking FAQs

Both accounts give you easy access to your money and a competitive interest rate on your balance.

Money Market Account
Federal law permits limiting the number withdrawals and transfers you can make from this account to just six per monthly statement cycle. ATM withdrawals are unlimited.

While you will receive checks and a debit card for those transactions, you won't have access to the free online bill pay service that comes with an Interest Checking Account. Remember, deposits are always unlimited and don't count towards your six transaction limit.

Interest Checking Account
There's no limit on the number of transactions you can make.

You'll also get the convenience of our online bill pay service for free. And as your checking balance grows, you could earn a higher interest rate.

There are six ways to add money to your account:

• Transfer money online between Ally Bank accounts and accounts you have at other institutions
  
• Deposit a check with Ally eCheck Deposit℠
• Use direct deposit to set up your paycheck or Social Security deposits. Download form
• Wire transfer
• Checks sent by U.S. mail (Please don't send cash)

Your account balance at the end of the day determines the rate we use to calculate your interest earned for that day. The interest you earn each day is then totaled and paid to you at the end of your monthly statement period. To see how your checking account balance can influence how much interest you earn, go to Interest Checking Rates, enter your average balance, then select Calculate.

Yes. Ally's free online bill pay is included with your Interest Checking Account— no additional enrollment is required. Once your new account is opened, you can take advantage of this secure, easy and environmentally-friendly way to pay bills.

All you'll need is your name, contact information, and social security number. If you're opening a joint account, you need that information for each account owner. If you already have an account with us, we'll ask for your online username and password, so we can securely identify you and pre-fill most of the application for you. Call us at 1-877-247-2559 if you need these or to open your account by phone.

You can access your account, make payments or move your money from your computer or mobile device. You can also:

• Use a debit card or checks for purchases and payments
• Make payments using free online Bill Pay
• Get cash back when you shop with your debit card
• Get cash from an ATM (To find a nearby ATM, use the Ally ATM & Cash Locator)
• Transfer money between your Ally accounts
• Transfer money from your Ally accounts to accounts you have at other institutions
• Submit a wire transfer request online
• Call us to get a cashier's check

This is the money that’s not tied to your buckets. If you’ve added buckets to cover all your recurring expenses, this amount represents what you truly have available in your Interest Checking Account to save or spend on other things.

No, you’ll still take care of that.

If you want, you can always set up Bill Pay with us. Just head to ally.com on a computer. Then select Payments and choose Bill Pay to get started.

You hit the max at 30 spending buckets.

It’s easy. You can have us do it automatically or you can add money whenever you want using the Distribute Money tool.

To set up automatic distributions, head to your Interest Checking Account and select Spending Buckets. Select a bucket and then choose Edit, then select We’ll do it for you under Distribution method. You can also select this option when creating a new bucket.

It depends, but ideally straight from the bucket that’s tied to the business you spent money at.

If you don’t keep some money unbucketed, things can get a bit…messy. Whenever you make a transfer or spend money at a business you haven’t tied to a bucket, we’ll pull money out of your unbucketed balance. If you don’t have any money unbucketed, we’ll have to dip into your buckets, starting with the bucket you’re planning on spending from last. That’s why it’s a good idea to always leave some money unbucketed.

As many as you want! The limit does not exist.

No, but you can move individual transactions from one bucket into another bucket.

Let’s say you normally buy groceries from a certain store, but a recent purchase there fits better with your home improvement bucket.

You can go into your groceries bucket and move that transaction over to your home improvement bucket.

Then, voilà, all of your bucket balances will be correct.

Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.

Next time you spend money at that place, just move the transaction from your unbucketed spending to whichever spending bucket you want.

If you want to always track spending at that business to your bucket, just check the box to make it happen. Poof, one move and it’s done.

Keep in mind that some unbucketed transactions won’t have this option. That’s okay, you can always move individual transactions into your bucket.

Tracking businesses unlocks the full power of spending buckets, and is the best way to keep your spending organized.

We can’t automatically track your spending if you don’t add a business.

The good news is that it’s easy to add a business to your bucket whenever you want.

You can do this by editing your bucket or by moving transactions from your unbucketed spending to your buckets.

Once you log in and select your Interest Checking Account, you’ll just need to choose Spending Buckets, select the bucket you want to edit, and then choose Edit.

You can easily change your spending bucket’s nickname right from the Edit bucket menu.

Log in and select your Interest Checking Account. Then choose Spending Buckets and select your bucket. Then choose Edit.

Head to your Interest Checking Account and select Spending Buckets. Choose the bucket you want to edit and select Edit.

From there, you can easily change how much you want to spend.

You can add savings buckets to your Online Savings Account and spending buckets to your Interest Checking Account.

Of course! You’ll earn interest on all the money in your Online Savings or Interest Checking Account, whether you use buckets or not.

Savings Buckets

You’ll see the interest paid to your savings account in your core savings unless you choose a different bucket.

To change the savings bucket that gets your interest paid, log in to your savings account and go to Organize. Then select Settings and choose Interest Paid. From there, you can select any bucket you want.

Spending Buckets

Interest paid to your checking account will first hit your unbucketed balance and then get distributed to your buckets if you set up automatic distribution. 

Of course. You can do this whether it’s a savings bucket or a spending bucket. And you can give these buckets a nickname to stay organized.

To nickname your bucket, choose the bucket in your Online Savings or Interest Checking Account you want to rename. Then select Edit Bucket.

Nope.