Interest Checking FAQs
FAQs
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No.
Keep in mind, while you can make unlimited bucket-to-bucket transactions, you're still limited to six account withdrawals or transfers from your Savings Account per statement cycle.
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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.
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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)
- Transfer money online between Ally Bank accounts and accounts you have at other institutions
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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You can select the Activity tab within your account to see your recent activity all in one easy-to-find place.
If you want your recent activity to show first every time you log in, follow these steps:
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Log in to your account from a computer and select your checking account
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Choose Customize
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Select Activity
This customization feature isn’t currently available in our app, but will be soon.
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FDIC insurance doesn’t apply to individual spending or savings buckets, however, your deposits are insured up to the maximum allowed by law. Beneficiaries can’t be added to individual buckets–they’re listed at the account level.
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Yes, they’re a free tool for you to use within our checking and savings accounts.
Spending Buckets FAQs
General
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In a nutshell, you don’t need multiple bank accounts and spreadsheets to manage your spending.
We created spending buckets to help you reserve money within your Interest Checking Account for anything you have coming up.
Add businesses to your buckets, and we’ll automatically take money out as you spend to help you stay organized.
The best part is it’s totally free.
If you also have an Online Savings Account with us, you can use spending buckets alongside our savings buckets to better organize all your financial goals.
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They’re both the same and different at the same time! We’ll explain:
Spending buckets come with your Interest Checking Account. They help you manage your spending. Things like bills, groceries, gas, and other recurring expenses are great examples of spending buckets you can add.
Savings buckets come with your Savings Account. They help you save for your future goals. Emergencies, your wedding, gifts – these all make great savings buckets.
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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.
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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.
Creating buckets
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You hit the max at 30 spending buckets.
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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.
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Each morning, we’ll check to see if you have any unbucketed money in your account. If you do, we’ll:
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Look for buckets that have automatic distributions set up
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Find buckets that haven’t reached their target spend amount yet within a spending cycle
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Move money to the bucket you’re planning to spend from first
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Continue moving money to your buckets by date needed until they reach their target amount or your unbucketed balance hits zero
Allow a day for us to distribute any new money that comes into your account to your buckets.
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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.
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As many as you want! The limit does not exist.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Managing buckets
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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.
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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.
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It’s easy. Just follow these simple steps.
Online:
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Log in and head to your Interest Checking Account
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Choose Spending Buckets and select your bucket
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Select Delete bucket
Mobile app:
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Log in and head to your Interest Checking Account
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Choose Spending Buckets and select your bucket
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Choose Edit, then select Delete bucket
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Things don’t always go according to plan. That’s okay. As long as you have money in your Interest Checking Account, your transaction will still go through.
Here’s what happens: We’ll distribute money from your unbucketed balance to the bucket you overspent. If your unbucketed balance hits $0, we’ll move money from your other buckets, starting with the bucket you’re going to spend from last.
We’ll alert you if you overspend your bucket balance and show you which buckets we distributed money from in your bucket activity. You can always go to Distribute Money to adjust your bucket balances however you’d like.
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You can always turn off automatic distributions if you want to take a more hands-on approach to your spending.
Here’s how:
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Log in and select your Interest Checking Account
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Select the bucket you want to edit within the spending buckets tab
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Choose Edit, and then select You do it yourself under Distribution Method
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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.
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Each morning, if you have automatic distributions set up, we check to see if you have unbucketed money in your account to move to your buckets.
Here are some reasons why you might not see an automatic distribution:
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You didn’t have any unbucketed money available to move to your buckets
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You didn’t have enough unbucketed money to fill all your buckets
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We already distributed the amount you needed to your bucket during that spending cycle (including any left-over money from a previous cycle)
To help you stick to your plan, we won’t replenish your bucket every time you spend (or distribute money) from it.
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Buckets and boosters are tools to help you grow your money faster. Buckets are available in both our Interest Checking and Online Savings Accounts. Boosters are only available in our Online Savings Account right now.
Savings Buckets and Boosters
Savings buckets let you divvy up your savings into categories so you can organize and visualize your savings goals. You can create up to 10 savings buckets for things like emergencies, home improvements and vacations.
Savings boosters help you save a little here and there, consistently, making it faster and easier to grow your savings. We currently offer three types of boosters:
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Recurring transfers: We move money into your savings according to the dollar amount and schedule you set.
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Round ups: We’ll track your Ally Bank Interest Checking Account for transactions we can round up to the nearest dollar, then transfer the money to your savings.
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Surprise Savings: We analyze your linked checking account for safe-to-save money and automatically transfer it to your savings.
After your account is open, you can set up savings buckets or boosters by logging in and selecting Organize using buckets and Optimize with boosters.
Spending Buckets
You don’t need multiple bank accounts and spreadsheets to manage your spending.
We created spending buckets to help you reserve money within your Interest Checking Account for anything you have coming up.
Once you start spending the money you’ve set aside, we’ll automatically take it out of your bucket to help you stay organized. Best of all, it’s totally free.
To set up spending buckets, select your checking account after logging in and choose the Spending Buckets tab.
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Buckets are tools within the Ally Bank Savings and Interest Checking Accounts that help you organize the money in your account into different categories.
Savings buckets
Available with our Savings Account, you can create up to 10 buckets for savings goals like vacations and emergencies.
Spending buckets
Spending buckets, available with our Interest Checking Account, are a great way to set money aside for ongoing expenses. You can track your spending across different categories by adding businesses or moving individual transactions to your buckets.
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Yes, you can. To set up recurring transfers, select Optimize with boosters, and then select Start Saving in the recurring transfers booster tile. From there, you can select the amount, set the frequency, and choose how you want it distributed to your buckets. You can also edit any recurring transfers you’ve already set up.
Any existing recurring transfers you have set up to go into your Savings Account will continue and show as a booster. By default, your existing recurring transfers will go into your core savings bucket.
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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.
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Nope.