Savings & Money Market Accounts FAQs
FAQs
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See how savings buckets work
Buckets are tools within the Ally Bank Savings and Spending 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 30 buckets for savings goals like vacations and emergencies.
See how spending buckets workSpending buckets
Spending buckets, available with our Spending 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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Of course! You’ll earn interest on all the money in your Savings or Spending Account, whether you use buckets or not.
Savings Buckets
We'll add all your interest paid to your core savings, unless you choose to have it added to a bucket. Go to your Savings Account and select Organize, then select Settings and choose Interest Paid to change the bucket.
Spending Buckets
Your interest paid will first hit your unbucketed balance and then get distributed to your buckets if you set up automatic distribution.
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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!
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Nope.
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Go to your Savings Account and select Organize using buckets to get started. You can then choose from popular savings categories, or make your own—up to 30 buckets total.
Want to learn more about buckets? Watch this quick video
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Select the bucket you want to delete, then choose Edit Bucket and then Delete Bucket.
When a bucket is deleted, the bucket's balance returns to your core savings.
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You can distribute money between your buckets using the Distribute tool in your Savings Account.
Keep in mind, any money deposited into your account goes into your core savings by default. To change your deposits setting or to distribute money, select Settings, choose How money comes in, and then select Update Settings.
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Log in, select Transfers and then select the Savings Account you want to transfer money from. Once you enter the amount you want to transfer, a Select bucket amounts link will pop up under the amount field. You can then enter the amount you want transferred from each of your buckets.
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No.
Keep in mind, while you can make unlimited bucket-to-bucket transactions, you’re still limited to 10 per statement cycle for certain types of withdrawals or transfers from your Savings Account.
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They determine which buckets your money withdraws from first. You can adjust the bucket order whenever you like, but we'll always take money out of the core savings first.
To update your withdrawal settings within your account, select Organize. Then select Settings, choose How money goes out, and then select Update Settings.
We recommend moving the buckets you're using for long-term savings (like Emergencies) to the last position.
If you only want money to be withdrawn from your Vacation bucket, for example, you should prioritize that bucket above all your other buckets and zero out your core savings.
Want to learn more about how money goes out? Watch this quick video
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Once you log in, choose Transfers. Select the account you want to transfer money from and the savings account you want the money transferred to, enter the amount you want to transfer, and then Select bucket amounts if you want to move money to specific savings buckets.
Otherwise, your money will be automatically deposited into your savings buckets according to the percentages you set in your How money comes in settings.
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Choose the round up you want to edit in your Savings Account and then choose Edit. You can only edit the bucket your round ups go into.
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You can change the savings bucket that gets your Surprise Savings transfers. Log in to your Savings Account, go to Optimize with boosters, and then select Edit in the Surprise Savings booster tile. From there, you can select any bucket you want.
You can also cancel Surprise Savings whenever you want.
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You can make 10 limited withdrawals and transfers per statement cycle from your Savings Account. There’s no fee for going over the limit, but we’ll close your account if you exceed it on more than an occasional basis.
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You can withdraw money in these four ways:
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Online funds transfer
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Outgoing wire transfer
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Telephone transfer
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Check request
We limit certain types of withdrawals and transfers from savings accounts to 10 per statement cycle. These limited transactions include Online and Mobile Banking transfers, between Ally Bank accounts or to a third party.
Some transactions are unlimited. You can make as many deposits as you like, and you can call us at any time to request a check made out to you.
We won’t ever charge excessive transaction fees. However, we’ll close your account if you exceed the limit on more than an occasional basis
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Our savings account includes buckets and boosters, designed to help you organize and optimize your savings. Like digital envelopes, savings buckets help you organize whatever you're saving for without needing multiple accounts. Boosters like Surprise Savings and Round ups are money-saving tools to help you reach your goals faster.
Our money market account doesn't have buckets and boosters, but does offer a debit card and checks.
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No, because the two account types include different features, and utilize different ways of accessing funds. Instead, a new Money Market Account must be opened. Then, you can choose to keep both accounts, or request to close the account you no longer want.
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Once you turn on Surprise Savings, our advanced analytics will compare what you normally spend in your linked checking account and identify any extra money to transfer to your Savings Account.
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The amount of money we’ll move from your tracked checking account to your Savings Account will be variable in the range of $1 to $100. We’ll only move money on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but not on bank holidays. Some weeks, we may find a little more, and some weeks, you may not get any Surprise Savings transfers at all. We’ll send you an alert after each Surprise Savings transfer has occurred.
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Yes, you can select accounts at other financial institutions for Surprise Savings and recurring transfers.
Just not round ups. Right now, you need a checking account with us to use the round ups booster in your Savings Account.
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You can only use your checking accounts, including those at other institutions, for the Surprise Savings booster.
You can only transfer this booster to an Ally Bank Savings Account.
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Boosters are a free, automated money-saving tool to help you reach your goals even faster.
At the moment, we offer these three boosters with the Ally Bank Savings Account:
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Recurring transfers are a great way to reach your savings goals without having to constantly remind yourself to set money aside.
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Surprise Savings finds money in your linked checking account that could be earning more value in your Savings Account. You can link your checking accounts at Ally Bank or at another institution to use for Surprise Savings.
Once you turn on Surprise Savings, our advanced analytics will compare what you normally spend in your linked checking account and identify any extra money to transfer to your savings.
To make sure your Surprise Savings transfers don't cause you to overdraft or get too close to $0, we'll only move money on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but not on bank holidays, and never move more than $100 at a time. We'll send you an alert after each Surprise Savings transfer has occurred. You can stop Surprise Savings whenever you want.
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Round ups track your Ally Bank Spending Account transactions to round up to the nearest dollar, then automatically transfer the money into your Savings Account once you've accrued at least $5. For example, if you spend $40.72 at a restaurant, you'll be $0.28 closer to getting a round ups transfer.
Watch a quick video about round ups
To add boosters to your account, go to Optimize.
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Once you turn on Surprise Savings, our advanced analytics compare what you normally spend in your linked checking account and identify any extra money to transfer to your Savings Account.
To make sure your Surprise Savings transfers don’t cause you to overdraft or get too close to $0, we’ll only move money on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday, but not on bank holidays, and we’ll never more than $100 at a time.
If you’re tracking your Ally Bank Spending Account, Surprise Savings transfers may end up pulling money from your spending buckets if the transfer amount is greater than your unbucketed balance.
We’ll send you an alert after each Surprise Savings transfer has occurred. You can stop Surprise Savings whenever you want.
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You can withdraw money by online electronic funds transfer, telephone transfer, check, debit card point-of-sale transactions, and ATM machine.
Keep in mind, we limit certain types of withdrawals (including Online and Mobile Banking transfers, telephone transfers, Overdraft Transfer Service, checks and point-of-sale transactions) from your Money Market Account to 10 per statement cycle. There’s no fee for going over the limit, but we’ll close your account if you exceed it on more than an occasional basis.
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Not at this time. Right now, you can only track transactions made with your Ally Bank Spending Account.
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We don't round up account fees or interest charges.
We'll pause tracking your account if you’ve reached $20 in round ups. Once we transfer the $20 to your Savings Account, we’ll resume tracking. We won't round up any transactions that occurred while tracking was paused.
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No. We check your balance before transferring any money you accrue with round ups. If your account balance is too low, we won't transfer the money. We’ll also reset your round ups progress tracker to $0.
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Yes, select the round up you want to stop in your Savings Account and choose Edit. Then select Stop tracking this account.
You can’t cancel a transfer while it’s in process, and you can’t pause round ups.
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You need to take some sort of action to help us finish adding them. Select the account from your Snapshot and follow the prompts to fix the issue.
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Round ups are one of the savings tools offered with our Savings Account.
This booster rounds up what you spend to the nearest dollar, then automatically transfers the round up amount from your Ally Bank Spending Account into your savings, once you’ve accrued at least $5.
Want to learn more about how round ups work? Watch this quick video
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We use information from your other accounts to provide you with valuable insights about your money, your habits, and your goals.
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We want to help you save in a meaningful way. That’s why each round ups transfer is between $5 and $20.
When your round ups hit $20, we’ll pause tracking your account until we transfer the $20 you've accrued.
To view the transactions we rounded up, select your round ups, choose View details and then select View activity.
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If you're certain that all of the account information you provided is correct, try contacting your other institution to make sure they allow external connections. Some institutions don't.
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It’s simple. Just choose Optimize and then select Start Rounding.
Want to learn more about how round ups work? Watch this quick video
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Sometimes the process of getting a response from your other institution can take extra time.
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The total amount saved will appear in the round ups area in your Savings Account.
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The service we use to aggregate your account information has a strong security program to ensure the confidentiality, privacy, and protection of your accounts.
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No. It’s not an investment account like a money market fund. The only thing variable about a Money Market Account is the interest rate. Your balance is FDIC-insured up to the maximum allowed by law.
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Surprise Savings is an Ally Bank Savings Account booster that helps you accelerate your savings strategy, automatically. Once you turn it on, we analyze your linked checking accounts for safe-to-save money, then transfer it to your Savings Account for you.
Getting started
To set up Surprise Savings:
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Select your Ally Savings Account from your Snapshot.
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Select Boosters.
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Select Set up Boosters (This step is on ally.com only)
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Select Start Saving on ally.com, or Track a Checking Account on our app.
From there, tell us which checking account you want us to link, and which savings account you want us to transfer the money into. You can link checking accounts from other institutions, but the transfers can only go into your Ally Bank Savings Account.
If you set up savings buckets, you can select any bucket you want for your Surprise Savings transfers to go into. You can set up multiple Surprise Savings boosters, but you can't use the same checking account twice.
Transfer frequency
To help prevent Surprise Savings transfers from causing you to overdraft or get too close to $0, we’ll only move between $1 and $100 from your tracked checking account to your Savings Account on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but not on bank holidays. The amount moved is almost always on the lower end of that range, and we won’t start a transfer if the balance in your linked account is less than $100.00.
Keep in mind: some weeks, you may not get any Surprise Savings transfers at all — it all depends on when we find money in your linked checking account that could work harder in your savings. We’ll always keep you in the loop by sending you an alert after each Surprise Savings transfer has occurred.
Surprise Savings transfers can’t be cancelled once they’re in progress, but transfers aren’t permanent. After the transfer’s complete, you can manually move the money back if you need it.
Stopping Surprise Savings
To cancel:
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Select your Ally Savings Account from your Snapshot.
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Select Boosters.
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Select Surprise Savings on ally.com, or View your Surprise Savings on our app.
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Choose Delete on ally.com, or Edit, then Stop this Surprise Savings on our app.
Your cancellation will take effect the following business day.
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