Ally: Bank, Auto & Invest

I will have to leave the bank if the user interface does not improve. I’ve used Ally for years and the app used to be a pretty sober pretty serious app. The user interface has gradually become toddlerfied—it looks like a banking app for iPad kids. Bold, illegible at a glance text has replaced the elegant and simple text it used to have. When you scroll through transactions, good luck spotting the dark green shade of text in a sea of black text (gone are the red and green, easily distinguishable text). Individual elements have far too much padding, take up too much space, feel like an iPad kid’s plaything. Throughout the app are randomly placed notifications saying “you can deposit money at Walmart” and I’m like ok, fine go away. Nope, can’t close it. An app should have a predictable structure and layout and these random un-closeable tips throw a wrench in that. It is a confusing mess to navigate the simple things you want to do, and it has been nerfed from a functionality standpoint, following a long tradition of developers dumbing down their once great, once powerful apps. The tragic part is there are a few functions you tap on and they bring up pop-ups that have the old, sober, technically mature user interface. It’s hidden behind this nasty skin suit it’s forced to wear. Sad!

I just signed up but am super skeptical. Firstly, my first attempt to sign up was rejected, and it was very apparent there was an issue on the backened because the rejection was immediate and never seemed to attempt processing the application for a new account. I shrugged it off and the next attempt was successful. With that out of the way, I downloaded the app, and man am I disappointed. This is an online bank, and the app does not scream Ally having very good development behind this app. It’s circa 2000 in its look and feel, and feedback when navigating the app. Honestly, it seems the app is nothing more than an embedded web browser that’s just masking as an app. Setting up access to my other bank indicated failure, yet it suddenly showed up out of nowhere as an account I can transfer funds in and out of. The last thing that’s going to make me run away from this bank is that I canceled the transfer of funds via the app, and got a big green check mark the cancellation was successful. I later logged into ally via my desktop and it shows the transfer as scheduled (not cancelled). I pull up the app the verify and the app also shows the transfer as scheduled. I attempted to cancel the transfer via the desktop and it fails. Yet when I try to cancel the transfer again via the application, it shows it as successful. this type of behavior is wildly, inconsistent and cause for concern for managing my money with this bank. Ally, you are falling way short in the user experience in both your mobile and web apps. Invest it overhauling your development teams.

For starters as a new member you’re getting screwed. the amount you can withdrawal from an atm is fairly low before they decline you from doing it. They have an extremely confusing transaction system where you will be notified twice once at the time of the transaction and then another random point throughout the next couple of days leaving you confused if you were just charged or they just drafted the the charge. Getting into contact with them is almost impossible you have to call or use the live chat option which are both awful the live chat option you’re not gonna get a response for at least 12 hours. If you try to call them you have to go through a 5 min menu selection and carefully select what department you want which by the way the “speak to a representative” option is only given to you after they read through EVERY option and then offer you to visit the website or offer an auto loan then they will ask you if you wanna speak to a representative which good luck because it’s no less than a 46-50 minute wait every time you call them. My last complaint is the fact that they hold EVERYTHING if you use cash app, Venmo, PayPal, etc and you use the “instant transfer option” that typically costs a couple bucks in return to have your money deposited instantly of course you’re looking at a 8-24 hour holding period on those funds despite paying to have it deposited immediately. If you have direct deposit set up through your job you can expect them to hold those funds too on pay day.