Ally Bank VS Earn Bank

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 3.5 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 5.0 Star Icon
3.80%APY
Savings/MMA
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Pros:

  • Competitive interest rates on accounts
  • No required opening amounts or fees
  • Good variety of accounts available
  • Ten-day Best Rate Guarantee

Cons:

  • Accounts have tiered interest rates
  • Limited ways to fund your accounts
  • Link external accounts to Ally accounts
  • Transfers can take days to fund
  • Financial Rates: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 3.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 4.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
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Pros:

  • Competitive interest rates on accounts
  • Low opening required amount for MMA
  • No tiered interest rates on accounts
  • Accounts are entirely online

Cons:

  • CDs have high opening required amounts
  • MMA has monthly maintenance fees
  • Must link accounts to external account
  • Limited accounts offered
Ally Bank Review

Ally accounts offer competitive interest rates. The interest rates for the Ally savings account is 2.20% for all balances. The checking account earns 0.60% on balances over $15,000. The money market account and CDs also earn competitive rates.

Ally accounts do not have required opening amounts. You can open their accounts with any amount. There are no monthly fees for Ally accounts. They do not have set amounts required to keep in the account to avoid a monthly fee. The CDs have a fee if you withdraw money before the maturity date.

There are a good variety of personal accounts offered through Ally. These accounts include:

  • Savings and money market account
  • Interest checking account
  • High yield CD
  • Raise Your Rate CD
  • No Penalty CD
  • IRA CDs

When you open a CD with Ally, they offer a ten-day Best Rate Guarantee. For the first ten-days after opening your CD, Ally will watch the interest rates. If the rates increase during that time, the interest rate for your CD will increase. This guarantee is for new CDs as well as CD renewals.

Some Ally accounts have tiered interest rates. To earn the highest rates requires high account balances. The money market account requires $25,000 to earn the most competitive rates. The checking account requires $15,000.

There are limited ways to fund your Ally accounts. The easiest way to fund your account is through electronic transfers. Once your account is open, you can set up direct deposit with your employer. You can mail in a check or deposit a check through Ally eCheck Deposits. You cannot deposit cash into Ally accounts.

To make electronic transfers, Ally suggests linking an external account. You can then transfer money electronically between the linked account and Ally accounts. You can transfer money electronically between Ally accounts.

The standard time to transfer money from Ally to an external account is three business days. This time does not include weekends or holidays. If you need the money the next day, you must request the transfer before 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Transfers between Ally accounts are immediate.

Read the full Ally Bank review.

Earn Bank Review

earn.bank accounts offer competitive interest rates. The rates are competitive with other online accounts. Their interest rates are much higher than typical bank rates.

The money market account through earn.bank has a low opening required amount. To open this account only requires $100.

The earn.bank money market account does not have tiered interest rates. You do not have to have a set amount in the account to earn the most competitive interest rate.

All earn.bank accounts are entirely online. You can open their money market account or CD terms from anywhere. Because they are an online bank, the interest rates are much higher than typical bank rates. To open an account, you must have a social security number and a government issued ID. You must have the amount required to open the account. You can fund the initial amount with a credit card, or external savings or checking account.

To open a CD with earn.bank requires a large sum. Each of the CD terms require $25,000 to open. The CD terms available are a one-year and a two-year.

The money market account has a monthly maintenance fee of $10. To waive this fee requires an account balance of $10,000. This fee is not assessed for the first three months of opening the account. After that time, if you do not have a $10,000 balance, you will be charged $10 each month that the balance is below $10,000. There is also a $25 paper statement fee. Avoid this fee by signing up for electronic statements.

The easiest way to withdraw money from your MMA is to link the account to an external account. The linked account allows you to also deposit money easily into your earn.bank accounts. You can withdraw money through a wire transfer by calling customer service.

earn.bank does not offer a wide variety of accounts. They only offer one personal deposit money market account and two CD terms. The CD terms offered are a one-year and two-year term. They do not offer checking accounts, savings accounts, or business accounts.

Read the full Earn Bank review.

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