Ally Bank,  formerly known as GMAC Bank,  is an online bank designed with the needs of the consumer in mind.  The bank offers an online savings account, certificates of deposit products, and a money market account – all which are FDIC insured.

About Ally Bank

Ally Bank was built on the foundation of GMAC Financial Services.  They took their years of experience in the industry as GMAC, combined with the knowledge that the consumer has different banking needs in our existing economic conditions, and morphed into Ally Bank and a new way of doing business.  Accounts can be opened without a minimum deposit required, and you do not have to maintain a minimum monthly balance, either.  When Ally Bank says their banking charges no monthly fees – they mean there are no monthly fees.

The Ally Bank Difference

The Ally Bank mission is to be straightforward with their customers.  They strive to find the various pain points customers experience with other banks – and then eliminate them through their own practices and policies.  They don’t hide any terms or conditions – as evident in the many Ally Bank commercials circulating television and Youtube.  While the commercials are very entertaining, they also make the point well that keeping things hidden or in fine print is wrong – and claim that doing so is not how they do business.

Ally Bank alerts their customers when their money could be earning more.  For example, with their 10 day Guarantee for best rates on Certificates of Deposit products, Ally will ensure you get the best rate possible.  Most other banks don’t provide any rate guarantee, which means the CD rate you receive will never be higher than expected, but it could be lower.  Ally Bank compounds interest daily, helping your money earn more compared to banks that compound monthly, quarterly, or even annually.

Another difference between Ally Bank and many others is their understanding that not everyone lives and sleeps on the same schedule.  In order to accommodate the various lifestyles of it’s customers, Ally Bank offers customer support services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  This should eliminate some of the frustrations graveyard shift workers experience when trying to call their banks.  People who work the overnight shift are typically sleeping during the standard banker’s hours.

Since Ally Bank is an online bank, their overhead operating costs are much lower than a bank with physical branches to maintain.  The savings they receive through lower operating costs are passed through to their customers in terms of higher interest rates.  Ally Bank, being part of the GMAC family of financial products, also has an asset generation business, enabling them to put deposits to work more efficiently.  They originate competitive, quality loan assets from the GMAC mortgage and auto loan operations profitably at these deposit rates.

Financial Products Offered at Ally  Bank

Ally Bank offers a number of financial products.  If they think your money could be earning a higher rate – you’ll receive a “sleeping money alert”, letting you know you might be able to get a better rate with a different product.  Financial products available at Ally Bank include:

• 1 year classic certificate of deposit
• 9 month no penalty certificate of deposit
• online savings accounts
• money market account

How to Take Advantage of FDIC Insurance at Ally Bank

You can feel confident your deposits are safe, because Ally Bank is FDIC insured up to $250,000 per investor through December 31, 2009.  You can actually insure money over $250,000 as well.  Each individual in your family can be insured up to $250,000 on a single-name, FDIC insured savings account.

For example, Mike Smith can open an account in his name and receive full FDIC insurance coverage.  His wife, Mary Smith, can open another account in her name, and receive full FDIC insurance coverage.  The Smiths would currently be FDIC protected for $500,000.  If they still had more money to deposit, they could open a joint account, in the name of Mike and Mary Smith, and receive $250,000 FDIC insurance protection on that account, too!

In some states, you would also be allowed to open single-named accounts in children’s names.  Another option to increase your FDIC insurance protection would be to consider opening trust accounts, with the money payable to the beneficiaries of the account upon your death.

To open an account or check out the current rates for the online savings account, money market account, or certificate of deposit click here.

FNBO Direct mentioned their online savings account as an easy method of “going green” in their latest email newsletter.

I guess I’d never thought of online banking as being good for the environment before but it makes sense that electronic delivery of bank statements helps to cut down on paper waste. Here’s a statistic they quoted in their newsletter:

“If every U.S. household stopped receiving paper bills and statements, 687,000 tons of paper would be saved every year, enough to circle the Earth 239 times.”

They also pointed out that using online bill pay, whether through FNBO Direct or any other service, helps to cut down on the number of paper bills and checks each month.

Another obvious environmental savings from online banking is that you don’t have to drive to your local branch for deposits and or withdrawals (FNBO Direct ATM).

Of course, there is certainly energy required to fuel the servers that make the online banking system and document storage run but I was impressed to read that the data center for First National Bank of Omaha is powered by fuel cell technology.

Online banking with FNBO Direct, ING Direct, or any other online bank certainly isn’t going to save the world, but combined with other small changes, like being environmentally friendly at work, it can make a difference.

FNBO Direct offers an online banking account with competitive rates and is one of the options I’m considering in my search for opening an online savings account. We currently have all of our cash reserves with ING Direct and I’m looking to move some of it to another bank that offers better rates.

First National Bank of Omaha

I didn’t have FNBO Direct as one of my options until we visited some family in Omaha this weekend and I mentioned the bank to one of our relatives. He has both personal and business bank accounts with the First National Bank of Omaha, the parent bank of FNBO Direct, and has been very pleased with the service they provide and the bank as a whole. He’s a busy guy but he agreed to share his thoughts and experiences with the First National Bank of Omaha so I’ll pass those on once he has a chance to offer some more details. 

FNBO Direct

FNBO Direct started out with just an online savings account but has since added other features like online bill pay, a Visa card option, and certificates of deposit. For now I’m really most interested in the online savings account but it’s nice to see they’ve been enhancing their offerings and improving on the product. I think that shows they’re serious about providing options for their customers and that they plan on this product being around for a while.  That’s certainly the impression I got after talking with my relatives, I’ll keep you posted on what I find out about FNBO Direct.