Update 08/23/18: Bonus has been increased to $150 (from $100) after $500 in spend. Still not very attractive. Hat tip to reader Steve
As I predicted yesterday, Ally Bank has released its first credit card called simply ‘CashBack’. The card is issued by T.D Bank and apparently Ally are using this to gauge interest before possibly releasing cards issued by themselves in the future. Let’s take a quick look at the features and benefits of this card:
- No annual fee
- Sign up bonus of $150 after $500 in spend within the first three billing cycles
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 2% cash back at gas stations and grocery stores
- 1% cash back on all other purchase
- Get a 10% Ally Deposit Bonus when you deposit your cash rewards into an eligible Ally Bank account
- No cap on the amount of rewards you can earn
- 0% Introductory APR for first twelve billing cycles
Our Verdict
This card is pretty useless, let’s see why:
- You can earn up to 2% cash back on all purchases (this card offers a maximum of 1.1%)
- You can earn up to 5% cash back on gas (this card offers a maximum of 2.2%)
- You can earn up to 3% cash back on groceries with no cap, or up to 5-6% with a cap (this card offers a maximum of 2.2%)
- There are a lot of cards with a higher sign up bonus than $100 in cash.
It’s good to see Ally getting into the credit card space as they are a pretty good bank, but this offer just isn’t of interest to me at all, fingers crossed they come up with something better.
It’s now confirmed on the ally site that the Card relationship has ended as of the 17th, but you can keep using the card through TD. One less bonus, damn.
Ally and TD are parting ways on this. Just got letter. This card will be purely TD now.
Are they converting you to a different TD card?
There was no mention of that. I didn’t want to deal with a different bank, so I’m closing it. If I’m to get a different card, I want to apply directly and get a bonus, (which is the only reason I got this one) so no point keeping this.
FYI I no longer see the card on their website.
Hmm
Ally and TD are parting ways on this. Just got letter. This card will be purely TD now.
Bonus posted shortly after meeting min. spend. I can confirm you do get the 10% deposit bonus on the signup bonus, effectively making it $165 for Ally Bank customers. Easy money!
“Application is processing. You will be notified by mail”
Yeah thats gonna be a denial. Only amex will approve me anymore and I’ve already got every amex card. I guess I have to dust off the old Doublecash for a while.
Did this end up as a denial? Someone above got the same response and the letter asked them to call in. They did and were approved. I’m in the same boat. Basically shut off from every issuer, so I’ll just earn 2% cash back on my purchases for a while and maybe wait for the odd one-off issuers that will still let me in the door.
I got the same message, but got approved. I see the credit card when I login Ally even though I didn’t get anything in the mail yet.
The 0% intro 12 month APR (in combination with the $150 bonus) may be of benefit to some folks. Does anybody have DP on what they give for their initial credit limit?
Agree with the posters here in saying that
– if you don’t go down the rabbit hole of manufactured spending; and
– you have 15 other credit cards on which you’ve gotten higher dollar signup bonuses; and
– you’re interested in cash and not hotel/airline points
…a $150 bonus for a $500 spend is great and very easy return.
Ally is a suspect bank; be careful! My account there was breached through some in-house shady dealings right after I made an ACH transfer.
This isn’t that bad. I don’t fly. I don’t own a business. I don’t chase bonuses that carry an AF. As far as cash bonuses go, 150/500 is respectable. Maybe not worth doing for the HP, but worth considering. I would not get it as a regular, everyday card for the reasons listed in the post.
A all the hate on $150 free dollars? Always looking to throw another bank into an app-o-rama. Also interested in seeing if it’s churnable…
No hate, just innumerable higher targets out there. Why not get the BoA Cash Rewards (currently at $200 for $500 spend –> can be increased to $350 bonus depending on your BoA relationship) if you are not limited with your BoA apps currently? You can even get multiple of them AND the card is ACTUALLY useful beyond the bonus…many many better fish in the sea currently.
Was denied the BoA Cash Rewards this month and finally got the denial letter which said it was because of “too many accts” opened recently. This year I did two Chase’s for $150/$200 after $500 spend (Freedom Plus and Disney) so I guess BoA has implemented also some kind of rule that not too many cards can be opened. So, I will go for this Ally one instead… if $150 is all I can get (if approved) that’s good enough for me I guess
Open up a checking account with BoA and try calling recon…seems to be the way to get this to work. Two accounts this year is definitely not something that should deny you even from BoA, so that was likely just a BS reason.