Update 9/16/21: Deal has been extended until Dec. 31, 2021.
Update 4/13/21: Bonuses have been reduced, maximum bonus is now $3,000 instead of $3,500.
The Offer
- Ally Invest is offering commission free trading for 90 days and a bonus of up to $3,000. Bonus you receive depends on how much you deposit or transfer
The Fine Print
- The minimum qualifying deposit to receive a cash bonus is $10,000.
- Cash bonus levels are identified above.
- Accounts will be reviewed 60 days after account opening to determine the total qualifying deposit.
- Corresponding cash bonus will be credited to the account within 10 business days
- . Once the bonus is credited to the account, the bonus and qualifying deposit (minus any trading losses) is not available for withdrawal for 300 days.
- If the qualifying deposit is withdrawn, the bonus may be revoked.
Our Verdict
So you need to keep the funds in there for 60 days to trigger the bonus and then keep them in there for a total of 300 days to avoid the bonus being clawed back. We have seen the $200 bonus before, but the other levels are new as far as I’m aware and there is no targeted language this time. Comission free trading is becoming more common with things like Robinhood and Chase’s You Invest. Personally I like to keep my investments as set and forget type deals, but I know some people like to move them around for these types of bonuses.
Hat tip to Bran_Solo via Yet Another Redditor
09/09/21 – moved over $25k in investments, was charged $75 ACAT fee
09/17/21 – $75 ACAT fee refunded
11/09/21 – $250 bonus posted
How did you get the ACAT fee refunded? Tryna move from MerrillEdge
After you get your statement from the old brokerage that shows the ACAT fee, fill out the “Account Transfer Fee Reimbursement Request” form from Ally (it’s a PDF) and email both to support@invest.ally.com.
Just to warn people, I would not recommend Ally Invest and I recently switched from Ally to Schwab because of all the problems I encountered with Ally. This includes problems with their Ally Invest “Live” webpage not loading properly and not showing my account details properly. Also lots of tickers were not available on the site and I either had to phone to purchase/sell or sometimes they were not available at all. Quite a few additional functionality problems with their site as well, and really frustrating is the site is down a lot so often you can’t even get on the platform when you are attempting to trade. Although I love Ally Bank, Ally Invest is a huge thumbs down – it is terrible.
I really love Ally’s online banking service, and this bonus seemed good. I transferred shares in, and soon after realized that Ally had totally clobbered my shares’ cost bases. For each of the four tax lots I had transferred in, the correct date had been preserved (all in 2016), but the prices were totally wrong. The cost basis for each lot had been been set to the average of all of them. Worse, when I bought additional shares at Ally in the same security, the cost basis of all five lots were set to the average cost of all five lots, meaning every lot was wrong, including the one that had been purchased *at Ally!*
I called them about once per week for three months, each time explaining the issue again, waiting for the representative to get up to speed, then asking if there were any updates. At least three kind reps “stuck with” the case, contacting me later on to update me, but none were ever able to get anything fixed. Ally’s brokerage uses Apex as its clearing house, so every discussion was a painful round-trip to Apex’s support line, which I couldn’t use directly, as everything had to go through Ally support.
Eventually, an Ally rep all but told me “I don’t think we’ll be able to fix this, you might want to look at other brokerages.” It seems maintaining per-lot tax basis information is still beyond Ally’s capabilities. I did just that, and recently closed the account and moved everything back to Merrill Edge. Amusingly, I had spent so long trying to fix this issue at Ally that I was credited the bonus, and Ally did not claw it back when I closed out my account (though they did charge a $50 closing fee).
TL;DR: Ally bank’s great, but their brokerage service isn’t ready. You may endure painful paperwork issues with no resolutions.
Did you transfer ETFs or mutual funds?
Is there not an option to change the cost basis method? It sounds like the cost basis was set to average, and when you made additional purchases you lost the individual lot cost basis.
You need to make sure to change the cost basis method before making purchases, and preferably prior to transferring any assets.
There is no brokerage that i know of that charges a fee for common MUTUAL FUNDS. This may the last one. As soon as i can – get out without their clawing their bonus back…. i will
Fidelity charges 75$ to purchase something as common as vtsax. $20/50 at some other locations. Ally charges 9.95.
True, TRPrice and Vanguard will not allow their funds for free. But———–Fidelity——— offers thousands of fee-free mutual funds that are comparable. They have excellent fee-free funds. The following is from the Fidelity website “Access over 10,000 funds from hundreds of fund companies”
I have been with Fidelity for well over 20yrs. And invest in those fee-free mutual funds.
Whereas, Ally, charges, incredibly, an $9.95 fee for BOTH buying and SELLING any mutual fund. You are comparing apples to apples. Those $9.95 fees are unneccesary and eat into ones profit, big time, over time. They should be outlawed, as the funds, itself, have their OWN management fees.
I like when they were GMAC. At least we know what to expect then.
I tried setting up a brokerage account earlier this year and they ghosted me. After initial setup, I got an email to submit scans of docs proving residency. Easy enough. Then I don’t hear from them for two weeks, so I call. They said I still needed to prove residency, had no idea what happened to my electronic submission, and refused to offer any electronic way to resubmit. Sent in the paper form and copies they requested but still nothing after weeks. Only time I’ve found an account opening too aggravating to finish
Also forgot to mention I was actually excited to try their product because I heard good things about Trade King, which they bought, but I guess they killed it 🤷♂️
Had the same issue with Vanguard two years ago. These banks just don’t know where confidential documents are going whether they’re scanned or mailed to them.
Even for an Ally bank account, they wanted me to send copies of my social security card, ID, etc via email (insecure) or fax or mail; no online upload.
You will be wasting your time with these buffoons; they have tons of red tape and no knowledge of the brokerage business.
Fully agreed. I’ve had saving accounts with Ally since 2010 and am happy with their operations. But Ally Invest is the opposite. They’re amateurs when compared to ETRADE. I signed up 2 yrs ago for the bonus. It took 3 weeks to move money from a Roth IRA account with Ally Bank to Ally Invest. They only share the “Ally” name but are like two totally separate companies. Their trade operations are awful. Can’t quickly change the share price of a standing buy order. Had to cancel the old order, which took 15 minutes, before you can place a new order. In stock trading, 15 minutes is a lifetime. I closed the account after the required stay to get the bonus.
Agreed again. Almost impossible to sell bonds. No clue what they are doing and next to impossible to reach a trading desk. Forget about the computer interface; it’s terrible.
300 days? Wow
The promo has been extended until Dec. 31, 2021
Anyone know if they enforce the clawback if you take out the funds after getting bonus?