Update 3/2/25: Good through 12/31/25. Lookback period has also been changed for previous customers.
note if you are already an Ally customer (with any Ally product), or has had any Ally account open since January 1, 2024 (was June 1, 2023), you are not eligible to participate in this Program as a New Friend.
Extended to 04/30/25
Update 8/8/24: This is now an open program and no direct deposit is required.
- Enroll in our referral program by 12/31/2024.
- Open a new Ally Bank Savings Account within 30 days of enrollment.
- Set up (within your new account) and start a qualifying monthly automated recurring transfer within 30 days of account opening.
- Complete at least 3 back-to-back monthly automated recurring transfers.
Ally has launched a pilot referral program. The person being referred receives a $100 bonus and the person referring receives a $50 referral bonus. The person being referred needs to receive a direct deposit within 60 days of sign up to receive the bonus. The standard Ally bonus is 1% of the deposit and that is available for new & existing customers, as that offer works for existing customers you’d be able to do both of these if that offer returns.
You can find a referral link in this dedicated comments thread. Do not share or request referrals in the comments below.
I just received email for this, too. The thing I don’t understand is are people still clamoring to sign up for ally?
Good news for those who haven’t received an email from Ally about their referral link!
Saw this message in my online account: Share and earn rewards! Your personal referral link is now in your profile. Grab it here.
Under Personal Information, there is this message: Invite friends, let the cash roll in. Refer a friend to Ally and you both could get paid. Learn how. I can click “Learn How” to see the referral link.
Not sure if this has been rolled out to all Ally accounts.
Negative DP, not good news. No, P1 does not have that link under the profile.
https://secure.ally.com/profile
P2 does, whom already had the link from the Ally emails.
I actually searched my email inbox this weekend. I’ve been an Ally member since 2018. Not once have they sent me any promotional or informational emails. P2 gets bombed with emails about Ally Invest… and just last week, an email about mobile check deposit as an account feature, for example.
And yes, before someone suggests it, P1 is opted into promotional emails in Ally’s Privacy Preferences settings. Last year, I even toggled it to “Off”, then back “On”.
I contacted support twice about opting into promo emails, and they are hellbent on ignoring the question and instead just tell me about the referral program.
I remember Ally often includes languages like they reserve the right to disallow you to participate in this offer or any future offers. Maybe somehow there is a gamer or abuser flag on your account? I hope not.
I’d say that is unlikely. Pretty much any offer I’ve done, P2 would have done.
And I have participated in their public offers for savings account balances and a checking account, without issue. They like to use the terms about “fair play”, and always paid out regardless, so I cannot be too evil.
I’ve been an Ally account holder since 2018 too. Like you, not once have I been targeted for any sort of promotion.
~20 minutes ago I received an email regarding the referral link that is available in my profile. Hopefully you get yours soon.
Gadget 🕵️♂️ Bank Bonus Geek 🔗
Yeah, I saw your DP on the Contact Us page.
It’s not that I don’t get promotional emails… they send me nothing other than account status emails, like when I submit a transfer, the kind you cannot unsubscribe from.
Conversely, just this month, not even two weeks into March, my P2 has received:
“Congrats! Here’s 6 months of fee-waived financial guidance with Ally Invest Personal Advice.”
“(Name), a pre-approved credit card with a 0% intro APR has your name on it”
“Digitally deposit your check”
So you’re saying they haven’t been a very good ally to you?
They have paid me the savings account bonuses in the past, so that was very nice. Guess they are my silent partner.
I just got an email about this
I was just about to post the same thing. I had previously received an Ally referral link though. Had you?
Nope, never AFAIK
Can my “qualifying monthly automated recurring transfer” just be a penny a month for three months? Or am I missing something?
In theory, it should work as the terms do not specify a minimum amount for the automated recurring transfer, and the terms document does say “a monthly automated recurring transfer of any amount.” In practice, I would do at least a few dollars just to be on the safe side (i.e., in case Ally cites reasons of abusing or gaming the offer).
Less than a $1 transfers might get seen as trial deposits and not count. Not worth missing out on a bonus to save a few cents in interest.
DrDeals
I think Ally wants you to set up the automatic recurring transfer from Ally, so it will be an ACH pull if the money is from an externa account. Even that can be considered trial deposits? I haven’t seen this before.
Regardless, whether you want to chalk it up to not looking like a gamer, or not looking like a system-generated small transaction, I would make it $2 or more.
It does say the money does need to go INTO the new savings account.
FAQ:
How do I set up a qualifying recurring monthly automated transfer in my newly opened Ally Bank Savings Account?
“Log in to your new Ally Bank account using your credentials and navigate to ‘Transfers’ which can be found in the main menu or dashboard. From there, follow the steps to set up a transfer and select the frequency at which you want the transfer to occur. Keep in mind, the program requires you to complete an automated recurring transfer into your newly opened Ally Bank Savings Account at least once a month for at least 3 months in a row.”
Um, maybe I did not explain well, I meant Ally wants you to log into your Ally account to set up the automatic recurring transfer (of money into Ally Savings), so it will be an ACH pull. If the automatic recurring transfer is an ACH push (into Ally) from another account, I can understand it may be considered trial deposits as you said.
You explained it very well before as I understood exactly what you meant. Your latest comment reminds me of this comment: #1853747 . I will never apologize to someone for them having poor reading comprehension skills but you and
midas89 are nicer than I am. 😀
Don’t you have someone to go ask about their Chex stats?
Eric 🔗
I am agreeing with you that it needs to be a deposit, and needs to be setup at Ally, and needs to be reoccurring. Not sure why we are beating the dead horse on this one… or why you are taking pause with my wording.
We don’t know the inner works of what triggers the bonus, and would be safer not to be pennies. But most everything gets gamed around here, so this offer should be no different.
No doubt we are on the same page about being cautious not to do penny transfers for this offer. After you brought up trial deposits, I was just curious if you have seen banks treating an ACH pull of a small amount as a trial deposit, because that is very counterintuitive and odd in theory. If there is one, I would be interested to know.
I seem to recall there are some banks that will call out in the terms that “micro-deposits” will not work. Chase’s $900 checking/savings bonus is one. For the purposes of getting a bonus, the programmer could consider such small transfers as a system transaction. Like Chase, direct deposit for the checking offer, I believe, needs to be $1 or more. I know $1.00 from Novo worked.
But, it’s pretty rare to see deposit account offers where ANY amount will work… 1 cent might work just fine at Ally, but why risk having to deal with the aftermath if it doesn’t?
All right, thanks.
Can we reopen the referral thread? Manual Salazar is getting all the referral love at the moment.
Absent a current referral thread, I opened a Spending account via the personal page of a frequent contributor. I had an old login from 2023, so the whole procedure took me less than 5 minutes. I entered a small initial deposit at opening, while a $100 DD will land on Friday, completing the bonus requirements.
Maybe he reopens the referral post? Maybe nothing bad happens to him? Maybe some things happen, some things don’t happen?
Anybody receive the $100 bonus lately?
Ally has made some changes to its referral program as summarized here:
https://www.ally.com/content/dam/pdf/bank/customer-referral-terms-and-conditions-new-friends.pdf
Summary of Changes Effective February 26, 2025
Overview: Get $100 when you open an Eligible Account and make the required transfers for the Eligible Account type. Review our three (3) Eligible Products to see which one is right for you. Note that you’re only eligible for one Welcome Bonus, so carefully review your choices and only pick one. Also note if you are already an Ally customer (with any Ally product), or has had any Ally account open since January 1, 2024 (was June 1, 2023), you are not eligible to participate in this Program as a New Friend.
A lot more people should be eligible for the bonus now.
William Charles
How do we get the link if it’s available to all now?
Based on what I was told by chat & SM CSR’s… you have to wait for Ally to email you a link.
Thanks
Wouldn’t it be nice if they could just have a link in our profile? 🙂
Yeah, or have a website where you could retrieve said link.
“You can receive a $50 reward for each referral who opens and funds an eligible account, up to 5 referrals for a total of a $250 reward per calendar year.”
However, the terms when I open my link still state this. Does your link still have this limitation listed?
I’m not
ShawntheShawn👈🏾 but it still shows on my link. It’s in the “For Referrers (existing Ally Bank customers):” section of the page.
It states “Is there a maximum number of people I can refer? You can refer as many friends as you want during the referral period, but you can only receive a $50 reward for up to a $250 reward per calendar year.”
I don’t see that. I searched for Ally and referrer.
There shouldn’t be any confusion. The link that
ShawntheShawn👈🏾 provided is the terms for the person signing up. There is no reason for Ally to inform them about the limits for the referrer. Hence, what it shows in our referral links is what matters for our purposes.
Ah, you are correct, that is just for “New Friends.” So the terms for the referrer are the same as they were. Thanks for helping clarify @
Eric 🔗 . I guess I had just hoped for more than 5 referrals.
Yes, our limits won’t reset until 1.1.26.
Where are you looking? As I stated, I found that passage by going to my referral link.
I know it has been figured out based on your discussions with Eric, but just to confirm, my link still has the up to $250 reward per calendar year language, same as everybody else (I believe).
Peek
The $250 cap for the referrer is also in the full PDF of terms (revised 2/26/2025):
“Referral Reward – For each New Friend that opens and funds an Eligible Account, up to five (5) New Friends per calendar year, the Referrer will receive a $50 Referral Reward deposited into their Referrer Account within 30 days after completion of the New Friend enrolling, opening and funding the Eligible Account (Successful Referral). The maximum total Referral Rewards any Referrer can receive is $250 per calendar year.”
So it is
Gadget 🕵️♂️ Bank Bonus Geek 🔗 . I searched for the word “limit” but didn’t read the whole file 😐
The PDF that the person that you replied to provided is a completely different file than the one that
ShawntheShawn👈🏾 provided earlier.
This one is “Terms and Conditions for Referring Customers” while the one that Shawn included is “Terms and Conditions for New Friends”.
Ah right, this isn’t confusing at all 🙂 Whatever, we’ve beaten this to death. The 5 referral limit is still in place. Thanks
Eric 🔗
It’s unfortunate that they did not adjust the churning lookback period when they renewed the offer. Nice of them to reset the referral counter though.
Hi Gadget, can we see the referral counter (how many we have referred and/or how may more you can get referral bonus for the year) somewhere in the account? I just want to confirm that my referral counter has reset for this year since I already referred 5 friends last year.
No, there is no tracker. I do recall they occasionally emailed status reports last year.
This year they sent two emails stating the counter has been reset.
Subj: New year, more referral rewards
Subj: Great news! You can keep the referral rewards coming in 2025.
Also, in the terms clearly state you can get up to five referrals per calendar year.
Terms: https://www.ally.com/content/dam/pdf/bank/customer-referral-terms-and-conditions-referring-customers.pdf
Thanks! I didn’t get the emails, but yes, I could confirm that the terms state per calendar year.
Unable to login to Ally Bank. Anyone else ?
It’s us – we’re having a moment. Our login isn’t working right now. We’ll be quick about a fix, so check back in a bit
Their App is working fine for me.