Capital One 360 or Ally as primary bank anyone?

[tyleriam]

I currently have my primary checking account with Regions but I also have a Checking and Savings account with Capital One 360.  I am thinking about moving my primary banking activities to Capital One 360 or Ally. 

Anyone using either Capital One 360 or Ally as their primary checking account?  Pros/cons?

[Thinkum]

I have used Capital One 360 since it was owned by ING. Cap One has been my only bank now for almost 2 years. I love it. The caveat is that I have brick and mortar branches all over the place here in TX. Back in CA, there are none. I use the mobile app to deposit any checks and have had no problems at all. I much prefer having an online bank, especially one that pays interest on both the checking and savings. In my case, there are no cons. If you need a b&m branch, and live in a state where Cap One is has none, that may be an issue. For me, it's been great.

[redbird]

I used to have ING/Capital One 360, but then switch to Ally. I haven't compared interest rates lately, but the interest rate thing is why I switched to Ally. It was not long after ING changed to being Capital One 360 that I did so, so it's been a while now.

I've only ever had good experiences with both. They pay better interest rates on checking and savings than most banks. With Ally, I can just take a picture of the front and back of any checks I have to deposit and then upload the images online. I also use Ally for automatic bill pay. Whenever I've had to call them for anything there's been little to zero wait to talk to a real person. In comparison, whenever I call Bank of America (one of my credit cards are with them) there's over an hour wait and I just register myself to be called back.

Ally has zero physical locations, so that would be a con if you insist on having a brick and mortar bank to go to. Ally used to offer ATM fee reimbursement if you went to an ATM that wasn't in network, but they don't do that anymore as of last year. The upside is they are teamed up with Allpoint, so there are a lot of ATMs in network. You can check here to see which ones are near you. I use cash EXTREMELY rarely, so it's not an issue for me.

[NathanP]

I used to have ING/Capital One 360, but then switch to Ally. I haven't compared interest rates lately, but the interest rate thing is why I switched to Ally. It was not long after ING changed to being Capital One 360 that I did so, so it's been a while now.

I've only ever had good experiences with both. They pay better interest rates on checking and savings than most banks. With Ally, I can just take a picture of the front and back of any checks I have to deposit and then upload the images online. I also use Ally for automatic bill pay. Whenever I've had to call them for anything there's been little to zero wait to talk to a real person. In comparison, whenever I call Bank of America (one of my credit cards are with them) there's over an hour wait and I just register myself to be called back.

Ally has zero physical locations, so that would be a con if you insist on having a brick and mortar bank to go to. Ally used to offer ATM fee reimbursement if you went to an ATM that wasn't in network, but they don't do that anymore as of last year. The upside is they are teamed up with Allpoint, so there are a lot of ATMs in network. You can check here to see which ones are near you. I use cash EXTREMELY rarely, so it's not an issue for me.

+1 to this. I have been with Ally for many years for both checking and savings.

Ally continues to reimburse ATM fees charged by the ATM operator; however, they now limit it to $10 per month. This should allow for 3 or 4 visits per month to an ATM of your choice.

[Just_Me]

We use Ally. No real complaints. Great interest on savings. They don't accept cash, which can be annoying at times.

[therethere]

I use both actually. Ally for ATM withdrawls and holding the emergency fund. I've had ING since 2004ish (now Capitol One) and haven't changed mainly because I can mail my rent check online (which then sends a paper copy in the mail). I'm also too lazy to consolidate all my direct deposits and links to my account all over.  I think they are both comparable it just matters whether you need anywhere ATM's with reimbursements or paper checks mailed for free. Those are the only real differences I've found.

[mskyle]

I switched to using Capital One 360 for my primary banking this year (I've had the account since it was ING but always had a local account as well). There are multiple Capital One 360 locations near me but I've never actually been inside one - I deposit checks via phone and withdraw cash at ATMs.

[Indexer]

I've been using Capital One 360 for 3 years, and it's been great.

Good interest rates, easy to operate online, easy to pay bills, etc.

[Classical_Liberal]

I have used Capital One 360 since it was owned by ING. Cap One has been my only bank now for almost 2 years. I love it. The caveat is that I have brick and mortar branches all over the place here in TX. Back in CA, there are none. I use the mobile app to deposit any checks and have had no problems at all. I much prefer having an online bank, especially one that pays interest on both the checking and savings. In my case, there are no cons. If you need a b&m branch, and live in a state where Cap One is has none, that may be an issue. For me, it's been great.

Same here and I moved to a state without branches.  This has not deterred me.  The only issue I have had is they have a deposit limit on physical checks that you deposit via photos.  I think it's $2500.  I've had a check for more than that a couple times and simply mailed it in for deposit.  If you regularly deal in physical checks this would likely be an issue, otherwise no prob.

[Davids]

I use capital one 360 since it was ING for my savings. My checking is at a local bank since I do need the physical location on occasion.

[HAPPYINAZ]

We use Capital one 360 ever since it was ING.  Been happy with them.  Their money market pays 1% which is about as high as you can get these days.  I have checking and savings accounts with also.  Nothing but good things to report, just wish they had higher CD rates.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

For me the best combo is using a credit union plus Ally. Credit union is on the other side of the country, but I just go to a "shared branch" place if I need anything (rarely), and the one I use reimburses ATM fees.

FWIW Ally has a much better mobile app than my CU. Long paycheck-type checks, my credit union app can't read at all, but Ally has no trouble with depositing them. Very convenient.

[Tris Prior]

I've had Capital One/ING as my primary bank for many years. No issues. I did have to open a second account at a brick and mortar bank to deposit the (sometimes large) amounts of cash that I get from doing art shows, but that was no big deal. Here, all the CVS's have Capital One ATMs so it's pretty easy to take out cash when I need to.

[beastykato]

I can't speak for Ally, but I've been very happy with my Cap360 account.  As people have stated their rates are decent with no hoops to jump through (Currently .75% or 1% on >10k, plus .25% on the checking account)

ATM's are free at all my local gas stations so pulling money out is not a big issue.  I was unable to deposit cash though the one time I tried.  So, I still have a local bank just to make cash deposits from my eBay business, etc.

[tyleriam]

Thanks for all the replies.  Sounds like depositing cash is the only real issue.  I don't deal with that very often so I think I will make the switch.

[nawhite]

I've been with Ally for coming up on 6 years now. It's been my primary/only bank for most of that time. The only major problem I ran into was buying a vehicle with a cashiers check. Ally would have had to mail a check which would have put me at a disadvantage for negotiating. It was much easier to just drive to a wells fargo branch with the seller and have them get a cashiers check in person and do the notarizing on the spot.

[jim555]

For me a brick and mortar bank is my primary.  I have online accounts as well.  I like the ability to cash a check or get physical cash.

[Digital Dogma]

I dropped my capital one 360 account after I had terrible customer service experiences with my Capital One credit card, transferred all my cash and closed the account out of principle.

[turketron]

I've had my main checking and savings with Capital One since they were ING and I love them. Aside from the other things people have mentioned, one thing I like about C360 that (as far as I know) Ally doesn't have is that they give you a read-only personal access code you can use with services like Mint or Personal Capital that doesn't give them full access to your actual login info.

- what do I do with stupid coins?

Take your change jar to Coinstar kiosks in your grocery store or wherever. They normally take a ~10% fee off the top, but they don't charge the fee if you elect to get your money back in Amazon gift cards (maybe other retailers as well?) rather than cash.

[ijingle]

I use and like Ally for about 3 or 4 years. Nice interface and iOS app. As long as your physical checks are small enough in amount to deposit via their app, it works great. And I always smile when I see the ATM fees refunded.

[mskyle]

I switched to Ally checking/saving from Discover last year. I switched because of how Discover handled monthly donations I made to a small church (the church doesn't do ACH) in the form of an electronic bill pay. (Electronic bill pay for organizations that don't do ACH is a printed check sent via mail.) Discover would withdraw the money from checking as soon as they printed the check to send in the mail.

Then I switched to Ally, after an extensive chat session where they reassured me this wouldn't happen.

Ally was great for several months...the money for the electronic bill pay was deducted when the church cashed my checks. Then Ally switched to be just like Discover...my money would disappear into Never-Never Land at least a week before the church received it.

You may be asking yourself, "What's the big deal here?" Well, the problem is there's no way to ever know when/if the checks were cashed. The small church has lost a few checks of mine over the last few years, and it caused quite a hassle when I had no way of knowing which checks were cashed and which were lost. My first clue something is wrong is when money in the amount of my normal church donation is suddenly deposited back into my checking, and then I'd have to go back and forth between the bank (Discover or Ally) and the church trying to figure out which payment the small organization was missing.

I've switched back to writing actual paper checks to the church. Makes me feel like an old-timer. :) But at least I know when they get cashed.

I have no data points for Cap One.

I have data on this point for CapitalOne! I pay my rent by paper check sent via bill pay in CapitalOne360.

The bad: they take the money out of my account days before the check is dated - extra annoying because my landlords never cash the check before the 10th, often not til the 20th, so if I were to write a paper check and put it in the mail myself I would basically get to keep the money for two extra weeks.

The good: you can see updates on the status of the check and see when/whether it gets cashed. Right now, next to my last rent payment (withdrawn on September 27th) it says "Payment cashed on Oct 11, 2016."

My last brick and mortar bank (Santander, which I very much DO NOT recommend) started out better but eventually did the same thing as Ally - bill pay paper checks were just a black box and you couldn't tell when/whether they'd been cashed. I wonder if they are all using the same/similar systems and the overall system changed.