Consumer complaint received 2024-01-31
Product: Checking or savings account — CD (Certificate of Deposit)
Issue: Managing an account — Banking errors
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC. (CA)

Since I initiated my CD accounts on XXXX with Ally Bank, totaling {$250000.00} , I have experienced many issues. The first one was that around late XXXX and early XXXX, Ally Bank had a promotion- when a customer moved new funds into a banking account with Ally the bank would deposit a cash bonus. I was apparently eligible for a bonus amount of {$500.00}. However, Ally Bank only deposited {$450.00}. During numerous rounds of attempts to get the full bonus amount, Ally Bank denied all reasonable suspicions of potential banking system deficiency, if not false//deceptive advertisement, though was never able to provide details why the bonus was discounted against what the original promotion had said. It was not until after my countless attempts to get it resolved that Ally Bank finally made up for the shortage of cash bonus {$41.00} which I obviously was eligible for right off the bat. The representative " guaranteed '' that nothing was wrong with their banking system and " promised '' that I wouldn't experience any issues. However, issues of different flavors actually surfaced later. My savings account was supposed to receive accrued interest on XX/XX/XXXX. Ally Bank completely missed to post it instead. As always, immediately after I found the miss, I had to make many many attempts to get it fixed. But such a simple math of missing interest accrual still took Ally Bank more than half a month to address. The missing interest was posted on XXXX. When the missing interest for the statement cycle ending in XXXX was eventually posted to my account, the representative " guaranteed '' that it was just like an isolated accident, claimed that nothing was wrong with their banking system and " promised '' that I wouldn't experience any issues in the future. Too early did she say that, because as soon as only two months later, in the statement cycle ending in XXXX, Ally Bank missed to post accrued interest into my saving account another time! That was not the first incident of banking system deficiency, not even just the second time, but already the third incident within about 9 months counting from the initiation of my CD accounts totaling {$250000.00}. Furthermore, it's beyond imagination that even as of this complaint on XX/XX/XXXX, Ally Bank still has not been able to post the missing interest accrual for the statement cycle ending in XXXX. Immediately after I found the LATEST miss ( again, not the first time, and not even just the second time ) I also had to made many many many attempts to get the issue resolved. All I got was either incorrect responses or perfunctory responses. Aside from Ally Bank 's system deficiency, many online customer service agents had no clue how interests accrual shall be calculated. Those agents tried to feed me false answers as if I did not have the intelligence to do math. After getting many rounds of ridiculous responses, I got to talk with a few customer agents that seemed more knowledgeable of finance industry. But still the missing interest accrual for the statement cycle ending in XXXX has not been fixed yet! After countless phone calls and//or online messages, at some point Ally Bank sent XXXX XXXX letter in the mail, which was date on XX/XX/XXXX, claiming that they already figured it out and someone from Executive Customer Relations would call me soon and get the missing interest posted. Surprise, surprise, the Executive Customer Relations has NOT called me at all as of this complaint! In fact, it was me keeping trying to connect with the bank for numerous times both before and after I received the letter in the mail. Fast forward, when I called the customer service department on XX/XX/XXXX, I was promised that their Executive Customer Relations team would call me " within 0 to 2 business days '' counting from that date of my phone call. No, it did not happen. On XX/XX/XXXX I was given a different story that their Executive Customer Relations team was going to call me " within XXXX to XXXX business days '' counting from a XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, the XXXX business day counting from the date of phone call I initiated, no, Ally Bank still has not called me at all. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from Ally Bank 's Executive Customer Relations, dated XX/XX/XXXX, claiming that Ally Bank 's technical team told them ( Executive Customer Relations ) that when a fund transfer is initiated the same day as the deposit date, Ally Bank does not calculate interest accrual. However, it does not make sense. If that was the policy, how come in some of the previous months there was interest accrual calculated and automatically granted by the system into my saving account, but in other months the system did not calculate and grant the interest accrual????? In addition to the inconsistency, did it have anything to do with a policy change? If it was a policy change, when did it happen? Were customers sufficiently informed of the policy change of their banking system before I experienced the multiple issues and raise the concerns to them for countless times? 

How could Ally Bank still pretend that there is nothing wrong with their banking system? I have experienced multiple rounds of Ally Bank being incapable to fulfilling their obligation to deposit/post the interests as well as cash bonus that my account has apparently been eligible for. It does not matter whether many of their customers experienced similar issue to mine. Each customer impacted by their system deficiency is unjustly treated. If many other Ally Bank 's customers have similar experiences, it means the deficiency is even much worse. If I am the only customer experiencing all these issues and their incapability/lies, why?????