Consumer complaint received 2022-03-03
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Closing an account — Funds not received from closed account
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC. (OH)

I opened a savings & checking account at Ally Bank on XX/XX/XXXX. I requested that Ally Bank transfer funds from my XXXX XXXX checking account to my new Ally Bank savings account ( {$40000.00} ) and checking acct ( {$15000.00} ). This money was still in my XXXX XXXX ( formerly XXXX XXXX, they merged together in XXXX ) account on XX/XX/XXXX when I received an email from Ally Bank stating " Your telephone banking PIN has been changed. If you didn't make this change, call us immediately. '' I called them immediately and was told their system had detected suspicious activity in my accounts so they'd closed them. I confirmed that my XXXXXXXX XXXX  acct information ( my routing and acct number ) was still accurate. I said I'd checked my XXXX  account and no funds had transferred to Ally and I wanted to make sure the transfers were cancelled. Ally Bank assured me that my money ( $ XXXX & {$15000.00} ) from XXXX would not be transferred to Ally. I found out this was not true on XX/XX/XXXX. Ally Bank had transferred both the {$40000.00} and {$15000.00} from my XXXX checking acct on XX/XX/XXXX. I called Ally Bank & they told me that the transfers would hit their system and since my Ally accounts were closed, their system would kick back my money to my XXXX acct. I just needed to wait 3-5 business days. I waited & called Ally Bank on XX/XX/XXXX and informed them that my funds had not been returned to my XXXX acct. They said they would reopen my case and send a form to XXXX XXXX to fill out & when XXXX sent it back to Ally, they'd then release my funds to XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I spoke with XXXX and they have not received any requests from Ally Bank. I called Ally Bank and told them this, I asked to speak to a manager, they said their policy is to email a manager and the manager should get back with me within 24-48 hrs. This is a very condensed version of my experience. Throughout this ordeal Ally Bank has been unusually unhelpful and evasive. They tried many times to say Id have to file a dispute with XXXXXXXX XXXX, but I can not do this since I preauthorized the transactions through Ally Bank to transfer the funds. Ally Bank will not give me a direct phone number to someone on my case & I continuously have to go through lower level employees, explaining everything anew each time. Also, it's hard to get through to anyone at Ally Bank, I've been put on hold for extremely long waits. I've made numerous calls to both Ally Bank and XXXX over the past several weeks in an attempt to have my funds returned to my XXXX XXXX  account. Ally Bank has told me many things that have been untrue, and at this point I would like a federal agency to look into this issue. Bottom line is Ally Bank pulled my funds from my XXXXXXXX XXXX  account after they closed my Ally accounts and have not returned my money. I've since found many similar complaints about Ally Bank online. I've found that the XXXX  gives them a XXXX rating, states Ally is not accredited, they also show many complaints toward them. Getting Ally Bank to help me has been like pulling teeth and so far is without results.