Consumer complaint received 2024-02-29 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — CD (Certificate of Deposit)
Issue: Closing an account — Funds not received from closed account
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
I had 3 IRA accounts established at Ally Bank ( AB ) for a number of years and am transferring them all to XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  to consolidate and be able to better manage retirement funds. 2 were term CDs and 1 was an IRA Savings account. The CDs matured XX/XX/24 and XXXX XXXX and I sent them via fax their documents to close out these accounts and remit the full balances to XXXX XXXX. After hearing nothing for a couple of days, we called Ally to follow up and were told there was a '3 to 5 business days processing period, and then a check would be mailed out '. As rates are currently in the ~5 % range and this involved approximately {$270000.00}, the loss of interest on earnings is running nearly {$38.00} per day, so we asked how we could get the funds wired out to XXXX XXXX ASAP . The Ally representative guided us to the wire transfer request forms and XXXX XXXX said they ( XXXX ) would absorb the wire fees, which would have to be 3 separate wires for the XXXX accounts. The XXXX rep explicitly inquired if e-signatures were acceptable from the client ( myself ) on these forms and were told those were acceptable. These were submitted by XXXX on or about XX/XX/24 to AB. After again hearing nothing for several days, we called AB again on XX/XX/24 to ask why the wires had not been sent. We were informed by AB that the forms were rejected as they required 'wet ' ink signatures, not e-signatures, and that a notice of same had been sent out via snail mail, which I have still not received as of this date. They had my and XXXX 's phone numbers and email addresses all this time and yet resorted to snail mail. I was unable to physically sign new documents until the morning of XX/XX/24 ( today ), which I did and ML submitted them yet again to AB. XXXX  and I jointly called AB today who confirmed receipt of the fax and said they were in process of scanning the faxed documents into their system and thus could not confirm all was fine. They said this would require yet another 3-5 business days to process -- we explained that we had already been delayed ridiculously long by their feet-dragging and their incorrectly telling us e-signatures were acceptable and asked if this could be expedited, AB said no. AB said that receipt of the forms removed the 10-day rollover or penalty provision which we are taking at face value for now, though AB was not willing to reimburse me for all the lost interest during this time. My request is XXXX items : 1. Ensure that the 10-day rollover period does not become a problem 2. AB to provide reimbursement for my lost interest on funds during these delays. 
3. I recently heard that an industrywide problem/gimmick with these online banks is when you try to get your funds out or close accounts -- there tends to be these inordinate hassles and delays while they sit on your funds. That should be addressed with these online banks as an industry.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation