Ally Bank Deposit Bonus: 0.50% of New Deposits, Up to $125 (New Customers via Referral Only)

Ally Bank is one of my favorite banks in terms of user interface, practical features, and reliability. They were my primary checking account for years. Unfortunately, their savings account rates have been lagging the top rates by about 1% recently. Despite that, I still keep some active accounts there because I use them as my central hub connecting all my many different bank accounts.

Ally is running a new up to $125 deposit bonus by referral only (that’s mine). You get a 0.50% cash bonus on new money deposited (3/29/24 to 7/15/24) on top of their standard interest rate. Here are the details, direct from the offer page:

• Enroll and open a new Ally Bank Savings Account by 3/1/2024. Enter your name and email address below to start your enrollment in the program. Be sure to open your Savings Account with the same email address you enroll with by 3/1/2024.
• Fund and build your Savings Account balance. Deposit new money from another financial institution to your newly opened Savings Account by 3/25/2024. You can make multiple funding transactions between the account opening date and 3/25/2024, however your account must be funded within 30 days of opening, or it will be closed. You are eligible to receive a 0.50% cash bonus on the new money you deposit, up to $25,000 (max $125 cash bonus).
• Keep your money parked through 7/15/2024 to earn your cash bonus. You will receive a 0.50% cash bonus, up to $125, on the new money you deposit into your Savings Account by 3/25/2024 as long as you retain your funds from 3/25/2024 through 7/15/2024. Your cash bonus will be deposited into your Savings Account on or by 7/31/2024.

Napkin math. You have to open by 3/1/24, but there is no minimum balance and you don’t need to make the qualifying deposit until 3/25. The minimum hold period is thus from 3/25 to 7/15, which is 112 days. If we round up to 120 days, then the 0.5% bonus works out to an extra 1.5% annualized yield during that hold period.

If you assume the current interest rate of 4.35% APY holds during the minimum hold period, your total annualized yield would be 4.35 + 1.5 = 5.85% APY. This is a net profit from the current top rate but isn’t an amazingly high number, so I probably wouldn’t do this deal unless you wanted an Ally Savings Account as a long-term account for other reasons beyond highest yield. Ally has done other deposit promos in the past that benefited existing customers. (I wonder if they’ve been losing a lot of deposits recently.)