Don't Use Ally Bank for Rental Business, Even if No LLC

[James Free]

Ally Bank has a great user interface and can transfer money and wire money quickly, and it's always had a competitive high-interest online savings account. Instantaneous transfers between the savings account and the checking account were one perk that had me running my personally-owned rental houses through an Ally Checking account.

But no more. Ally is using AI to screen transactions and robo-close checking accounts that it deems to be used for "business". Googling around, this has hit people with a variety of forms of "business" income, including Doordash drivers. Ally provides no recourse. Moreover, they barely inform you that your account is going to be closed - a "secure message" appears in their online portal, which is a separate thing from a "notice" or "alert" and doesn't have any indicator on your account dashboard. I discovered my account closure when I received two pieces of paper mail on the same day - a notice of a bounced credit card payment, and a check from Ally for the full balance of my recently-closed account.

I enjoyed using Ally for rental business for years, but now I'm scrambling to change auto-pays to a new checking account before mortgages are due. If you're with Ally, get out now; it's just a matter of time.