[gboone42]

Online banks are great until your ATM card is compromised at which point it is promptly cancelled and a new one can be _shipped_ in "3-5 business days." When you're 3-5 business days overlaps with a holiday and a weekend, this can keep you without access to your bank account for almost 2 weeks (shipping doesn't mean it's in the mail yet). The only way around it is to pay $15 to expedite shipping, which (should) get it shipped in around 1-2 business days. So being a victim of something like a Target-level attack is particularly problematic. When I was at a 'bricks-and-mortar' bank, I could walk in and get a new card _that day._

So far that's been the only real drawback, for me, at Ally. That and their website is pretty bare-bones compared, especially, with Wells Fargo's. WF has some pretty great budgeting tools Ally just doesn't have. Mint fills in that blank for me. I just became a Simple customer and am honestly a bit wary of them being part of an international banking group.

[shadowfiend]

While you will have to deal with this pain with Simple, it can be significantly mitigated. You can delay ordering the new card because Simple lets you instantly block all transactions on your card—and unblock them just as instantly. Effectively, if you see a fraudulent transaction or are worried, you can pull your phone out, block the card, and only unblock it when you go to actually swipe the card. Then, when the timing is better, you can go ahead and order the new card. After also having withdrawn cash to cover the time difference, or having sent yourself a check, or whatever.

The only thing to be wary of is that you can't dispute fraudulent transactions way in the future, so your window isn't infinite.

[gboone42]

Good to know. That was definitely not an option at Ally. It was: fraud call, card blocked instantly, new card ordered later. Thanks for the tip!

[nathanhammond]

Ally's focus is on providing excellent rates which we have done by limiting our focus. That being said, you can look for tremendous changes in our technology story later this year.