Aspiration Bank vs. Ally Bank - Which is Better for You?
Both Aspiration Bank and Ally Bank are great online banks that offer no-fees for basic services, but which is the overall better choice for you?
We hope to give you the information you need to decide for yourself which is better for you — personally we have accounts with both Ally Bank and Aspiration’s Bank as they both are great banks and we believe they’re both trustworthy and far safer/better banks compared to traditional old-school banks — however we prefer Aspiration for a few reasons we’ll cover below.
Ultimately we’d say Aspiration’s is a slightly better choice overall for most people as they seem to have all the features Ally offers but with a easy to get $50 -> $150 sign-up bonus and some savings features built-in to the account — beyond this both banks are nearly identical.
Which Offers the Best Services/Rates - Aspiration's Bank or Ally Bank?
Aspiration wins this category in our view — Aspiration offers 1% on idle balances if you have a Aspiration plus account or a linked save account (free), while Ally Bank offers only 0.1% -> 0.25% yield on idle balances, which is actually a pretty significant difference.
Aspiration also has a slightly gimmicky “tree planting savings” option that acts as a automatic savings account that more or less just does “purchase roundups” which then go into a “tree planting fund” that you can cash out for rewards (generally about the same as you put in, sometimes a bit more). They also offer 0.5% back at “eco-friendly businesses” when you use your debit-card, but this isn’t really all that good compared to standard credit card rewards.
Ultimately Ally doesn’t offer anything special — they’re just a no gimmicks no-fee bank, which is great, but ultimately they do nothing special that aspiration doesn’t do in terms of account services and rates.
Which has less fees - Aspiration Bank or Ally Bank?
We’d say Ally Bank is slightly better in this category — while both Aspiration and Ally are low-cost “no-fee” online banks in truth they do have some fees — it’s just not the basic ones that traditional banks charge simply for not keeping enough money in their accounts, or simply because you have an account with them.
Both Ally and Aspiration’s bank don’t charge such basic fees — but they still have fees — it’s just the fees they have are for special services or things that aren’t necessary for average people — think Wire Transfers, Foreign Payments, and foreign transactions/atm-withdrawals. For those categories they’re about the same in terms of fees they charge.
The reason we’d say ally bank is slightly better than Aspiration’s bank is because Ally bank offers $10 in out-of-network ATM reimbursements per month (about about 2 withdrawals in most countries) while Aspiration only offers 1 free ATM reimbursement per month (can be more than $10 technically). We’d say Ally Bank’s $10 reimbursement is better as generally out-of-network ATM’s only charge $4 or $5 in our experience, including internationally.
Which Has The Best Signup Bonus Offers - Aspiration Bank or Ally Bank?
Without a doubt Aspiration wins this category — This is because not only is Aspiration’s bonus easy to get but it actually exists — while Ally doesn’t offer a sign-up bonus for signing up to a bank account with them. They have a brokerage bonus, but not a bank bonus like Aspiration offers.
For Ally Bank there’s no promotional offers currently available, at least unless you’re specifically targeted in the mail with a flyer — they do offer a brokerage sign-up bonus, however that has nothing to do with their bank account.
Meanwhile with Aspiration Bank not only do they have a great $50 sign-up bonus that’s easy to get, but you can generally pair it with another $100 promotional bonus that Aspiration generally offers — You can check out the bonuses Aspiration is currently offering on this page. But generally all you have to do is sign up using somebody else’s link (use ours by clicking here) and spend $250 to get a $50 bonus or $1000+ to get a $150 bonus. The spend needs to be done on the debit-card they send you.
Which is more Trustworthy - Ally Bank or Aspiration's Bank?
This may sound like a silly question to some people — but here at GreeneryFinancial we don’t trust most banks — Despite this we’d say both Ally Bank and Aspiration’s Bank are banks we aren’t worried about keeping some cash in — we don’t think either bank will go bankrupt anytime soon or really ever for that matter, as they don’t engage in risky practices most financial institutions partake in.
They’re both of course legitimate banks and have FDIC-insurance to cover deposits, so they’re as good as any banks — but in our view a little bit safer.
What Advantages does Aspiration have over Ally Bank?
The Main advantages Aspiration offers is their automatic savings features and their tasty $50 -> $150 sign-up bonuses, however they also offer slightly better interest rates on idle cash that Ally Bank does — we wouldn’t put much weight on a fraction of a percent more per year in interest though.
This of course isn’t to say Aspirations isn’t a good choice — Ally Bank doesn’t have many advantages to Aspirations either — they’re both very competitive with one another and are good online banks, it’s just it’s just quite hard to differentiate yourself in the banking industry after a certain point. If you feel like Aspirations is right for you or you simply want to snag the sign-up bonus they offer you can get it through this link here.
What Advantages does Ally Bank have over Aspiration's Bank?
Ally Bank’s only real advantage is that they offer a $10 reimbursement on out-of-network ATM’s and that their online interface is a bit better in our opinion — beyond this they’re basically the exact same as Aspiration’s bank minus the sign-up bonus and savings features.
Ultimately if we’re being honest — we wouldn’t ever pick Ally Bank over Aspiration’s as the only real advantage they have is their ATM reimbursements — and there’s other banks such as Charles Schwab that offer unlimited ATM reimbursements — they don’t offer savings features like Aspirations does either, but their ATM reimbursements are better than Ally and they’re largely no-fee, so there’s really no reason to pick Ally over Charles Schwab in our view — even though we have accounts with both Ally Bank and Charles Schwab, as well as Aspirations and many others.
