Chime Bank vs. Ally Bank - Which is Better for You? [2022]

Both Chime 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 Chime 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 Chime for a few reasons we’ll cover below.

Ultimately we’d say Chime is a slightly better choice overall as they seem to have all the features Ally offers but with a $50 signup bonus offer that’s easy to get — plus Chime has No FX fees for transactions abroad which is nice if you don’t have a no FX fee credit card — but beyond this both banks are nearly identical.

With that being said we’d argue it’s worth checking out our comparison of Chime vs Current (another online bank) as they are also quite good — it’s a hard decision between the two of them for us, however we’d say both are just a little bit better than Ally bank currently.

Which Offers the Best Services/Rates - Ally or Chime?

Chime wins this category in our view — Chime offers 1% on idle balances in paired savings accounts, while Ally Bank offers only 0.1% -> 0.25% yield on idle balances, which is actually a pretty significant difference.

Chime also has some automatic savings features such as “purchase roundups” that you can enable and use for free, which Ally Bank doesn’t currently offer for free.

Ultimately we’d say while Chime definitely wins this category we wouldn’t be swayed to use one over the other because of a fraction of a percent of interest or a saving round-up feature we personally wouldn’t use — if you would then Chime likely would be the better choice as they’re the only bank we know of that offers the feature.

Which has less fees - Ally or Chime?

We’d say this category is more or less a draw — While both Ally and Chime 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 Chime and Ally bank don’t charge such 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 — the only difference is Ally gives you up to $10 back on foreign atm withdrawals (1-2 withdrawals a month generally) while Chime doesn’t, however Chime has no foreign transaction fees, while Ally charges a few percent fee.

This means in the end they’re about the same, if you prefer to pay with card while traveling abroad then Chime is definitely better, but if you prefer to pay in cash Ally may be better — at least if you withdraw less than $300/mo, as the foreign tx fee would cost more through ally than the atm reimbursement if you take more than that out.

Which Has The Best Signup Bonus Offers - Ally or Chime?

Without a doubt Chime wins this category — This is because not only is Chime’s bonus easy to get but it acutally 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 Chime 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 Chime Bank not only do they have a great $50 sign-up bonus, but it’s very easy to get — all you have to do is sign up and switch a recurring direct-deposit (such as from your employer) to your new Chime account. It has to be $200 or more and done within the first 45 days of you opening the account — once you receive it you should receive $50 the following day so long as you signed up through someone’s promotional link. You can read more in detail about the promotions Chime offers on this page of our website.

Which is more Trustworthy - Ally or Chime?

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 Chime 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 due to having lower operating expenses and no loan department to behave negligently. They just invest in US treasuries and pocket the small spread between the interest the bonds earn them and what they pay out to account holders like us on our deposits with them.

What Advantages does Ally have over Chime?

Ally Bank offers $10 in out-of-network atm withdrawal reimbursements every month which Chime does not — Beyond this there’s no real advantage to Ally bank in our view. Ally does offer other services other than banking though, making them a better ‘all-in-one’ platform, but their other services aren’t very competitive in our opinion.

This of course isn’t to say Ally Bank isn’t a good choice — Chime doesn’t have many advantages over Ally either (mostly their sign-up bonus tbh) — they’re both very competitive with one another and are good online banks, it’s just it’s quite hard to differentiate yourself in the banking industry after a certain point.

What Advantages does Chime have over Ally?

Chime offers no foreign exchange fees on foreign transactions made with your bank card and they also offer a tasty (alright quite pitiful, but better than other banks) interest rate at a whopping 1% per year and spending round-ups to help with savings but otherwise they’re pretty much the same as Ally Bank — no fees at 30,000+ atms in the USA, and no maintenance fees or any nonsense like that.

Of course they also have a great sign-up bonus that offers $50 for a simple $200 direct-deposit, so the account is pretty much a no-brainer in our view, even if you’ll only use it as a secondary bank account rather than your primary — although it’s a good primary account as well.

Chime vs Ally Bank FAQ's:

Below we’ll cover some of the FAQ’s we’ve encountered, been asked, or have asked ourselves related to Chime and Ally Bank. If you have other questions feel free to use our contact page to ask us them and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Does Chime or Ally have Better Customer Service?

Overall we’d say Chime’s customer service is slightly better, but if we’re being honest it’s not significantly better — both customer service departments have adequate staff who respond relatively quickly and with competence, so dealing with either platform isn’t frustrating or anything.

Keep in mind both Chime and Ally Bank are phone-first customer service, meaning if you want a quick response you’ll need to call them through their support phone numbers (listed on their websites), as otherwise email qeuries often can take a few days to be resolved.

Are Either Ally or Chime Crypto-Friendly Banks?

Both banks aren’t hostile to cryptocurrency, meaning they won’t close your account for buying some bitcoin on Coinbase or anything, but they aren’t really what we’d call crypto-friendly. They don’t have crypto on their platform, and they don’t have plans to as far as we’re aware of — but they aren’t a-holes about it like certain traditional banks that shall not be named are, shutting down your account suddenly for seemingly nothing. Neither platform does such nonsense.