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Does anyone use Ally for their checking account? I will be moving this summer, and my new city will only have one branch of the bank I currently use (US Bank) and it will be on the other side of town from where I will be working and probably living… I opened an Ally savings account, and so long as that goes smoothly for the next six months, I was thinking of using a checking account with them as well. Has everyone had positive experiences?
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Jan 11, 2015 18:07
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asur posted:When the financial crisis happened? You also need to be able to make the payments if you use it. It's not really that much different than just investing you're emergency fund. The line of credit just adds another potential source that has some risk of not being there. It's up to you to decide if this risk is worth the return. Just to put this in perspective, it will increase you're total investments by about 3.5% if you invest the maximum amount you currently can in a 401k and an IRA. (I'm assuming a return of 7% since that gives 80k with 10k invested over 30 years) Hard to take advice seriously from someone who can't tell the difference between homophones.
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Jan 11, 2015 18:13
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Bloody Queef posted:Hard to take advice seriously from someone who can't tell the difference between homophones. Sweet ad hominem, bro.
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Jan 11, 2015 18:41
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Bisty Q. posted:Sweet ad hominem, bro. I wasn't attacking his character. I was attacking his intelligence, which is relevant imo.
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Jan 11, 2015 18:45
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Bloody Queef posted:I wasn't attacking his character. I was attacking his intelligence, which is relevant imo. Ad hominem doesn't mean a character attack. It means an attack of an argument by means of attacking the person. Not really a dog in the fight. Just enjoying the irony of calling another an idiot for improper word use.
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Jan 11, 2015 19:05
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MJBuddy posted:Ad hominem doesn't mean a character attack. It means an attack of an argument by means of attacking the person. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ad%20hominem posted:2) marked by or being an attack on an opponent's character rather than by an answer to the contentions made Anyway, I shouldn't have derailed and actually answered his post. People that had an established LOC were fine during the financial crisis. New lines of credit were what dried up.
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Jan 11, 2015 19:16
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 at the last five posts
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Jan 11, 2015 19:27
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Keep a little perspective though. This is the newbie thread, and even BFC in general people come in drowning under credit card debt that they got into at least partly by paying for unexpected urgent expenses with their credit cards. "Use your credit for emergencies" is bad advice for people who don't think past the next paycheck. Furthermore, I personally have zero interest in attaching a 10% interest cost to the money I need to spend the next time the sewer line breaks. Four grand, and the plumber doesn't take credit cards so interest gets paid from day one! Cash on the barrel and I'll restock in future months, thanks. spinst posted:Does anyone use Ally for their checking account?
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Jan 11, 2015 19:31
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If you only can fund one or the other in the short term(IRA or emergency savings), the only real downside of putting it in an IRA is that you might lose some money in the short term. YES, you lose the compounding effect if you have to remove principal from your IRA to pay off emergencies, but if you just kept it in a savings account instead you never even had that chance because you're talking about NOT using that year's IRA allowance at all. Obviously you should try to have a free and clear separate emergency fund built up ASAP, but if I didn't have that I'd do what a poster above said and keep your emergency money in a savings account until the end of the tax year in April, then throw IRA money in there and hope you don't have to use it. That way if you don't have to use it, yay, years worth of tax-free growth.
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Jan 11, 2015 20:13
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slap me silly posted:Keep a little perspective though. This is the newbie thread, and even BFC in general people come in drowning under credit card debt that they got into at least partly by paying for unexpected urgent expenses with their credit cards. "Use your credit for emergencies" is bad advice for people who don't think past the next paycheck. Fair enough, but on the flip side, it's a question he came in with on his own accord and was immediately given an "oh no, don't do that" answer. Certainly, it's not for everyone, but we've hashed the pros and cons well enough at this point to allow for his own decision. quote:Furthermore, I personally have zero interest in attaching a 10% interest cost to the money I need to spend the next time the sewer line breaks. Four grand, and the plumber doesn't take credit cards so interest gets paid from day one. I agree with you on this. I wouldn't use a line of credit like that... Only defer the payments you can at zero interest (eg credit card). As far as my experience has been, planned contracted services and emergency plumbing have been invoiced days after service and are typically net 15 or 30 rather than collect at time of service. That's still plenty of time to transfer funds if needed.
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Jan 11, 2015 20:35
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slap me silly posted:Somebody... moana maybe?
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Jan 11, 2015 21:57
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Ally is what used to be GMAC but by most accounts is recognized as a good online alternative today.
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Jan 11, 2015 22:07
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Brian Fellows posted:If you only can fund one or the other in the short term(IRA or emergency savings), the only real downside of putting it in an IRA is that you might lose some money in the short term. Ideally you would put it into a money market account within your IRA, and then as you built up an "outside the IRA" emergency fund, you would move the equivalent amount of money inside the IRA to retirement-oriented funds. This may be too complicated for the average beginner saver who doesn't have enough money to fund both, however.
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Jan 11, 2015 23:14
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spinst posted:Does anyone use Ally for their checking account? I use Ally for checking and savings. They're great. Excellent customer service, (relatively) good interest savings, they refund all ATM fees. There's no way to deposit cash, so if that's a problem, you'll need a secondary bank, but they've been great for me. I used ING Direct before, and they were fine, but Ally has been better. Rick Rickshaw posted:Since lines of credit exist, I don't understand why emergency funds exist for people who have these magical lines of credit. I think some people hold too much cash for their emergency funds, but I don't think the right thing to do is to rely on credit completely for it. On top of the "the plumber doesn't take credit" type emergencies, I worked for a credit card processing company during the financial crisis. We lowered credit lines and closed cards en masse when poo poo started to go down. A high credit score was some insulation from that, but if we noticed people's balances jumping irregularly, we'd close regardless of score. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 00:49
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spinst posted:Does anyone use Ally for their checking account? I have had overall good experiences with Ally (one checking, one savings account for 2ish years). It does suck they don't take cash, but my check deposits take 2-3 days to go through mad at this point. My landlord actually uses POP, so it's nice that Ally does that as well. Oh, and they finally launched an iPad app.
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Jan 12, 2015 01:52
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Ally has been my daily driver for more than two years now and they've been fantastic. Their website is good, their app is good, and the atm fee refunds are amazing. Nothing like having $15 atm fees refunded and being able to use any atm like it ain't no thing. I also use their bill pay to handle my rent and it's never missed a beat plus I get email receipts when my landlord cashes the check. I have Alliant as my backup but I've had no reason to use them except for the free credit scores.
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Jan 12, 2015 02:02
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I have a question. Let's say I wanted to take out a loan to pay off my credit card debt. Is that at all useful? How do people consolidate their debt? Would I only need to compare the interest rates to see if its worth it?
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Jan 12, 2015 02:53
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Edgar Allan Pwned posted:I have a question. Let's say I wanted to take out a loan to pay off my credit card debt. Is that at all useful? How do people consolidate their debt? Would I only need to compare the interest rates to see if its worth it? Lots of people on Lending Club and Prosper are applying to do a consolidation loan. It really depends on the amount you need. If it's <10k and your credit is decent, you might be able to get a personal loan from a credit union.
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Jan 12, 2015 03:04
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Grumpwagon posted:I think some people hold too much cash for their emergency funds, but I don't think the right thing to do is to rely on credit completely for it. Cash is king applies when things get bad. An emergency fund which is actually a sum of money rather than credit is generally good for new comers to BFC. I look at the number of people who have no money to pay for their car breaking down or some other not that uncommon expense in the various threads, and you wouldn't want to get a cash advance off a credit card when you need money. Edgar Allan Pwned posted:I have a question. Let's say I wanted to take out a loan to pay off my credit card debt. Is that at all useful? How do people consolidate their debt? Would I only need to compare the interest rates to see if its worth it? When I got my first full time job I consolidated my debts through my bank by way of a short term loan. Your bank will have pre-assessed your risk and may (or may not) give a reasonable interest rate. Credit unions and P2P lending are popular for getting competitive interest rates though. Devian666 fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 03:41
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Devian666 posted:Cash is king applies when things get bad. An emergency fund which is actually a sum of money rather than credit is generally good for new comers to BFC. I look at the number of people who have no money to pay for their car breaking down or some other not that uncommon expense in the various threads, and you wouldn't want to get a cash advance off a credit card when you need money. Not sure why you're quoting me here, I agree with you, and that was the point I was making too. My only additional point was that I have seen people with $30k-$50k emergency funds, and that seems excessive to me.
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Jan 12, 2015 03:47
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I was quoting you as an extension to the discussion as you had made a good point. I also think that $30-$50k is overkill for an emergency fund. I was watching the Suze Orman show while I was travelling across China and someone had a $120k emergency fund. It's enough money to buy a house which I don't see as a type of emergency.
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Jan 12, 2015 04:47
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My emergency fund is at $75,000. I just feel more comfortable having that kind of money on hand. When it goes over that amount, any excess is put into taxable investments (since I already max out my 401k, IRA, and HSA). It's basically enough to handle 99% of anything that might come my way: unexpected major surgery (that my insurance won't completely cover or takes a long time to pay), if I get canned from work and it takes a long time to find a job, some crazy surgery that my dog may need, etc. in an amount that can handle a "when it rains, it pours" type of scenario. It's probably irrational but gently caress it.
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Jan 12, 2015 05:13
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Edgar Allan Pwned posted:I have a question. Let's say I wanted to take out a loan to pay off my credit card debt. Is that at all useful? How do people consolidate their debt? Would I only need to compare the interest rates to see if its worth it? Yeah the main challenge of credit card debt is it's fairly high interest depending on the card and also your current credit score.
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Jan 12, 2015 05:33
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Grumpwagon posted:Not sure why you're quoting me here, I agree with you, and that was the point I was making too. My only additional point was that I have seen people with $30k-$50k emergency funds, and that seems excessive to me. 30k for 6 months of expenses isn't completely out of line for some areas and even $50k sounds a little low for a high-earning single-income family of 4+.
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Jan 12, 2015 09:19
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Engineer Lenk posted:and even $50k sounds a little low for a high-earning single-income family of 4+. I think that if your minimum necessary expenses are ~$75K over six months, then your lifestyle needs to be re-evaluated. [ed: or, you're just so rich it hardly matters.] BRAKE FOR MOOSE fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 14:21
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Engineer Lenk posted:30k for 6 months of expenses isn't completely out of line for some areas and even $50k sounds a little low for a high-earning single-income family of 4+. Yeah. I'll grant you $30k. I'm willing to admit I'm wrong here, it's just hard to think about that as a pretty frugal renter with no kids in a fairly low to moderate cost of living area. Still, $50k seems like too much, without extenuating circumstances, but I guess it's pretty situational. I suppose it is a pretty personal choice. If that person with a $75k emergency fund feels better for having it, that's fine by me (and considering he/she is maxing tax advantaged accounts with money for a 75k emergency fund left over, they don't need my advice anyway). I just don't think we should advise people to have that much, unless they know they're high risk for job loss, or have a chronic illness, or whatever. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 19:34
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I can very easily see someone who makes a high salary with a $700k house (which is median for my area), a stay-at-home spouse and a few young children needing a much larger buffer than you'd think. $30k is basically 6 months of mortgage payments with no money left over for anything else.
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Jan 12, 2015 20:03
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Engineer Lenk posted:30k for 6 months of expenses isn't completely out of line for some areas and even $50k sounds a little low for a high-earning single-income family of 4+. "high earning" sounds like a euphemism for "terrible with money". If you spend money like it is water and like putting your family in a bad situation if the firehose of money is reduced slightly, then yes you might need a 50k emergency fund. After you have that fund together, the next step is to go read some books on how to start tackling the ridiculous amount of spending that is going on. Even a family in Silicon Valley doesn't need 50k for 6 months expenses. Yikes!
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Jan 13, 2015 07:42
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Vilgan posted:"high earning" sounds like a euphemism for "terrible with money". If you spend money like it is water and like putting your family in a bad situation if the firehose of money is reduced slightly, then yes you might need a 50k emergency fund. After you have that fund together, the next step is to go read some books on how to start tackling the ridiculous amount of spending that is going on. Have you ever looked at COBRA costs for family health insurance, plus a deductible? How about a significant legal bill? $50k emergencies are rare, but they can happen, even to people of middle-class means. Really wealthy people who have to worry about things like keeping their kids in private school and keeping up maintenance and taxes on a super-fancy place should probably plan for them as a matter of course, although they can ironically get away with a much smaller cash emergency fund - they can rely on having enough to survive in riskier accounts even if the bottom falls out of the market, and get a better return on emergency savings. It's good to be rich.
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Jan 13, 2015 07:59
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Vilgan posted:Even a family in Silicon Valley doesn't need 50k for 6 months expenses. Yikes! As someone in the Bay Area, I'd disagree. $3500/mo - 2 BR rent in SV in $3500+, you could probably find a small unit on the questionable outskirts of EPA or something, but good luck. Anywhere else is minimum 1+ hour commute each way, probably 1.5-2hrs plus given traffic now $2500/mo - Literally every family I know,both parents work, just due to the sheer cost. This means daycare is mandatory. The absolute cheapest I've seen daycare at (outside of an illegal immigrant) is ~$15,000/yr per kid. $700/mo - Throw in maybe $700 for food (this is mostly groceries, plus a few cheaper restaurants) for a family of four. $500/mo - Insurance (car/life/renters) and vehicle (gas, maintenance) That is $43,000 in essentials for 6 months. This isn't including clothes, cell phones, or utilities either. Switch from renting to a mortgage and you are over $50k for six months.
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Jan 13, 2015 08:14
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Interest rate question: I have a load with a 2% fixed rate. So with the inflation rate bouncing around 1.5% a year I was wondering if there was a point where paying more then the normal incremental payments hurts me. Since over the course of the loan the money I put in early will be "spent" at a higher valuation of the dollar.
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Jan 13, 2015 20:19
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M_Gargantua posted:Interest rate question: Sure, absolutely. If the inflation rate is higher than your loan rate, you should pay the bare minimums and you will pay less in real terms over the course of the loan (assuming your net income increases at or above the rate of inflation, that there will not be a subsequent deflationary period, and that your minimum payments are greater than the accumulated interest on the loan).
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Jan 13, 2015 20:26
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app posted:As someone in the Bay Area, I'd disagree. I've heard significantly different stories about costs, but I don't live there so whatevs  On the flipside, that sounds awful and reinforces how much I love Seattle. Slightly lower salaries in exchange for significantly cheaper housing in walkable neighborhoods with a nice easy commute via bus or light rail. I live in my favorite part of Seattle that is super walkable, right near the lake and a bunch of other cool things, etc and our monthly expenses are 1500/month for mortgage and 1k/month for food/utilities/etc that we need to spend and 1k per month that we could easily remove if necessary. We could get that a lot lower if we moved to a less nice neighborhood. Edit> I lied, I am going to question these numbers. Zillow quotes average 2 br in silicon valley as 2200 a year ago, I doubt its gone up over 50% in the last year. I see lots of 2 br apartments in that area for WAY under 3500. Also, people usually throw around 700k for a home, that'd be like 2600 before insurance/tax not over 3500. Other costs: food - 600/month Car/life insurance: 100/month and vehicle: gas/maintenance 200/month Utilities/all other random stuff: 300 So maybe 4500 before childcare IF you need childcare, the original discussion was single earners because they probably want a 6 month cushion while its a lot less necessary for dual earners. Dual earners ought to be fine with a lot less than 6 months I'll stand by my original point that burning through 50k in 6 months is absurd. Lots of people in SV have posted elsewhere that they are easily able to live in SV and save 60-75% of their income by not going crazy with spending. If both people are earning 60k or whatever such that you really do need both people to work, perhaps you should move just about anywhere else in the country that's not Manhattan or SV. Vilgan fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 20:31
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6 months of "normal budget" expenses is a good rule, because you can probably stretch that to 12 months or more of unemployment if you do something like downsize living space, sell a car, drop a phone line, eat beans, and get rid of cable, etc.
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Jan 13, 2015 21:00
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What high earning family of four with a stay at home mom lives in a two bedroom apartment? This conversation is pretty dumb but let's at least have the same one...
spwrozek fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 22:09
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M_Gargantua posted:Interest rate question:
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Jan 13, 2015 22:17
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Thanatosian posted:There's an argument to be made that you're losing out on some money by putting it into paying down your loan instead of investing it; especially if you haven't maxed your IRA contributions for the year. Oh man. That's rich. Don't put money you actually have into a Roth unless you have a six month emergency fund but go ahead an take a loan out to fund the Roth? I don't understand where you're coming from. Wow. Talk about rate chasing. Follow your heart I guess.
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Jan 13, 2015 23:43
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Dead Pressed posted:Oh man. That's rich. Don't put money you actually have into a Roth unless you have a six month emergency fund but go ahead an take a loan out to fund the Roth? I don't understand where you're coming from. Wow. Talk about rate chasing. Follow your heart I guess. In fact, I have a 2% student loan (so, effective rate closer to 1.75-1.8%) that I don't pay down for this exact reason. Additionally, if I die, my IRA is inheritable as an asset, but they'll write off the student loan, so there's yet another reason not to pay it.
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Jan 14, 2015 01:02
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Dead Pressed posted:Oh man. That's rich. Don't put money you actually have into a Roth unless you have a six month emergency fund but go ahead an take a loan out to fund the Roth? I don't understand where you're coming from. Wow. Talk about rate chasing. Follow your heart I guess. loving nerds and their math, amirite?
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Jan 14, 2015 01:26
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Thanatosian posted:Uhhhhh... if I could take out a 2% unsecured loan to fund my IRA? gently caress yes. I was under the impression that student loans (At least direct government ones) don't get written off when you die and they just go after your next of kin to pay up instead, which is why I haven't offed myself yet. Then again I don't know many people with gov't loans at a 2% interest rate either so I'm guessing yours is private?
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Jan 14, 2015 02:57
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