Tired Ally to open my first bank accounts, was very dissapointed I couldn't open a checkings and (an overdraft) savings account. I provided the correct name, address, SSN and whatnot and failed THREE TIMES. The first two times I waited a week to be denied through letter for the reason of "Unable to verify applicants identity." On my first call I was asked to simply try again. On the second I got more help, but the reason they stated was my SSN was wrong, even though I had my SSN card in front of me and recited what was exactly on it. The third application was actually submited during my second call, same process same SSN problem. At the end I was transfered to someone (I haven't a clue), who had me provide my SSN, verified it was the same on the application and hadn't a clue what was wrong. I asked if this was a problem above her control, and she said it probably was (so I do appreciate their customer service trying.) She did however offer a solution: To email a scan of my I.D. and Social Security Card to newaccounts@ally.com. To email my SSCard felt like a red flag, and the fact that the email isn't easy to find on their website just had me give up. This might've been a unique issue, still an unfortunate experience nonetheless, Ally had everything I was looking for. The only solution I can think of: Because Ally's identity verication process can never be as easy as a physical bank, they may refer to a Credit Bureau to see if the applicant exists. This being my first bank and having no credit history, perhaps they couldn't verify me because I'm credit invisible. Regardless, I'm currently searching for another bank.

Applied for a CD account online. Went very smoothly and got confirmation e-mails on the account opening and status of account funding from an external account. I see a lot of complaints about customer service. Hopefully I will not run into that. We will see in 3 business days when my account is funded.