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Ally Invest customer service

Your expert
Adam N.
Fact checked by
Updated
1d ago
Personally tested
Data-driven
Independent

How is customer service at Ally Invest?

When using an online broker, you may sometimes need assistance to locate a feature or sort out a problem. In such situations, it's good to have prompt and helpful customer service on hand.

Ally Invest offers OK customer support across multiple channels, but occasionally you can run into long waits or less-than-helpful responses. Read on for details and comparisons.

Ally Invest customer service is so-so
Adam
Adam Nasli
Regulation • Fighting Scams • Market Analysis

I've tested dozens of brokers over the years, which often included contacting their help desks over various issues. Ally Invest has decent customer service but I saw room for improvement:

  • You can reach Ally Invest customer service via several channels.
  • Ally Invest's help desk is a hit-and-miss when it comes to response speed.
  • Ally Invest customer support is sometimes helpful, sometimes less so.
  • Looking for better treatment? See how Ally Invest compares to its rivals.

Before we begin, let's see if Ally Invest is available in your country

Yes, you can open an account at Ally Invest if you live in the United States!

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Broker
Customer service score
Ally Invest
3.4
/5
Merrill Edge
3.8
/5
Fidelity
2.7
/5
Customer service highlights at Ally Invest vs selected competitors
Overall score
4.5/5
Minimum deposit
$0
Stock fee
Low
Options fee
Low
Inactivity fee
no
Account opening
1-3 days
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Reach customer service via several channels

Like most companies, online brokers typically offer customer service via several channels. Phone support is usually best if you need to quickly sort out a complicated problem or emergency, while more and more users prefer live chat for simple queries. Meanwhile, email support remains your best friend if you're an introvert, or for more complex questions that aren't so time sensitive.

You will likely face many types of issues during trading, so choose a broker where you can reach all three modes of support. Here's how you can get in touch with Ally Invest:

  • Live chat
  • Phone
  • Email

The good news is that Ally Invest offers round-the-clock customer support, so you can reach out to them even if you're a night owl or if you live half a world away.

Our first-hand customer service experience at Ally Invest

The customer service is available only in English.
The Ally Invest phone support provided relevant answers albeit the speed of the service was average.
Via email, we got relevant answers, but it took a couple of days to receive a reply.
Ally Invest's live chat could be improved. The response speed was average and the relevancy of the answers was mediocre.
Despite all this, it's a big plus that the Ally Invest support team is available 24/7.

Ally Invest customer service

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User forums as an alternative to customer service

Whatever your question or problem is, you're probably not alone. This makes online forums of traders a great source of info about brokers in addition to (or even instead of) official customer service. RandomUser1234 won't be able to help you restore your account, but they can probably offer good tips on platform usage or tell you whether a certain stock is available at a broker.

Some brokers have their own community forums on their trading platforms or websites; alternatively, you can always turn to well-known forum aggregators such as Reddit. Many popular brokers have their own dedicated subreddits. Just post your question, or browse previous threads to see if it's been already answered.

Always exercise caution when taking advice from other forum users. Some information may be incorrect, outdated, or reflect the subjective judgment of a user. Also, do not share sensitive data or other material, such as screenshots that reveal your personal or financial information.

Help desk response times at Ally Invest are mixed

When testing the overall quality of customer support at Ally Invest and its competitors, we paid special attention to response speed. Because let's face it, we're all very busy; so when faced with a ten-minute wait to get connected to an operator, most of us would rather jump on a Reddit forum for answers or figure out a solution to our problems on our own. So this is how we rated brokers:

  • In the case of phone and live chat support, we considered waiting times of less than one minute as great, and waiting times exceeding five minutes as poor. We scored anything in between as mid-range; including brokers where responses were sometimes swift but sometimes too slow.
  • When it comes to email support, a response within 24 hours is considered great in our book; while we believe it is poor service to keep you waiting for more than two or three days for a reply.
Broker
Live chat speed
Phone speed
Ally Invest
Mid-range
Mid-range
Merrill Edge
Great
Great
Fidelity
Poor
Great
Customer service response speed at Ally Invest vs selected competitors
So why all the hurry? A little hold music won't hurt anyone, right? Perhaps not, but there may be situations where customer service speed can make a huge difference. Imagine you noticed that someone has broken into your account and started to withdraw your money from it. Or maybe you want to sell a free-falling stock but the order panel won't display properly. In such cases, swift customer support can potentially save you hundreds or thousands of dollars.

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Customer support quality at Ally Invest is average

Promptly picking up the phone is one thing, but it's just as important to give answers that are clear, comprehensible, sufficiently detailed and relevant to your problem. In addition to response speed, we also rated brokers based on the quality of replies and assistance we received.

  • Brokers we rated as 'great' here gave us all the necessary information and assistance.
  • Those we rated 'poor' left us scratching our heads and looking for alternative sources of information.
  • We gave a 'mid-range' score to brokers where the quality of support was inconsistent or where assistance was often less than useful.

Here's how Ally Invest compares to its main competitors when it comes to the helpfulness of live chat, phone and email support.

Broker
Live chat
Phone
Ally Invest
Mid-range
Great
Merrill Edge
Great
Great
Fidelity
Mid-range
Great
Customer service response quality at Ally Invest vs selected competitors

Compare Ally Invest with its rivals

Do you fancy using Ally Invest's services but not sure you'd get the level of customer service you deserve? Try our broker comparison tool, where you can size up 100+ brokers side by side and filter for many criteria including high-quality customer support.

Want to see how Ally Invest fares in other respects such as trading fees, funding options or platform quality? Read our full review of Ally Invest for 2024.

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Everything you find on BrokerChooser is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology.

author
Adam Nasli
Author of this article
I bring extensive financial expertise as one of BrokerChooser's earliest team members. Personally, I tested nearly all 100+ brokers on our site, opening real-money accounts, executing trades, assessing customer services, and providing firsthand assessment. My professional background includes roles in the banking sector and a degree from Central European University, where I teach finance. My passions lies in in-depth research of the financial industry, building trading algorithms, and managing long-term investments.
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