All offers / Bank accounts / Ally
Examined Jul 27, 2026 Paid in cash No direct deposit required Ally is the one bonus here that does not need your paycheck to move.
Your employer will not split a direct deposit, or there is no employer to ask. That rules you out of most of the bank bonuses on this site and it does not rule you out of this one. The savings route asks for an automated recurring transfer of any amount, run once a month for three months in a row. The spending route, meaning checking, asks for a real qualifying direct deposit within 60 days. Same $100 either way. Referring people pays you $50 a head for your first five friends in a year, capped at $250.
- You, opening the account as the new friend$100
- The person whose referral you enrolled through$50
Both figures are from Ally’s official referral terms. The referrer’s side stops at five friends and $250 in a calendar year; yours is one welcome bonus, whatever you open.
What Ally counts as a direct deposit
You only need this for the checking route. The savings route asks for a recurring transfer instead, and a transfer from your own outside bank is fine there.
Counts. An electronic deposit from an employer payroll, a payroll provider service, or a benefits payer such as Social Security or Military Pay. The deposit must be clearly identifiable by Ally as such, so money that arrives without a payer label can fail even when it came from payroll.
Does not count, in Ally's own words. Person to person payments such as Zelle. Electronic check deposits made with your device, meaning a check you photograph. And funds transferred from one Ally Bank account to another.
What pays what
| Savings: a recurring transfer of any amount, once a month for 3 months in a row | $100 |
|---|---|
| Spending: fund within 30 days, then a qualifying direct deposit within 60 days | $100 |
| You, for each friend who opens and funds an eligible account with any amount | $50 |
| Referrals in one calendar year | First 5 only, $250 max |
| Anyone with an Ally Bank deposit account since Jan 1, 2024, joint owners included | $0 for both sides |
| Zelle or another person to person payment, as your direct deposit | $0 |
| A check photographed on your phone, or an Ally to Ally transfer | $0 |
| Enrolling with one email and opening the account with another | $0 |
| The old $300 GET300 checking bonus | Closed |
Do this, in this order
- Check the lookback before anything else. Have you held any Ally Bank deposit account, of any type, at any point since January 1, 2024, including as a joint owner? If yes, stop: you are an Excluded Friend and nobody gets paid. Ally Auto and Ally Invest customers with no Ally Bank deposit account are fine.
- Enroll first, then open, and use the same email both times. Enrollment through the referral has to happen no later than December 31, 2026, and the new account has to be opened within 30 days of that enrollment. A different email at the two steps is on Ally's own list of reasons a referral fails.
- Pick your route deliberately. Savings if you want nothing to do with payroll. Spending if your paycheck can move and you want a checking account anyway. It is one welcome bonus per new friend, however many eligible accounts you open.
- Savings route: set the transfer up immediately and leave it alone. The recurring transfer must start within 30 days of opening, then complete at least once a month for at least three months in a row. Any amount qualifies. Ally pays within 30 days of the third transfer, so this route takes about four months end to end.
- Spending route: fund it, then get a real direct deposit in within 60 days. Fund the account with any amount within 30 days of opening, then set up and receive a qualifying direct deposit within 60 days of opening. Ally pays within 30 days of that deposit. Start the payroll change the day you open, because 60 days is only two or three pay cycles.
- Keep the account open and in good standing until the payout date. That is the condition Ally names, and it applies at the moment the bonus is paid rather than the moment you qualify.
- If something goes wrong, raise it inside 150 days. Ally sets that window for disputes after the payout date. Past it, there is nothing to appeal to.
If you came here for Ally's $300 bonus, it is gone
Several bonus blogs still list Ally at $300 under the offer code GET300. Ally's own page says the GET300 bonus signup is closed, and the offer required opening an account no later than November 10, 2025. The refer a friend program described on this page is the live one, and $100 is the real number.
The fine print that can still cost you the $100
The referrer is paid on funding, not on the friend's bonus. Your $50 lands when your friend opens and funds an eligible account with any amount, and it may take up to 30 days after they fund.
The other ways a referral quietly fails. The friend never funds the account, opens an account type Ally has excluded, is not approved, or enrolls with one email and opens with another. Each of these pays nothing to either side.
No stacking, and online only. If you qualify for more than one Ally offer, Ally reserves the right to consider you eligible for only one of them. There is no in person, mail in or call in route. Ally Invest employees are ineligible.
Tax, and the program's own clock. Ally treats the bonus as interest for tax reporting. The program runs through December 31, 2026, but Ally can end it early at its sole discretion. The new friend rules are effective December 18, 2025 and the referring customer rules were last modified April 7, 2026.
Is it worth your time?
For most people reading this batch, yes. Every other bank here asks you to persuade an employer to send your wages somewhere new; Ally asks you to set up a standing transfer of any amount and forget about it for three months. Do the eligibility check first, including joint accounts you barely remember, because that is the only part of this that fails without telling you. If you clear it, this is about fifteen minutes of work and then four months of patience.
