Capital One is a top ten bank by assets, while Ally Bank is among the top 20. While Capital One is much more well-known, Ally holds its own, and the two banks have more in common than you might think. With either bank, you’ll find identical APYs on their high-yield savings accounts, no opening deposit requirements and no monthly service fees on banking.
However, Ally has more of what we’d consider traditional banking services, while Cap One’s credit cards and kids’ banking options might sway you.
 Ally |  Capital One | |
| Bonus | N/A | $250 bonus with 360 Checking when you use code CHECKING250 and receive at least two direct deposits of at least $500 each within 75 days of account opening. |
| Savings | Up to 3.6% APY | Up to 3.7% APY |
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| Branches | Online only | Nearly 300 branches, including cafe locations |
Both Ally and Capital One are FDIC-insured banks. Ally operates exclusively online, while Capital One has a few hundred branches and cafe locations across the country. With either bank, you can get low-fee accounts with high savings APYs and a few lending options.
However, Capital One doesn’t offer investing services, personal loans or mortgages. If that’s something you’re after, Ally Bank may have already won the battle.
Whether you go with Ally or Capital One for personal banking, you’ll get an account with no monthly fees or opening deposit requirements. Capital One also offers kids’ banking options.
Capital One offers:
Ally Bank offers:
The Capital One 360 Performance Savings account earns up to 3.7% APY, while the Ally Savings account offers a competitive 3.6% APY. Neither has balance requirements or monthly fees. However, Ally’s savings account has a big feature that we feel is worth calling out: the savings buckets.
Ally allows you to create up to 30 buckets per account, which are subaccounts of your savings that you can label. Sort your savings goals, separate your emergency fund, create sinking funds or just use them for the envelope budgeting method. You can also set up savings round-ups that round up debit card purchases to the nearest whole dollar to be deposited into your savings automatically. You also get buckets with the Ally checking account.
Ally might be for you if you want a bank that offers mortgages and personal loans — two things that Capital One no longer offers. Capital One has largely stepped out of the personal lending space, but it does, however, still offer some business financing options and credit cards.
Ally offers mortgages, auto loans, personal loans, refinancing options and business lending. There are a handful of credit cards, too, like the Ally Everyday Cash Back card.
One of the areas Capital One beats Ally in is the variety of credit card options. Cap One’s Venture credit cards offer miles, you can book vacations and such through Capital One Travel, many other cards earn cashback rewards and customers report lenient credit score requirements.
Capital One doesn’t offer investing options anymore as of 2019.
Ally offers self-directed trading through Ally Invest, with no commission fees on most US-listed stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and options. For stocks, ETFs and bonds, there are no account minimums. Ally also offers Smart Score, which rates stocks from 1 to 10 to help guide investors, and a blog full of how-tos and educational information.
Ally and Capital One are nearly the same when it comes to fees. Neither charges monthly service fees on checking or savings, there are no minimum deposit requirements on CDs and neither charges overdraft fees on checking.
The banks’ ATM networks are nearly the same, too, with Cap One offering 70,000 fee-free ATMs and Ally having 75,000. While neither charges fees for using an out-of-network ATM, operator fees may apply, but Ally offers up to $10 in monthly out-of-network ATM reimbursements.
Each year, J.D. Power releases the US National Banking Satisfaction Study. Notably, Capital One was ranked number one in 2024 and has won the highest in overall satisfaction for five years in a row.
Despite the high satisfaction levels and accolades, Capital One’s Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Trustpilot profiles are full of negative reviews. The most common complaint is about poor customer service, which isn’t unexpected, since Cap One is a mostly online bank and we see this a lot for online institutions.
Ally, however, has very few BBB complaints. But Trustpilot, Ally’s reviews are mostly negative with customers commonly reporting issues around poor customer service.
On Reddit, specifically on r/AllyBank, a user posed the question “Why is Ally better than Capital One?” that gained some traction. Redditors report that Ally’s customer service agents are US-based, that Ally has higher mobile deposit limits (we checked, it does) and that it also offers investing services. One user says they’re a customer of both Ally and Capital One, reporting they like Cap One’s mobile app more, whereas Ally is nice for larger deposit limits.
Cap One and Ally have a lot in common. With either bank, you’ll find affordable, convenient and solid deposit accounts. Both banks offer similar APYs on savings products with no monthly fees, opening deposit requirements or overdraft fees. Additionally, both Ally and Capital One offer CDs with APYs up to 4.00% APY with no minimum deposit requirement, compared to the typical $1,000 deposit that most banks require.
However, Capital One is likely better suited for families with kids and those who prefer in-person support, while Ally is better if you’d like to do all things financial with one bank.
Ally offers investing, lending and banking, while Cap One has stopped offering investment and personal lending services. However, Cap One offers kids’ banking and has physical branch locations across the country, whereas Ally is an entirely online bank, so you won’t have access to in-person support or the ability to make cash deposits.
Great savings tools, high APYs, lending and investing, but it’s an online bank that doesn’t take cash deposits.
A top ten bank with great savings rates, few fees, rewards credit cards and branch locations, but no lending or investing services in-house.
Ally and Cap One both offer solid deposit accounts with hard-to-beat APYs and few fees. But if neither feels like the right fit, compare these other top banks:
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