Ally I put real savings in.
Chase I use when I sell something in Craigslist for $600 and need to deposit cash. I have no good way to get cash into Ally.
So Chase is just a convenience bank for me. Also used it for the time I needed a 25k cashier check to buy my house. Ally was going to need to pay a wire fee, vs transfer and cashier check was free with Chase.
Overall yes I hate Chase.
We have a mutually abusive relationship.
If you have your paycheck auto-depositied, you can avoid most/all of the fees.
Also, without researching, I'm just guessing that a bricks and mortar FDIC regulated bank is reasonably safe (in the United States). I would have to sit down and do somewhat more research to be certain of an entity like Ally.
Note, these are all personal observations - the original post was indicating they were surprised that people put their money in Wells Fargo/Bank of America, etc... instead of Ally. I was just trying to supply one (personal) reason why we do it. It's entirely possible that my biases/conservative nature make those reasons ridiculous, but they are still honest.
Just for the record though, Ally is FDIC insured/regulated (and I'd guess that's true of most online banks that people actually use). I know you didn't explicitly say otherwise, but I wanted to make a note of that for anyone else who might be worried about that specifically.
For someone like you, I'd reiterate my recommendation for Schwab. But if you never pay fees as is (even from ATMs) then I could see how it may not be worth the time to switch.
Yes, Wells Fargo is a bigger company but Ally is no small potato.
That might be an answer to you but it's not an answer to anyone asking. What's so terrible about Ally?
Somewhat tangentially, it always surprises me that people continue to use checking/savings accounts from banks like Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, etc. when they pay terrible interest rates, don't reimburse ATM fees, and sometimes actually charge you for debit cards and/or paper checks. If it's the thought of not having access to real brick & mortar banks that scares you, Schwab is a great option (though they pay much less interest than the top online ones).