Online Banking Made Easy
Written: Apr 18 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: No fees or minimums. Great customer service. Nice interest rates.
Cons: Checking account is one per person and not available to minors.
The Bottom Line: For a great banking experience ING Direct is the way to go. Offering something for just about everyone with great rates and customer service.
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| micheich's Full Review: ING Direct |
I have always liked to do my banking online and keep track of my money. When I received a flyer in the mail about ING Direct it piqued my curiosity so I decided to check into it further. I was pleasantly surprised by the information I found.
ING Direct is an online bank and the first of its kind as far as I know. They currently offer savings accounts, CD’s, electric checking accounts, mutual funds, mortgages and home equity line of credits. I decided to give them a try and open a savings account just to test the process and see how smoothly it really would go. Additionally the flyer I received was offering a $25 bonus so what did I have to loose.
Opening my savings account was so easy. I went online, entered all my personal information and my checking account information. Having this account linked to my checking seemed like a wonderful idea since I could easily transfer money between the two accounts any time I needed to. Almost immediately after opening the account, I received a welcome email. Three days later, they had made two small deposits into my checking account to show me that the two accounts were indeed linked together. I went online and verified the two small deposits made and my account was then active. When I opened the account I was advised the initial deposit I made, only $5.00 was going to be on a 10-business day hold, meaning I could not transfer those funds out of my account for at least 10 business days. Once my account was completely established, all additional deposits were only going to be on hold for 5 days. Considering I wasn’t being charged any fees for the transfers I am happy to let my money sit for 5 days. After all, this is supposed to be a savings account and I am using it to save my money. Currently their savings account interest rates are 4.50% APY. In my Wells Fargo account savings I was only getting .1% and had to keep a minimum balance. I really like that ING Direct has a no minimum balance policy on their accounts and no fees for anything.
Since the savings account opened so smoothly I decided to try the Electric Orange checking account too. This is a paperless checking account so I knew I would not be receiving any paper checks with it. Instead they send you a Mastercard debit card for making purchases. I have this type of card with my Wells Fargo checking and use it all the time so I knew I would enjoy having this feature. My only concern was when I need to write a check for something, such as my children’s lunch money at school, what I would do. Since this is linked to my current personal checking account I still have paper checks at my disposal, but ING Direct does give me some options for making check type payments.
First off they have an electric payment option. If someone I know has an ING Direct account I can electronically send him or her a payment via email. The person will receive and email with a link to click on to accept the payment. Once accepted the money is immediately deposited into their account. They also have an option of sending a paper check. If you go online to your account and select this option, on your screen you will see a picture of a paper check. You type in the details of to whom and how much, then you will be taken to a page that has an envelope. Fill in the address of where you want this check to go and a cute little graphic will show the check being stuffed into the envelope and sent off in the mail. I loved this part. They also have a bill pay section. You can enter the companies you are making payments to into an address book. Once you have the information stored into your address book all you have to do is go to the bill pay feature, select the company you want to pay, enter the amount and the date you want the payment sent, and you are finished. You even have the option of setting up a reoccurring payment. If you have a bill where the amount never changes you can set up the payment to go out every month automatically so you never have to go into your account and make that payment yourself.
I really enjoy the fact that I am getting interest on my checking account and have no minimum balance requirements. Currently the interest rate is $0-$49,999.99 4.0% APY, $50,000.00-$99,999.99 5.05% APY, and $100,000.00 or more is 5.30% APY. Overall I think these rates are great for anyone who owns a checking account.
You can also have this be a joint account if you want to. The only downside I have found to making it a joint account is that you are only allowed one Electric Orange account per person, so if you have a joint you cannot open a single also. In addition, this account is not open to minors. The reason for this is that each account comes with a $165 line of credit/overdraft protection.
Although I have not set up any CD’s I am thinking of doing one in the future. The short term CD’s have the best interest rates starting at 5% APY for as short as a six month and going up to 5.10% APY for a twelve month. They have CD’s that range anywhere from 6-60 months. You also have the option of interest disbursements with your CD’s. This allows you to send the interest earned into one of your accounts at the end of each month. I really liked this feature because I can then earn interest on my interest.
Although at this time I do not have an interest in the mortgage or mutual funds products they seem to be on the same kind level as all their other account types. They are simple to use and have great rates. If you are interested they have lots of information on their website www.ingdirect.com where you can look into it.
I have only had to call customer service one time and it was just to get a bit more information on the CD’s and find out what accounts I could set up for my children. I found the representative to be helpful and very nice.
Overall, my experience with ING Direct has been a pleasant one. I think almost anyone can complete the online sign up process but if they have problems or questions the call center employees seem to be very helpful and nice. I look forward to trying more of their products and seeing what they will next have to offer us.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
micheich
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Location: Minnesota
Reviews written: 94
Trusted by: 43 members
About Me:
Trying to write again. CONSTRUCTIVE criticism welcome and thanks for reading my reviews!
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