Anyone use ING Direct?

todd2000 said:

So I was going to open a savings account at my bank tommorrow, and my friend suggesed I open an Oraneg Savings Account with ING Direct. The APR is 4.15% vs .5% from my bank, and there are no fees, or anything. It just seems strange to me to open a savings account with a totally internet based bank. Does anyone use ING Direct? Any reason not to?

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We use 'em. No problem with internet only access. Concerned mostly with a higher rate of interest.

They shouldn't need to charge fees or offer low rates of interest, they take your money and make money from it - the banks just seem to get away with taking the p*ss out of people.

Just give yourself time to move funds around if you need to. It's a savings account, so money should really only be headed into the account and not out.

todd2000 said:

How long does it take on average to transfer money to/from your checking account? Incase I need money for an emergency or something.

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This is probably the only downside to ING. It usually takes a few days to transfer money. It's been a while since I've transfered anything in or out of my orange savings account, but I know it is not instantaneous, so don't count on it to get your your money quickly in an emergency.

I use an ING account. I believe it takes somewhere around a week (maybe 4-5 days) to transfer money out of the account. But of course, it is a savings account, so the idea is to put money in.

I usually plan on putting a certain amount in every month and let that sit. Any left over money I have in my checking account that would otherwise just sit there, I also deposit into my ING account, so that I can gain some interest off of it. So I record the amount I put in monthly and subtract that from what is in the account. That difference, I would allow myself to take out to spend on whatever I "need." I just need to know about a week in advance. Might as well gain something on money just sitting around.

daniel

Had ours for 5 years and it is the best ever. We have automatic deposits set up every month and the interest is great. I only had to withdraw once, and it only took 2 business days to transfer. Highly recommended based on rate of return alone.

I have one, and I get 5.4% interest per year. On June 1st, they're increasing it to 5.6% per annum. No annual fee, and no fees for anything else for that matter.

My funds are transferred from my ING account to my "regular bank acount" by the next business day if I transfer before 4pm the day before. I've never had a problem with running out of funds in my "regular" bank account because I always leave $100 in that account. This gives me around 1 day where I only have access to $100 in my bank and the money currently in my wallet (usually $200). I can live with only $300 for 24 hours, along with my credit card (nothing owing on it), and an account I have in Canada.

In Canada, I use PC Financial because I have a high interest savings account (of only 3.05%), chequing account (free cheques!!), and credit card is also with them (easy to pay the cc bill), and it seems easier than ING.

I also have an ING account. When I was first introduced to it by my older cousin, I was a bit skeptical, because the interest rate seemed to good to me true. But hey, as Danski said, the banks just invest your money in other enterprises, making far more profit than the amount they give back to you in interest.

Fantastic if your looking for a savings account.

If you mean banking by mail with ING, then yeah, I have a CD with them. much better rates than local banks. I've had it for about a year now, no complaints yet... though I haven't tried getting my money back from them yet!

On a side note, ING is a very, very reputable Dutch banking firm. Their financial info can be found here

Here's my experience with ING transferring

I have a bank account with Chase. This is only for withdrawls.
Day 1: Set up transfer of funds to Chase account for Day 2 (you can't set up a transfer for the same day, they don't do that).
Day 2: ING officialy makes the transfer (money stops earning interest)
Day 3: Nothing Happens
Day 4: Money shows up in Chase

The slow transfers do make me a little mad, but I think its just a cost you have to bear when dealing with them because of their low cost / high payout model. I do reccomend this to my friends / family who think they NEED a savings account.

I recently talked to my father about this ... his bank was takin ridiculous advantage of him. I showed him my ING account that was earning about the same amount of interest per month despite about ten percent of the funds. Basically I printed out a page stating my interest rate and he took it over to the bank, he walked out with a 4% interest rate just for asking. I asked him when I was getting the check for the extra interest he was not properly earning ... he has yet to reply.

i signed up for ing a few months ago. i set up automatic deposits twice a month, and love the high interest rate, of course. i haven't taken any money out of it, but i'd imagine that as long as you plan ahead, it wouldn't really be that big a deal. if something is so important as to require funds from a savings account, then surely you can afford the 3-5 days it may take to transfer.

I have a local checking and savings account. I keep around $500 in my local savings account "just in case", a good majority of my money in my checking account (for bills, gas, blah blah blah), and whatever I feel I can afford to move I move into my ING account.

I can't imagine *too* many situations where I would need more than $500 IMMEDIATELY. I suppose if somebody catnapped my cat and demanded $10,000 in the next 24 hours or something... The majority of the time you will know if a large bill is coming your way giving you sufficient time to transfer the money out.

todd2000 said:

Where do you live? Their website says 4.15%. Guess the rate was better when you signed up?, or is it higher then 4.15% now and the website is wrong?

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they've raised the interest rate for my account twice since i've joined (and that was only a few months ago), so i think it's likely you will see increased rates over time.

Not sure what there is to worry about...

There's no monthly fee, the rate is great, everyone here has mentioned that they've been getting their money back fine.

I say go for it. They don't really spam my email either. Half of the emails I get from them are announcements about raising their interest rates!!

I really don't see where you can lose here.

daniel

I just opened one last month but I like that it's very easy to access and set up automatic transfers from my checking account. It'll force me to save money.

I just opened an Orange Savings account last week. I have been looking at the interest rates on their CDs and will probably open one of those as well. It is good to hear there is a potential for higher rates the longer you remain with ING. Bank of America has horrible interest rates and their fees are outrages. By the end of next month I plan on moving everything to ING and leaving on my Checking and Business accounts at B of A.

It is good to mention your money is covered under FDIC terms up to $200K. The only place I have seen higher FDIC terms is in Beverly Hills.

I have two ING Accounts a savings account and a "Wedding Fund". It is very convenient for me since I have all of my banking automated. My direct deposit goes into my saving account. Then, a portion is automatically transferred to the wedding fund. On the 1st of each month, I automatically transfer the exact amount that I need for all of my bills (mortgage, car, etc) to my checking account. Then on the 10th of each month my checking account automatically pays my bills.

I just check in on occasion to make sure everything is moving smoothly.

Hickman