$25 @ ING Bank

To get a $25.00 sign up bonus please email me – mhforc [at] gmail [dot] com. Provide your first name, last name, and account preference (saving or checking)

ING Direct $25 Sign Up Bonus When You Open A New Account

I have been a happy ING Direct customer since 2004 – long before I was a personal finance blogger. I have been using this product for just over five years, so I want to share reasons why I use and really like ING Direct.

To get $25 just send an email to mhforc [at] gmail [dot] com. Include the account type you are interested in (check or saving) and your first and last name. ASAP I’ll send you a link that you can use to get $25 when you sign up. You must deposit $250 and keep your account open for 30 days to get the bonus.

Here’s some information if your interested in learning more about ING Direct.

ING Direct Checking: Electric Orange Checking Account

Introducing ING Direct (www.ingdirect.com) Online Banking
I have banked with ING Direct since December 2nd, 2004. Since that time, I have had bank accounts online with Netbank, Everbank, and Citibank. In addition, I have had bank accounts at First Tennessee, Memphis Teacher‟s Credit Union, First Community Credit Union, and Wachovia. Without a doubt, ING has been my favorite bank.
ING Bank accounts are intended to be supplementary banking services. In other words, you must have an actual brick and mortar bank account. Then you make free transfers between both banks. You can make deposits and withdraws directly through ING Direct or you can deposit money into your brick and mortar account, and then transfer it to ING Direct.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE ING DIRECT ELECTRIC ORANGE CHECKING ACCOUNT:

No checks to buy. No stamps to buy. I think this is the coolest feature with the Electric Orange checking account. When you want to send someone a check, you just sign into your account, type out the details for a recipient, and ING sends the check via first class the next business day. You pay nothing. Electric Orange is the first of all electronic paperless checking accounts in America.
No fees or minimal fees (depending on usage). I have never paid any fees with my checking account. You will pay fees if you need an overdraft line of credit, overnight delivery of a check, overnight delivery of a replacement card, stop payment, and 2% foreign transaction fee. Read this article if you want to be reminded how unusual it is for banks to have so few fees.
Fee Free ATM network nationwide. You can withdraw money from any one of 32,000 ATMs nationwide within the Allpoint network.
Free Online Bill Pay.
Easy to set up. Never set up a bank online? The set up process is simple.
Easy to automate. If you send checks or pay bills regularly online, you can just tell ING when you want the check sent or pay the bills. Then ING will always do the work for you.
Seamless relationship with Sharebuilder. If you invest with Sharebuilder, there is no easier way to transfer funds to and from your bank.
FDIC Insured.

I think the check sending feature alone makes this a choice worth considering. I am often away from my local bank. ING offers me the flexibility of being able to send a check to someone in the States from anywhere in the world.

ING Checking Disadvantages

At times, you just want to give someone a check by hand. ING Checking will not allow you to do that (you can if you still keep your old checking account).
Some payments you want to include an invoice or something with the check.

Both of these can be resolved by keeping a brick and mortar bank account with checking features.

ING CHECKING SAVINGS ACCOUNT

Here is what I like about the ING Direct Savings account:

Easy to automate. With an ING Savings account you can link up to five other bank accounts. They you can automatically transfer money from those accounts to your ING Savings account. If you prefer to make your transfers manually, you can do that also. This is a great budgeting tool. For example, let‟s say you have decided to have an all cash and debt-free Christmas for 2009 and you need to save $75 per month. Just tell ING Direct to take out $75 on the first of every month from your local bank and transfer it to your ING Direct Savings Account that you have nicknamed “Christmas Money”.
Open multiple accounts that you still access through one main page. This is perhaps one of my favorite features. You can easily have an account for savings, an account for a new vehicle, and an account for Christmas. Transferring to and from your accounts is simple.
Competitive interest rates above the national average. Currently, (April 30, 2009) their savings account interest rate is .25% Annual Percentage Yield for their checking account (Electric Orange) and 1.56% for Orange Savings account. Not really much interest, right? Well, no one is giving much interest right now. Compared to Bankrate‟s reported national average of 1.34% for savings accounts, ING is still offering some of the best interest rates in the country. For comparison, back in December 2007, they were offering 3.20% for the checking account and 4.14 for the savings account.
No fees. NO FEES! Like I mentioned earlier I have been with ING since 2004. In that time, I have never paid any fees. They only have a minimum balance of $1. Now if you want to overdraw your account and other such things, then expect to pay fees.
Fee Free ATM network nationwide. You can withdraw money from any one of 32,000 ATMs nationwide within the Allpoint network.
Easy to set up. Never set up a bank online? The set up process is simple.
FDIC Insured.

Any disadvantages?

Like all internet banks, you need to have time for your transfers to take effect. 2-3 days is typical. This is not a problem for me, but may be for you.
ING will put new funds (check) on hold for 5-7 days until the funds have cleared.
They limit the number of online transfer withdrawals from all of your accounts to five a month. This does not include ATM usage.

What to learn more? I put together an ING Direct Handbook (165). The handbook talks about all the great benefits and features of the ING Direct Savings and ING Checking accounts.

Do you want to view a PDF that describes all the benefits and features of ING Direct? If so, get the PDF now – ING Direct Handbook (165).