Question

[resonant]

The Tech Goddess would like to know: Does anyone have any experience with Ing's orange savings account?

I only have the vaguest idea of what she's talking about, but if anybody has compliments or cautions to share, I'll pass them on to her.

Comments

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

I use ING and love 'em. It's pretty simple to use. About the only caveat is that if you need your money you can't get it right away, like you could if you went to an ATM. But since I use my savings account to ideally not touch that money unless I absolutely have to that actually works fine for me.

IIRC they've got a promotion going on where if somebody with an account makes a referral, the referee gets some money for free as a signup bonus (like Paypal used to do). So if the Tech Goddess would like an ING account lemme know and I can do the referring thing. =)

[helenish.livejournal.com]

I agree - it's pretty fab, for the following reasons.

1. The rate of return is high - currently about three times what I had in my moneymarket account. High enough that you make a palpable amount of money. Certainly, it depends on what you put in, but you can get at least, say, one movie a month out of it - just from letting your money lie there!

2. The waiting period to get money out at first seems like a pain in the ass (it can take between two and five days for transactions to happen) but is really, actually, a good thing, because you just put your money in the account and forget about it. And then, when you remember, it's just been there, making interest, not being spent, etc.

2a. I think it's a good interim thing/middle ground between having just a checking account, and really deciding to invest some extra money in something that's less liquid than money like stocks or a house or whatever.

3. They do have a signing bonus that works as follows - the referrer gets ten bucks. The referree gets 25. The referral comes via e-mail.

[truebluespark]

Apropos of nothing, would you be interested in referring me? I'd like to open an account, but seems no one on my friends list has one.

[helenish.livejournal.com]

oh, crap!

I...clearly haven't been checking my e-mail carefully, because I just found this. um, do you still need a referral? If so, I'd be happy to.

[truebluespark]

Well, I'm not exactly the quickest of the quick responders myself (as should be obvious). Anyway, if you could refer me, that'd be great. E-mail's shay@forresterlabs.com.

[helvirago]

I have one too. And, uh... I have nothing more to say than has already been said. I keep trying to get someone else to open one, because the whole "You get 25 bucks, I get 10," is such a win-win, but alas, no luck.

Anyway, I recommend them. The interface is friendly and easy, and I've never had any trouble with them. I put my student loan money in there to earn money until I have to pull it out to live on.

[the-star-fish.livejournal.com]

Um, yeah. Let us discuss this.

dbaker01201 at yahoo dot com

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

I like them a lot. I had to get some money back from savings recently, and they transferred it right to my primary bank with no problem at all. I'm thinking about opening one of their CD's.

[kittiec.livejournal.com]

Ditto what everyone else said. :)

[giglet.livejournal.com]

It works just fine for me.

ING

[danceswithcats.livejournal.com]

I have an ING savings account and like it a lot. For all the reasons already quoted. The rate is great (for savings). Better than you can get anywhere else and keep the funds liquid. It's linked to my checking account, so I can move money in and out within a day. Highly recommended.

[delurker.livejournal.com]

I've had nothing but good with ING, and the interest rate is very nice.

[kat-denton.livejournal.com]

One more good thing (and I have accounts there, so IMHO).....

Once you've got your first account set up and confirmed, you can set up multiple other accounts and move money in and out. So you can have one for a true emergency savings fund and another to save for your vacation, or a new car, or the downpayment on a house.

It's really helped me to priortize my savings to not have everything squished into one account.

You do have to have a checking account that they 'link' to your savings account. You deposit the funds into your checking at your local brick and mortar bank and then move the $ into your ING account online.

Quick and simple. Good interface, too, very easy to use.

[brancher.livejournal.com]

One more thing: you can set your ING account to automatically deduct a set amount from your regular checking account every week, month, etc. If you're earning a paycheck and you set it to take, say $25 or $50 out of your account each week, it's amazing how fast that adds up, and you never have to think about it. You just open the account one day and there's your money, plus a lot of interest. It's great.