Why ING DIRECT Is An Essential Part of My Financial Plan

I love ING DIRECT. I have been a customer of theirs for years. As I have described before in “How I Automate My Finances“, my ING DIRECT accounts are a vital part. Here is why.

There are two key products from ING that I use – a savings account and a checking account:

• The Orange Savings Account. Earn high interest. Great rates, no fees, no minimums. Start saving in under 5 minutes.
• Electric Orange – Earn high interest. Free Bill Pay. Free ATM’s at more than 35,000 locations. Apply online.

First, let’s look at the savings accounts. I have 5 of them. I use them for both my emergency fund, as well as my short-term savings vehicles. Thus, I have one account for each: Christmas, insurance, car maintenance, etc. ING automatically transfers a payment to each account, each month. This way, when my annual insurance premium comes due, I am ready. The same could be said for Christmas. They are like mini-escrow accounts! Because ING does not require a minimum balance, when the New Year rolls around (and I have $0 in my Christmas account), I don’t have to worry about minimum balance fees. Not only does ING allow me to keep my funds separate (which makes short-term savings goals a snap), but they also provide me an interest rate 13 times that of my last bank. Duh!

Last, let’s look at the checking account. First & foremost, it is interest bearing. The ING checking accounts are paperless. So your debit card is your preferred weapon. Additionally, ING offers a great online bill pay program. They will even overnight checks (for an small additional fee), if necessary. My wife & I are both paid via direct deposit. We use our debit card for everything , so we never write checks. We wouldn’t write checks even if we had them. For these reasons, switching to the ING checking account was pretty easy. They provide ATM access to ATMs all over the place and even if we are not close to an ATM, we usually just ask for cash back on our debit purchases. No big deal. I have been using my Electric Orange account since they began offering them. We have earned over $400 in interest over that time. For us, it is free money. Totally worth it.

As the old adage goes, it takes money to make money. And ING DIRECT makes it a breeze.