That's what I want

November 30, 2005 8:56 AM

Are there any hidden drawbacks to keeping my savings in an ING Direct Orange account?

I know that I'll have to transfer my money to my regular bank account either online or over the phone to have easy access to it via ATM or checking account, but are there are other inconveniences?

Right now my money is in a Bank of America money market account, and the interest rate on the orange account is over double what I get from BoA. I use BoA's online banking and online bill pay services a lot.

posted by amarynth to Work & Money (17 answers total)

Amarynth, I also had my savings in a BoA MM until last week when I saw HSBC Online's ad for 4%. So I switched over. I'm assuming that the ING account you are talking about is similar. With the HSBC account they allow me to use their ATMs if I want and offered me the option of a debit card, which I declined. I would say call ING's customer service and see if the offer the same thing, unless it is explicitly stated in their literature that they do not.

As for inconveniences, I do not see any, as HSBC has an online banking option that will let me transfer electronically from HSBC to BoA if I want, and visa versa, at no charge. Given the competitive landscape, I'm sure ING would have the same thing. The only downside I could see is that the bank reserves the right to change the rate at any time. Which is fine with me, I'll just close the account and take my earnings to the next bank that offers a good rate.

So I guess my answer is I see no downside.
posted by spicynuts at 9:00 AM on November 30, 2005

I use an ING Direct Orange Savings account, and I'm happy with it. The only possible downside I've seen is that it takes several days for deposits to the savings account to become available for withdrawal, and about two days for withdrawals from the savings account to be posted to my checking account. (This is only a problem if you need to access your savings with short notice; I just make sure to keep more than enough money in my regular checking account at all times.)
posted by mbrubeck at 9:12 AM on November 30, 2005

When I moved long distance (NY to DC) it took quite some time to get access to my funds again (maybe two weeks? it was a few years back - I must have changed banks as well). A move within DC (keeping the same bank) did not give me the same issues. Otherwise I've been very happy. Fund transfers take about 2-3 days each direction.
posted by exogenous at 9:14 AM on November 30, 2005

The only downside is that it pays less than Emigrant Direct's online savings account (4% APY). Both have no minimum balance. ING has a slightly better web interface.
posted by rxrfrx at 9:23 AM on November 30, 2005

I don't think ING has ATMs (at least not that I'm aware of). And everyone is dead on about the transfer time (though it has been running faster lately). That said, I LOVE my ING account(s) and have been telling everyone about it. And recently, whenever the Fed has raised the rate, I've gotten an email from ING a little bit later telling me that they're raising my interest rate as well. It's great that they keep passing that along to the customers, my BOA account hasn't raised my interest rate in years as far as I can tell.

The ING savings account doesn't have a minimum, which is nice at times.

ING also has some decent CD options including short term (like 3 months+) and I'm pretty sure there's no minimum. I haven't taken advantage of them because my regular rates keep going up, but probably will at some point.
posted by ml98tu at 9:29 AM on November 30, 2005

I have accounts at ING (3.5% APY) and Emigrant (4.0%), so I can compare those, at least. ING's website is great, and when I had to call customer service once, I got a helpful person on the phone immediately. Emigrant's site looks straight out of 1995, and while I haven't had to use support, I've heard of very long call queues.

I'd say look into the HSBC Direct account mentioned above. Not only is the APY higher, but you can use an ATM if you absolutely must have access to your money immediately. I don't have an account, but I'm strongly thinking of signing up due to the ATM availability and competetive APY (4.0%).
posted by zsazsa at 9:45 AM on November 30, 2005

I've had an ING savings account for a couple of years. It's never been an inconvenience to me because the only money in there is money I don't need immediate access to.
posted by suchatreat at 9:50 AM on November 30, 2005

The delays mentioned above are the only drawbacks I've experienced, although ING are straight up about it, no secrets.

I like that I was able to create severa accounts with nicknames and split my savings between them ("vacation, wedding, etc...).
posted by furtive at 9:53 AM on November 30, 2005

Add me to the list of uses ING and likes it. No problems as long as you're okay with the few days delay on fund transfers. My grandfather-in-law also uses ING (over the phone rather than online) and he is the one that recommended it to me a few years ago.
posted by raedyn at 9:54 AM on November 30, 2005

If you decide to use ING, find an existing customer who can refer you -- they offer a referral bonus of (I believe) $25 to the new customer, and $10 to the referrer -- which basically makes up for the difference in interest rate between ING and Emigrant Direct.
posted by GregW at 10:25 AM on November 30, 2005

MyMoneyBlog did an online bank comparison in August that compares ING Direct, VirtualBank, Emigrant Direct, and Presidential Bank (bank names are linked to MyMoneyBlog's info pages on them).

HSBC Direct has a $25 opening bonus with 4.00% APY.

(I just found MyMoneyBlog with a Google search, but it's got lots of interesting information.)
posted by kirkaracha at 11:04 AM on November 30, 2005

I have an ING account for "near-line" savings. I keep enough money in it to cover about four months of living expenses, and don't really expect to ever use it. My only complaint is that the Quicken integration could be better.

The EFT delays aren't a problem for me. Most emergencies can be paid with plastic, which gives plenty of time for the transfer to hit.
posted by I Love Tacos at 11:13 AM on November 30, 2005

I completely agree with I Love Tacos. Another plus (kind of) is the super-secure-seeming login page -- it would definitely keep unauthorized users out, even if I do have to lookup my "customer number" every time. Even so, I guess with thousands of dollars in there, I'd rather have as many layers of security as possible.

As long as you can stand the couple days' wait on transfers, I'd go for it. Been a customer for a couple years now, and have had no problems. If you're interested in the referral bonus, I'd be glad to help -- e-mail's in profile.
posted by SuperNova at 11:15 AM on November 30, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks! The information about the EFT delay was exactly the kind of stuff that I was looking for.

I think I'm going to go with HSBC, using the opening bonus found in kirkaracha's link. I like the idea of being able to use an ATM/Debit card if I need to.
posted by amarynth at 12:07 PM on November 30, 2005

Here's a problem I'll illustrate with an anecdote: After about 3 months of saving (and accruing miniscule amounts of interest), I needed to take money from my ING savings account to put into my checking account to cover some bills before I did some international travel. Unfortunately I mistakenly transferred the money the wrong way, so I took money from my checking account and put it into my ING account thereby creating a large deficit in my checking account and about $200 worth of late fees (since I was overseas and not keeping tabs on my checking account). Stupid mistake, but it seems easier to make with the ING setup than if I just kept money in a bank. It will take me quite a long time to earn enough interest thru ING to cover that mistake.
posted by Amizu at 12:35 PM on November 30, 2005

I have an INGDirect account and personally I think the difficulty in getting to the money is a feature, not a bug. Two days is sufficient for most purposes and will help you stick with the point of the savings, which is to put it there more than you take it out. Also consider that the HSBC agreement says you can use their ATM but not in-person services, likely meaning your withdrawal limit is the 300-600 per day that's typical of ATM withdrawals. So your emergency access might be more limited than you think.
posted by phearlez at 2:26 PM on November 30, 2005

I recently transferred most of my loose savings to Ing and so far I'm very happy. The interest rate is unbeatable for an account of its type and the really very minor disadvantage of needing a couple of days to shift funds is no biggie for a true saver account.

4.75% gross, man. You can't argue with that.
posted by Decani at 7:40 PM on November 30, 2005