Starting our Friday morning off with some online banking reviews sounded like a plan! Well, in actuality, we just wanted to find you the best checking and savings account options with great online resources. This brought us to ING DIRECT, a fairly new kid on the block. We liked how bright and entertaining their website interface was, with bold orange and blue jumping out at us. We’ve seen the commercials, but wanted to dig deeper. Here’s what we found below.
What's New?
- Business savings accounts available.
- Apply for mortgages and home equity loans.
- Open an account by mail.
Star Reviews Favorite Feature:
The fact that ING allows you to open an account by mail is great. There are very few online banking services that do this. Most of them require you to submit all of your info online. For those worried about security issues, that can be a big drawback. ING takes that factor out of the equation by letting you open accounts via snail mail as well as online web forms.
About ING DIRECT:
ING Direct is not like the other online banking services on the Web. They're definitely not the biggest bank out there, nor are they the oldest. But, they are of Dutch origin and offer banking, insurance and asset management to over 60 million clients worldwide. ING is dedicated to simplifying online banking: offering great interest rates and allowing you to open electronic checking, savings and investment accounts from the comfort of your own home.
Navigating & Using the ING Website:
When we first logged onto the ING DIRECT website we were like "Wow, this is really streamlined." ING offers the easiest online banking website we've seen so far. However, consumers looking for a checking account may get confused. There isn't a "checking account" option on the ING page. It's called an Electric Orange Account. When we first researched the site, it wasn't apparent whether or not a checking account was offered at all. After we looked at each service page, however, it became apparent that Electric Orange was ING's checking product – not just another type of savings account.
If you're looking for a traditional checking account, ING Direct does not offer one. You're going to have to be ready for change for this product to work for you. First of all, there's no paper checks. Yes, you heard that right – ING does not process paper checks so forget about whipping out your checkbook at the grocery store.
However, you can pay people with a check online and you get access to online bill pay, ATM services and a MasterCard debit card. For those who don't mind not having paper checks to rely on, ING might just work out well. Their savings plan is pretty popular and currently offers a 4.50% annual percentage yield. Not bad! You receive three options: ‘View Account,’ ‘Open Account,’ and ‘Learn More’ from the main page, so figuring out what you want isn’t rocket science here.
What ING Offers:
- All-electronic checking accounts
- Link non-ING checking accounts to your ING Electric Orange account
- Online savings accounts
- CDs
- Business savings accounts
- Business CDs
- Mortgages
- Home equity loans
- Investment and Retirement accounts
ING Fees:
ING only operates online and via mail and because of this, they have very little overhead and are able to offer very competitive rates. Savings accounts are free with no hidden fees, mortgage rates are low and CD rates are high. Even your ING Electric Orange checking account will earn interest (up to 5.30% to be exact).
- 3.93% interest accrual with Electric Orange accounts with balances of $0 to $49,999.99.
- 4.50% interest accrual with an ING savings account.
- 5.15% APY on ING 12-month CDs
ING Customer Support:
ING offers customer service via phone, fax, snail mail and email. The 6Star Reviews team tested their phone and email support options. ING is used to doing business online and it shows. We received a response to our email inquiry the same day we sent it. Phone support was also helpful. Our call was answered within 5 minutes and the rep we spoke with was very cordial and did a great job of explaining how ING's Electric Orange accounts work. If you do become an ING customer, you won't have problems with customer support from what our experiences showed.
Upside:
Low fees, high returns, great customer service.
Downside:
Traditional checking not available.
Summary:
We have to hand it to ING DIRECT. They have reinvented online banking, if that's even possible since the notion itself is pretty innovative. ING is different than their competition in that they don't have tangible banks, they operate solely from the Internet. You won't see any branches out there besides their headquarters in Delaware and innovative 'ING Cafe's' in select cities. If you're progressive and like new things, this is the bank for you! There are low fees and high returns on checking (Electric Orange) and savings accounts. You may also link non-ING accounts to your ING Direct accounts, which we loved. So you won't be able to order checks like you can with traditional online banking, but you are given the option of signing up for a MasterCard debit. Customer support by telephone and email were excellent, so all in all, we recommend ING in all of their orange glory.