Banking With ING Direct

Ing Direct has gotten publicity for a number of good things–higher interest checking, excellent promotions–but they’re not just flashy promotions. ING Direct’s banking system is both easy to use and (in my experience) reliable.

Some of ING’s best features include the general lack of fees, their integration with the ShareBuilder investing corporation, and the ability to easily create CDs, CD ladders, and sub-accounts and move money between them.

Once you’ve opened an Electric Orange Checking Account, you can open any number of savings accounts (limited to one checking). These savings accounts (also called “sub-accounts”) can function as areas where you put aside money for various purposes. For example, we have money automatically transferred each month into special savings accounts for renter’s insurance, car repairs, and more.

When it comes time to use the money, we can instantly transfer it back into our checking account, or initiate a free transfer to our checking account at Wachovia (which takes the standard 3 banking days). These subaccounts make it very easy to put away money in a place where you have to think twice about spending it and are also a lot easier than simply noting down that $X in your savings account is designated towards something.

Setting up a sub-account takes only a matter of minutes–you can do it just for yourself or as part of a joint account if you have one (in which case your joint account holder will have to verify as well).

Also, if you’d like to make your money grow even more at Ing Direct, check out the post I wrote about them which illustrates easily opening CD Ladders.

Print Friendly