Previous Post: On Losing Weight: Comparing Physical Fitness And Financial Fitness
Next Post: The Simple Dollar Morning Roundup: They Might Be Giants Edition
How To Set Up Multiple Savings Account Funds Within ING 28comments
In the aftermath of yesterday’s discussion about how to manage several funds in one account, several people mentioned actually opening multiple savings accounts at ING Direct under one general account, enabling people to sort their money (I happen to be a big fan of ING Direct, but you may also want to read the note at the bottom). This, of course, intrigued others, who asked how this could be done, so here’s a description.
Step 1: Log in to your ING account Enter your information and go view your overall account information.
Step 2: In the upper left, click on the “Open Account” option You can see it clearly in the picture above.
Step 3: Choose to open a new savings account on the next screen The “Open Now” link in the image above is where you should go.
From there, the process is really straightforward – you can call each account you create whatever nickname you like to identify it as a distinct fund: an emergency fund, a “house maintenance fund,” a “vehicle replacement” fund, and so on. From there, you really should set up automatic deposits into each of these funds so that you can always be building up these funds.
Why not do this instead of using Excel? In fact, I did do this for quite a while. I moved my primary savings out of ING Direct not too long ago, not because of the service, but because having all my savings accounts so easily available made them tempting. (note: I later moved everything back to ING because of HSBC troubles). I moved the savings accounts to a single HSBC Direct account, and I manage the distinct layers in Excel. I’ve actually left all of my old accounts in place in ING and when I’m ready to get money from HSBC into a particular fund, I withdraw it from HSBC directly into the matching ING account, so I can quickly see when that money’s there and ready to go.
Comments
Leave a reply
Interesting idea!
@paidtwice:
I was going to make the same comment – we have an ING account, and I’ve never felt the money is “too” accessible – it takes several days for any transferred funds to show up in my checking account.
However, I think Trent’s point was not that ING makes it easy to get your money out, but that he had every one of his accounts with ING, including his primary savings – making it a one-stop shopping event to get to all of his savings. My understanding is that he’s just trying to make it more difficult (ie, one more step) for him to access their primary savings.
I’ve used both, and my impression is that HSBC takes way longer transferring my funds back into my checking account than ING did.
Jared, for the win! I was finding it way too easy to take cash out of savings with everything in ING alone.
THanks, i was just thinking about how to do exactly this today after reading about it a few days back.
Way to read my mind ;)
One day HSBC and ING will start offering instant withdrawal* and all of us who use them for emergency funds and whatnot are going to go nuts!
*I understand they won’t since that’s where they make their money…
Oh, I see. It’s a temptation because you have your checking with Electric Orange, and transfers within a bank can presumably be done instantly.
aaah I get it. You have electric orange :) I haven’t branched out that far yet. lol
Multiple savings account is the best feature of ING, IMO.
I just wish they had a way to have multiple Electric Orange accounts.
I currently use ING and just seeing the interest accruing keeps me from withdrawing. :P I replaced a bad habit with a new habit of counting my ‘free’ money coming in. Much better than the 2 cents a month I was getting at Bank of America!
I have noticed that HSBC and FNBO do take much longer to transfer, I say much, but it is about 2 days. If I were to initiate a transfer from any of the above accounts on a Monday, HSBC and FNBO will have it at the destination account by Friday. ING by Wednesday.
I have to admit I like the daily interest tally, it is almost worth the 0.5% interest loss to watch it ;-)
The 4% I get from Electric Orange checking is a bonus.
Ahhh….
I wish ING would raise its interest rates just a little.
I just recently opened an FNBO account and just hate the thing. I hate the interface, I hate the slowness to DO anything. It took them two weeks to mail me a pin number thing after they mailed the ATM card to me. And now I have to go through another step to get a PIN. And this is just one of the stupid slow processes — I had to get my checking account verified prior to funding the account and then REverified in order to be able to do future transfers, and now they want a cancelled check before they finalize it. Right now I’m ready to close the FNBO account altogether.
Does having these sub-accounts also split your interest earned?
Yes, each sub-account earns interest based on the balance of that sub-account.
I do this as well with my accounts (EFund, Maintenance Fund, Fun Fund) , and am very happy with the way it all works out for me. You can transfer money between them and each earns interest seperately. Just be careful not to get caught do too many transfers in 1 month, WHile I have not done it. I have heard you can get charged for that.
I use Quicken Home and Business 2007 to manage my retirement/checking/savings accounts. I have not found a way for Quicken to automatically pull down information for these “sub-accounts”. It lumps them all together under the “Main” account.
Has anyone found a way to have Quicken manage these sub-accounts separately? Not a big deal but it would be nice if it would separate them…
I’m in the same boat as Laura. I have multiple accounts at ING and seeing the interest accrue keeps me from withdrawing the money. Way more incentive than the interest I was earning at Wachovia!
i’m not sure i get the reasoning behind switching accounts. the bottom line, if you are concerned about easy access, then ladder your savings in cd’s or t-bills (if you are in a tax beneficial state).
i also don’t get the idea of having multiple accounts under one institution either, but whatever works for ya.
Great article. I’ve have been putting up with low interest rates at my local credit union just for this cubby hole feature. Now that I know ING can do the same I’ll be moving my $.
I wish ING would allow multiple Electric Orange accounts also, just as they allow multiple savings accounts. I keep a separate checking account for my housing expenses (Mortgage, utilities etc.) which I moved over to an Orange Checking a while back. Now I want to move over my personal account also but ING will not allow me another Checking. Both accounts require lots of debits every month (not to mention bill-pay) so a savings account will not work.
The one thing I don’t like about ING is how long it takes for a transfer to be available in my account. But I found a work around for that, inititate the transfer from the outside account! I explain on my website at
http://allenjoiner.googlepages.com/ingtransferhack
I’m new to this and was thinking this is a good way for me to save some cash. What I’m wondering, and it’s probably an easy answer, but I just don’t know it. I want to have my paycheck directly deposited into multiple ING accounts. For like utilities, rent, bills, etc. Leaving whatever is left in my primary checking account. Can I pay bills directly with those savings accounts? Or do I have to withdraw the money to my checking and then pay it. I really don’t want to put that much work into it.
You can have your paycheck direct deposited into one ING account or a checking account. You should then be able to set up automatic transfers of whatever amounts you need into each ING savings account. For instance, your paycheck could be directly deposited into your checking account (ING or otherwise), then once you have calculated how much you need in your utilities account, set up a monthly automatic transfer of that from the checking into the utilities account. You can do this for as many accounts as you have. You’d then have to set up outgoing transfers from each ING savings to your checking account as well. It would probably be a pain to set up, but should run smoothly after that as long as you have the same amount on your paycheck each week/month. Overall, it would probably be easier to just use a budgeting program or a spreadsheet though.
For the organic/natural shoppers among you (like me), Wild Oats and Whole Foods (which are merging I think?) often have coupon books in the front of the store, as you walk in. Thanks for the tip on Mambo Sprouts.
Hey, I’m a little late commenting here, but wouldn’t opening all the new accounts cause you to receive a bunch of additional 1099’s from ING around tax time?
Not a big deal, just a thought.
Also, I wouldn’t suggest this, but if you could get your annual interest below $10 per account, ING wouldn’t have to give you a 1099?
AJ,
Financial institutions are required to issue 1099-INT’s whenever an account generates more than $10 of interest. If the interest paid on your multiple accounts (including CDs) at one institution, when aggregated, generates more than $10 in interest income, the institution will issue an (aggregated) 1099-INT. So you won’t succeed in trying to avoid getting a 1099-INT by keeping the interest earned in each account under $10. I speak from experience – some of my ING accounts made less than $10 last year, but were included in the aggregate calculation.
Did I use the word aggregate enough?
how do you deposit into ING accounts without mailing them money? If you use a seperate outside-linked checkings account, at what bank do you have it at? thanks!
Leave a reply
I don’t understand why HSBC is less tempting/less accessible than ING? I actually opened an ING account (and I now have the whole layered account thing going, with 4 different accounts for different things) because it is harder to get my hands on the money than my local brick and mortar bank. With my local bank, one mouse click and I’d moved the money from savings to checking — with ING I have to wait a few days for the money to get transferred to my local checking account.
I’ve never used HSBC so maybe I am missing something — but I don’t get it. Enlighten! lol