Comments on: How to Budget Using ING Direct (Or Another Full-Service Online Bank)

By: jr

jr — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:03:46 +0000

Did you notice the interest rate change from 4.5% to 1.4% Any thoughts on that? How long do you think they will keep the interest rate that low? It seems it has only been a couple of weeks that it happened. My b+m bank offers a similar rate for 1.35%. I wanted to open an account with ING but now am having second thoughts. Any advice?

By: cate

cate — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 07:21:55 +0000

After hours of puzzling, I finally noticed that one of the security questions as listed on BofA was phrased differently than on ING’s site.

Something like:

BofA: In what year was your father born?
ING: What year was your father born?

Once I deleted that question from the setup on both accounts, it worked. Whew!

By: RM

RM — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:15:42 +0000

ING-DIRECT with BOFA Credential Re-Verification Required

Delete the account from your BOFA portfolio.

Login to ING Direct, Go to My Info, edit your login setting. There are five secret questions , set the answers as you wish.

Go to BOFA profile. add ING DIRECT bank.
Add your customer ID , pin and the five questions that you set in ING Direct. You don’t have to enter all 10 questions.

Voila. It works

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:19:11 +0000

@Arif:

I’m having the same problem. I’m told: Credential Re-Verification Required…but I’ve tried re-entering everything, and it still doesn’t work. Has anyone had this problem and found a way to fix it?

By: jp

jp — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:22:10 +0000

I have been with ING for several years. I have found a great way to maximize the interest earned from my ING account(s). It’s all about timing. I have a handle on my expenses. I have requested most of my bills’ due dates fall towards the end of the month so that I can earn the most interest possible each month. As soon as my monthly paycheck is directly deposited into my checking account the money to pay bills and save is transferred to my ING savings account. This account is paying the most interest. Two days before my bill payments are to be made, I automatically have the bill paying money transferred to the Electric Orange account, leaving the money for my savings in the savings account. I make sure to schedule my payment dates about 5 days before the due dates so that no late fees occur. I earn higher interest for about 21 days of the month on money that previous learned little to no interest at all. I go to the site just once a month to set up my bill payments. This system allows me to feel free of money worries. I also have several expense designated CDs for property taxes, incomes taxes, registrations fees and personal savings. ING encourages accounts being opened with low minimums, so it’s easy to get started. It’s a great banking tool to get your feet wet with and try out this thing called “personal finances”. ING’s products and services have allowed me to be enaged and empowered with my financial choices.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:20:55 +0000

“I have been very interested in opening a ING is there any way I can still transfer money to/from Boa/ING without paying the $3 transfer fee?

Eric @ 3:08 pm July 1st, 2008 ”

I am a long time BofA customer and just opened an ING savings account. I have not tried this personally yet, but I assume that when you want to transfer money from BofA to ING, you go to the ING website to initiate the tranfer. I would assume that BofA only dings you the $3 transfer fee when you use the BofA site to initiate the transaction.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:23:18 +0000

I am an international student, residing in the US with an SSN and a US address. But ING won’t let me open an account :-(

* * *

Who can open an account?

HSBC Direct: You must…have a U.S. Social Security Number or Personal Tax ID number

ING Direct: You must be a US citizen or permanent resident…

There were more than 500,000 international students enrolled in US institutions in 2006-07. Guess which bank they choose?

ING, wake up!

By: Cindy Morus

Cindy Morus — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:35:03 +0000

I’ve been an ardent fan of ING since 2002! I have multiple savings accounts for my various savings and future payments. I also like their CD’s. A few years ago, I started putting $100 a month from my emergency fund into CDs (earning as much as 5.35%!). Now I have over $500 in 12 CDs. Every month, I add another $100 so if I ever need them, I know I’d have $500 or more coming due each month. Another reason to have them in smaller amounts is if you should need to break a CD for an unexpected expense it would be better than breaking $10,000 or even $1,000. Next year, I’ll start a new round of CDs so that I don’t have more than $500 per CD. And if long-term interest rates ever go up, I can use the money to create a CD ladder.

Long live ING!

Cindy Morus,
http://www.MendYourMoney.com

By: ChristianPF

ChristianPF — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:42:20 +0000

I have been using ING as a budgeting tool for a while as well! It really is a great (free!) way to budget!!

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:08:26 +0000

I have been very interested in opening a ING savings account and possibly a checking account. But I have a dilema…I am currently using Bank of America and they charge $3 transfer fees for $$$ going from BoA to another bank. But I am interested in the high yield savings, and possibly using them as a primary bank…but is there any way I can still transfer money to/from Boa/ING without paying the $3 transfer fee?

By: Arif

Arif — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:17:28 +0000

I use B of A’s “My Portfolio”, but for some reason, it stopped being able to access my ING account to update net worth. I haven’t made any changes to the account, so I wanted to know if anyone else was having this problem.

By: Timmy

Timmy — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:56:56 +0000

About step zero #6 – Closing old account.
A credit advisor once told me to always keep my oldest bank account open because it can bolster my credit worthiness. What are your thoughts on that?

By: liz

liz — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:01:44 +0000

I’m a big fan of INGDirect, I use it for my bill pay, checking and savings. along with http://www.wesabe.com, I can tag all my purchases and see my spending habits, and me and my fiance can get our (ok, my) spending under control.

By: Mol

Mol — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:42:55 +0000

If you open multiple accounts in order to save for irregular bills such as car insurance, does it affect how your interest is distributed?

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:05:31 +0000

This looks great, especially the no ATM fees. Unfortunately, they don’t appear to have any international services. I’ll be moving to Toronto next year and am looking for a Canada-friendly checking/savings account since I’ll be spending a lot of time in both the US and Canada. Any suggestions for this? Surely I’m not the first to have a need for one.

By: John Hoff - eVentureBiz

John Hoff - eVentureBiz — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:47:24 +0000

@Dollar Frugal – If it’s ok with Trent, I wrote an article you can read on how to create a budget that will help you survive good times and bad. Here’s the link:
The 40-30-20-10 rule.

@Trent – nice site. Found you through lifehacker. The only scary thing about setting up automatic payments is if you’re on a really tight budget you could end up spending something you don’t have. I have online bill pay set up through my credit card in which I pay most my bills.

This is advantageous because I earn Travel Points for the spending and then I simply pay the credit card from my checking account attached to it.

Just another way ;)

By: CJ

CJ — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:24:41 +0000

One annoyance with ING Direct’s bill pay feature. You only have two options, pay a bill once or set up a recurring item to be paid the same day each month. Anything that is billed quarterly, every four months, etc., require reminders on your part and can’t really be set up automatically.

Oh, and you can’t schedule a payment for more than 90 days out. That may not sound like a big deal, but when it’s something like a $3,000 tax bill due in 120 days, I want to keep that cabbage earning interest right up until I have to turn it over to the tax man.

Other than that, two thumbs up for ING Direct. I’m very pleased with them.

By: arungupta

arungupta — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:52:41 +0000

I also use a variation of the same process but with my credit union. I also opened an account at ING few months ago but found various limitations.

a) To open an account at ING, you must have a checking account at some other bank. ING does not offer paper checks at all nor do they honor paper checks if you get your own printed. You have to use some other checking account if you want to write paper checks. There is no way to use ING for all my banking needs.
b) ING allows you to link one checking account at other financial institution at the time of opening ING checking account. After that, there is a 30-day wait period before you can link another account. Why?
c) The 3.0% rate ING advertises for their Electric Orange checking account is only if you maintain %50,000 balance. Otherwise it drops to 1.7%. Who has $50,000 lying around in checking account? I wish I was that rich.
d) ING cusotmer service is very poor. It takes them two business days to respond to a simple e-mail question.

I like their web site. They have you click a keypad with mouse to enter your password. This would effectively defeat any basic keystroke logger. The keyboard option is also there in case someone is watching over your shoulder.

I agree with the strategy presented in the article but ING did leave a bad taste for me.

By: keith

keith — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:30:08 +0000

yea ING’s worked well for me too. Sure is better than leaving your money in a savings account like wamus. In fact, check those minimum balance requirements for some savings accounts – you may actually be losing money – I was. Some sort of a service fee.

By: Faith

Faith — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:50:41 +0000

Hi Trent –

I’ve been using ING happily for a while now. However, as savings rates are falling, including ING’s, I’m tempted to move my money to HSBC Direct, as they now have a 3.5% APY as opposed to ING’s now 3.0% APY. Is it a good idea to shift savings to where the rates are better? I’ve already moved some funds to my bank’s online savings account, which offers a 3.3%APY, again better than ING’s 3.0%.

Thanks, and thanks for the blog. I really enjoy it and have passed it along to friends.