I’m interested in online savings banks, such as the ING Direct Orange Savings Account, versus traditional brick and mortar banks. I’ve found they are great options to consider for parking your emergency savings fund, or savings for future expenses such as cars and vacations.
Online banks typically limit their business to online, phone and email. Since they don’t have a physical location they save money on operational costs and pass those savings onto customers in the form of higher saving rates.
This is attractive to me as long as my savings is FDIC insured, easily accessible, and yield a competitive return on my money. The savings rate is particularly important to me since we hope to leave our emergency savings alone until it’s required for the unexpected.
With my savings waiting around on me until an actual emergency, I’d like it to earn the best return possible! In fact, I’d like it to earn a better than average return.
Finding a good savings account with a competitive savings rate can produce a nice monthly return when your savings starts to grow up to the 3-6 months (or more) of savings that is typically suggested for an emergency fund.
[box type="info"]ING DIRECT makes saving money simple! Open your account online today. No fees and no minimums![/box]
ING Orange Savings Account Review
All this being said, I believe I’ve found a great savings account with ING Direct Savings. That’s why I decided to write this ING Direct review. I think it’s important to share some of the financial tools I use to manage our family finances. I don’t hesitate sharing ING Orange with you and here are some of the reasons why -
No fees, no minimums, competitive rate
I moved our family emergency savings to an ING Orange savings account. The ING Direct savings account lets you save with no fees, no minimums and one of the best saving rates. Deposits are insured by the FDIC for up to $250,000 per depositor.
Link Accounts
I nice benefit is that you can create an electronic link between your ING Orange savings account and your checking account and transfer money free of charge whenever you want.
Automatic Savings Plan
Also a nice feature is the automatic savings plan. You can schedule regular transfers so you don’t have to think about depositing your savings. The automatic savings plan does the work for you. I move money to my savings from my Perkstreet Financial checking account. ING says it generally takes 2 business days to transfer money between accounts.
Interest
How does the interest work? The interest is accrued daily, compounded monthly and credited to your available balance at the end of each month.
Easy Access to Money
How do you access your money? You can sign into your account 24/7 and transfer money in and out of it. Although I haven’t had the need, I understand you can call during business hours to speak to an associate if you prefer to talk to someone regarding your options.
So beyond the interest rate and FDIC insurance, here are some additional things I considered before opening my ING Direct savings account:
User Experience
One other important feature of an online savings account is the user interface. It must be user friendly and offer a simple way to set up automatic transfers so I don’t have to think about depositing my savings each month. In short, ING gets it when it comes to user experience and friendliness.
In general, online banks know that they must provide good online tools to people to keep their experience positive. Otherwise, customers will take their business to brick and mortar organizations in which face to face conversations can take place.
This can be a loss for people with the competitive savings rates online institution offer. So it’s important for online institutions such as ING Orange to keep user friendliness in mind when shopping for the best place to park savings.
That’s while you’ll also find ING Orange as having one of the best children’s savings accounts. The Orange 4 Kids Savings Account also offers a number of user friendly features for adults and children. Children can learn about money and watch their earnings grow in their own savings account that mom and dad can control.
Security
Here’s what ING says about security. I figured it was best to just provide this directly from their site so that you can be confident in the technology they’ve implemented to keep you safe online!
- We use complex encryption that turns every ING DIRECT online transaction into an unreadable mathematical formula
- We’ll always request your Customer Number and PIN when you contact us and sign in to ingdirect.com
- We’ll ensure you’re on the authentic ING DIRECT website by presenting you with an image and phrase that you’ll create
- Funds can only be moved from your ING DIRECT account to your external checking account that we electronically link to
- Deposits are FDIC-insured
- You’re backed by the Orange Security Guarantee, so you’re not liable if fraudulent activity is found on your account
Easy to Set Up
Setting up and ING Direct savings account was quick, easy and secure which involved entering the required information, agreeing to the terms and conditions, validating an electronic deposit into my existing checking account and then completing the account opening process. It took a few business days to complete the entire process.
I recommend the ING Orange savings account. It’s a great account to consider for your emergency or future savings needs. It has served as a great savings account for our family for several years now.
About Jason Price