Reader Wonders About ING Direct

Tanja’s got a problem: as she rapidly hurtles forward through time and space towards retirement, the dread madness of financial responsibility has begun to engorge her brain.

Her company doesn’t offer a 401K; she doesn’t think she can afford an IRA. So when ING wrote her, offering a high yield savings account, she was interested. They offered her no fees, no minimum balances, 24/7 access to her cash and three times the interest rate she’s currently getting.

But the air has a whiff of too-good-to-be-true about it. “We’re back again to ‘Who are these people and do I want to trust them with my money?'” she writes. “Then I thought of you guys. If anyone would know the skinny on whether this is a reputable bank with which one would feel comfortable entrusting their money, it would be The Consumerist.”

We had to disillusion you, but we don’t know anything about making money, Tanja. That’s why we blog for a living. Still, we can say that another Tonya loves them. Our commenters loved them too.

In addition, MyMoneyBlog seems to like them quite a bit, and they note that ING’s interest rate continues to go up on a regular basis. The commenters there are quite happy with the service too.

On the other hand, it seems that the guys over at FatWallet think that ING Direct has really fallen behind in competitive interest rates.

And the last thing we can do to help you, of course, is simply ask for feedback from our far smarter and savvier readers than royal ‘we’. So consider it done.

Do you guys like ING Direct? Can you help a hot middle-aged mama like Tanja out?

PS: Tanja completed her email with the line: “Help me, Ben Popken, you’re my only hope.” Apparently not, since the ‘other guy’ put this together for you.

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