RE: Federal Regulation D - Is that correct? My bank told me it was 6 transfers PER quarter and charged me a bunch when I did like 5 transfers in a month.

It is indeed 6 transfers per month, but with the follow stipulation as well: "Pre-authorized, automatic transfers (ACH) made at a predetermined time to third parties or to your other accounts, of which no more than three (3) of the six (6) may be made by check, check card, if applicable, or similar order to a third party."

Y'all made me panic about my ING account, so I found this on their site: www.ingdirect.com
"Details About the Orange Savings Account ("OSA"):

* Limits on Withdrawals/Transfers from Your OSA: Pursuant to Federal law, you're only allowed to take money out of your OSA 6 times per monthly statement cycle ("Cycle"). If you repeatedly make more than 6 withdrawals during a Cycle, we may close your account. Under Federal law, we must reserve the right to require you to give us at least 7 days written notice before you take money out of your OSA. (This hardly ever happens but legally we have to say it!) "

So there's a limit on withdrawls/transfers out, but no limit on deposits/transfers in, right?

Yup, unlimited deposits. They can accept your money as often as they like, you just can't take your money out as often as you want. :)

Oh good... I was worried, since I just set up a bi-weekly automatic deposit. I don't really understand why this would be a law though... who cares? Why not let the competitive marketplace decide how many transactions the bank will allow?

Does anyone know if this applies to credit unions as well as banks? My CU's literature and agreements make no mention of a 6 transaction per month limit, or any limit on the # of transactions for that matter on both their savings and money market accts.

@cgmaetc: that's what i thought also. this post made it sound like both transfers going in and out count against the 6, but in fact it's only outgoing transfers that count. like tycho55 said, you can deposit as much as you want and they won't care. Actually, I think they'd be happy.

@cgmaetc: Just to add--ING *will* send you a nastygram (by mail) if you repeatedly exceed the 6/month and they warn that if you do it more than twice (or was it 3 times) in any calendar year, they'll close your account. They're more than thrilled to get your money, not so much so for you getting it back (best to sign up for an Electric Orange account if the limit causes problems for you)

@FLConsumer: yes.

to clarify, the bank doesn't care if you take all your money, you just have to do it in less than 6 transactions.

the reason behind reg d has to do with the classification of accounts & how much a bank must reserve to cover it in case it goes under. savings accts, money markets, & certificates are considered non-transactional & therefore require a smaller reserve than a transactional acct. (checking). this enables banks to invest your money at a higher rate of return than a capital reserve acct (which earn like 1%).

1. Wells Fargo will ding you if you hit that limit, too. They'll charge you an annoying large fee. If you do it again, the fee goes even higher. If you do it again, they change the savings account into a checking account.

2. If you don't like the Electronic checks (since you can't get the cancelled check back or a copy of it online), just send in two checks. The local gas company does the digital check thing, but when my roommate and I each send a check for half, they just deposit the checks in the old-fashioned way.

does anyone know if ING counts the transfers if it's from ING Savings -> ING Electric Orange? Might be a nice way to side-step the problem.