In response to the Top 10 Online Banks story the other day, Tonya exploded in a gush of enthusiasm for ING Direct much like a water balloon filled with sunshine and liquid rainbows that has been hugged to death. From Tonya’s comment, ING Direct sounds pretty swank, so for your edification, dear readers:

I noticed that the article did not mention ING DIRECT Savings Account which has no minimums and no fees! They do not have checking accounts, but do have a number of bank products including CDs, equity lines of credit, and investment accounts.

For a savings account, they pay the best interest rate online anywhere, which is 3.80% right now. They raise the interest rate on a regular, timely basis.

I have had an account with them since September 2003 and have have been really happy with the site and the customer service. I’ve never had to wait more than a few minutes for a customer service rep (CSR) and the CSRs themselves have all seemed to be intelligent and professional.

I have just $50 per week automatically transferred from my Bank of America Account to them each week and it really adds up quick. You can link more than one account with them to transfer money into and out of. They are FDIC Insured and have great security measures in place: When you speak to a CSR, you enter your pin number in a way that they cannot hear what you enter. Each time you login on the site, they ask different security questions. You can receive your statements via online or have them sent to you via snail mail.

Caveats:

1) If you transfer money, it is not available for a few days until it clears their system. Once money is available in your account, it takes 2-3 business days to transfer money back to your checking account, so you have to be able to think a few days ahead. They do let you know when the funds from each transfer will be available.

2) You can go online to set up a recurring transfer like I did (Example, $50 every week from your regular checking account to your ING savings account); however, you CALL to cancel or change it. You cannot change it online ~ that’s the only thing that irks me.

3)In order to link your accounts you must snail mail a check from the account you wish to link.

I don’t give recommendations easily, but I really love them.

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