the air

I took the plunge

After talking to Jennifer Lynn and reading her blog for some time, I finally decided to go for an online savings account. Now that I am working (i.e. an internship), I really want to save my money and not spend it on trivial things. Hence, I went ahead and signed up with ING Direct.

Why ING? They have a pretty lousy interest rate of about 4.5% APY

I spent quite a bit of time reading up on both iGoBanking and ING Direct. In fact, I was even looking at other companies such as FNBO Direct as well (they were offering 6% introductory APY). Ultimately, I settled on ING Direct for the following reasons:

• Excellent customer service
• Veterans of the market
• Sign-up process

This was easy

While doing some research on ING Direct, I learned that they have one of the best customer service experiences of any competitor. This really made my day because this is my first foray into online banking, I really wanted to make sure I can talk to a normal human and have any of my questions answered. So did I call customer service? To be honest, no I did not. But just knowing that I can turn to them and have my answers quickly is a comforting thought.

ING Direct has also been around longer than most others. Although that may not mean much today, it does serve to show that they are experienced and know how to handle their customers. At least I hope. Additionally, the sealed deal is the signup process. Unlike iGoBanking, where they use snail-mail to send you your password to your site, ING Direct simply lets you do it all online. Although it still takes a few days for your account to be active (i.e. till you can do anything), they don’t rely on the USPS. The entire signing up process took about 15 minutes to complete including a soft credit check. That basically means they did not ask for my ENTIRE credit report from the agencies, but they did just ask for a quick overview. This prevents my credit to be affected in a negative manner.

Not all is lost with 4.5%

I realize that ING Direct is not paying me a competitive interest rate, but it is better than any brick-and-mortar bank which average just about 0.5%. I’m sure once I am comfortable with everything, I can always switch over to a new bank and enjoy higher earnings. So far, I just dropped $50 into this thing, so hopefully they won’t steal my cash. If you have not started a savings account, stop being so lazy and go open one NOW! And if you already have one, who is it with and how has your experience been?

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