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ING Direct Electric Orange Checking Review

BillyOceansEleven — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:27:45 +0000

If there’s one thing everyone hates, it is bank fees. One of the most popular posts on this blog is my rant about Bank of America’s monthly maintenance fee on their checking accounts that don’t meet certain balance, direct deposit, or other requirements. Thankfully you don’t have to pay monthly maintenance fees and other ridiculous charges to have a checking account. There are checking accounts out there without the outrageous fees and direct deposit requirements, and perhaps the best of those is ING Direct’s Electric Orange Checking. There is a lot to like about this account, including a $50 signup bonus (see below for more details), but there are a few drawbacks. Here’s a brief overview of the pros and cons of this account.

Pros

No monthly maintenance fees

One of the biggest selling points of the Electric Orange Checking account is that there are no monthly maintenance fees – period. There is no minimum balance requirement, direct deposit requirement, or debit card usage requirement.

Interest on checking deposits

Electric Orange pays interest on deposits based on the balance on the account. Deposits up to $50,000 collect 0.20% APY, $50,000 to $100,000 collect 0.85% APY, and over $100,000 gets you an APY of 0.90%. Granted 0.20% APY isn’t much, but is better than almost any other checking account out there, and if you have a good pile of cash this could be the perfect place for it.

Free debit cards and bill pay

Electric Orange offers a free debit card and free bill pay service. When it was introduced Electric Orange was designed to be a nearly paperless checking account, thus the encouragement to make payments electronically. Electronic payments can be made to merchants or to individuals using their Person2Person transfer service. You can also have a paper check sent via postal mail for free for those vendors you can’t pay electronically.

No overdraft fees

Unlike most other banks that love to soak you with overdraft fees, there are no overdraft fees on the Electric Orange checking. I think this fact is grossly oversold by ING on their website (the main page for the Electric Orange account just has a link inviting users to compare their overdraft fees to other banks without specifically stating there is no overdraft fee). The only fee related to overdrafts is an interest charge for accessing an overdraft line of credit based on the amount of the overdraft.

Free ATM access at select locations

For an online bank, ING Direct actually has a pretty good ATM network that you can access for free. You can access any ATM in the Allpoint network (most ATMs in this area are in retail locations of CVS, Walgreens, and Target) and, thanks to the buyout by Capital One, any Capital One ATM.

$50 Bonus for New Customers

As noted above, you can get a $50 bonus for opening an Electric Orange account. Just use one of the links below to sign up and make three card or Person2Person payments to earn your $50 bonus. Please see the fine print below for requirements. Disclosure: these are referral links for which I will earn $10 for each successful referral.

ING Electric Orange Bonus 1

ING Electric Orange Bonus 2

ING Electric Orange Bonus 3

ING Electric Orange Bonus 4

ING Electric Orange Bonus 5

Bonuses are only paid for accounts that are opened and a total of 3 Card purchases or Person2Person Payments (or any combo of the two) are made within 45 days of account opening. The $50 bonus is available only for new accounts with a new Customer as primary owner. Only one bonus will be provided per household. Your $50 bonus will automatically be deposited into your account on day 50.

Cons

No branch network

Because it is an online bank, there is no branch network for the Electric Orange account, meaning there is no way to directly deposit cash into your account or talk to someone face-to-face it the rare event there is a problem with your account. This also makes depositing of paper checks a pain, as noted below.

Difficulty depositing paper checks

In the era of electronic transfers and direct deposits, everyone still gets paper checks occasionally. Currently the only way to deposit paper checks directly into your Electric Orange account is to mail them in to ING Direct, which means a significant delay in how quickly the funds are credited to your account. ING Direct has announced that customers will be able to upload check images for deposit via computer or smartphone app beginning sometime this spring, but until then this will continue to be a significant drawback of the Electric Orange account.

Limited check writing capability

For most checking accounts you have the option of ordering checks directly through the bank, ordering from a third party (usually at a significant discount to the bank’s charge), or printing your own check on your home computer. For the Electric Orange account, however, you must order checks from ING Direct at a cost of $5.00 per 50 checks. Granted there is an additional layer of security to this arrangement as checks must be activated before use, but many will be annoyed at having to pay more for their printed checks. It is worth pointing out that this does work almost like a service fee for check writing, and that by minimizing the costs of processing paper checks they can offer other benefits without fees.

The ability to write paper checks is an improvement to the Electric Orange account since its introduction, even if the checks must be ordered from ING Direct. Previously customers could not write paper checks at all.

Overall assessment

My overall assessment is that this is a great alternative to the fee happy checking accounts offered by most larger banks these days. Provided you don’t need to make cash deposits to your account, don’t write a lot of paper checks, and do most of your banking electronically you should definitely consider Electric Orange for your checking account needs.

If this doesn’t quite fit your needs you may also consider going to a local credit union or community bank with a truly free checking account. Compared to paying monthly maintenance fees at the big banks, you will still come out ahead.

ING Direct Account Bonuses: Earn a Quick $25 to $50

BillyOceansEleven — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:23:06 +0000

Opening bank accounts has always been one of the easiest ways to score some extra cash, and our friends at ING Direct are offering two different accounts to choose from to earn bonuses of up to $50. Disclosure: these are referral links for which I will earn $10 for each successful referral.

ING Electric Orange Bonus – $50

Electric Orange is ING’s checking account offering geared towards users that do most of their banking online. The account comes with no monthly maintenance fee, free access to 35,000 ATMs in the Allpoint network, and free bill pay service. Deposits also earn interest, with APY ranging from 0.20% to 0.90% depending on account balance (as of 2/21/2012). ING has also recently added the capability to write paper checks on the account, a previous weak point in their otherwise strong service offering.

Use one of the links below to sign up and earn a $50 bonus. Please see the fine print below for requirements.

ING Electric Orange Bonus 1

ING Electric Orange Bonus 2

ING Electric Orange Bonus 3

ING Electric Orange Bonus 4

ING Electric Orange Bonus 5

Bonuses are only paid for accounts that are opened and a total of 3 Card purchases or Person2Person Payments (or any combo of the two) are made within 45 days of account opening. The $50 bonus is available only for new accounts with a new Customer as primary owner. Only one bonus will be provided per household. Your $50 bonus will automatically be deposited into your account on day 50. Valid through 03/22/2012.

ING Orange Savings Account Bonus – $25

The easy-to-use online savings account so many others tried to emulate over the years, the ING Orange Savings Account is perfect for socking away extra cash. The account has no fees and no minimum balance requirements, and sports an APY of 0.80%.

Use one of the links below to sign up and earn a $25 bonus. Please see the fine print below for requirements.

ING Orange Savings Account Bonus 1

ING Orange Savings Account Bonus 2

ING Orange Savings Account Bonus 3

ING Orange Savings Account Bonus 4

ING Orange Savings Account Bonus 5

Bonuses are only paid for accounts that are opened with an initial deposit of at least $250. Initial deposit does not include bonus. The $25 bonus is available only for new accounts with a new Customer as primary owner. Only one bonus will be provided per household. Bonus starts earning interest upon account opening, but is unavailable for withdrawal for 30 days. Variable 0.80% Annual Percentage Yield, effective 01/06/2012.

Make an Easy $25! New ING Bonus Links Posted

BillyOceansEleven — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:32:53 +0000

If you are looking to make a quick $25, one of the easiest ways to do it is by opening an ING Direct account as a new customer using one of our referral links. You can earn the referral bonus for the Orange Savings Account, the Orange Business Savings Account, or the Electric Orange Checking Account (limit one bonus per customer, not per account). All three are great products earning competitive interest rates with minimal if any fees.

ING Direct is one of the oldest online banks with a website unsurpassed for usability and an interest rate several times higher than the national average. If you are a new customer, simply use one of the referral links below and open your account with a deposit of at least $250. You will get a bonus of $25 credited to your account (there’s your 10% return) and one of my kids (the referrals are from their accounts) will get $10-$20 for referring you.

Orange Savings Account – Links expire 5/7/2010

Electric Orange Checking Account – Links expire 5/7/2010

Business Orange Savings Account – Links expire 4/29/2010

If you see a message at the top of the ING signup page saying the link is invalid or expired, it means it has probably already been used. Just use one of the other links to complete the signup. Thanks!

Rules of the game: Bonuses are only paid for accounts that are opened with an initial deposit of at least $250. Initial deposit does not include bonus. The $25 bonus is available only for new accounts with a new Customer as primary owner. Only one bonus will be provided per household. Bonus starts earning interest upon account opening, but is unavailable for withdrawal for 30 days.

Score $25! New ING Direct Referral Links Posted

BillyOceansEleven — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:29:51 +0000

I’m a big fan of bank account bonuses, and one of the easiest ones out there is the $25 bonus from ING Direct. Simply open an ING Direct account as a new customer with an opening deposit of $250 or more using one of the referral links below. You can earn a bonus for opening either the ING Direct Orange Savings account or the ING Direct Electric Orange Checking account (but not both).

The Orange Savings Account offers:

Great rate – no minimum balance required. Everyone earns the same high yield.
No fees – your money goes to work for you.
No changing banks – the Orange Savings Account is linked to your checking account.
24-hour access to your account – you’re always ready for opportunities.
FDIC-insured – your money is safe and secure.

Referral links:

Orange Savings Referral

Electric Orange delivers the access and convenience of checking with the earning power of savings:

Earn high interest
Free ATM access at more than 32,000 locations nationwide
A MasterCard® Debit Card for purchases
Free Bill Pay and automatic overdraft protection

Referral links:

Please note that these links expire on 10/12/2009. If you see a message at the top of the ING signup page saying the link is invalid or expired, it means it has probably already been used. Just use one of the other links to complete the signup.

In addition to earning $25 for yourself, using these referral links helps support this blog with a $10 bonus for each successful referral. Thanks!

New ING Bonus Links Posted!

BillyOceansEleven — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:39:03 +0000

I have posted new bonus referral links for the ING Orange Savings and ING Electric Orange Checking accounts on my ING Bonus Links page. This month’s links are brought to you by my adorable 6 month son, who we are calling “Mighty Mega Man”.

Here’s the deal: If you open an ING Orange Savings or ING Electric Orange Checking account using one of the referral links with an opening deposit of at least $250, you will earn a bonus of $25 credited to your account. That’s an instant 10% return! At the same time, my son’s account will be credited with a referral bonus of $10.

ING Direct Electric Orange Checking Account Referral Links ($25 Bonus)

BillyOceansEleven — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 04:48:24 +0000

Last night I posted referral links for the ING Direct Orange Savings Account, and tonight I am posting referral links for the ING Direct Electric Orange Checking Account. Electric Orange is ING’s paperless checking product which pays a very competitive interest rate of 3.15% APY for balances up to $50,000, 4.65% APY for balances between $50,000 and $100,000, and 4.80% APY for balances over $100,000. On the account there are no minimum balances and no fees, however the biggest drawback is that it is a paperless account. That means that you don’t have a regular checkbook to write checks, although for a lot of people that is no big deal.

By using the following one-time use referral links you will earn a bonus of $25, and I will earn a bonus of $10. The main requirements are:

Your initial deposit must be at least $250.
You must be a new ING customer. If you already have an ING account (including the Orange Savings), you won’t qualify for the bonus.
These links are one-time use. If you see a message saying that the link is expired or invalid, that means the link has already been used. Please try another link.

Here are the links. Please post in the comments if you use one of these:

ING Direct Orange Savings Account Referral Links ($25 Bonus)

BillyOceansEleven — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 06:53:35 +0000

It seems that with the new year many of my readers are looking to open a new ING Direct Orange Savings account, based on some of the search terms people have used to find the site in the last week. So to satisfy the masses, I am posting the following referral links. These links will earn you a $25 bonus for opening a new account if your initial deposit is at least $250 (see terms below). You will also be supporting this blog, as I earn $10 for each referral.

These links are one time use, so if you use one of the links please post a comment saying which link you used.

ING Direct Orange Savings – Valid through 2/4/2008 CODE USED
ING Direct Orange Savings – Valid through 2/4/2008
ING Direct Orange Savings – Valid through 2/4/2008 - CODE USED
ING Direct Orange Savings – Valid through 2/4/2008
~~ING Direct Orange Savings~~ – Valid through ~~2/4/2008~~ – CODE USED
ING Direct Orange Savings – Valid through 2/14/2008
ING Direct Orange Savings – Valid through 2/14/2008
ING Direct Orange Savings – Valid through 2/14/2008
ING Direct Orange Savings – Valid through 2/14/2008
ING Direct Orange Savings – Valid through 2/14/2008

Rules of the game: Bonuses are only paid for accounts that are opened with an initial deposit of at least $250. Initial deposit does not include bonus. The $25 bonus is available only for new accounts with a new Customer as primary owner. Only one bonus will be provided per household. Bonus starts earning interest upon account opening, but is unavailable for withdrawal for 30 days.

My babies got cash for Christmas – what to do?

BillyOceansEleven — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:52:29 +0000

We are parents of 7 week old twins. Although they aren’t old enough to even think about shopping, they had family members who gave them money for Christmas. Since they can’t spend it for themselves, it leaves us as parents with the dilemma of what to do with the money. Since they aren’t old enough for toys just yet, and the grandparents seem to be doing a pretty good job of spoiling them already, it seems like the appropriate thing is to somehow save it for them. The big question for us is how to save the money. Here are some options that we are considering:

Open an ING Direct account – As current ING Direct customers, we could refer our kids as new account holders and they would earn a $25 bonus and we would get $10. The only catch would be that the minimum to earn the bonus is $250, and they didn’t get that much, meaning we would need to put up the extra money for them.
Open a WTDirect Savings Account – WTDirect offers a higher interest rate than ING Direct (4.90% APY as of 12/25/2007), and as an affiliate I could earn a $50 commission for each account, which I would add back to their accounts. I have never actually dealt with them before, making me a bit more uncertain about this one. However, it could offer an opportunity to review the account in future blog postings.
Open a Zecco trading account – Similar reasoning to the WTDirect Savings option. As an affiliate I could get a $35 commission on each account. I could deposit the money and purchase an index fund ETF and hold until they get older. Again, I’ve never actually done anything with them before, so it would be a chance to try out the service and provide a review here later on.
Open a 529 plan for each of them – I plan to do this anyway, although I still need to do some more research on which plan is best. I would add their gift money to what we were going to contribute anyway.

Anyone have any better ideas? We aren’t talking about a large sum, so nothing crazy please! =)

ING Direct Orange Savings $25 Bonus Codes

BillyOceansEleven — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:45:08 +0000

For anyone out there who doesn’t already have an ING Direct Orange Savings account, here is a quick way to make $25. If you are a new customer and open an ING Direct Orange Savings with $250 using one of the codes below, ING Direct will pay you a bonus of $25 (in interest of full disclosure, I also get $10 for referring you). That’s a quick 10% return on your money! You can use either of the reference codes below:

CH924/HFHUAVDFD

CH924/GNGXAWGZ

To open an account, go to ingdirect.com/houston or call 1-800-ING-DIRECT. These codes expire tomorrow (11/30/2007), so you need to do this in the next couple of days to get the bonus using these codes. After tomorrow, you can always request a referral link by emailing me.

Support This Blog For Free! Open an ING account or send your My Coke Rewards Codes!

BillyOceansEleven — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 04:10:42 +0000

I continue to be amazed at the number of people who read this blog. Yesterday we set a new record for daily hits with 111 hits. We passed 5000 hits a couple of weeks ago, and passed 6000 last week. Thanks to all of you who stop by this, my little pothole on the information superhighway.

I started this blog to share the knowledge and experiences I have had, and in many ways for my own amusement. I never planned to make any type of profit out of this blog, however if you would like to support this blog and show your appreciation, I will offer two ways to do so that won’t cost you anything!

1. ING Direct Referrals – I posted about this about a week ago, but you can get a $25 bonus for depositing $250 with ING Direct and using a referral code I can provide. You can either open an ING Direct Orange Savings or an ING Direct Electric Orange Checking account, however you can only do one of these and you must be a first time customer. In addition to the instant 10% return on your money, I receive $10 for each valid referral. It is your classic win-win. Click here to request a referral code for the Orange Savings or here for a referral code for the Electric Orange account.
2. My Coke Rewards – Drink Coke (or any other Coca-Cola product? On most packages of Coke products, there is a 12 or 15 digit code for the My Coke Rewards program. The points can be accumulated and redeemed for various prizes. If you don’t participate in the program, I would love to have your codes! Codes can be found on the flap of 12, 24, and 32 pack boxes, as well as under the cap of 20 oz., 1L, and 2L bottles. Click here to send me your My Coke Rewards codes.

Of course there is no obligation to send me anything. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.