Boston Gal's Open Wallet

Drop them like a hot rock!

As Suze Orman says, "you must respect money". Part of respecting money is to get the best return you possibly can while limiting risk.

ING is not the leader anymore. There are better choices now. Drop them like a hot rock, move on.

 

HA HA OMG, that's too funny!

I think the relationship has potential so I wouldn't break it off with him, I mean it, completely. However, he/it needs to understand that you're not that same naive little girl anymore. You're now a very mature, financially savvy young woman who knows what you want and need in a relationship. So if he/it doesn't express a mutual interest for a long term commitment, then it may be time to date other banks.

Why buy the cow (raise rates) when you can get the milk (decent market share) for free? There are many customers who are willing to settle for the lower rate.

You're too smart to settle.

 

ING Direct still has an advantage with the electric orange checking account. If it is used to pay for bills below $300 which would normally have to be mailed with postage than the actual interest earned includes the $0.41 for the stamp, the ~$0.046 for the envelope (estimated) and the cost to deliver the envelope (time and money) to the post office or mailbox.

So for example, even though the interest earned on the account now is only 3.5% for low deposits, say you use the electric orange account to send a bill for you that is $300. If you were to save $300 in the account for a month before payment then you would get $300*.035/12=0.875 + the savings on postage > $0.456 = $1.331 which results in an APY of approximately $1.331*12/300 = 5.3% which is near the top of the highest paying money market accounts. If the money is saved for a shorter period of time or the bill is less than $300 then the deal is even better.

 

I left the minimum $5 in my ING account and started dating other banks. In the back of my mind I was hoping that ING's interest rate would bounce back up and we'd be together again. But I've been with Emigrant Bank for almost 2 yrs now. I left the $5 instead of clsing the account so that if ING ever bounced back, i wouldn't have to go through the account setup process again.

 

Personally, I'd move my money elsewhere, but maybe not close the account entirely....

Date around for awhile. If the other banks truly don't offer the quality service you need, ING will always take you back.

 

That's great that you got a response! I had been moving my money out of ING even before they dropped the rates this week. I'm planning on keeping some money with them, but putting the majority of my money elsewhere.

 

Sorry, but I did you one better :-P I wrote a very critical post of Mint.com on my blog ( http://debtsucks.wordpress.com ) yesterday, and today I actually got a comment on it from the founder & CEO of Mint.com!

I'll stick with ING, at least until my $2 CD matures in November.

 

What I have done is moved my much larger emergency savings account to EmigrantDirect and left my smaller accounts (Christmas, home improvement, charity, vacation) with ING because I love the "sub accounts" feature. Just a thought. I don't think you are neurotic about dividing your accounts like I am though. ;-p

 

I've always kept like $50 in my account to keep it active, but I do most of my banking elsewhere. That way, I can still get their referral bonus from time to time.

I feel like it's okay to rate-chase w/online banks since there's no face-to-face relationship. With my brick & mortar bank where I buy/sell foreign currency, get things notarized, etc.. I just use Bank of America since it has branches throughout the nation.

 

Don't let Mr. Direct string you along like that, with smooth talk and witty apologies. There are plenty of fish in the sea for Mr. Direct :) He won't be lonely.

 

If I read you correctly, you feel ING's customer service and website are superior. You're currently paying $187 per year extra by keeping your ING account ($34k *0.0055%). Let's say ING customer service you rate an A and HSBC a B. I'm going to ignore postage and envelope costs, since hopefully your regular bank has free bill pay. Is their better customer service/website worth $187 a year to you (i.e. is it worth paying $187 to move from B-level service to A-level service)? If so, keep it as is. If not, then move some or all of that money to HSBC or elsewhere.

 

I know all too well what you're going through. ING was my first love. I loved their website and how quickly they responded to my transfer requests. I found it difficult to move to another bank, but I had too much money in savings to let it fester there. I had to cut them loose and move on with my life. :)

 

Beware unsolicited emails. This guy doesn't work for ING. He's just trying to smoke you out so he can expose your real identity to the world. Or maybe he's fishing for a romantic relationship of some kind so you'll let your guard down and then he can steal your wealth. Oh treacherous world.

 

I would definitely break up with ING. You have to go wherever your money is going to earn the most for you.

 

I'd hold out a little longer. I think ING was merely the first of the online banks to lower their rates in response to the Fed.

I think the other banks will likely follow suit within the next month or so, though the interest rates at HSBC, Emigrant, etc will still be higher (though not as high as they currently are).

 

I have had previous success with "I love you, but I think we need to see other people."

We are still talking about banks, right?

 

BG - because of all of the positive things you've said in the past about ING, I finally moved a 'trial' 3K in July from my credit union (20+yr relationship) and was pleased at the huge jump in interest. Guess I'm a loyal kind of chick but I'm sticking with ING a little longer. To jump ship after barely 3 months runs against my nature. I'd think there are lots of simple ways you could save $187 in a year.

 

I have been trying to make myself change banks for a long time too, but I just hate everybody else's interface. Especially ED, with all that patriotic hoo-ha. I don't do patriotic.

Does anybody know of a bank with higher interest than ING but a halfway decent interface?

 

Does this mean I'm a slut if I have accounts with 3 different banks at the same time???

 

Stay loyal.

I have been a happy customer for 4 years

 

No need to stay loyal. Trust...they have no loyalty for you. Keep the minimum and invest elsewhere. =)

 

Gotta say I really liked the ease and transparency of ING when I opened my account. I respect my money but I also appreciate customer service, which has been stellar from them.

The fact that someone wrote you back - an actual person - already ranks high for me. BoA, where I do most of my banking, makes me feel like I have a bulls-eye on my back - they just want to target me for every bit of spending or borrowing I can do with them. Down to the tv's in the lobby.

And I think - hey - it's my money. You should be helping me preserve and grow it, not trying to get me to give more of it to you.

And that's what ING does - treats me as a saver.

I have less invested so am perhaps less aggressive about chasing rates ... it's worth it to me to not have to spend more time rearranging. Maybe down the road.

I appreciate all you do to help all of us become stronger financially!

 

ING has had lower rates for a long time! SWITCH IMMEDIATELY! you know for a fact that investing should not be emotional. switch to someone else. my personal favorite is zionsbank.com. it's a REAL bank in utah. you can have the deseret money market account tied to a real bank account, giving you quick access to the money. they never lower their rates quickly, and have had rates above 5% for a long time.

 

I agree with Beantown. Leave it open and wait until they offer an incentive introductory rate for new money.

Make sure to use the "It's you, not me." You won't be using the stereotypical line now will you.

 

4.30% is still good. I would leave some money there, AND start dating other banks (like HSBC, Emigrant, etc.)

Two timing the banks - I love it!

 

Stay friends with ING by keeping the account open, but I'd put most of your money elsewhere. It can be handy to have a separate account to save for medium term spending (vactions, home improvement, etc) which is separate from your emergency fund.

 

Anyone know at what point ING fires you? I'm the anonymous who took everything but $10 out.
Two of my kids had ING accounts and had just a few dollars in it and ING ach'ed it back to their funding account and sent a letter saying they were closing account because not much use. (They were fools to do so, kids had no money then because in school, now they do since they have jobs- this is another annoying thing, Don't want to date someone who throws my kids out) So ING now loses thousands from me and doesn't get money from my kids.

 

It's business ... move your $$ to the bank that does the best job for you.

 

There is nothing wrong with leaving your money there. The list of banks dropping their rates is growing.

Besides, most of the people who give me advice about leaving ING use that same "money is money" line are those driving SUV's and $80 cell phone bills.

saladdin

 

you probably got a warm, friendly reply since you've written about ING in such a loving way. When I wrote to ING, I got a stern, terse no way and goodbye from ING. of course, I didn't have a blog that doled out kudos to ING.

 

The response to your letter was cute, but not worth the savings you would be sacrificing by sticking with them. Looked at another way, if you're sacrificing $150-200 a year in interest by sticking with them, you're paying that amount for their cute response. Is the cute response worth that amount of money to you? As others have noted, rates are on their way down, so just move your money to the highest yielding savings account, and be prepared to move it again as the company with the highest percentages changes. There's no reason to feel loyalty towards any on-line bank, it's not like they're mom-n-pop operations.

 

I pulled all my money out of ING the day they lowered their already too low savings rate. I'd been with them for a year. Now I have an HSBC savings account. The interface isn't as cool as ING's, but the rate is still 5.05%. I also opened a CitiBank savings acct online a couple of weeks ago cuz they were giving away $50 to open an account. Kinda like how I opened my ING acct cuz they gave me $25 to do it. It's all about money and who gives you the most.

 

HSBC just dropped their rates down to 4.5%.

 

I remembered this post from many moons ago and wish I could get some sort of response from ING.

My experience with them has been great but they apparently have a hard time believing I'm me...

http://blog.thecapacity.org/2008/08/04/its-a-sad-day-for-ing/