Daily Money Hack » ING Direct

How the ING Direct Referral Program Works

DMH — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:54:20 +0000

If you are an ING Direct customer and don’t know about their referral program, you are missing out on an easy way to earn $500. The ING Direct referral program lets your refer up to 50 of your friends to ING Direct.

Simply log into your account and look at the bottom of the screen. You should see a white button with an orange megaphone with the text “Earn up to $500, Refer A Friend.” Click that and you will be able to email some of your friends to join ING Direct. When they open an account and fund it with $250, they get $25 and you get $10. You can do this fifty times, so fifty of your friends can themselves earn $25 while you earn a cool ten bucks for very little work!

Not a bad deal huh? The bonus is taxed as bank interest income and will appear on your 1099-INT.

How to Link ING Direct & Sharebuilder

DMH — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:50:43 +0000

Did you know that ING Direct acquired Sharebuilder earlier this year? If so, did you know you can now link the two accounts together through ING Direct? Yep! They enabled that functionality recently and if offers a simple way to view everything all through your ING Direct screen.

To link the accounts:

Log into your ING Direct account.
On the dashboard, click on “Access your ShareBuilder account(s).”
If that option isn’t there, go to the “Transfer Money” page and click on “Connect your accounts.”
Then, you’ll be asked your Sharebuilder username and password.

They link the accounts by personal information, so it takes a few days if you just opened either account.

If you need an ING Direct account, open one using a referral to get $25. You can find referrals on this ING Referrals Promotion page. If you need a Sharebuilder account, use one of these Sharebuilder promotion codes to get a $50 bonus.

ING Direct $25 Promotion

DMH — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:59:36 +0000

ING Direct is one of the first and best online banks out there and they have a great new account sign-up bonus of $25 if you deposit $250 for thirty days. You have to use a referral link, which can be found on this ING Direct Promotion page, but it’s ridiculously simple and easy to get.

ING Direct also offers a competitive 2.75% APY interest rate and is FDIC insured. Be sure to follow the instructions on that page to get your $25 new account bonus.

September 2008 High Yield Savings Account Rates Roundup

DMH — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:47:18 +0000

Several of the banks have increased their CD yields but for the month, every bank stood pat on their high yield savings account interest rates. The Fed kept rates constant, which gave banks little incentive to increase their rates. However, on the other hand, liquidity pressures have been forcing some banks to increase their rates. Just recently, ING Direct increased their CD rates twice in August and ING Direct’s 12-month CD now yields a healthy 4.00% APY.

If you’re still wary of online banks or aren’t sure how to pick one, there was recently a good article on Dumb Little Man on how to choose an online bank.

Bank Name	APY	Min. Balance	Change
WaMu	3.75%	None	0.00%
FNBO Direct	3.50%	None	0.00%
HSBC Direct	3.50%	None	0.00%
WT Direct	3.31%	$10k+	0.00%
E*Trade	3.30%	None	0.00%
ING Direct	3.00%	None	0.00%
Emigrant Direct	3.00%	None	0.00%

ING Direct $25 Electric Orange Promotion

DMH — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:54:33 +0000

If you have an ING Direct Orange Savings account and don’t have an Electric Orange checking account yet, you can participate in their $25 promotion. All you need to do is visit the promotional page, open an Electric Orange account, activate your Electric Orange MasterCard (it’s a debit card) and then use it in three signature-based purchases within 45 days of your account being opened and you’ll get the $25.

If you don’t have an Orange Savings account, you can also get a $25 bonus for opening one through a referral link (I have a whole bunch at this ING Direct $25 promotion referral page) and deposit $250 into the account. Or, if you don’t have $250 to deposit, you can just open an ING Direct account with $1.

August 2008 High Yield Savings Account Rates Roundup

DMH — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:46:37 +0000

Looks like rates are moving upward this month! WaMu jumped over all competitors and currently has the highest rate of 3.75% APY for their online savings account. Other banks have upped their offers as well and you now have at least three banks with offers over 3.50% APY. The HSBC Direct offer is valid until at least Sept. 15th and the WaMu and FNBO offer are both good indefinitely. Sadly, high yield saving account pioneers ING Direct and Emigrant Direct (increased their rate by 0.25% on Friday though!) lead up the back of the pack having not raised their rates.

Concerned about banks failing? (Some have speculated the generous offer by WaMu is because they are facing a liquidity problem) All of these banks are FDIC insured so your funds up to $100,000 are safe.

Bank Name	APY	Min. Balance	Change
WaMu	3.75%	None	+0.25%
FNBO Direct	3.50%	None	+0.25%
HSBC Direct	3.50%	None	0.00%
WT Direct	3.31%	$10k+	+0.05%
E*Trade	3.30%	None	+0.15%
ING Direct	3.00%	None	0.00%
Emigrant Direct	3.00%	None	+0.25%

July 2008 High Yield Savings Account Rates Roundup

DMH — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:50:47 +0000

With the Fed standing pat on rates, the only high yield savings account interest rate jockying will be for new deposits. Last month there were only two rate changes, FNBO Direct upped the rate to match HSBC’s 3.50% APY and WT Direct ticked up their rates by a tenth of a percent.

The only word of caution I’d throw in there is that benchmark rate, 3.50% at HSBC (but also available at lesser known FNBO Direct) is available through August 15th, 2008. There’s no saying where it will go after that.

Bank Name	APY	Min. Balance	Change
HSBC Direct	3.50%	None	0.00%
FNBO Direct	3.50%	None	+0.25%
WT Direct	3.26%	$10k+	+0.10%
WaMu	3.30%	None	0.00%
E*Trade	3.15%	None	0.00%
UFB Direct	3.01%	None	0.00%
ING Direct	3.00%	None	0.00%
Emigrant Direct	2.75%	None	0.00%

June 2008 High Yield Savings Account Rates Roundup

DMH — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:03:41 +0000

Not much of a change this month with a majority of the banks listed keeping rates pat, not surprising given little change by the Fed. The only notable change was E*Trade increasing their rate by a nominal amount, which can assuage E*Trade account holders but probably does little to entice new deposits.

Bank Name	APY	Min. Balance	Change
HSBC Direct	3.50%	None	new
WaMu	3.30%	None	0.00%
FNBO Direct	3.25%	None	0.00%
WT Direct	3.16%	$10k+	-0.15%
E*Trade	3.15%	None	+0.14%
UFB Direct	3.01%	None	0.00%
ING Direct	3.00%	None	0.00%
Emigrant Direct	2.75%	None	0.00%

Want to see a bank tracked in this list? Leave it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to include it!

May 2008 High Yield Savings Account Rates Roundup

DMH — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:31:15 +0000

This month, a few of the leader banks from last month fell a little farther than the rest of the pack, but most of the banks fell to be within 25 basis points of 3.00%. WT Direct leads the way with a 3.31% APY if you have $10,000+ to deposit but otherwise the Washington Mutual Checking offer is a pretty good return as well at 3.30%.

Also, ING Direct has a referral program where you can get $25 for signing up and depositing $250. If visit this page if you’d like one of these referrals for ING Direct’s $25 promotional program.

Bank Name	APY	Min. Balance	Change
WT Direct	3.31%	$10k+	0.00%
WaMu	3.30%	None	N/A
FNBO Direct	3.25%	None	-0.60%
UFB Direct	3.01%	None	-0.74%
E*Trade	3.01%	None	-0.44%
ING Direct	3.00%	None	0.00%
Emigrant Direct	2.75%	None	-0.25%

Want to see a bank tracked in this list? Leave it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to include it!

April 2008 High Yield Savings Account Rates Roundup

DMH — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:53:11 +0000

The dropping of rates at high yield banks continues unabated as this week we saw even more drops from the major online banks. Emigrant fell the hardest, evening themselves up with ING Direct, and it’s a sign that Emigrant is no longer in “growth” mode, offering up higher rates for more deposits, and has entered ING’s mode of just cruising. Some of the newer banks have slid more slowly but the rates are all in the 3′s instead of the 4′s.

Again, rate chasing might become more common now that everything is so low, but I do not recommend rate chasing high yield savings accounts, it’s just not worth the effort and time..

Bank Name	APY	Min. Balance	Diff. Vs. Feb.
FNBO Direct	3.85%	None	-0.45%
UFB Direct	3.85%	None	-0.15%
E*Trade	3.45%	None	-0.95%
WT Direct	3.31%	$10k+	-0.99%
Emigrant Direct	3.00%	None	-1.05%
ING Direct	3.00%	None	-0.40%

Want to see a bank tracked in this list? Leave it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to include it!