ING Direct now at 3.50% APY
ING Direct is now paying 3.50% APY, up from 3.40%. Earth-shattering news, I know. But I have some automatic investments in some sub-accounts there that need all the help they can get. Please see my ING Direct Informational page for more information, and be sure to get your ING Direct $25 Opening Bonus if this inspires you to open up an account. I have updated my Online Savings Accounts Comparison page accordingly.
November 3rd, 2005 at 7:27 am
all my monies just left ING (finally) and head on over to Emigrant.
I’m going to miss ING’s stupid pin password feature..
and enjoy ED’s 6 month password change.
November 3rd, 2005 at 1:12 pm
I also made the switch from ING to ED when they went to 4% and ING stayed way below.
One thing that really surprised me was how bad ED’s website is. I read jokes on message boards about it, but didn’t imagine it was this bad! It’s not just a matter of it being less aesthetic or more difficult to get to the information, sometimes you actually have NO access to the information.
For example, I had scheduled a $2000 transfer for a particular date. As that date was approaching, I got onto ED’s site to double-check. To my surprise, it wasn’t listed under the impending transfers! So I scheduled it again.
Of course, what happens? I end up with two $2000 transfers one day after another. In other words, per my experience, ED’s site doesn’t necessarily list all of your pending transactions up until the date they happen!
Am I shunning ED and it’s high 4% rate? No! But I am staying off their ugly website unless absolutely necessary, lol! I still keep $1-$2K in ING in case I need to get to it quick and be able to verify that the transaction will happen as scheduled.
Two other complaints about ED’s website:
1. Their help doesn’t work. I’ve tried it on three different browsers and on both Mac and PC and always get an error message. (If anyone else actually gets something when you post on their help links at the bottom of each page, let me know and I’ll take that comment back, but I really believe it’s just buggy!)
2. When I used their message link to tell them about my experience with #1 above, they NEVER RESPONDED. Not even a form letter response! I have to say that ING, for all their insultingly low rates, have always given me great customer service. ED’s 4% money talks though, even if their support staff doesn’t!
November 3rd, 2005 at 2:47 pm
Thanks for sharing. Are you sure it wasn’t under External Transfers > Pending Transfers instead of Transfers > Pending Transfers? It seems like if they did two transfers then they did have it scheduled. I don’t know why they separate them, it’s annoying, but they do.
I haven’t had any problems with their transfers, sorry to hear you did. I’ve never used their e-mail support either, I always call. Maybe they are getting too many new customers and can’t keep up? A simple looking website is different than one that doesn’t work, and yours is the first comment about that I’ve heard.
November 3rd, 2005 at 5:48 pm
Yup, all my money went to emigrant too. I’m planning to open a checking with presidential too coz of their 4% cheking and 4.12% savings for the money we consider as emergency money but I’m not too familiar with this online bank. I’ll do more research on it.
November 3rd, 2005 at 11:15 pm
I finally made the move from ING to ED as well. A web site is just a web site but .5% is free money! I am also using ED to hold my 0% balance transfers.
Ty
November 4th, 2005 at 5:13 pm
Whoppee! HSBC bank is now at 4.0% APR also!! Hope that Emigrant Direct does something about this!
November 7th, 2005 at 8:06 am
RE: Jonathan, ED’s website
Yeah, I checked all of the possibilities (Transfers, External Transfers, Account Activity) several times that day, and it wasn’t there. Then, after I scheduled the next one, just the newly scheduled one was there, so I am SURE the first transaction was gone.
Now, to ED’s defense, it’s possible I may have been checking on the actual day of the transaction, it’s been a couple of weeks now and I honestly can’t remember. But regardless, I’m certain that at that particular point in time there was no evidence of either a transaction pending nor a transaction that had occured, hence my frantic worry at the time and my opinion that ED’s site is unprofessional for a financial institution.
To clarify my other comment about ED’s online help: No matter what computer or browser I use, the “Help for this page” link at the bottom each page within the ED website yields a “Not Found” popup error message. I’m assuming this isn’t just my account that this is happening to. That the help links would be dead links for this long is unprofessional enough. But the fact that they haven’t even replied to my message about the problem which is STILL ALL ALONE THERE IN MY MESSAGE CENTER MAILBOX proves an even lower level of customer care.
Of course, all that said, they still have me as a customer because of the 4%.