Reviewing the ING Direct Electric Orange account, currently returning .25% to 1.55% APY.
I wasn’t so sure how well I would take to an online checking and savings account set up. I use PayPal frequently and like it; but I wondered how it would all work with an actual online checking account that didn’t have the convenience of allowing me to make deposits at a brick-and-mortar bank location. Well these were my thoughts many moons ago.
Since then, I’ve opened a couple of accounts.
I’ve had both an Electric Orange (ING’s online checking account) and an Orange savings account for two years now. ING Direct’s Electric Orange is an online checking account without the paper. That is, you don’t even receive a checkbook — but you can still certainly write and send checks through your computer. And once I started using it I was impressed at the convenience and the money I saved.
There are no fees for having the accounts, unless you make a mistake and cause an overdraft. However, with ING Direct, if you overdraw your account, you don’t get hit with a $35 overdraft fee like most banks — instead, the amount you overdraw is taken from the “Overdraft Line of Credit”, which is a line of credit connected to your account that is used anytime your balance falls below $0.00. Subsequently, you get charged a competitive interest rate on that amount used from your line of credit until you pay it back. Pay it back in a few days and you’ll pay pennies for the mistake — a better deal than forking out the typical $35 fee!
The only other fees associated with the checking account are related to replacing your debit card with an overnight delivery fee, requesting a stop payment, using your debit card at a foreign ATM, or having a check mailed out overnight.
3 Ways to Make Payments From An ING Direct Checking Account
Electronic Checks
My favorite feature includes the ability to send an electronic check to someone. Basically, it’s a lot like transferring money between PayPal accounts, or wiring money into someone else’s bank account. You have to send to an individual (you can’t use an electronic check to send money to a business), but there are NO FEES for using the service and it’s quite convenient for both you (the sender) and the receiver of the money.
Paper Checks
Personally, I rarely write an actual check anymore. I transact a lot using my debit card and have set up automatic payment withdrawals drawing from my accounts in order to make bill payments. With ING Direct, if you want to send an actual written check, you can literally fill out the check online and ING Direct will mail it to the company or person you want to mail it to. You don’t pay for the stamp, the envelope, or have to take it to your mailbox or post office. The service is free, unless you need to send the check by overnight courier, in which case you pay $15.
Online Bill Pay
You can also use the free online bill pay service. There are really no fees associated with using the service, and everyone is automatically enrolled when they open their ING Direct account.
Account Features
If you are someone who plans to use the electronic check feature often, you would benefit from using the address book feature. With the address book, you can record people’s names and enter their bank account information — that way, whenever you want to send them a payment, you can just choose their name from the address book, enter the amount and hit “send”.
I use this feature frequently in my business. When I have to pay subcontractors who do not use PayPal, I use the electronic check feature. If I happen to come across an individual who is fearful of giving out their bank information (which by the way, is silly because the routing number and account number are on the bottom of every check you write and mail out!) then I just use the regular printed check option.
Getting Money Into Your Account
As someone who performs a lot of business transactions using PayPal, I was disappointed to find out that ING Direct cannot be directly linked to PayPal. So at first, I wasn’t sure how I would be able to transfer my PayPal funds into my ING Direct checking account, especially since I couldn’t stop at the ING Direct bank on my way to the store, as they are entirely online.
It was pretty simple enough though. Like most people, I also have a regular checking account that I’ve had for years; and I am able to use this account as a conduit between my PayPal account and my ING Direct account. Whatever funds I have in PayPal can be transferred to my regular checking account, which can then be moved to my ING Direct account. Though I can perform the transfers manually, I’ve also set it up so that a certain amount of money is moved every week from my local checking account to my online ING Direct account. I do like keeping a few dollars in my local bank checking account, just in case I need to write a check for something unexpected — such as for someone who stops by the house to do repairs, or for the once-in-a-while situations that might come up when you can’t use your debit card.
Update: I have checked my Paypal account and discovered that indeed, it can now be linked to my ING Direct account. Thanks to those commentators who’ve pointed this out!
Along with the Electric Orange account, I also have an Orange Savings Account. It returns a reasonable 1.30% APY at the moment, and will not charge you any fees whatsoever. There is no required minimum balance and you can link this account to Electric Orange or any other checking account that is accessed for your initial deposit.
If you’re at all considering signing up for an ING Direct account, you can do so right here.
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Nice overview of the benefits of the ING Checking and Savings accounts. With regards to Paypal, I’ll be honest — even if I could, I wouldn’t even consider linking PayPal to my primary checking or savings account. I’ve heard of too many nightmare experiences with PayPal (and had a few myself) to give PayPal any sort of direct link to my primary accounts.
PayPal has its uses, though, and it can definitely be gamed, but I keep it limited to my secondary accounts.
That’s interesting Richard though I think it may be a natural thing for people who use PayPal as an online business account to link it to other business checking accounts.
I agree with you that perhaps having it associated with secondary accounts is “safer”, at least at this time.
You sound like an Assumptionista. Are you one?
Braulio,
LOL.
Yes you can say that.
I’m a little confused when you say you can’t use your ING account for paypal.
About a month ago I set up an ING account and I have my ING checking account linked to a paypal account. I have been using the account with separate sub accounts for Amazon, Ebay and Stubhub. All payments are deposited into the main account, and I transfer them from there. At this point all the money in there is from either paypal or amazon payments. I am not sure how much I trust paypal, but if you take stubhub payments via paypal, it only takes about 10 days, vs. the 24 or more you have to wait for a live check.
Hi Michele,
I have had my ING account for a few years, and when I first opened it, and for quite awhile afterwards- there wasn’t a way to connect it with PayPal (that I could figure out at least!)
After reading your comment, I went in and checked and connecting my PayPal to my ING account was as easy as connecting it to my bricks-and-morter bank account! Now I’m even happier
Regarding the trust issues with PayPal, Richard and Michele- I haven’t had any major problems. Sometimes I get annoyed because PayPal limits my account until I call and verify transactions, because they suspect suspicious activity or something- but I’d rather do that then worry about my account being compromised.
As Michele and Debbie mentioned, ING accounts link fine with PayPal now. I linked my ING account to my PayPal account about 6 months ago without any issues.
I use a credit union, it pretty much gets the best rates and offers all of the same features you just listed. It also has some of the best rates in town. Its a shame that they don’t let every1 join (have to be a state employee.
My small stream of blogging income goes right from paypal to an ING sub-account. It is a convenient way to keep track of everything.
Coulee Bank ( @ couleebank.net ) offers an incredible 6.01% APY with their Rewards Checking account. The rate is easy to earn. All you have to do is make 10 check card transactions a month, use e-statements, and do 1 automatic payment a month (they call it ACH). Coulee Bank pays 6.01% on the first $25,000 and 1.01% on anything above that. The best thing about this account besides the rate is it is FREE, you can apply online, and it is from a great bank with real people that answer the phone. And as they like to say, Banking Green has its Rewards. The Rewards Checking account saves paper and preserves our natural resources. No wonder I feel good about recommending this to everyone I know. Check it out. I guarantee you will love it.
Great read on the benefits of electronic banking! I could never go back to the traditional way.
Best Wishes,
D4L
I love me ING Electric Orange too, I am not sure I could go back to a regular checking account after having been spoiled.
Couple of other notes, transfers to ING savings accounts are instant. This makes it really nice to setup ten savings accounts and drop money in different bins.
The other this is that you can send yourself a check, if you need to hand to to someone in person. I posted about this feature a while back, and even got an official response from ING on the matter.
The Electronic check is a total rip off. ING claims to save your money whereas electronic checks work against their money saving policy. ING removes your money out of your account the moment you create a check. Now if the receiver does not encash the check, the money does not stay in your account till 90 days expire. So technically you loose 90 days worth of interest on the check amount unless you happen to post the check back to ING. Make sure you receive the check back so you can post it back to ING. If the check is ripped off by the receiver, you have to wait for 90 days or pay 25$ as penalty to put your own money back in your own account. Morons!
This is an excellent article about ING Direct. It almost sounds like an ad for ING Direct. pardon my saying that but I believe this online bank si a whole lot better than all the major banks in terms of giving interest on your savings account. There si no bank here in Canada that I know of that gives 4.50 percent on your savings account.
Thanks
JGVFinance
Sorry about that 4.5 percent that I mentioned. i didn’t realized that there is an ad on the top that says 2.75 percent on Orange account. But I do read something like 4.50 percent here in Toronto, Canada sometime ago. And to be honest with you guys, I do not have an ING direct account.
But even with 2.75 interest rate taht would still be better than the major banks here. And if they are not charging thsoe exorbitant 35.00 to 40.00 dollars if you have overdrafts.
Its still an excellent bet.
Thanks
JGVFinance
I have been using ING account for 2 years now… And I just love it!
And I always pay myself first now, so the money keeps rolling in my account!
Pascale