Thursday, January 10, 2008

Get Your ING Sign-Up Bonus Here!

My readership has had a substantial jump, lately--part of it is that WSJ article I was mentioned in, but I think part of it, too, is the increased attention to money management around the New Year--apparently, the most common resolution is to save more money. So though it's often taken for granted in the pf blogosphere, I thought I'd mention the financial staple that is online high-yield savings accounts.

Like many personal finance bloggers (and many non-bloggers!) I keep my savings in ING Direct's high-yield online savings account. It's not the highest rate out there--I think that crown sits atop Emigrant Direct or E*Trade's head at present. Nevertheless, I stick with ING because I like their super-easy interface, great reliability, and, perhaps most of all, the ability to set aside money in sub-accounts for different purposes. And the 4.1% is higher than you'll find at nearly any brick-and-mortar bank. I think I was earning .05% before I found ING. (Yuck.)

I've referred a bunch of friends and family to ING, but, as Single Ma pointed out, ING has wiped their referral logs, so I can refer some of my readers. If you use this link to open an Orange Savings account with $250 or more, you get a $25 bonus--that more than equalizes the interest rate issue for most modest savings accounts (based on some quick calculations, it's worth going elsewhere for a 5% interest rate if your account is starting at $2,777 or higher--you may want to do your own math, given that I, uh, majored in English). I get $10, too, which I'd count as non-salary income and put towards grad school. Everybody wins.

Referral #11
Referral #12
Referral #13
Referral #14
Referral #15


Like Trent does, I also use Electric Orange Checking. It's not my primary checking--it's a dedicated account for my grad school application expenses--but I do find it useful and simple. If I ever needed to get cash from that account, there's a very comprehensive network of free ATMs, too (though so far I haven't tried using one).

Anyway, if you're interested in that, give it a shot. Same $25/$10 referral structure. Here it's actually an even better deal, since interest on checking accounts is lower than on savings accounts.

Referral #1
Referral #2

I'm pretty sure you can only get one bonus. Let me know if it turns out otherwise!

3 comments:

Pamela Capalad said...

Hey,
Found your site through pfblogs.com. It sounds like we're on the same mission. I just started a blog called www.wealthygrad.com and graduated with a degree in Literature AND one of my very first posts was about the awesomeness of high-yield savings accounts.

I would love to hear more about why you started this blog, how long you've been around, and what some of your major goals are.

Email me at pamelacapalad@gmail.com if you have time.

Pamela.

Tired of being broke said...

The ING Orange is my main savings account. The ATM network is super convenient and reliable. The main one for is a Chase ATM at my local Duane Reade across the street.

Frederick Ingram said...

The people at ING seem pretty stupid to me. I tried to claim a $50 bonus for signing up there that came with my new computer or software; they said someone had already used the code and they didn't seem interested in investigating the obvious fraud.