Where is the best place to open a savings account?
I often get asked where the best place is to start a savings account. I think it depends a little bit on your goals, but for now the simple answer is ING Direct.
If you are stocking away a quarter million dollars in your savings account, I wouldn’t recommend them since they do not have the highest interest rates. But they are always competitive with their rates and for most of us a half of a percent difference isn’t going to make much difference. For example, if you have $1000 in the savings account for a whole year a half percent will equal $5. Like I mentioned before, if you have a lot of cash in your savings account I would be looking for the highest interest rate I could find in an FDIC insured bank.
ING is the safest place to save money
Earlier this year I wrote about a study that the University of Berkeley, California did. The purpose of the study was to determine which banks had the highest occurrences of identity theft. They concluded that ING Direct had the fewest incidences of identity theft. HSBC and Bank of America had the highest occurrences.
While preventing identity theft is something that we should be proactive about, it is nice to know that my bank isn’t making it any easier for the bad guys.
They speak English when you call
Don’t get me wrong, after taking four years of Spanish I understand the difficulty of learning a new language. But, I don’t want to have to learn one when I call for help. As we all know a lot of U.S. businesses have delegated customer service to other parts of the world. I have called ING on a couple different occasions and have had great experiences so far.
They focus on simplicity
One of the most important reasons that ING is my preferred place to save money is because they keep it simple. They have a great interface that makes it easy to use bill pay, to send a check, or even to budget. They continuously seek to improve themselves and keep adding new features. At the sake of sounding like a salesman, I offer you 10 more reasons why I love ING. 
They give bonuses
Yep, they offer $25 to new customers who sign up via a referral email. The only catch is that you have to open the account with at least $250. If you would like a referral, let me know.
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- The safest bank in America – ING Direct
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That is very interesting information. I may have to rethink my HSBC account and switch to ING!
I have long advocated ING. Their user interface is rather well designed and relatively easy to use. They are security conscious and look for feedback.
ING is also FDIC insured, which not all other online accounts can claim, so you know that your money is protected.
And a rather neat function is the fact that you can easily open as many accounts with them as you want and name each individual account ( Vacation, Anniversary, etc. ). I like this feature because if you are a goal setter, you can create an account and know when you have hit your goal for that specific item.
One drawback: Their funding time can be a little slow. If you are used to seeing the funds show up in your account the next day, you may be a little disappointed.
Overall, though, high marks to ING. Who doesn’t love a bouncy orange ball?
Bob,
I love ING too! I recommend them to all my friends who still have savings accounts at their banks earning 0.25% interest (or some other ridiculously low amount). They’re safe, easy to use, and offer a competitive rate (but not always the highest).
I also use multiple accounts like Joshua. I also use them for “lumpy” expenses like heating oil. I only buy it in the winter, but I need to save for it year-round. So it has its own account.
Wow, this is a good Stumble! I write a financial blog at urbanspeaker.com and I agree that ING is an excellent company. If you live in Canada, the TFSA account will be coming out in January for us!
This is really a good stumble.