ING Direct Electric Orange Review — The Paperless Checking Account
Nov 30, 2006 
Sun
If it wasn’t the rate increase announcement from ING yesterday, I probably won’t check my INGDirect account any time soon as ING is no longer my primary savings account and I only have about $500 with them now. However, when I logged in last night, I noticed something new: the ING Direct Electric Orange Checking Account. I haven’t accessed my account for quite a while, so I am not sure how long this new product has been out. It isn’t on their Products & Rates list and only appeared once I logged in. In their FAQ section, it says that you do need an ING Direct account in order to get this checking account.
Following the link under My Account, there are some more details about this new offering, which ING claims to be “America’s first all–electronic, paperless checking account.”
Interest Rate
The new Electric Orange pays interests at three different levels
The 5.30% APY is certainly very attractive, but the bar is too high ($100,000) to get in. Otherwise, for a balance of several thousands like I usually keep in my checking account, the 3.00% APY is better than nothing from my Bank of America checking account. However, I don’t think I will use this as my day-to-day checking account. 3.0% APY is not worth the hassle of switching all the deposit and payment services I already set up with BoA.
(The Effective Data of the above interest rates, 11/29/2006, may suggest the Electric Orange only became available since yesterday.)
MasterCard Debit Card
Nothing new here.
Free ATM Access
This probably is the most appealing part of this new product to me. According to ING, Electric Orange customers can make free ATM cash withdraws through the AllPoint Network, which self-claims to be “America’s largest surcharge-free ATM network.” I never uses this network before (because I only withdrew cash from my own bank) and don’t know if there’s really no surcharge from both AllPoint and my own bank (some banks do charge fees for cash withdraw from other bank’s ATMs). I ran a check with AllPoint and found about 20 ATMs located within five miles of where I live, in places such as CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aide, and Costco.
Electric Checks
This may be where the “paperless checking account” statement comes from. ING says that
… you can send money to an individual’s bank account with Electric Checks for free. Simply enter the person’s information, the details of the payment, and an email will be sent to the recipient. The person can click on the link within the email to go to a secure page to enter their account information and the money is transferred!
The information you need to enter include the recipient’s name, email address, bank account number, and routing number. The requirement of banking information may make this service useless as these information is impossible to get even you want to send them money. Sounds good, but not very practical.
The FAQ section also says customers can have the option to send paper checks and it’s free for first-class mail delivery. But you will not get a box of checks when opening the account.
Automatic $1000 Overdraft Line of Credit
Again, this is a very nice feature.
When you open your Electric Orange, you’ll automatically get a $1,000 line of credit that’s connected right to your Electric Orange and is accessed anytime your balance goes below $0.00. There’s no fee to use the line of credit
Finally, Electric Orange also offers free bill pay.
My Take
My first impression of the Electric Orange is quite good actually. The service has some nice features that I may not get from other banks. There seems to be no minimum balance requirements (or did I miss it?) to keep the account free of maintenance fees. However, for 3.0% APY with up to $50,000 deposit, it’s not really very attractive. However, if you want to open your first checking account, then the Electric Orange may be worth some serious consideration as the money in the account earns you interests. Also, the paperless check service is quite handy if you want to send money to somebody you know and is willing to give you the bank information; otherwise, the paper check option works just like writing a check from your check book except that you can’t write a check on the fly.
Interested? Open a ING Direct Electric Orange Checking Account and start to save now.
Update: Check out more discussions on ING Electric Orange from Readers’ Feedbacks. Also find out more on bank interest rates at Best Online Savings & Checking Accounts Interest Rates.
I recently switched to an ING Direct electric orange account. So far, I think it’s a great thing.
1. Contrary to the comments above, there is no limit on transactions with ING’s checking account. Quoting from the Electric Orange FAQ:
Is there a limit on the number of transactions (deposits or withdrawals) I can do in a month?
No. You can do as many transactions – card purchases, transfers, payments, deposits, etc. – as you like. This is different than the rule for the Orange Savings Account, which has a limit of 6 withdrawals per month.
2. Regarding eChecks and bank routing and account numbers:
I’ve already sent an eCheck. They work like a charm. There shouldn’t be a problem with getting bank routing and account numbers…except an irrational fear on the part of consumers that something unsavory can be done with those numbers. Everytime you write a check to someone you’re handing them your routing and account number (they’re printed right there on the check!). Everytime you leave your checkbook sitting on a table, you’re leaving your routing and account number lying around. Telling someone your routing and account number is as safe as handing him (or him handing you) a check. Normal checking isn’t safe because there is hidden information on checks. Checking in general is only safe because banks and legislatures have put measures in place to detect fraud and correct errors when unauthorized payments are made. So, people should feel totally safe with giving you their routing and account number to pay them…at least, if they would trust you enough to write you a check.
3. A feature that I would really like to see added to Electric Orange is remote check deposit. A lot of banks are doing this now (big example: USAA). They let you scan indorsed checks at home to deposit them in your account, then you shred the check. With this feature, the electric orange account would complete the electric banking circle.
mew:
If you read ING’s Terms and Conditions for EO, they (as at other banks) state:
(Emphasis added is mine)
No where does it say you will not get interest after 6 transfers – in fact it explicitly says that they get the same rate.
To answer why banks might do this, 6 transfers out per month is the Federal Reserve’s “Regulation D” limit allowed for an account classified as savings account. If you exceed this more than a few times (or even technically possibly once), the bank is not allowed to classify your bank account as a “savings” account.
However, with savings accounts, it is presumed that you are not removing your money on a regular basis, and hence the amount in the savings account likely(?) can be presumed to actually be there for purposes of determining the sum of all deposits the bank has available to back its lending.
So arguably and without knowing much, this might be a way to semi-artificially inflate the amount of money an institution has on record as savings deposits so they look more financially sound, and can lend more. As said though this seems to be something everyone does; google “interest checking” and “subaccounts” to find a whole bunch of banks that do this.
Personally, I don’t like ING’s “voided check”; it is always the same sequence number, and kind of obviously a fake
I am so glad that the convenience of Dutch banking is slowly making it into the USA. I found the banking system in the USA very oldfashioned, unclear and with a lot of hidden fees when I got here. I thought checks were things that people used until 20 years ago (a notion I share with most other Europeans), but my landlady seems to like like them.. The $1000 overdraft is something the Dutch have found very convenient. Also, paying extra fees for ATM withdrawals was something I wasn’t used to. Now I hope that soon fees for international transfers will drop so I can move freely between my Dutch (ING) account and my American one..
Coulee Bank ( http://www.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.
I’ve had the ING Direct checking acct (Electric Orange) since it was first offered, and have been very happy with it. I just send $$$$ from my local bank (which gives only 0.2% interest…) to my ING Direct Orange Savings acct for upcoming expenses and periodically feed the Electric Orange checking acct from that to pay bills online and via the billpay feature. Transfer from the savings acct to the checking acct is instant, although you still have the limit on savings withdrawals to remember.
I needed to send my brother’s bank acct $$$ via their eCheck service, and my only advice is to make sure the recipient gives you the right routing and account numbers…. He read them off his checks, and they weren’t right, the numbers had changed! I called ING Direct’s customer service, and the rep instantly realized he had the wrong account number for his bank (too short, needed some leading zeroes). But once I got the right numbers from him (from his statement, not the old checks…), the transfer was pretty quick.
I don’t have the right ATMs nearby, but the local grocery store gives cash back on debit card transactions, which is good enough for my simple needs (I only have to pay the kid who mows the lawn with cash…).
I also needed to get a voided check to set up a link between Emigrant Direct savings and Electric Orange checking, and that worked very well just printing out the voided check from the Orange site.
So my box of checks from my local bank should be a lifetime supply now!