You heard me - the checking account from heaven will be rolled out soon from ING Direct. 
These are the same guys that have helped revolutionize the online banking industry by offering 4%+ interest rates for savings accounts. Now they are planning to launch a new checking account, dubbed “Electric Orange” which will give customers a 3% interest rate on the checking acount balance!
Some of the other account details include:
- No minimum balance
- No fees
- No fee for using other banks’ automated teller machines! (though it will pass along any fees charged by other banks for using their ATMs - what nice guys)
- Customers get a debit card instead of an actual checkbook
- ING will issue “virtual checks” by transferring funds between bank accounts (customers can also request that the bank issue paper checks for payment purposes)
So, do you believe me now? It’s the checking account from heaven!
April 12th, 2006 at 10:37 am
Thanks for posting on this! Just like traditional “offline” banks like Citi are rolling out e-Savings accounts mirroring ING and HSBC, I’d bet others will be soon to follow with their own versions of this product.
3.00% on online checking isn’t unheard of (see Bankrate’s Checking Rates comparison tool for that). But the debit card coupled with no fees and no minimum balance is indeed heavenly.
August 4th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Any update on this topic? I heard they were thinking about a summer 2006 launch… no news on their website.
October 29th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
What about deposits? How are they going to handle those?
November 6th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Yes, but from what I;ve heard, while ING may not charge any additional fees to use “foreign” ATMS, it won’t refund fees charged by the ATM owner. That means if I w/d money from an ATM using my (new) ING ATM card, it will cost me 1.50-3.00 a pop. Now by comparison, while FIBI bank (First Internet Bank of Indiana) only pays 1.3% or so on checking, and has a $500 min balance, it will refund up to $6/mo of ATM fees. I;ve had an account with FIBI for 5 years and _never_ pauid an ATM fee! So if you use an ATM a lot, it may pay to look around other than ING. [I am a very satisfied ING savings customer by the way]
– Scott
November 30th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Not so at all…they will be on the Allpoint Network, which means 32,000 surcharge free atms to use around the United States….Punch in your zipcode at the allpoint site, and you will see the closest 50 atms in your immediate area….
January 12th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
did u figure out how to get direct deposit working on this acct? i keep getting problems from my payroll dept regarding rooting #