ING Direct

 I've used ING Direct forever! Well, for quite a while - at least 5 years I'd guess. When I received an email a while back, I thought "I need to blog about them." Obviously, I haven't done that yet. Today, I received another email so I thought would post about them.

Here's the first email:
From February 18th - March 31st, Refer a Friend to ING DIRECT and we'll double your

• $10 bonus for each person who opens an account. You could earn up to $1,000!
• You NOW Earn: $10 + $10 = $20 Your Friend Earns: $25 
• Here's the small print: Refer NowBonuses are only paid for accounts that are opened with an initial deposit of at least $250. Initial deposit does not include bonus. $10 thank you bonus is deposited at time of new account opening, but is unavailable for withdrawal for 30 days. The person you refer will have 30 days to use the special referral link in the email to open the account before it expires. Bonus will be posted as interest income to your account. Only referrals made after January 2008 are shown.  

This email came today:
 Electric Orange checking - there's nothing average about it.
                         National          Average Electric Orange checking
Overdraft Charge $30                             $0
ATM Surcharge   $2                               $0
Monthly Fee       $13                               $0
Source: 2009 Bankrate Checking Study
Visit www.ingdirect.com/zerofees to learn more about how to earn a $50 bonus with your Electric Orange. Don't forget to enter Reference Code EM452 to be eligible for the $50.

Here are the things I like about ING Direct:

1. You can set up several sub accounts. Perfect for "freedom account" management.
2. I have some of our emergency money there - harder to get to!
3. I have a checking account there that I put $500 emergency money into. If I ever needed access to my emergency money I'd easily be able to get that money.
4. Occasionally we decide to use a debit card for a large purchase - easy access to this account.
5. $50! bonus for signing up!
6. You get rewarded if someone signs up under you. I've never done this before, but if you have a lot of friends/family who do this sort of thing, you'd be financially rewarded.
7. Better interest rates than my bank.
8. Goes hand in hand with my "kinda sorta" follwing Dave Ramsey plan (we transfer Christmas money to that account every month).
9. Once you have your accounts set up and linked, it's quick to make any transactions.
10. I haven't tried to use ING as my every day account - not sure why, but I definitely like many of the features of this company.