Monday, May 29, 2006

Opening A Child's ING DIRECT Account

We all know that ING DIRECT has fallen behind most of the other "name" banks in the Interest Rate Derby. But size-wise, they're still the Big Guy on the block. And one thing they have going for them — which, as far as I know, none of the others can claim — is that they'll allow minors to open an Orange Savings Account.


Click here to start saving with ING DIRECT!

To this point, my 3-year-old daughter's savings has been stagnant in our local credit union's "Kiddie Savings" account. They call it a "Moolah Moolah" account, which I find ironic. As it pays only 1.4% interest, the likelihood of this account ever generating any sort of return that might reasonably be called "Moolah" is pretty much nil. Given what's happened with interest rates over the last few years, I have a difficult time terming lowball-rate savings accounts like this anything other than RIP-OFFS.

So finally I did something about it. I opened an ING account for my daughter this morning, using a reference code from this month's issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine to get her an opening bonus of $25.

My opinion is that ING sets the standard for account opening ease. Today's task was no exception. I input my kid's info, assigned her as the primary account holder, and selected my wife as the joint holder. (My wife and I each have our own ING savings accounts.) I made the linked account for my daughter's ING account the same checking account as is linked to my wife's ING account. Thanks to this "already verified link account," the entire setup process took maybe 5 minutes. Immediately my kid's ING account was open, viewable over the 'net, and funded with our opening deposit, plus the bonus $25. Folks, this is how it should be.

I'll note that when it comes to joint (adult) holders for a minor's account (it's a requirement, by the way), ING also allows you to select someone who's not yet been an ING customer. I suspect that doing it this way would take more time, given all the account verification that has to take place. But I bet it'd be easier than most every other online institution.

The few that offer it, I mean.

— Posted by Michael @ 8:47 PM








15 Comments:
 

Need to get my sister to do that with her daughter when I get back to the US. I figured it would be easy - glad to get the confirmation.

 

Just curious - what do you intend to use this account for? If it is for tax benefits, why not use a 529 account? If it is for teaching your child the value of saving, then I understand. But is there any other motive?

Anonymous Anonymous
, at 1:20 PM, May 30, 2006  
 

Anon,

It's purely a vehicle for kiddie savings, to illustrate the value of saving. Her "first savings account," and all that.

She has a 529 also.

 

I didn't realize you could get an account for someone that young. I am definately going to have to get one for a sibling. A great way to teach them about saving from a young age, in my opinion.

 

Any ideas on how to teach a 3 year old to save money?

Anonymous Anonymous
, at 7:05 PM, June 01, 2006  
 

I opened an account for my son during ING's winter save-up sale. I referred him, so I got $10 and he got $25. I left his Xmas money in there until a few weeks ago, and transferred it to his 529.

Ditto on the question about teaching little kids how to save. I'm figuring I have to wait til he's got some concept of numbers to show him his ING account. In the meantime, we do talk about not buying things unless we need them. And we talk about different coins and how much they're worth. But he's still so pre-mathematics. (he's 2.5)

 

I should have mentioned that our daughter doesn't yet have the "saving" concept down. In fact, she's in the "I want everything I see" phase at the moment.

I'm hoping the ING account comes in handy down the road. In particular, their "Interest Earned This Month" that changes each day could be useful.

 

Quite frankly, I LOVE ING! I really wouldn't consider banking with anybody else. Although, they need to make their rates slightly more competitive. Emigrant, HSBC and the others are raising their rates.

Although, I saw that ING used to over an APY over 5% for a savings account back around the year 2000. I'm hoping we'll get there again.

I am telling all my friends and family to open an account with this bank.

 

How can you sleep at night knowing that ING is operated by some racist? ING obviously has some issues with race. They boast over 70,000 entries in their "Show Your Orange" contest and not one winning face was black or latino. What's up with that? And some of the entries they picked were WEAK!!! ING SUCKS!!! check out www.showyourorange.com

 

Uhhhh ... okay. Now where'd I put my latest stack of ING DIRECT's customer and contest-entry demographic data ... it's here somewhere ...

?? !! ??

 

To the anonymous activist (Hector, is that you?): Sorry to burst your bubble my friend... but take another look at www.showyourorange.com (as you so passionately suggested). One glance reveals that the $15,000 Grand Prize winner is Candice Flor, a latino/mexican woman from Los Angeles, California. And this would prove your point again how?

Anonymous Anonymous
, at 8:26 AM, October 03, 2006  
 

Just Curious~ Do you all have time during work to log comments with out recourse from your employer?

Anonymous Anonymous
, at 8:32 AM, October 03, 2006  
 

Anyone know how to get that $25 bonus these days?

 

I've usually got links for the $25 bonus posted on my ING review.

 

ING Direct is great, it's pretty much my main bank for everything and my linked accounts are pretty much placeholders.

I find it weird that the author of this post considers a low interest rate (money paid to you by the bank for keeping your money there) to be a "rip off".

It may be not as good a deal as another bank, but a "rip off"? Poor choice of words to say the least. Especially considering that you were talking about a non-profit credit union which has a whole different function than a bank offering sexy interest rates.

Credit unions are owned by their members (that's you), and usually encourage saving and using your money sensibly and conservatively. They also often have no fees or minimum balances for their accounts, allowing people who have difficulty keeping minimum balances to hold on to a working bank account.

If you don't like your credit union's interest rates, maybe you should run for your credit union's board of directors and do something about it, or vote for someone who will.

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