ING Direct Review and $25 Referral Bonus

Posted on August 17th, 2009 by MillionDollarMan

Recently, I was surfing the net doing research on high interest tax free savings accounts and when I came across ING Direct, I noticed that they are offering a sign up bonus of $25 when depositing $100 initially (with coupon code, see below). So I thought, what the heck, I’ll sign up for an account and review the service for MDJ readers, and the $25 sign up bonus doesn’t hurt either.

What is ING Direct?

ING direct is an online bank (covered by CDIC) similar to the PC Financial high interest savings account. That is, you do all your basic banking elsewhere, but you can transfer money back to forth to ING’s savings accounts to take advantage of their relatively competitve interest rates.

Account Offerings

Childrens Savings Account (CSA)

A really neat feature with ING is their Childrens Savings Account. This account is offered for existing ING customers with children. Basically, it allows a high interest savings account for the child while having it linked to the parent account. To put icing on the cake, ING offers a $25 bonus (until Sept 30, 2009) for all CSA accounts.

TFSA

ING Direct is currently offering the highest interest rate on a TFSA in Canada – 3% until October 1, 2009. This is a regular savings TFSA, not like a trading TFSA like what some discount brokers offer. In addition to regular savings TFSA, they offer mutual fund and GIC TFSAs.

High Interest Savings

ING’s high interest account is similar to the PC Financial account except with a slightly higher interest rate. This is the account that I opened to claim my $25 freebie.

The Fees

As far as I know, there are no fees when banking with ING direct.

The Sign up Process

I must say that the account setup was painless and relatively quick. All they needed was basic personal info along with basic banking info from which the client will be transferring money from. After that, a personal cheque needs to be mailed in to verify banking information. From the beginning to end, the whole process took about 3 business days, with about 20 minutes worth of “work”.

$25 Signup Referral Bonus

In order to get the $25 ING Canada freebie,

Start your application.
When the form asks, use the orange key code 33726522S1
Deposit at least $100 with your initial bank verification cheque .

After your account is opened, you’ll notice the $25 bonus appear in your transaction history. Note that the code above is good for 50 uses only, so use it while you can. I don’t expect it to last long.

Final Thoughts

As I already have a PC Financial high interest savings account that I use often, my initial reason for opening the ING Direct account was for the $25 freebie which took 20 minutes of my time. However, after seeing their offerings, and their higher interest rates, I may use this account as my “fun money” account.

As well, I am seriously considering opening a Childrens Savings Account with them as it seems like a great tool.. and the additional $25 bonus is calling my name!

Anyone else with ING Direct? What has your experience been like?

Disclaimer: I will receive a sign up bonus as well for every new client who uses the code.