This may be outdated information, but somehow in all the discussion on whether ING Direct or Emigrant Direct is the better bank, I missed the news that Emigrant Direct gave a free $1000 (with no strings attached) to every one of their account holders in the regions affected by Hurricane Katrina. You can hear about it on the Emigrant Direct site in the Bill O’Reilly Radio broadcast.

Putting aside the fact that O’Reilly doesn’t know the difference between a savings account and a CD, I think this was a hugely generous offer on their part that will likely make most of those people customers for life.