ING Winter Save Up Sale - 4.75% Interest

[jeffrey]

ING has announced a rather tricky promotion in an attempt to win back some of the deposits that customers have been moving to other online banks offering higher interest rates. The new promotion is called the "Winter Save Up Sale" and ING is offering 4.75% on all new deposits made into an account between January 19, 2006 and April 15, 2006. Sound great, but there is a catch - The 4.75% rate only lasts until the end of the promotion at which point it goes back to their standard rate. That means the money deposited will only earn the 4.75% for 87 days or less at which point it will revert back to the standard rate (currently 3.80%).

So is it worth it transferring your money to ING? It depends on where your savings is currently parked and what rate it is currently earning. If you have it parked in an online account that is earning 4.25% like HBSC, it would take a lot of money to make the switch worthwhile.




Switching $10,000 form HSBC to ING over the period would earn you less than $12.50. This figure is assuming 3 months interest which is already too high since the campaign only lasts 87 days if you deposit money today. It could be reduced even further depending on how long the float between banks takes where your money won't be earning any interest. Therefore unless you have a lot of money sitting in another high interest online bank, the promotion probably isn't worth the effort.

If on the other hand an individual has money sitting in their local bank earning less than 1% and she has been considering an online bank, this may be the time to do it. In addition to the 4.75% for the promotion period, new customers can also earn an extra $25 bonus with an initial $250 or more deposit.

Those who currently have large deposits inside an ING account are out of luck with this promotion. The rules state that withdrawals will be counted against deposits during the period so individuals can't withdraw and re-deposit the money to get the 4.75%.

Here are all the details of the ING Winter Save Up Sale promotion.

Source: Thanks to Ken who posted it in the forums

[markio26]

it does not pay to be a reliable customer in this ing deal...this ing promotion is just not fair... good thing i have an hsbc account already and i was planning on closing my ing account anyway or i would really
be more upset......................................
but, i have
seen several promotions lately like this.. especially with the cable companies too..
the cell phone companies have been doing deals similiar to draw new
customers with better deals too...
it does not pay to be a dependable reliable customer anymore it seems...

[Mixelflick]

Agreed.

I'm at HSBC and loving it right now. You can find slightly better rates here and there with higher balances, but for no minimums and the highest consistent rate out there, (not a promotion) HSBC is it.

And yes, it does take a little longer to open an account. In retrospect though, I actually feel good about it. The security measures they take are cumbersome but once it's set up, reassuring.