ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

[eddiehcruz]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

i attended a suze orman book signing in west hollywood, calif recently. suze recommended emigrant direct twice in her presentation, gave the website address and said that it was paying the highest rate in the country. that's good enough for me. i am a little disappointed so far that it takes so long to set it up. i did my initial deposit on monday (mar 28). as of today (friday, april 1), i have received no notification that the deposits have been received nor am i able to log on to the emigrant website. i was told that they would "snail mail" me the acknowledgement. since i am west coast, i'm sure that i can expect it by may or june. as a plus, the csr told me that they would have 24 hour customer service (a real plus for people in other time zones). i don't recall ing as being so difficult but, i'll still put my money where it gains the most interest as long as it's fdic insured and has a decent customer service dept.

[globetrotter]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

Other than the sign-up process, has anyone had trouble with Emigrant? Has anyone had to contact their customer service for some other reason? If someone has, I'd like to know why you needed to and how you would rate it.

[obi_positive]

ING sweetens the pot, again

Just checked ING Direct site to see their rate went up to 3%. I just got my activation letter from Emigrant today and debating whether to hold off transferring some funds. I love it when competition helps the consumer.

[PRICEPLUS]

Re: ING sweetens the pot, again

I'm staying at ING for the time being.

[Armywife]

Re: ING sweetens the pot, again

Just checked ING Direct site to see their rate went up to 3%. I just got my activation letter from Emigrant today and debating whether to hold off transferring some funds. I love it when competition helps the consumer.

I agree with Obi 100%. The more ING sees their customer base migrating over to higher rates, the quicker the response... hopefully we'll see 4 by December? (One can dream, can't one?

[eddiehcruz]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank



even though ing is up to 3%, i'm still putting my money with emigrant as soon as i get confirmation. if enough of us do this, the rates will be competitive across the board.

[34saving]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

Okay. I finally bit the bullet and did the sign-up thing for ED . . . alone (see previous entries if you want the story). Everything seemed fine. Now I have an account, it has my initial $50 (thank goodness it doesn't have more) in it, and I can view it. One problem - After 3 days of having it open I have NO IDEA how I'm supposed to transfer money in and out. There are no buttons, no explanations, and none of the help buttons work. I didn't think I was particularly internet stupid (never had any problems with ING) . . . has anybody had an experience like this?

[34saving]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

I guess I answered my own question. Today I logged on an new links allowing transfers appeared . . . wow . . . still a fan of ING I think.

[goodtosave]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

Emigrant Direct website is outsourced to Metavante. The website is not as user friendly as ING Direct.

But they have better rates and next day transfer so I can live with their website for now.

[terry1156]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

I know that Emigrant doesn't offer a sign-up bonus now. Did Emigrant ever offer a sign-up bonus at one time?

[mehmeh]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

i heard online that Emigrant had some sort of signup reward going on but I forget what... supposedly if u put it all together it was higher than ING.. saw it at Epinions actually

on another note, I was curious if anyone knew if the Greenpoint 'Free Checking' account (the lowest of them w/ no interest!) was compatible w/ these internet banks. I read that if the checks carried the line "Deposit through" (something "through") on them, then the said checking account could not be electronically connected w/ the NON-brick and mortar banks. Greenpoint bank was recently bought by Northfork bank. If someone is using Greenpoint and has connected their checking w/ these world internet banks, it would make me feel a lot safer and i wouldn't be opening a checking account for nothing. hope i posted this in the right place, sorry for the noobish quetions. thanks =)

[mehmeh]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

the question is regarding ING in particular*ING+Greenpoint Bank = ok?

[terry1156]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

OK - this is sort of off the subject, but is it just me or do others think that Emigrant Direct is a terrible name for a bank? I think one of the major problems I had with signing up with them at first was that their name was so awful I wasn't sure I could trust them.

[eddiehcruz]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

come to think of it, emigrant direct is not exactly catchy. "ing" is, like you can "ing" something. today, april 11 (exactly 2 weeks after i started the process), i finally received the acknowledgement letter in the mail!

Now that i'm on the emigrant website, i understand what a previous writer meant when he said that it's hard to know what to do to transfer the money over!

Does emigrant management know how sloppy this looks compared to ing?

i started out optimistic about this, but am now a little sour.

[34saving]

Re: ING Direct vs Emigrant Direct Bank

I don't really care for the name, but I accept it because it goes back a long way and times were different then. I have a harder time with the abbreviation! I kept having thoughts of Bob Dole's Viagra commercials!