[some_math_guy]

I've been watching in dismay as the European banking sector takes it on the chin and the throught crossed my mind: Is ING Direct a 'safe' bank? My understanding is that ING Direct is based in the Netherlands and has no branches, which is why they provide a fairly high interest on your basic savings account (around 4%). We use it for short-term savings because there are no rediculous monthly service fees like the Big 5 Banks here in Canada.

Are my savings safe with ING Direct, or should I pull them out and plunk them in my Canadian bank accounts?

[Jotapay]

Is anything safe?

[vision-master]

I've been watching in dismay as the European banking sector takes it on the chin and the thought crossed my mind. Is ING Direct a 'safe' bank? My understanding is that ING Direct is based in the Netherlands and has no branches, which is why they provide a fairly high interest on your basic savings account (around 4%). We use it for short-term savings because there are no rediculous monthly service fees like the Big 5 Banks here in Canada. Are my savings safe with ING Direct, or should I pull them out and plunk them in my Canadian bank accounts?

ING sucks. They fooked my 90 year old Mother out of her investment. After my Father died, she collected for 12 years and she never ONCE received a statement. They just stopped paying her. The originial contract was to be payable for life (Atnea).

At her age, we figured it's not worth the trouble to pursue for $150 Month. The Attorny General did squat.

[FoolYap]

Savings accounts at ING are FDIC insured, so they're as safe as deposits at any other bank, I guess.

A few years ago when I was deciding to use an online bank for the first time, I often read people asking why use ING rather than some other online bank, because ING paid a lower savings rate. I don't have any links handy, but the information I found at that time suggested that ING tended to be a more conservative institution than some of the others, like EverBank. The implication being that they were a little safer to use. I can't claim to know that this is accurate, but I decided to open an account there. No real complaints since then.

--Steve

[Leanan]

I like ING. No minimum deposit, no fees.

They have been pretty insulated from the mortgage crisis because of the kinds of mortgages they do. Basically, very conservative, and they hold them themselves. They don't slice and dice and resell them. The foreclosure rate is almost zero.

The drawbacks: no checking account, if you're in the US. You can sent electronic checks, and paper checks via their web site, but you don't get a book of paper checks.

As with other online banks, you need an account at a local bank if you want to draw money out as cash. You can also use an ATM, but there will be fees for that. However, ING has a bunch of "affiliated" ATMs that you can use for free. Check on their web site to see how many there are in your area.

And you can't use another account for overdraft protection. Instead, they lend you the money if you need an overdraft, and charge a small amount of interest. This is cheaper than the overdraft fees most banks charge, but more expensive than the free overdraft protection from a linked account that you can get from some other banks.

Overall, I am happy with ING. They are my main bank, now that Netbank is no more (RIP).

But these days...no bank is absolutely safe. I would have more than one bank...just in case. And definitely don't keep more than the FDIC limit in any one bank.

[jdmartin]

I have an ING account. They gave me $25 for opening it. I opened it with a dollar. So far I've got $26 and change in there. Doesn't appear too bad to me, so far. I might diversify a few dollars and put something in there, but I haven't really messed with it much yet.

I wouldn't consider using it if I needed access to the money on a regular basis, as it's not really that convenient - you can only really transfer funds online, or find one of the affiliated ATM's. But if you just wanted to park some excess cash, I can't see any good reason not to give it a try.

[DaleFromCalgary]

I was very interested to read this because I am executor for my uncle's estate. He had about $20,000 in an account with ING Direct. It took my lawyer about eight months to get the money out; we finally got it about two weeks ago. They were constantly demanding forms and letters for this and that.

Just remember, if a pure-Internet foreign bank goes under, all you have are some electrons on your computer screen that form the numeral 0.

[vision-master]

I was very interested to read this because I am executor for my uncle's estate. He had about $20,000 in an account with ING Direct. It took my lawyer about eight months to get the money out; we finally got it about two weeks ago. They were constantly demanding forms and letters for this and that.

Just remember, if a pure-Internet foreign bank goes under, all you have are some electrons on your computer screen that form the numeral 0.

ING is horse-s_hit!

[heroineworshipper]

> They have been pretty insulated from the mortgage
> crisis because of the kinds of mortgages they do.

Sure kid.

[Bas]

I think ING, at least here in Holland where they have branchoffices is a very safe bank and they've weathered the financial storm very well. OTOH I don't like banks with no branch offices, so if you're in a country where it's only an internet bank, I'd contemplate moving it out of there...

[MOCKBA]

ING bought NetBank last fall. EverBank bid on NetBank but didn't like their mortgage portfolio, so EverBank decided not to buy, NetBank collapsed and ING bought everything off FDIC (including the mortgages that brought NetBank down)... This was *last* fall.

The above probably would not collapse ING, but by North American standards their North American operations are pretty shitty. I would not be surprised if/when ING would close North American operations.

Others mentioned that ING is pain to get money out of... This is my experience too... Like any other european bank they nickel and dime you and cheat you out $50 while loosing thousands in deposits... I am not sure this is sound business strategy...