Hurry up and get here: ING Direct's Electric Orange checking
Posted by Trey Reeme on September 28th, 2006
As you probably know, I’m obsessed with ING Direct’s upcoming launch of their high-yield paperless checking account. I’ve covered it for a while on Open Source CU, and I still dig regularly for new information about “Electric Orange” – mainly because I want the product for myself (don’t get huffy; I’m just being honest).
ING is still saying they’ll launch this year and they’re ramping up their staff to handle it, but I’ve been craving more details as it’s been a silent summer. I just got ‘em first-hand in an email from our loyal reader V:
In addition to launching the Electric Orange checking account (shortly) they are now directly surveying their customers (from within their online banking site) to gauge not only their interest in the product & its features, but to see how much in balances they will move over from existing ING products, but also outside balances as well! Wish I’d thought to save the survey instead of just print it out – but questions like:
- Based on what you’ve read above (summary of the Electric Orange product) how likely would you be to open an Electric Orange?
- If you were to open an Electric Orange, how likely would you be to make it your primary Checking/Transaction account?
- How much cash do you have in accounts outside of ING Direct including checking, savings and money market accounts but excluding cash tied up in side retirement accounts?
- If you were to open an Electric Orange, how much of that cash would you move from accounts at other financial institutions into this account?
Aren’t these types of questions the data that every marketer wants to know when we’re launching a new product? Why don’t we ask these types of questions more to our members? (And at the end you can make general “free form” comments about this product – all other questions are multiple choice.)
I wonder why we always dance around asking these types of direct questions to our membership?
V’s right. They didn’t hire a survey firm to cold-call households around dinnertime; they asked for feedback during the transaction on the website. If I’d have been asked those questions, you can bet I’d have answered, too. Anything to get that product to market in my hands.
Not a huge fan of ING Direct tonight. I tried logging in from my home PC and was presented with two challenge questions – I can’t get them right. I know, I must be an idiot. One of them is my high school and I can’t remember if I used an abbreviation for Mt. or if I used Mount or if I used the abbreviation without the ”.” at the end of Mt. The second question is high school mascot – did I enter Marauder or Marauders? What a pain. Not pleased with their RSA security. I gave up. Went to my laptop and got in. Didn’t receive the survey though – where is that?
I found the survey when I was just looking at the main balances screen – that bottom footer where they have some marketing messages (currently on Automatic Savings Plans)...
I don’t think I’ve been presented with Challenge Questions recently – I probably always log on from 2 main computers…
Thanks for writing this. Very very useful. ING’s earnings Year over year are down to $10.2 million from $52.5 million. They are beginning to see a maturing of their market and are realizing how volitile their balances are…
Have you seen the negative press on them in the UK during last 2 weeks? They decided not to raise their rates in line w/ the 25bps increase by the BOE.
If you ever have ANY problems with your ING Direct account, just call customer service! More than likely the problem is your fault, not ING Direct’s. I had the same problem as Doug logging in, and I was logged in within about 5 minutes of dialing 1-800-ING-Direct. Who would’ve thought I would have to remember my security answers? Anyway, Electric Orange is great, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone!
I love ING. Electric Orange is great! I will be moving most of my money to ING this year. Citibank wasn’t cutting it.
ING is missing the point. Electric Orange doesn’t offer paper checks. Rather, you must “write” a check online, and ING will mail it to the waiting recipient. Not exactly an ideal arrangement when paying the plummer.
When I open an online checking account, I don’t want to regret not using a traditional kind of bank. In other words, you want ATMs. You want easy deposits. You want to write checks.
But then you find out that other banks are offering even better rates. EverBank’s FreeNet checking account offers a 6.01% intro rate, which is the best I’ve found. They also back their account with a Yield Pledge, which in simple terms states that your rate will remain within the top five percent of all rates. Pretty sweet.
I just don’t think this Electric Orange is all that good.
I have already been with ING for 2 years with a savings and auto deposits and am loving the paperless environment. I will be moving all of my banking over to Electric Orange when possible. I am with Bank of America now and am extremely disappointed with their practice of catering to the illegal immigran population by offering all of the products we work hard for with no SSN. Our credit is scutinzed everytime we apply for a new finacial product but why if they are offering it to other people with no credit history. I am angry about this and will be basically boycotting B of A!
Lauri, you are a protectionist tool
Don’t make us start passing out Troll Caps, Brian.