ING Direct has another $50 promotion for opening a new Electric Orange Checking account. The promo page is located at
www.ingdirect.com/electric50, and the new reference code is
EM423. This offer is scheduled to end on 1/31/2010. To qualify for this promo, you have to be an existing ING Direct customer without an Electric Orange account. Credit for this find goes to FW member karatz who mentioned it in this
FW thread. I've been told by my ING Direct contact that this reference code can be used by anyone.
You're required to use your Electric Orange Debit Card Card to make at least 3 signature-based purchases in the first 45 days after your account has been opened. Signature-based means that you have to use it like a credit card without providing your PIN. In my
recent post you can see why banks encourage this.
If you're not an existing ING Direct customer, you may be able to make $75 in bonuses. In past promotions there were reports that you could qualify for this $50 promotion if you first opened an ING Direct Orange Savings Account. You could make a total of $75 if you first sign up for the savings account with a $25 refer-a-friend bonus. I can send you a $25 refer-a-friend referral. This requires a minimum $250 deposit. Send me email at bankdeals at gmail dot com. Make sure to include your first and last name and let me know that you want the referral for the savings account.
ING Direct's Electric Orange Account for the Long Term?If you don't care about a sign-up bonus, and you just want the best online checking account, there may be better options including Ally's new interest checking account (
see my review). I have more details on ING Direct and the Electric Orange Account in
this post.
ShareBuilder BonusesThis is a brokerage deal rather than a bank deal, but it may interest a few people. There are a few bonuses available for opening the ShareBuilder brokerage account (ING Direct's online brokerage).
ING Direct's home page is advertising a $50 ShareBuilder bonus. Here's the
link to the bonus. It expires on 3/31/2010. This is a common promo at ShareBuilder.
Costco members can get a little more. There's also a $100 bonus for transfering a brokerage account to sharebuilder. Fatwallet has more details at this
$50 bonus thread and this
$100 bonus thread.
In addition to these bonuses, you can also get 10 free Automatic Investment Trade credits in January at
www.ShareBuilder.com/plan This will provide up to $40 worth of savings ($4 per trade).
As a brokerage account, it's not FDIC insured. One thing to note is that in addition to stocks, you can also buy ETFs and mutual funds. Is a ShareBuilder brokerage account a good choice for investors?
MyMoneyBlog has a detailed review.
Other Bank and Credit Union BonusesTo find other bonus deals, please refer to my
bank bonus page which has all of my recent bank bonus posts.
