ING Direct $50 Electric Orange & ShareBuilder Bonuses

ING Direct has another $50 promotion for opening a new Electric Orange Checking account. However, unlike most of the past ones, this one is listed at ING Direct's front page as of 4/28/2010. According to an ING Direct CSR, this is available for both new and existing ING Direct customers who don't yet have an EO account. Another nice feature is that it has no initial deposit requirement. It just requires that you make at least 3 signature-based purchases with your EO Debit MasterCard within 45 days of account opening. The $50 bonus will automatically be deposited into your account on day 50.

Since this EO bonus is available to existing customers, you may want to open the Orange Savings Account first with a $25 sign-up bonus. In addition to the typical $25 refer-a-friend bonus that requires a $250 minimum initial deposit, MaximizingMoney blog mentioned a $25 bonus offer (with code OSA229) which allows you to receive the bonus with only a $150 initial deposit. This promo is scheduled to last until 7/31/2010.

About the EO promotion, note that signature-based purchases are required. Signature-based means that you have to use it like a credit card without providing your PIN. In my January post I described why banks encourage this.

ING Direct's Electric Orange Account vs Ally Bank's Interest Checking?

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). If high interest rate is your main concern and you don't want to worry about debit card usage, check out the best checking accounts section of DepositAccounts.com. If you want the highest rate regardless of debit card usage, please refer to the reward checking section of DepositAccounts.com.

I have more details on ING Direct and the Electric Orange Account in this post.

ShareBuilder Bonuses

This is a brokerage deal rather than a bank deal, but it may interest a few people. I received another promotion email from ING Direct offering $50 for opening a ShareBuilder account (with offer code 50PLUG) and making one trade. The promotion page link is www.sharebuilder.com/em/50PLUG. Here's some of the important small print:

You must open an account and place a trade by 5/12/10 to receive the $50 bonus. Please note the $50 credit will post to your account approximately 4-6 weeks after you place your first trade.

There's also a ShareBuilder bonus listed at ING Direct, but it's only $25. These ShareBuilder bonuses are common. Costco members can get a little more.

As a brokerage account, it's not FDIC insured. One thing to note is that in addition to stocks, you can also buy conservative ETFs and mutual funds. Is a ShareBuilder brokerage account a good choice for investors? MyMoneyBlog has a detailed review.

Other Bank and Credit Union Bonuses

To find other bonus deals, please refer to my bank bonus page which has all of my recent bank bonus posts.