ING Direct $50 Electric Orange Checking Account Bonus

Update 7/06/2010: The $50 EO promo is no longer listed on ING Direc'ts home page. However, advertisements have been pointing to this $50 promo page: www.ingdirect.com/nofees

Update 6/14/2010: The $50 EO promo is back on ING Direct's home page. Hope it stays for a while this time.

Update 6/12/2010: The $50 EO promo is no longer listed at ING Direct's home page.

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 6/11/2010. Like the one I mentioned in April, this appears to be 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.

For those who are prone to overdraw their accounts, ING Direct's Electric Orange is more friendly than checking accounts at most other banks. There's no overdraft fee. ING Direct only charges interest on the amount they loan out when there's an overdraft. ING Direct recently came out with a overdraft calculator that allows you to see how much overdrafts cost at ING Direct vs. other banks. One thing to note about EO's overdraft is that your credit limit can vary. Many have reported small credit limits. For those who need a sizable loan, this probably won't be a good option. In my opinion, it's never a good idea to overdraw your account even when there is no fee.

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 and you don't mind using a debit card, 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.

Other Bank Bonuses

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