ING DIRECT's 2012 Black Friday Sale Preview

ING DIRECT is having another Black Friday Sale, and as usual, it's only hinting at the specials that will be offered starting on Friday, November 23 and lasting through Sunday November 25. They already have the promotional page at home.ingdirect.com/blackfriday announcing the upcoming sale. They also sent out emails to existing ING DIRECT customers announcing the sale and a cash back offer for Electric Orange customers. Here's the excerpt of that email:

Our 4th Annual Black Friday Sale’s almost here - make sure your Electric Orange Debit Card’s at the ready so you don’t miss out on our first great deal:

What: 1% Cash Back for purchases with your MasterCard® Debit Card

When: 3 days only from November 23rd to 25th

How: Use your Debit Card to grab sweet cash back during the Sale

Stop by ingdirect.com/BlackFriday to see the rest of our Black Friday offers - it's just the start of savings fun to come.

Be sure to have your Debit Card and Card PIN ready. If you need a new one, call 1-888-464-0727 from 8 AM to 8 PM by November 13th to make sure you’re ready for the Sale.

In past ING DIRECT Black Friday Sales they haven't provided deals for existing customer. So this is a little change. However, I don't see a 1% cash back being attractive to anyone when so many credit cards offer 1% to 5% cash back.

We'll have to wait to see the other offers. Some may come out early. For the last 3 years, ING DIRECT has offered promotions on Black Fridays and before the Fourth of July. You can see what they offered in past promotions in my old posts:

• 2012 Independence Day offers: $152 EO bonus, $76 ShareBuilder bonus, $28 MONEY account bonus, $18 Kids Savings account bonus
• 2011 Back Friday offers: $107 EO bonus, $32 MONEY account bonus, $27 Kids Savings account bonus
• 2011 Independence Day offers: $126 EO bonus, $76 ShareBuilder bonus, $76 IRA bonus
• 2010 Black Friday offers: $103 EO bonus, 2% 3-year IRA CD
• 2010 Independence Day offers: $76 EO bonus, $76 Sharebuilder bonus
• 2009 Black Friday offers: 2% 12-month CD, $121 EO bonus

As you can see above, the best bonuses were for opening an Electric Orange checking account. Only new EO customers can qualify. As one reader warned:

This bonus is only for those who NEVER have opened an Ing Electric Orange Checking account before...ING is very strict about this!

The last Independence Day EO bonus required a total of 5 purchases using the debit card or Person2Person Payments to qualify for half of the bonus. The other half required setting up direct deposit and having 2 direct deposits of at least $250.

These past Black Friday Sales have offered larger EO bonuses than the standard $50 bonus that new EO customers can get now. There's also a ShareBuilder $100 bonus that's available now. If you're considering opening these accounts, it would be a good idea to wait to see what's available on Black Friday.

The 2009 Black Friday had the best promos for existing customers with a competitive rate on its 1-year CD. We haven't seen another CD promo since then, so I'll be surprised if we see one this time. With a 1-year ING DIRECT CD rate that's currently only 0.40%, I don't have much hope for a good CD deal.

Merger of ING DIRECT Into Capital One

ING DIRECT announced last week that its new name effective February 2012 will be Capital One 360. On November 1st ING DIRECT and Capital One, N.A. legally became one bank. This has implications on FDIC coverage for ING DIRECT customers. On the plus side, ING DIRECT has begun waiving foreign exchange fees on customers' debit card purchases outside the U.S.

With ING DIRECT being transitioned into Capital One, I thought they might decide to drop this promotion. This is another sign that Capital One is letting ING DIRECT operate like it has in the past. My only concern is that Capital One may not keep the internet accounts competitive. As I described last week, big banks rarely keep their internet accounts competitive.

You can see how ING Direct's Electric Orange compares to Ally's checking account in my new internet checking review.