Hi Ken,
I posted a review of ING Direct on December 9, 2010. Because of the recent news about ING Direct's acquisition by Capital One, I wanted to inform folks about possible problems with closing, rolling over of CDs. However, I was unable to repost a previous review. Can that be changed? Perhaps with the title "Repost" or something? Thank you, Jeanne.
Here it is:ING DIRECT
Insane Rollover Policy at ING Direct
My CD at ING Direct matured on December 2, 2010, with a 10-day grace period. After seeing the rate on December 2nd, I mulled it over for a few more days, and decided to go ahead and roll it over for another 12 months (@1.25%APY). I only wanted to roll over the principal, and the "only way to do it" was to CLOSE the CD, open an ING Savings account, move the balance there, pay out the interest, and open a NEW CD, with a new account number, and transfer the principal amount into it. I balked because this has never happened before with any other CD rollover within the grace period.
In the process, they closed the CD, which was in a joint TRUST, and opened an INDIVIDUAL savings account for the transaction. Even though this was to be a temporary account, the funds were no longer FDIC insured!! So far, I'm on the phone for 25 minutes. Then, they now discovered that they required the primary account holder to open the new CD (we are joint trustees but ING labels one as primary). Since that person was not available, the funds were now in limbo! I am now at the supervisor/"management team" level and asked them to reverse the process as if nothing happened today, and I would have the primary person call back when able. I was told that they could submit that request to the back office, but that they couldn't do anything themselves. This could take days. Notice that since they closed the CD, I no longer had the grace period advantage of holding the rate.
Finally, completely frustrated, I told them to transfer the whole balance to the linked external account, which they did. Naturally, the next day (December 7), the rate dropped to 1.00%APY.
The supervisor told me that to avoid this in the future (believe me, there won't be one with them), I should call before the maturity date and give instructions to roll over the principal only. Then, if the new rate is not satisfactory, call back to close the CD. I'm sorry, that's absurd.