Ing Direct Orange Savings Account By BMused on Oct 04, 2007 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

ING Direct was one of the first and remains one of the best online banking institutions. ING's flagship product is the Orange Savings Account. You can open an account with any amount, and you are not required to maintain a minimum balance in order to avoid fees. In fact, you won't find yourself paying any fees with an Orange Savings Account. Instead, ING will be paying you a competitive interest rate-- currently 4.30%.

When you open your Orange Savings Account, you link it to an existing checking account or accounts at a traditional bank. When you want to move money in or out of your Orange Savings Account, you use your linked account. You can also go set up one-time or recurrent deposits from your linked account into your Orange Savings Account. All transactions are done online on ING's user-friendly website.

The only drawback is that you don't have automatic access to your money once it has been deposited into your account. A hold is placed on all deposited funds for five business days. In addition, while you can initiate a transfer out of your account at anytime from a computer, it may take a day or two for the transfer to be executed.

But the Orange Savings Account isn't meant to be your everyday account. It's set up so that you can legitimately save money and earn interest on it. From that point of view, the interest rate and the ING's hassle free structure more than make up for the inconvenience of not having immediate access to your cash.