ING Direct - Why didn’t you tell me?
I have a savings account with ING Direct. I faithfully deposit money into 3 of my 4 subaccounts every month. I have referred a number of people to them through the powers of the world wide web. And yet, no one bothered to tell me that they lowered their interest rate yesterday from 4.5% to 4.3% APY even though they did apparently tell some of their customers via email.
I found out basically by seeing other bloggers write about an email they received notifying them of the rate change and then logging in to my accounts and checking on them. Sure enough, my rate was lowered too (of course). I know this sounds silly, but I’m more upset that no one from ING Direct bothered to send me an email to let me know than I am about the lowered rate. Yes, I know, I don’t have massive deposits there, but our 4 subaccounts equal about $1800 which for us is a huge amount to have saved at one place.
Being treated like a nobody and disposable because I was a small-balance customer is one of the many reasons I left Wachovia’s investing division. I hope ING doesn’t see me that way. I can only assume that my small balance has something to do with being low on the list of people to let know about the rate change. But it matters to me too. Because when I am treated like I don’t matter, I feel like I don’t matter.
I may be looking around for a new “high-yield” online bank soon. Not just for a better rate.
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September 20th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Have you checked out hsbc?
September 20th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
I will soon be opening a savings account with E*Trade. They have the same $25 opening bonus as ING only the minimum balance is $1. I saw it on Poorer Than You and got my referral from Stephanie over there.
http://poorerthanyou.com/2007/09/13/etrade-25-bonus-with-high-yield-savings/
September 20th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
I have considered hsbc and e*trade… I am a slow adapter of new technology. lol. It takes me a long time to decide to change something. But I’m thinking about it.
September 21st, 2007 at 9:55 am
I just signed up for ING a little while ago and only recently switched some of my auto-debit bills to that account. Now I’m faced with either accepting the lower rate or going through the hassle of changing those bills again! I think I’ll stay because of that and the fact that ING is my first “high interest” account, so I have a little bit of loyalty to them.
September 21st, 2007 at 5:07 pm
I recently opened some accounts with Citibank Bank (kinda redundant, huh?). I opened an “EZ Checking” package, which was a regular checking account with a linked savings account. The savings, or “Ultimate Money Account” (UMA) earns 5.10%APY if I make at least 2 bill payments a month. If not, it earns 4.50%APY. There are no fees for either account.
So far, so good. I have an ING account but I don’t use it, as the interest is lower.
September 22nd, 2007 at 8:57 am
did u check your spam folder for the email?
September 22nd, 2007 at 10:10 am
Yep. No email for me!
September 23rd, 2007 at 5:38 pm
@Jon - I have loyalty too. For how long, I am not sure.
@b.sav - I’ll put that on my list of potential places to defect to lol thanks!
September 24th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
ING is not required to tell you when they lowered the rate. If you had read the fine print, you would have notice (here, I included it for you)
Rate Information - The Interest Rate on your account is 4.2175% with an APY of 4.30% Your Interest Rate and APY may change. At our discretion we may change the Interest Rate for your account at any time.
Read the last sentence again. Nothing is forever.
September 24th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
I know they aren’t *required* to. That really isn’t the point at all.