Why I Choose ING Direct...
A fellow reader asked me why in the world would I go with a bank like ING Direct? Their bright orange colors and lower than BIGGER BROTHER Emigrant rates should be able to deter me, right? WRONG! When I believe in a product, I represent it. But first you have to prove to me CONSISTENTLY that you are the best and why. I tried out a couple banks including my local credit union, HSBC.com, and Emigrant before I settled down with ING. Reason being... Emergency Fund only. I wanted to pull straight from the account whenever there was an emergency and it would be safe, secure and in a timely fashion in my checking account. I ran into the problem of shopping for the lowest bidder in the market. Emigrant... when I did this a couple months ago, I ran into the problem of their horrible customer service, site interface, and TIME DELAY!
Heres the brief breakdown: My belief is that 'Customer Service' is as important to a company as its product. Over the phone, its not that I dislike talking to foreigners and "outsourced" representatives, but when they are disgruntled and dont care about you or your problems and keep you on hold for gobs amount of time, its tough to get anything done. Calling ING is fast, friendly, and if you dial their 888-ING-0727, you will reach an American based call center in either Los Angeles, CA, St. Cloud, MN, or Wilmington, DE. I also like the fact that their new IVR states what position you are in the "queue" before your call is answered.
Site Interface. I dont want to have to go search out where my money is on your website. I want a clear cut simple outlook of where my money is and what options I have to move them. There is such a thing as TOO much interface. On the flipside, if they havent changed in the past month or so, Emigrant is bare bones and I cant stand it. Its dry and looks like something out of my middle school web programming class. ING has a great medium and doesnt bombard me with ads or millions of links when I log on or doesnt leave me back in the 80s interface days.
Finally and more importantly TIME, which can seem more valuable than money. Take for example, about 6 months ago, I needed to pull about $1k from the emergency fund to take care of a house repair gone bad. Plugged in my ING account that Monday morning and it was in my checking account available on Wednesday. Same idea but different situation 1 month later but this time my money was in Emigrant... 4 COUNT THEM 1, 2, 3, 4 BUSINESS DAYS LATER. Meaning Monday to Friday... I waited and waited... NOTHING. As a business person and also a CONSUMER!, it only takes ONE MAJOR screw up and our business is done. I can understand the little things here and there but... like a quick cell phone analogy... Stuck on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere... dialing... dialing... no signal. WHY DO YOU HAVE A CELL PHONE? Just trying to make a point here. To summarize, if I had a choice between one or two tenths of a percentage point in interest higher and gaining that extra few dollars at the end of the year, I choose who treats me RIGHT. Thats why I choose ING. **(To ING: I expect a check in the mail next month. Thank you) :)
1 Comments:
If your looking for something you can use in an emergency then you should check out GMAC. You can write a check directly from the account so there is no need to wait for a transfer in a true emergency. I have emigrant, ing, and hsbc accounts as well. GMAC Bank is by far the fastest, the easiest to use and they have great customer service. Not to mention the great rates as well. Check them out, they are truely under appreciated in the finance blog community