High Interest Savings Account

When I set up my emergency fund, the first thing I looked at were savings accounts. At the time, the interest rate on most savings accounts in my area were dismal at best. Wanting my money to be safe and to work for me, I kept looking around until I found ING.

When I first set up my account five years ago, the local banks and credit unions were all paying out less than 1% APY (more along the lines of .5-.8%). In contrast, ING's Orange Savings Account was at a healthy 2.5%. Since then it has surged to up to 4.8%, until a recent drop back to 3% as of 3/19/2008.

Wow.. I just looked at a few banks' savings rates... OUCH.

• Chase - 0.10% APY
• Forum Credit Union - .3% - 1.25% (under 0.45% for balances less than $25,000)
• Huntington - 1.99% - 3% (3% for balances greater than $100,000)

The great thing about ING is that there are NO minimum balances to get a return. It works by linking to your checking account and moving money around through ACH transfers. Each deposit or withdraw just takes 1 business day to complete. I can say from experience that I have never had any delays or hiccups with moving money to or from ING.

For those of you who want to be adventurous, they even offer a High Yield Checking account. It has a return of 1.75% for all balances under $50,000, with free ATM access at more than 32,000 locations. I admit, I still use a local checking account for the convenience (that and the money never stays in there long enough to DO any good). However, for those of you in a better financial position, it might be good to have a checking account that gives you a little back.

If you get a chance, give ING a serious look. I've been very happy with them for the last five years and have had a much larger return in that time than I would have elsewhere.