ING Direct Electric Orange Checking Review

If you read my review of Chase Bank, you'll know that I was recently in the market for a new checking account.  My new checking account is Electric Orange, from ING Direct.  Electric Orange is a unique and revolutionary kind of checking account in that it is totally on line.

Advantages of Electric Orange:

1. You get a Master Card debit card with free access to over 35,000 ATM's nationwide.  There is a tool on the ING web site that allows you to search for ATM's near an address.  There were over 100 within a 20 mile radius of my home.
2. The account earns interest.  As of the time of this review, the interest rate is 0.24% for balances up to $49,999.
3. You can send money to people directly, so long as you have their bank information.
4. Free bill pay.
5. If you have an ING savings account, which I do, you can transfer money instantaneously between that account and Electric Orange.
6. No ridiculous fees.  Instead of paying for overdrafts, you have an overdraft line of credit, which you pay interest on if you use.  Other than that, you pay for overnight delivery of a check (see below), overnight delivery of a replacement debit card, stop payment service, and foreign transaction fees.  That's it!  No stupid returned check fee.

Disadvantages of Electric Orange:

1. For the most part, you have no paper checks.  I almost listed this as an advantage, given my disdain for paper checks, but the reality of life is that once in a blue moon, you need to have a paper check.  Electric Orange does not give you paper checks, but you can request that a paper check be mailed you.  You just provide the payee and the amount of the check, and they send it to you pre-written.  You can also have a check over-nighted to you for a fee of $20.
2. You cannot make a deposit through an ATM.  To deposit checks, you have to mail them to ING.  This, to me, is not a good situation, but I rarely receive paper checks anyway.
3. You don't have a brick-and-mortar bank.  There are situations where it's good to have a physical bank to go to, but you lose that with ING.

As I stated in my opening sentence, Electric Orange is ahead of its time.  Our way of handling finances has not totally eliminated the need for paper checks, and Electric Orange makes dealing with paper checks a bit inconvenient.   This is a product that is absolutely geared toward people who like doing as much of their business on line as possible, like me.  That being said, I'm still considering having a secondary checking account at a traditional bank, just to eliminate the disadvantages of Electric Orange.

The bottom line is that I love my new Electric Orange account, and I do recommend it for those who are totally comfortable doing business on line.