Getting Excited for Month-End

I discovered online savings accounts back in October thanks to a CNN article. Now I'd heard about ING Direct for a while but never investigated it further. Yes, I know. I'm late to the party as usual. Within the last year or two, a few companies created online products to give you a few options to choose from, each with higher than standard interest with little to no balance requirements. Considering your usual brick-and-mortar bank requires at least a couple of hundred dollars to keep an account open without monthly fees and pay little interest, online savings accounts seem to be a profitable alternative.

Online savings accounts generally have restrictions on the number of out-going transfers you can do per month, but the restriction is really no different than a standard money market account (and maybe even standard savings accounts from what I’ve seen). I think these restrictions are actually federally regulated anyway. If you need frequent access to your money with little notice out of your account, these types of accounts might not be the best alternative for you. Some banks will give you check writing capabilities or debit cards but the out-going transfer limits will apply. That's just something to consider.

ING Direct has a nifty feature that lets you open a bunch of accounts under your main account so if you want to split your savings between multiple goals, you can easily track your progress by seeing it separated. Personally, it helps me keep track of my budgeting either without having to create sub-accounts on an Excel spreadsheet anymore.

So I get pretty excited for the end of the month to the point I’m just about doing the evil hand rub. Instead of earning pennies per month with the usual savings account, I'm earning a good number of extra cents with these Direct accounts.

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