By now, I think everyone has posted on the ING temporary promotional rate on new deposits. Thanks to pfadvice (which is where I saw it first I believe) I calculated that with my ~$4k to move and 25% tax bracket, I'd maybe net $4 from moving my emergency fund from HSBC to ING for the duration of the promotion...a little over a dollar a month for my situation. Bleh.
HSBC not only supports QFX format (Quicken 2005+) but it allows the DirectConnect method of downloading transactions. This means that I can download all my transactions with a couple of clicks (mostly to get through password boxes) instead of the WebConnect method required by ING and Emigrant. With the WebConnect method, I have to go to the bank's website, manually log in, fight through their navigation to get to some sort of "download transactions" option, click that to start the download of the QFX file, then choose "open" to let Quicken do it's thing. UGH.
This feature alone is certainly worth more to me than $1/month in more interest and is one of the two reasons HSBC Direct is becoming my favored "cash stash" (the other being the unlimited bank to bank transfer options...oh. except for ING)
However, the ING promotion is great for folks opening up new accounts with at least $250, that way you get the $25 bonus AND you get the nice 4.75% rate on everything until the promo ends. That's a sweet deal. I thank Travelgnome for letting me refer him.
If you'd like a referral (I'd get $10 if you fund the account with at least $250, you get $25) please email me at clutter2cashblog AT gmail dotcom.
I know exactly what you mean. In my case, I will be transferring over about $18,000 from ED to ING, so I will earn about $30 extra than I would have to ED.
ReplyDeleteNeo
I'm with you on this one - it's just not worth it for me to make the switch.
ReplyDeleteHSBC Direct rate is now 4.80% APY
ReplyDeletehttp://www.banking.us.hsbc.com/personal/deposits/OnlineSavings_T&Cs.pdf
Alan