ING Direct dissapointment

hubb

I have been with ING for 7 years putting away money here and there. Just of late I have been putting away money earned from my business for paying my tax bill with in the hope it would make some interest.The website says 2% but my earnings for the month on around £1300 was 57 pence. That's pathetic !

I phoned them and they told me that because I have been with them so long my rate has dropped to a lower varied. They gave me the option of moving to another 2.8% easy access ISA (which could change at any time) or a fixed rate (2% I think) for one year.

Are these good offers or are there better ones out there. I need to get to the money now and then but it is really for saving my tax payment.

Thanks.

psychic_teabag

ING really do not reward customer loyalty - all their bonuses are for new customers only, and you have to be a non-customer for 6 months before you re-qualify as a new customer.

You say "another" ISA, so I guess this is an ISA account. 2.8% is a pretty good rate for an instant-access ISA at the moment. From the web page, the rate is gauranteed for 12 months. But there are others paying slightly better rates. Since you're using the account to accumulate money for a specific purpose, a fixed-term account probably isn't much use to you.

See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/cash-isa-transfers for the correct way to transfer a cash ISA.

The only caveat is that if you were to transfer, then while it's in transit, you won't be able to add any more funds to it. And it's possible (worst case scenario) that the transfer wouldn't complete before the end of the financial year, meaning you'd lose the rest of the year's allowance. That may not bother you, though, if you don't intend to fully utilise your ISA allowance this year or next year. Letting them upgrade the account in-house probably won't incur this delay.

I think I'd probably let them upgrade the account, and then transfer it out anyway.

You need to be a little wary of dipping into an ISA since money withdrawn counts against your annual allowance.

nilrem_2

Like many others ING when they launched here paid pretty good rates and many of us invested considerable sums with them, then they got very blase with it's customers and their rates became very poor, I remember the condescending letter they sent to me after they refused to raise rates after several BOE increases stating that their customers preferred a steady rate rather than a headline grabbing one, the result was that many savers (inc many of us in this forum) withdrew around £3.5 billion pounds from them in protest!

IMHO their rates have been very poor for some time, even before the 2008 financial crisis and I personally would not save with them (I think they still have about £7 of mine in an account!)

hubb

nilrem wrote: »

Like many others ING when they launched here paid pretty good rates and many of us invested considerable sums with them, then they got very blase with it's customers and their rates became very poor, I remember the condescending letter they sent to me after they refused to raise rates after several BOE increases stating that their customers preferred a steady rate rather than a headline grabbing one, the result was that many savers (inc many of us in this forum) withdrew around £3.5 billion pounds from them in protest!

IMHO their rates have been very poor for some time, even before the 2008 financial crisis and I personally would not save with them (I think they still have about £7 of mine in an account!)

So who else would you recommend ?

xrjtg

Start by reading the savings account, and possibly ISA, articles on the main site. They have regularly updated lists of the best payers. You could also check a comparison site like Moneyfacts.

nilrem_2

hubb wrote: »

So who else would you recommend ?

Afraid that you really have to a little bit of homework of your own on this, what is good for one person maybe not so good for another, it depends on individual circumstances.

Suggest having a look at savings accounts here -:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/best-savings-rates

vaporate

What about Chelsea Building Society

4% on their cash isa so they say, 2.06% net rate on their e-saver reward.

Cash ISA requires minimum 1k by the way.

www.thechelsea.co.uk

Sainsbury's have a few 'okay' deals too.

Try Birmingham Midshares too if spelt right.

curls

nilrem wrote: »

Like many others ING when they launched here paid pretty good rates and many of us invested considerable sums with them, then they got very blase with it's customers and their rates became very poor, I remember the condescending letter they sent to me after they refused to raise rates after several BOE increases stating that their customers preferred a steady rate rather than a headline grabbing one, the result was that many savers (inc many of us in this forum) withdrew around £3.5 billion pounds from them in protest!

IMHO their rates have been very poor for some time, even before the 2008 financial crisis and I personally would not save with them (I think they still have about £7 of mine in an account!)

I quite agree, and what I found really annoying was the fact that when they launched, their headline was something like 'one rate for all'. They advertised the fact they didn't do better rates for new accounts, larger investments etc. But in a few years they did a complete U-turn so I closed my account.

SliAbhaile

I'm a relatively new ING customer and after my bonus period ended I've recently pulled all my ING funds and placed them with the Coventry BS.

No incentive to leave them in ING.

theGrinch

ING are awful are customer service from my experience. You can only contact them by phone if you have the time at work. there is no email and when I had a customer query I had to use snail mail and they didnt even bother replying despite having a healthy balance. so I closed the account and moved elsewhere.

hubb

I need to have reasonable access to my money as I will have to draw some out by next Jan.

The Post Office looks the best offer.