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How to Create ING Direct Subaccounts

Written by Nickel - 43 Comments

Although there are a number of online banks that are now paying better interest than ING Direct, I really like the ING interface, and I also trust them. Another thing that I like about ING Direct is the ability to quickly and easily create subaccounts.

Subaccounts are a great tool for budgeting, and we’ve also found them to be a great place for our kids to stash some of their allowance. However, it wasn’t intuitively obvious to me how to create them when I first set out to do it, so I thought I’d outline the process here…

If you want to create a subaccount, simply login to your account and select ‘Open an Account‘ from the left sidebar. On the next page, select ‘Open Now‘ under Orange Savings Account. Next, decide if you want a joint account. If so, you will be prompted for info on the joint account owner. If not, you will be taken straight to the account setup page. Simply enter a nickname for your subaccount, choose a funding source and amount, and click ‘Continue.’

That’s pretty much it. Easy as pie. The main thing that confused me was that it felt like I was opening an entirely separate account as I went through this process, as opposed to a subaccount that could be accessed through my main login. So I ended up calling and, sure enough, this is how you do it. It sure seems like it would be easier if they just had an ‘Open a Subaccount‘ button. Then again, maybe I’m just slow.

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Published on August 26th, 2005
Modified on March 25th, 2011 - 43 Comments
Filed under: Banking

About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

43 Responses to “How to Create ING Direct Subaccounts”

1
FMF Says:
August 26th, 2005 at 10:14 am
“Although there are a number of online banks that are now paying better interest than ING Direct, I really like the ING interface, and I also trust them.”

Ahhh, a marketer’s dream. Someone else has a better deal, but they offer better service (interface) and you TRUST them.

It’s music to my ears.
2
nickel Says:
August 26th, 2005 at 10:39 pm
More than anything, I’m lazy… The difference in interest rates between banks just hasn’t been enough to motivate me to open a new account. And I hardly think that you can divorce service from the quality of the deal. There’s more to banking than just the interest rate. So no, I’m not really sure that those other banks with higher rates are a better deal.
3
dforester Says:
August 26th, 2005 at 11:12 pm
It’s not really a sub-account – it’s just a separate account.

You are a CUSTOMER (e.g. your customer number), and you have several ACCOUNTS.

I’ve got about 10 ING accounts, BTW – the Christmas fund, the vacation fund, the Emergency fund, the new car fund, the car repair fund, …..
4
nickel Says:
August 26th, 2005 at 11:40 pm
Yes, strictly speaking you are correct. Your ’subaccount’ comes complete with its own account # and everything. But it essentially behaves as a subaccount (e.g., accessible via same login as your main account) and I’ve always heard them referred to as subaccounts, even by ING employees (not that I actually talk to them that much).
5
Cap Says:
August 28th, 2005 at 5:49 am
Better service is part of the product too. And I’m sticking with ING for this particular batch of money. I was itching to move the money to a higher rate account, but after some thought.. its just not worth it for me.

And to be honest, I do trust ING more than some other ones.. or rather, I trust their employees to be more competent than the other banks.

If someone else can make the sign up process as straight forward & easy as ING (and without a hard credit inquiry) then I’ll definitely reconsider.
6
Jose Anes Says:
August 28th, 2005 at 5:51 am
Sub accounts are great to keep money apart for different goals.

Money And Investing
7
Bryan Says:
August 29th, 2005 at 11:09 am
Great! Just this morning I was trying to find out if ING had the subaccount feature and Lo Behold! here’s a post dedicated to it ! Cool. Thanks for the info. Been following your blog for a while now and I think it’s great.
8
nickel Says:
August 30th, 2005 at 8:00 am
Bryan: Glad you found the info to be useful. Thanks for stopping by.
9
Caitlin Says:
November 6th, 2005 at 6:04 pm
i found this confusing too…I was finally getting organized in advance of my 2 spendy months and was not sure “open a new account” was the way to go. Luckily you showed up near the top on google and of course I realized I read this post back in august too LOL. Anyway…thanks nickel! easy peasy.
10
Paul Says:
February 3rd, 2006 at 10:49 am
Thank you so much! I have wondered this myself for quite some time but I never figure it out.
11
Hugh Says:
February 7th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Hay what happens if you just want to open a separate account with soneone else?
e.g. I currently have an individual account with ING (haven’t openned any sub-accounts yet but will soon), I was thinking about openning another joint account with my wife to manage the household’s money. How does that work? How would one acheieve this? What does the internet interface look like when logging in? Are there any other online banks that offer sub-accounts?
thanks for this helpful review.
12
nickel Says:
February 7th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Hugh, good question, and I’m not sure as to the answer. We have multiple subaccounts, but everything is joint b/t my wife and I. I’m not sure how they would handle a single account and a joint account together.
13
Tom Says:
February 24th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
I will be closing my ING accounts. Here are my reasons. Take them for whatever you think they’re worth, LOL

- website is SLOW, interface is clunky
- processing of transactions is SLOW
- hold your deposits for 10 days
- are a PITA when it comes to adding external accounts, for good reason. Just got a letter from them yesterday stating that I had to send a PERSONAL check in order to create a link to USAA, NOT a billpayment check. That’s just stupid.
14
Hector Says:
September 11th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
ING obviously has some issues with race. They boast over 70,000 entries in their “Show Your Orange” contest and not one winning face was black or latino. What’s up with that? And some of the entries they picked were WEAK!!! ING SUCKS!!!
15
steve Says:
November 15th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Hi,do you get $25 for each sub-account?

thanks
16
John Says:
August 20th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Give me a break. Maybe no BLACKS or Latins WON. Why is it you people alway thow whinining race into things. Sheesh get over it. BTW
17
John Says:
August 20th, 2007 at 11:25 am
BTWm There is no seperate RACE. We are the Human race. ALl people. Blacks are just another color not another Race.
18
Danielle Says:
January 9th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I just used this method today to open a “sub-account” on my ING. It definitely feels like I opened a second account under ING but I am ok with that. Being able to fund 2 separate purposes helps with my motivation to save.

This thread was the top hit in google when I wanted to find out how to do it even though the last post is Aug 2007! Thanks for the info! One drawback of ING is the lack of search function for their help information. No mention of sub-accounts on their website that I found!

I like everything else about it so far, and the 10 day delay in the initial deposits did not bug me because this money is for long term savings.

I had no PITA opening the account or setting up the external account tied to my ING account. Never had to talk to anyone or mail in anything.
19
Colleen in MA Says:
February 9th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Like the commenter above, I searched on how to open an ING “sub-account” in Google and this entry came up. Thanks for the info! Today I created two “sub-accounts”: one to set aside money for taxes on my freelance income and another to save up for my upcoming move/wedding. Both are long-term goals and therefore I need all the motivation I can get. It will be great to be able to click “view my accounts” and readily see how my money is set aside.
20
Kym Says:
May 30th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I have been doing this for some time now, and not only with ING. I don’t understand why when it’s with ING, it’s a “subaccount”, and when it’s with another institution, it’s another account. Is it really big news that you can open more than 1 account at the same institution? I have never had any problem doing this…

Not trying to knock the article, just not sure why it’s such a big deal for ING when it can be done anywhere.
21
nickel Says:
May 31st, 2008 at 7:57 am
The main reason is that it’s all aggregated under a single login, and you can set one up in about 30 seconds. Sure, you can create additional accounts at other banks, but often times it requires intervention by customer service, it takes longer, and in many cases you need to use a different username and password to access info in different accounts.
22
Money Maus Says:
June 8th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
First hit in Google & very helpful! I will be making subaccounts for Travel Fund, Car Maintenance Fund, etc
23
Richard Says:
June 11th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Hooray for google! (search phrase “ING sub accounts”)

Now I’ve got a ‘latest paycheck’ account where I can have my money land before I process it and prioritize what gets paid first
24
Doctor Awesome Says:
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:19 am
“ING obviously has some issues with race. They boast over 70,000 entries in their â€œShow Your Orangeâ€ contest and not one winning face was black or latino. Whatâ€™s up with that? And some of the entries they picked were WEAK!!! ING SUCKS!!!

That’s because blacks don’t save money, and latinos don’t use banks. Jeez.
25
ING Saver Says:
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 pm
People people people…Stop using the word “sub-account”, when clearly what you’re doing is opening “just another account”.

The idea that since you’re using one login, this somehow makes the the new account “sub” account is absurd.

I don’t know any bank institution which does not let you set up multiple accounts for one person, OR requires multiple login information to access multiple accounts. This is just absurd.

To me, the IDEA of a ’sub-account’ is that you have 1 account (i.e. one account #), but that somehow you can separate the money into different piles or ’sub-accounts’. In essence, you want to be able to split up you savings into different “bags under the mattress”. Another way of looking at it is this. Say you deposit $1000 dollars into your “one-and-only” ING savings account. People who like the IDEA of “sub-accounts’ would like “tag” portion of the money as ‘car maintenance’ or ‘vacation’ or ‘fuel hedge’ or whatever. The $1000 dollars has still been deposited to one account, but it has been tagged for special purpose. Am I right?

Now, what if I want to withdraw some money from my account? I would have to explicitly say which ‘tagged’ portion to remove from. I guess all the issue regarding this could be worked out eventually, but I don’t think there is any banks that will let you do this. Certanly not ING.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with openning multiple accounts with ING, or the so-called “sub-accounts”. I think it achieves the same objective.
26
ING Saver Says:
January 30th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Just to add something to my previous comment. Now that ING is offering Tax Free Savings Account, it would REALLY be great if we could truly have “sub-accounts”.

Think about it. The way things are today, you can have only one (1) TFSA account. But, we all realize the benefit of having more than 1 savings account; it makes it easer of us to ‘categorize’ our savings. So, if you are like me, you have one TFSA account, and multiple other “non-tax-free” savings accounts. BUT, in this way I”m only earning “tax-free” interest on the money in TFSA, not my other accounts.

It would be GREAT, if all my savings could be in TFSA, just ‘tagged’ according to my savings categories. This way, ALL of my savings are earning tax free interest.
27
Susan Says:
March 28th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Like many other people here, I tried to search ING’s website for “subaccount” and got nowhere, then googled it and got here – and I’m happy I did! I have to admit I’m disappointed in ING’s definition of a “subaccount”. To me, a subaccount is exactly what ING Saver described it as. To me, this would be ideal because the compounded interest I earn over a year on one lump of $1000 would be more than on 10 lumps of $100 each – right? Or am I totally wrong? Yes, ING is convenient because it lets you do all sorts of things online instead of having to go into a bank, so it still seems like a great bank to do business with, but I think the “subaccounts” idea is misleading. That said, they do have many other features that are attractive to me and better than where my money is now.

A quick comment regarding the multicultural issue – I’m Latina and I have to admit that it’s true that the majority of Latinos don’t seem to be saving their money in banks. However, it would have been in ING’s best interest if they had chosen some winners for this contest (of which I admit I know nothing about) who were of color – if only to signal to minorities that ING is accessible to them/us.
28
Nickel Says:
March 28th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Susan: The compounded interest would be exactly the same either way.
29
Janet Says:
April 4th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Thanks.
30
angela Says:
April 9th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
I just opened a few sub accounts. I have two questions…How do I get my children’s savings accounts opened and identified as their accounts so I don’t get taxed on the interest? Secondly, do you have any insight as to how I would add my spouse to the accounts after the fact (I opened a savings account for me for misc. money I would receive through out the year and only opened it under me. I opened the sub accounts under my savings accounts…should have opened them joint).
31
Susan Says:
April 11th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Angela, regarding adding your spouse to your accounts, I had to do that, too. What I did was after logging in, on the My Accounts page (that’s where you should be landing immediately after logging in) I opened the account I wanted to add him to by clicking on it. I then clicked on “Account Maintenance” (located next to “Transaction History” and just above the Posted Transactions). Under “Account Ownership” is listed the account owner(s) and the option to add a joint account holder (I can’t remember if the link says “change” or “add” – it says “change” after the joint account holder has been added). Hope this helps!
32
Alan Says:
May 27th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
I haven’t opened an ING account but have been looking for this kind of sub-account feature. I just opened a Frost Momentum account which provides a similar feature but in a more deliberate design.

However, most of our money is in another rewards checking account, so our Frost Momentum account won’t earn much interest based on their tiered levels.

I’m curious if anyone has used both ING and Frost Momentum, and could comment on the differences between them.

Thanks,
Alan

P.S. I’ve also seen PNC Virtual Wallet and SmartyPig, both of which provide similar sub-account/virtual-account features. Are there any others?
33
Dr. Faith Says:
July 18th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Was searching for info on opening a subaccount on ING, thanks for post. Seems like a pretty popular one, huh? =)
34
Cheryl Says:
July 29th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Nope – you’re totally right – it’s not intuitive. Thanks for posting this. Very helpful!
35
Wendy Says:
August 7th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Your log on to the ING site is a CUSTOMER log on. The accounts you create are just accounts, not sub-accounts. When I log on, I can see/access my own checking and savings, but also my kids’ savings accounts because I am “joint” on their account. Each of my kids, on the other hand, have their own CUSTOMER log on. When they log on to ING, they see only their one account.
I love ING. I had my kids open ING savings accounts at a young age. I actually like the fact that it takes 2-3 business days to transfer money. It helps the kids to think about whether they really need and want to spend the money on whatever it is they’re dying to have. Also, it gives them time to research for the best price, etc.
36
Simon Cohen Says:
August 10th, 2009 at 11:52 am
“ING obviously has some issues with race. They boast over 70,000 entries in their â€œShow Your Orangeâ€ contest and not one winning face was black or latino.”

The Nobel Prize, too, has similar issues with race…

Or maybe you are just too addicted to affirmative action and assorted entitlements.
37
debtor Says:
August 18th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
thx for the info… 2 yrs later it still ranks highest…. i guess who cares if it’s a sub account or another account..the fact that u can open it in 2 seconds is great..and u can open as many as u want, and rename them every 5 minutes if u want….and can move the money around with no issue is great.
38
ryan taft Says:
September 15th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Great post. Thanks. If I want to open an account for my biz, would you reco a subaccount under my personal name or a brand new acct?
39
bankshopper Says:
September 27th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
There is no such thing as a sub account. Call ING customer service and they will tell you that all you are doing is opening another savings account.
I think it is good to create accounts for specific purposes but any bank that offers a savings account with no minimums will work great.
I used to have accounts with ING but I personally now use Ally bank (you can find other banks on sites like bankrate) and have opened several accounts nicknamed with a specific purpose and it works great. The key difference is that the Ally savings account is paying 1.75% APY while ING is paying only 1.3%. That is a big difference and I rather get to my vacation goals, etc faster.
40
Nickel Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 8:46 am
To everyone arguing about whether or not true “subaccounts” actually exist at ING Direct, you’re missing the point. It’s functionally a subaccount (can be created instantly on the fly, and accessible through your master login). Call it what you want, but it doesn’t change the convenience.
41
Marc Says:
November 9th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
I am Dutch moved to US a while ago, I have had an ING account for almost 40 years..

For the PC people looking for diversity – there are no Hispanics in Holland, few blacks… It is a Dutch bank, ever seen a Black person or a Hispanic in wooden shoes ??

ING bank is awesome..
42
Joe Says:
December 16th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Thank you very much . I’ve been scratching my head trying to figure this out for a while and you gave me the solution.
43
Kevin Says:
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Just HAD to add to this thread! Thanks for coming up on Google since I couldn’t find it on ING website. Been seeing articles…(I think Suze Orman mentioned sub-accounts here), that I just wanted to be able to allocate funds in separate accounts easily on ING. Thanks again, Nickel, for providing the answer many many moons ago!

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