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August 26, 2005

How to Create ING Direct Subaccounts

Although there are a number of online banks that are now paying better interest than ING Direct ($25 account opening bonus), 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.

Comments (scroll down to add your own):

  1. “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. ;-)

    Comment by FMF — Aug 26th 2005 @ 10:14 am

  2. 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.

    Comment by nickel — Aug 26th 2005 @ 10:39 pm

  3. 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, …..

    Comment by dforester — Aug 26th 2005 @ 11:12 pm

  4. 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).

    Comment by nickel — Aug 26th 2005 @ 11:40 pm

  5. 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.

    Comment by Cap — Aug 28th 2005 @ 5:49 am

  6. Sub accounts are great to keep money apart for different goals.

    Money And Investing

    Comment by Jose Anes — Aug 28th 2005 @ 5:51 am

  7. 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.

    Comment by Bryan — Aug 29th 2005 @ 11:09 am

  8. Bryan: Glad you found the info to be useful. Thanks for stopping by.

    Comment by nickel — Aug 30th 2005 @ 8:00 am

  9. 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.

    Comment by Caitlin — Nov 6th 2005 @ 6:04 pm

  10. Thank you so much! I have wondered this myself for quite some time but I never figure it out.

    Comment by Paul — Feb 3rd 2006 @ 10:49 am

  11. 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.

    Comment by Hugh — Feb 7th 2006 @ 3:13 pm

  12. 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.

    Comment by nickel — Feb 7th 2006 @ 3:26 pm

  13. 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.

    Comment by Tom — Feb 24th 2006 @ 5:41 pm

  14. 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!!!

    Comment by Hector — Sep 11th 2006 @ 2:29 pm

  15. Hi,do you get $25 for each sub-account?

    thanks

    Comment by steve — Nov 15th 2006 @ 7:03 pm

  16. 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

    Comment by John — Aug 20th 2007 @ 11:24 am

  17. BTWm There is no seperate RACE. We are the Human race. ALl people. Blacks are just another color not another Race.

    Comment by John — Aug 20th 2007 @ 11:25 am

  18. 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.

    Comment by Danielle — Jan 9th 2008 @ 4:42 pm

  19. 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.

    Comment by Colleen in MA — Feb 9th 2008 @ 11:22 am

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