GMAC Bank vs. ING Direct

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By JLP | June 13, 2007

I am not an affiliate with any of the companies listed below.

About a year ago I opened a savings account with GMAC Bank. So far the experience has been great. In fact, I can think of anything to complain about, which is good for me because I’m pretty particular. Anyway, I was making the rounds tonight checking out the other online banks to see what interest rates they are paying on their savings accounts. The first place I checked was ING Direct. Their Orange Savings Account is currently paying 4.5% APY. Not too bad, but GMAC Bank’s savings account is currently paying 5.3% APY for accounts with $500 or more.

I wonder how long it will be before people start switching accounts?

Oh, and in case you were wondering, here’s what a few other online banks are paying on savings accounts:

Bank	APY
GMAC Bank*	5.30%
HSBC	5.05%
Emigrant Direct	5.05%
Capital One	4.75%
ING Direct	4.50%

*Requires a $500 minimum balance to get that rate.

Topics: Banking |

Comments to “GMAC Bank vs. ING Direct”

D Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 6:02 am

Can you share what the lag time is for your GMAC account to begin earning interest?

I recently reveiwed the HSBC to ING and my own personal use. The 6 day lag time was costing me more than the larger interest could earn. ING has a 1 day lag.

FM Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 7:34 am

A cursory read of the GMAC privacy policy says the company “will” share your information to service your account (acceptable) and they “may” share your personal information with others as allowed by law. In my view this is unacceptable. They do not seem to offer an “opt-out” of unnecessary sharing for marketing or data selling purposes.

Btw, GREAT blog. Wish I had found it a long time ago!

Chris Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 7:55 am

FNBO offers 6% until September. Prior to that their rate was 5.25%.

brody Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 1:31 pm

ING’s new electric orange is so much better than gmac. I just canceled my gmac account and moved my money to electric orange. I don’t need another savings/investment account, I already have a vanguard account. I just need something that allows me easy access to my money sans fees. Gmac is just too restrictive, so 1.3% higher rate doesn’t make a difference especially if I have less than $1000 in the account.

Jim Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 2:36 pm

D - can you provide a little more detail about the Lag time you referenced? I have HSBC now and you’ve piqued my interest!

Michael Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 3:26 pm

D is probably referring to how long it takes money to show up in your HSBC account once it has been debited from your source account, or vice-versa. There can be a 6-day lag time between the two when you use HSBC’s ACH transfer system. I’ve had very good results with GMAC’s system, transferring from my local credit union - usually 2 days, sometimes 1. Basically, you can try to get around this by initiating any transfer involving HSBC from the other bank’s ACH transfer system. Here’s a good source for info on this: http://bankdeals.blogspot.com/. Also, Fat Wallet’s finance forum probably has some good explanations of it.

Jim Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 3:48 pm

Thanks Michael for the info. I’m assuming this is bad because it takes longer for the additional funds to affect your average daily balance, which in turn determines your monthly interest accruals. Got it.

Thanks again!

Michelle Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 4:57 pm

I’m with Chris:

6% at FNBO until the end of September then back to Presidential or eLoan for 5.25% (unless another 6% deal pops up).

WearyTraveler Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 7:29 pm

While ING may be the lowest (of the ones listed) interest, I really like the ability to open numerous sub accounts. I’ve got about 15 sub accounts into which I automatically transfer 1/24th of a yearly bill every payday. Now, I no longer have to come up with my $400 HOA fee out of a single payday. I just have $17 automatically sent to ING. I also have an “Christmas” sub account that I’m automatically squirreling money away into. The best part of this is that I’m earning 4.05% on the money. I’m winning 2 ways! I don’t know if the other banks offer the ability for unlimited sub accounts, so ING _may_ not have that perk cornered.

I also like that ING CDs don’t have a minimum deposit. I can open a 5.25% 9 month CD with that measly $5 that’s left over after paying the bills.

I also like that I get A LIVE ENGLISH SPEAKING BODY when I call.

thomas Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 8:06 pm

ING has a very user friendly site and the transfer time is pretty reasonable. Since I use it for emergency money, i’m okay with waiting. I have a citibank account as well as HSBC and even though the rates are higher, I prefer ING.

Online banks need to do a better job of having user friendly sites and logins.

Rxforfinance Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 11:29 pm

I have opened a ING savings/Orange Direct and have been happy with the service and online setup/activity/access.

I have just recently opened a FNBO to get the 6% but is just rate chasing at this point. I plan on keeping the ING for good! Especially for the 4% checking interest.

Tim Says:
June 14th, 2007 at 3:53 pm

i switched to iGobanking, which has been problem free for me. 5.3% without minimum. I transferred all but $5 from my ING account to iGobanking. i guess i wouldn’t bother transferring money to those 6% promos for only the couple of months worth of 6% interest.

for checking, i stick with my MMA.

Stacey Says:
June 14th, 2007 at 8:05 pm

I’ve been a loyal ING customer for years and normally don’t chase rates. All children have their own savings accounts there, as well as my individual and our joint accounts. Children received opening bonuses, as well…so did mom for the referrals!

Additionally, when our recent CD was set to mature, they offered a kicker rate for rolling it over, so our 9-month cd has a 5.34% rate.

Our mortgage is there as well…it’s very easy to make (stop reading here, JLP…) additional principal payments on line. Best of all, they do not escrow your HO insurance or RET, so you’re free to invest your funds and earn interest until the payments are due.

All transfers of $ to and from ING have been timely and without incident.

I’m a loyal “orange ball” customer!

Steve Kwon Says:
June 15th, 2007 at 8:05 pm

I also have been loyal to ING for years but recently have been seeing ads for other accounts with higher rates and have been intrigued/tempted to at least look into them. Thanks of the info.

Etrade is also offering a savings account at 5.05% which is another account for everybody to look into as well.

Satoru Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 12:54 pm

Personally ING hasn’t given me any much problems. Also transferring funds around is hassle free and fast.

Meanwhile HSBC is the total opposite. Just to open the account requires you to fax and snail mail all sorts of information. It’s rediculous in this day and age. It took me about 1 month just to actually open an account and access it from the internet. Also HSBC’s interest is tiered so you don’t reach the very high values unless you’re dumping over $10,000.

Sara Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 12:54 pm

Hi JLP,

I’m Sara and I represent FNBO Direct. I noticed your recent post about FNBO Direct and thought you might be interested in BusinessWeek’s interview with the President of First National Bank about Online Saving Accounts. It might be worth sharing with your readers who would like to know more about FNBO Direct.

See the full interview here:
http://feedroom.businessweek.com/index.jsp?fr_story=a9d5a01ef10b656824790dbaa998828bedc49008

BusinessWeek’s Banking Editor, Mara Der Hovanesian, interviewed President of First National Bank of Omaha, Rajive Johri. They discuss how First National Bank of Omaha aims to grab the market share with competitive rates.

Note: You’ll need to cut and paste the entire link. Sometimes the link truncates. So, if the website link doesn’t work, check to make sure the entire link is pasted. You may have to re-paste the second half of the link. I apologize for this inconvenience.

Best,

Sara

Dmurray Says:
July 14th, 2007 at 1:28 pm

I’m trying to decide between ING and GMAC savings. GMAC says they compound monthly — but I couldn’t find when ING compounds. Does anyone know?

Thanks!!!

Bill Says:
July 15th, 2007 at 5:13 am

According to their Web page, GMAC Bank compounds both their Money Market Accounts and CDs daily, not monthly. However, an account’s “yield” factors in the compounding frequency. So, really all you have to do is to compare the yield (as opposed to rate) in order to know which is the more lucrative overall. As an illustration, in the case of GMAC, their MMA rate is 5.16% and the MMA yield is 5.30%. If they compounded annually, the MMA yield would be the same as its rate, 5.16%. Compounding frequencies between 1 day and 1 year would result in yields between 5.16% and 5.30% with greater yield frequency resulting in higher yield. HTH. Bill

equipmentleasing Says:
August 9th, 2007 at 3:42 am

I have been with ING for quite sometime and I haven’t had any problems with their services. But I might consider transferring or maybe opening with GMAC and see which suits me better.

Paul Says:
September 14th, 2007 at 12:15 pm

GMAC without a doubt! A complete no-brainer. Bailed out of ING about 18 mos ago; while I had nothing against them per se, it often took about 2-3 days for “push” transfers to reach my local chkg acct for paying bills. Now, in addition to almost $500/yr in addl interest, all I need to do when bills come due is to either pay directly by pulling from the acct via ACH, OR write myself a check (with a couple days’ float) and deposit it locally if a bunch of bills are coming due close together, in order to get around the monthly withdrawal limit, OR if I need money in my local chkg acct right away, simply go to my local bank and make an ATM withdrawal with the included GMAC debit card (fee reimbursed by GMAC!) and deposit it into the local acct. Couldn’t be better/easier! Why open a bunch of accounts to get 3-4% when you can sit back & do nothing and get 5.3%!?! Just my .02. That Christmas account reminds me of that old MWC episode where Peggy was giving Al the business by expressing her opinion of them…

Paul Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 8:19 pm

I see that now with the Fed rate cut, ING wasted no time slashing their rate further while GMAC stayed the same (as of now) to widen the gap to a full 100 basis points. As I re-read some of these posts it sounds an awful lot like ING employees stuffing the ballot box. Why would anyone open their new electric orange checking acct when it pays even lower interest than their savings acct for typical balances and doesn’t pay a rate even comparable to GMAC’s standard rate until you’re well north of $50K into it? Someone enlighten me please.

Bren Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 6:04 pm

I’ve had GMAC for over a year now and once had an ING account and both are very easy to use. It still doesn’t make sense to me why people would have money in ING at 4.3 percent compared to GMAC 4.9 percent. That difference alone can easily range from a loss of 100-500 a year depending what you have in your account. Countrywide has the best CD’s out and that is the only thing worth looking at right now after the rate cut. By by GMAC.

will not disclose Says:
October 8th, 2007 at 7:20 pm

Okay, First off I am actually a rep of GMAC. Second I have read several complaints on the ACH transfers taking time (3-5 business days). Well I want all you people to understand THIS PROCESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GMAC this policy goes for ALL banks the Automated Clearing House holds the funds for up to 48 hrs depending on the amount to verify funds. What more can you ask for the bank has a great rate and us reps that deal with you people doing nothing but screaming at us is in my views UNACCEPTABLE. When we tell you its unable to be done, don’t yell at us I DON’T MAKE THE RULES…. I am just required to inform you of the POLICIES… I would like for anyone of you people to take a call from someone that calls you EVERY name in the book. HOW DISRESPECTFUL…. Just thought I would breath a minute…. Anyways for you that have a account with GMAC great choice!!!

jm Says:
October 19th, 2007 at 5:57 pm

I was looking for new accounts, so I started signing up at various internet banks. But I got declined several times due to them pulling a hard credit check and I have no credit as I don’t rely on credit cards and loans and stuff like that. Some of these banks are actually tighter with checking acounts than with actual loan products. Example Nexity bank are tight wads. No credit = no account even with no overdraft. I now have a GMAC money market because they were the first that didn’t pull a hard credit check. Basically gmac just verifies your ID by pulling only a soft credit check, and I just had to fax a copy of an ID or driver’s licence.

jm Says:
October 19th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

That is correct about the ACH 48 hour hold. The banks can do nothing to speed it up, unless it’s a wire or something else.

will not disclose Says:
October 21st, 2007 at 12:13 am

Thank you for understanding! I actually had someone tell me that I can and I will!! So it gets hard to work for a bank and even harder when they cut our hours!

Barbara Henry Says:
December 14th, 2007 at 8:57 pm

To have my ING Orange Savings Account I have to link it to my local bank checking account. As of Jan. 2008 my bank is going to start charging $15 for each quick pay personal ACH transaction to/or receive from another bank. Is this par for the course or unusual? Anyone else socked with big fees from their linked bank? I am trying to find another bank, that does not charge for the ACH transfers. Any ideas? Thanks.

Zach Says:
January 4th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

I love my ING Direct account. It doesn’t have the highest APY but you won’t get better customer service anywhere else. Also, their online interface is just easy and aweseom.
I also do still have many referral links left if anyone would like to contact me to receive a link (either for an orange savings account or the electric orange checking/savings account) to sign up for an account. You receive $25 for signing up with a min. of $250 or more. A nice little bonus for nothing! Just shoot me an e-mail @ z3trkrnr@gmail.com and I’ll send the link right back to you!

Sara Says:
January 9th, 2008 at 8:43 pm

I have accounts with both ING and GMAC and have been very pleased with both. I was satisfied with ING until I needed money at the last minute and had to wait for the funds to transfer from my ING to my checking account. I opened a GMAC account because their MMAs have an ATM card and checks for emergencies.

Paul B. Says:
January 21st, 2008 at 1:44 pm

When ever I asked anyone about a High yield savings account they all said ING. Why? Because they have the best rates… haven’t you seen the commercials? Is this the only reason people think ING is better? I am not knocking people that have ING. I am sure they are happy with their accounts but look around. GMAC will probably always have a higher rate than ING. ING is a savings account and GMAC is a MMA. With an MMA they allow checking, while most savings accounts do not. If you can’t save $500, which is the minimum at GMAC to avoid fees, then you have other problems. D(#1) if you are worried about time write a check, that’s why they give you those. I have my account hooked up to my checking. If I make an instant transaction yes it takes 2-3 days because it will be posted the next business day anyway, but I have a scheduled transaction every week. Those scheduled transactions take effect on the day. I have not called GMAC’s customer service but I have used their online form to message them. I had my response in a few hours. Oh and by the way I was turned off by ING because their website looks like it was made by a baby. They are using very old HTML styles and javascript methods. They created those cool ING orange ball rollovers using a Fireworks script.

My review on the technology that GMAC uses:
http://moneyanswertree.com/archives/32/gmacbank/

#4 brody - GMAC is an MMA not a savings account. Meaning you are limited to 6 outbound transactions per month, 3 of which can be a check. Enjoy your freedom to save less money.
#9 WearyTravele - If you are opening up a CD with 5 dollars, you might find better “interest” in your sofa or your car seats. Also have you called GMAC customer service and talked to a non english speaking person? Or are you just pointing out the ING has English speaking customer service agents? Have you heard of GM? AMERICAN Multinational Corporation, and World’s largest auto company.
#22 Bren - Countrywide has good CD rates same with Indymac bank and E*Trade because they are likely to go out of business and need your money. They offer higher rates to get people to switch over. If you are a rate chaser then try it out.

Chris Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 pm

ING does not have the best rates. I use money market accounts all the time and usually ING is pretty far down the list of FDIC-insured banks. I have three open at a time and if one of them lowers their rates I use the next highest paying money market listed at money-rates.com. 6 withdrawals a month is plenty for most savings accounts.

Norm Says:
February 6th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

I joined GMAC over a year ago talked to reps a couple of times, they were as nice as good be. Now my gripe is low interest rates. Can find several places paying better rates. When I can get rates that are 25 percent better I will be moving on as soon as CD’s mature.

Paul B Says:
February 8th, 2008 at 10:31 am

CD’s are another Story. It depends on the CD term, and the amount of the CD.

Albert Smith Says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 2:51 pm

WHAT ARE YOUR CD RATES FOR 6MO.$500.TO 2500.AS OF 3/4/08

Joe Says:
December 10th, 2008 at 7:32 am

Can anyone tell me the security of GMAC Bank. I know they are FDIC secured, but what does this have to do with the GMAC I keep hearing about that can not get “bank holding status” for the TARP program. In other words…do I need to worry about my money in GMAC Bank?

Bill B. Says:
December 28th, 2008 at 9:29 am

I have CD’s and MMA’s at both GMAC and ING. ING has the most “user friendly” website you could ask for. While others have complained about the long phone waiting time for GMAC, I’ve never had to wait more than a minute or two. Their customer reps have always been polite and helpful. I did have trouble with my password with GMAC at first, but it was because I misunderstood the instructions for my temporary password. Once I corrected it, I’ve had no problem. I did have trouble with Giantbank of Florida. Their customer rep was rude and condescending. I cashed in my CD’s with them and sent them a letter explaining why. I got no response.

Jennifer Says:
March 13th, 2009 at 12:46 pm

GMAC has the worst customer service ever. I have had an ING account for over 3 years now with now problem. When thier rate started to go down I started looking into other banks and GMAC seemed to have the best rates. I transfered my money from ING to my checking into GMAC. GMAC then went ahead and took double the amount I requested out of my checking. I tried to get them to put it back, they refused, and would only do a regular 3-5 day transfer. There was a one day transfer but they wanted to charge me for that too.
When I tried to close my account with them, they gave me false information about my account balance and I now have to wait a week for my money to be out of the hands of these incompetent “bankers”.
I will never use this bank again and I will advise anyone I know to boycott this bank. They have lied to me, stolen my money and have the rudest, least knowledgable customer service reps. They dont take accurate notes when you call and thier website doesnt update your account information if you check it daily.

Maybe they can afford those high rates, since the training provided to the customer service representatives is non-existent.

Worst Bank Ever!

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GMAC Bank vs. ING Direct