High Yield Checking: The Future of Checking Accounts

Late in 2006, ING announced to its ING Direct Savings customers the Electronic Orange checking account. It takes free checking a step further and actually pays at least 3% interest on your balance, however small.

Could high yield checking accounts be the future of banking?

True, Electronic Orange is a paperless checking account, meaning you can’t get physical checks in the mail. But I don’t know about you, but for me that is becoming less and less of a problem. With online bill paying, the only check I write each month is for my rent, and I’m willing to bet if I really wanted to I could convince my landlord to let me pay him electronically.

And those archaic checks aside, ING offers everything else you would expect from a checking account, most importantly free ATM access and a MasterCard debit card. They also provide bill paying and electronic check writing services for free.

If you’re a big spender, the interest rates are just as good or better than most high yield savings accounts (5.30% APY on every dollar for balances of $100,000 or more and 5.05% APY on balances between $50,000 and $100,000). For everybody else, it’s 3.0%. Still, that’s a heck of a lot better than what I currently earn on my checking account…Zilch!

As of right now, you first need to be an ING Direct savings customer to sign up. But if you haven’t done so already, there’s no reason not to grab an ING Direct Account an earn an instant 10% return on your money. (You get a $25 bonus when you open an account of $250 or more). So open an ING Direct account now and then sign up for their high yield checking account to start earning returns on your checking balance!

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