Making Money

Apr

$50 New ING Electric Orange Checking Bonus Still Good (& how I use my ING!)

If you’ve not signed up for a free Electric Orange Checking Account with ING before, I thought I’d let you know you that the offer for the $50 bonus is still good!

I’ve been an ING customer for over a year now and love it. Here are the advantages of an Electric Orange account:

NO Overdraft Fees
NO ATM Fees (at 35,000 ATMs nationwide)
NO Monthly Minimum Balance

Plus, when you sign up for your free account, you can easily nab a $50 FREE bonus! Here’s how:

Sign up online for your free account – there is no special code to enter
Make 3 purchases with your new ING card OR Person2Person payments within 45 days
On the 50th day, your ING account will be credited with $50

I know I’ve mentioned ING before, but I thought I’d share what I’ve done with my accounts today. I have one Electric Orange checking for my husband and I, and then I set up free kids’ savings accounts for each of our kids. I then set up an automatic draft from our primary checking account to each of our ING accounts once a month. This is very easy to do from ING’s online banking.

To be honest, this has been a small amount, just what we could afford each month. But would you believe that that money DOES add up? Having the money go to another institution keeps it “out of sight, out of mind,” yet I know that when we’re ready to access the money I can easily transfer the money back into our primary checking OR use our ING debit card.

I’m excited to say that we now own BOTH our cars free and clear (hooray!) and we’ve decided we’d like to start saving up for our next car. I am thinking of making the equivalent of our car payment to our ING account and working on building that for the next few years!

Other ideas for how you could use this convenient account:

As a grocery account. Budget your food/grocery variable expenses and set it aside to the ING account. That way, all your grocery purchases will come out of ING and NOT your primary checking.
As a short-term savings account. Like we’re doing, you could use ING to save for something short-term such as furniture, a vacation, or home improvement costs.
As Christmas/holiday money. As another idea, you could decide to set aside a small amount of money each month for holiday presents. Perhaps you only use money you get back from rebates and the $50 new bonus money you get for opening up the account. By Christmas time, you would have a nice little chunk of change to use with coupons for gift buying!
As an Emergency Fund. If you’re a Dave Ramsey fan, you know he advocates having $1,000 in the bank that you can get to easily if you need it, but not so easily that you spend it on stuff that isn’t a true emergency! If ING isn’t your primary financial institution, this could be an option worth considering.

To get started, head to ING. If you’ve been an ING customer, I’d love to hear your thoughts or ideas for using this cool account, too!

Disclosure: the above are my affiliate links. All opinions are 100% my own (yes, I really am a happy ING customer).

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This post may contain affiliate links. When you use them, you support this site. Thank you!

Mar

It’s just $0.81….right? (I need your thoughts.)

The other day, I got the following check in the mail:

Yup! That’s right! It’s a check for $0.81. The phrase “try not to spend it all in one place” seems to come to mind.

As I was guffawing at how silly this was – the cost of the postage the party spent to send this to me, the cost of gas it will cost me to drive it to my ATM – I had another thought. An idea kind of thought.

What if I were to try to turn this meager $0.81 into something much more? After all, I’m a keen shopper, a lover of bargains, and a stretcher of dollars. So what if I were to demonstrate how far $0.81 could go if I really tried?

I’ve not cashed my check yet, and I’d love your input.

What ideas do you have for turning $0.81 into something more? Maybe children’s consignment, Craigslist, thrift stores, clearance shopping? The goal would be to not add any extra money to this project. (For instance, not running out and spending $40 to fix something up.)
Would you want to see this opened up as a contest or have readers participate in some way? Thoughts? Ideas?

My hope would be that through a series of transactions, trades, etc., this $0.81 could turn into something worth a lot more. Are you following?

I don’t have an immediate plan here, but I think this could be a ton of fun, and I’d love your input!

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This post may contain affiliate links. When you use them, you support this site. Thank you!

Feb

ING: Get a $50 Sign-up Bonus for Electric Orange (plus, how I use my account)

You can snag a free $50 bonus when you sign up for a free ING Electric Orange Checking account!

This offer has been running for some time, and I’ve written about it before. But I thought I’d share how I’ve been using my ING account over the past year.

If you are used to doing your banking online – such as making transfers and paying bills online – you’ll find that ING is extremely user-friendly and straight-forward to use. ING doesn’t have branches like a traditional bank, but their customer service is available 24/7 online or by phone. I also find their products really low fuss. My Electric Orange Checking account has no minimum balance to maintain, or no monthly maintenance fee to pay. The customer service is also easy to get a hold of, and friendly.

How I use my ING accounts

Terry and I have an Electric Orange Checking account and the kids each have a free kids saving account. Our main financial institution is a credit union that’s in our area, so we use ING as a place to set money aside.

What we’ve done is scheduled a monthly, automatic transfers from our credit union to our ING accounts. (Yes, you can easily schedule transfers to and from external financial institutions from your ING account.) We coincide this with one of Terry’s paydays since that’s the day that bills get paid. It just makes savings easy! And, at any time you can change the amount or date from your ING account.

How to get the $50 Bonus

If you’ve been looking for an easy way to set aside some funds, or just a second checking account for various expenses you have – you might want to consider this offer. Here’s how to get the free $50 bonus:

:: Head to ING and hit “Apply Now.”
:: Within 45 days, make a total of 3 debit card transactions OR Person2Person transactions.
:: On the 50th calendar day, your $50 bonus will be automatically credited to your account. (No special code is needed as you apply.)

If you’re an ING customer too, I’d love to hear your thoughts or experience.

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This post may contain affiliate links. When you use them, you support this site. Thank you!

Nov

Last chance: get $107 when you open a FREE ING Electric Orange Checking!

This is your last call…when you open a free Electric Orange Checking account through ING by 11:59 ET (that’s 8:59 PST!) you can earn a FREE $107 bonus!

Here’s how:

Head to ING and click on the banner for the Electric Orange Checking account.
Make a total of 5 transactions using your Electric Orange card or Person2Person payments within 45 days.
You’ll automatically receive your $107 bonus on the 50th day!

Please note that there is only one bonus per household.

I actually have this account and it’s been fantastic!There are no monthly fees, no minimum balance to maintain – it’s a pretty slick account and the customer service is fantastic when you need it, too. Here’s what we do. I set up an automatic savings deposit from our primary checking account to go directly into our Electric Orange account every month! I also set up free kids’ savings accounts (one for each of our kids) and have a small deposit go into each of those accounts every month, too.

Here are some other ideas I thought for how you could use a FREE Electric Orange account:

Use it to accumulate your rebate and “cash back” monies! For fun, see how much you can save in a year just from rebate offers. Use the money for your holiday shopping.
Use it as for a method of cash budgeting. Perhaps your Electric Orange account could become your grocery money. Deposit the money you want to spend (and no more) each month into your Electric Orange account. That way you don’t overspend!
Use it for online shopping. You could use your Electric Orange checking account for buying online deals and offers.

If you’re thinking about setting up a savings account for your child? This would be the day to do it, too! Through tonight only (11/27 8:59 PST) you can get a FREE $27 bonus when you open the free child’s savings account! Please note that the bonus is only good if either you or your child is a new ING customer.

While ING usually offers a free $50 bonus for opening their Electric Orange Checking account, the $107 is a Black Friday weekend only special – and we may not see it again for another year!

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This post may contain affiliate links. When you use them, you support this site. Thank you!

Nov

Black Friday ING deal: Get $107 with FREE Electric Orange Checking

I shared this offer last year and so many of you enjoyed it – and now it’s back!

From today through November 27th ONLY, you can score a free $107 bonus when you open a free Electric Orange Checking account at ING!

Here’s how it works:

Head to ING and select the button for the Electric Orange $107 bonus at the top.
Make a total of 5 transactions using your Electric Orange card or Person2Person payments within 45 days.
You’ll automatically receive your $107 bonus on the 50th day!

Please note that there is only one bonus per household.

The Electric Orange is a really awesome checking account! I say this because I have one myself. There is never a minimum balance you have to keep, no maintenance fees, and it earns interest! It’s also FDIC insured.

Set up Kid’s Savings and get a $27 Bonus!

You might want to consider the offer ING is also running through November 27th only – set up a FREE savings account!

Here’s how this offer works:

Head to ING and select the button for the Kid’s Savings $27 bonus at top.
You’ll get the bonus when a new ING account is created (either you or your child must be new to ING).
There is no minimum deposit required.
You should see the $27 bonus appear right away!

This offer is also good through November 27th ONLY. There is no referral code or anything you need to do. Simply click through the link to ING and follow the simple instructions.

My Experience with ING

I’m excited to share an offer on Black Friday that actually puts money BACK in your wallet! How cool is that?

On a personal note, I’ve been a customer of ING for the past year. I own both of the products I’ve mentioned above and have had an extremely positive experience! If you already have a checking account elsewhere, consider what you could do by adding this one:

Use it to start a small vacation fund.
Use it to set aside emergency cash.
Use it to budget for your monthly groceries.
Use the kids’ savings account for a special item they are saving for, or to teach them about money.

Remember, this offer is good today through November 27th ONLY! Head to ING to get started.

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This post may contain affiliate links. When you use them, you support this site. Thank you!

Mar

How bloggers earn credit (and how you can too)

Today I’d like to talk about one of the ways bloggers are compensated. Why? Because I’ve begun getting more and more questions and comments about this topic and would like to be as transparent with you as possible. I also want to share it with you as a way of suggesting how you could do something similar and some general etiquette surrounding this topic. Ready?

How Bloggers Earn Credit

You may have seen me post recently how you could earn a $20 Target Gift Card by referring friends to Plum District or how you could earn $20 credit at The Mini Social by referring five friends (both opportunities no longer available). Right about now, some of you are having an “aha” moment that bloggers use their referral links in their posts.

When you use their invitation links and make a purchase, the blogger will generally receive referral credit of some sort. And yes, this is one of the ways I support my family through this blog. I’ve redeemed credit for gifts, food items, clothing, and other useful items in lieu of cash.

What I want you to know…

As a blogger, what I’d like you to know is that for many bloggers, myself included, receiving credit is a primary form of compensation. I am not compensated by Albertsons, Rite Aid, Fred Meyer, or Walgreens to provide the coupon matchups every week. I provide those as a free service to you. I presently spend anywhere from 20 – 30 hours a week working at this blog, providing the best content I can that will make a meaningful difference in your budget. The credit is one of the ways I can justify the enormous amount of work and effort I put here each and every week and continue to do what I do.

Other things you should know…

There are a few other things I would like to share with you about this process.

#1. YOU can be earning credit too. Please understand that earning credit at the daily deal sites (like Groupon, Eversave, Zulily, or Swirl) is not limited to bloggers! Anyone can sign up for accounts at these sites, head to their account, find a referral link and share it with friends or family. As I am made aware of the better opportunities (such as the Plum District deal last week), I will share them with you.

#2. With rare exception, it is NOT OK to post your referral link on a blog’s post or Facebook page. Many bloggers are frustrated by this, but few will say it, so I will. When you head to a blogger’s Facebook page and post your referral link, you are completely out of line. Remember that this may be a blogger’s primary source of compensation and by adding your referral link up, you are taking away from them and the hard work they’ve put in to building their blog and readership. Please don’t do this; it’s very disrespectful. The only exception would be if the blogger has given express permission for you to do so.

#3. Many bloggers will give back. Many bloggers I know will offer credit and/or items they receive as giveaways. I sometimes may use friends’ referral links as well.

My Commitment to You

I want you to know that I will only post deals that are just that – deals. One of my values is to post content that brings value to the reader first. What you may not know is that I’ve turned down campaigns, advertisers, and other compensated opportunities because I did not feel they’d provide value. If it’s not a deal I’d personally do, I won’t post it. Furthermore, when you use my links on this site, you get the same great deal as you would going through the site directly. For instance, when you use my Coupons.com link to print your coupons, you get the same coupons and you support my site at the same time.

My goal is to be completely transparent with you how I make money from and run this site. (Besides that, the FTC requires I do so, too!) If you ever have any question, please feel free to read my Disclosure Policy, which I do review and update from time to time.

Finally, I want you to know that I’ve been grateful for your support of my site and of course, would love your continued support. That being said, I never want to present myself as a charity case and if you ever feel uncomfortable about using any of my links, don’t. There is never any pressure for you to do anything here - ever. More than anything, I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on my posts, drop a line on Facebook, share this site with a friend, or send me an email with your store finds. Thank you!

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This post may contain affiliate links. When you use them, you support this site. Thank you!

$50 bonus when you open ING’s Electric Orange Checking account!

March 10, 2011

Here’s an offer that will pay you money! Open an Electric Orange checking account through ING and you can receive a $50 bonus – just for signing up and making three transactions within 45 days. Here’s how it works: :: Create an ING account (or log onto an existing one). :: In order to get [...]

15 comments Get the full scoop! →

Open free ING Checking Account, get $50 bonus!

January 5, 2011

During Black Friday, I shared a couple of ING offers that would put money back in your wallet! Well…there’s another one currently running! Here’s how it works: :: Head to ING and click on the logo in the upper left-hand corner. :: Click the “checking” option and proceed to open your new ING Electric Orange [...]

0 comments Get the full scoop! →

How I just got $50 for my kids for FREE through ING!! (Ends in a few hours)

November 28, 2010

I wanted to remind you that the hot new account bonuses for ING are still good – but through tonight, 11:59 EST ONLY!! Get $25 for a Kid’s Savings Account! :: Open a Kid’s Savings account through ING and get $25 added to their account! :: There is NO minimum balance to maintain, or to receive [...]

4 comments Get the full scoop! →

ING Black Friday Specials: get $103 bonus for new checking!

November 26, 2010

Here are a couple Black Friday offer that will put money in your pocket! Electric Orange $103 New Account Bonus! :: Open an Electric Orange Checking Account through ING between 11/26 and 11/28. :: Make 7 transactions with your new Electric Orange card or Person2Person* within 45 days. :: On day 50, $103 will be added [...]

1 comment Get the full scoop! →

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