Friday, September 15, 2006

Major ING Drawback...

Something has been bothering me about opening the online savings accounts. Call me traditional, but I just like the idea of branches and being able to have immediate access to my funds. Needless to say, I am going to need quite a bit of coaxing to continue using the online savings accounts.

So over the last 2 days, I’ve been thinking about the fact that I never signed a beneficiary form for my accounts...like I do with a traditional bank account. So, if something were to happen to me, the funds can go directly to that person. Since I’m not married and don’t have any children, my parents are the beneficiaries of my bank accounts, insurance, and retirement funds. Although I don’t have a trust established or a will (I will need to do this soon!!!), I know that they will receive everything because they are named beneficiaries using will substitutes. My condo is another issue.

I don’t share all of my financial business with my family so it’s not like they would know I have online savings accounts. The only other option that I have is to make the account a joint account and I don’t want to do that either.

Yes...I am leaning towards pulling my money soon. This is one I can’t get comfortable with especially since you never know what may happen in today’s day and age.

4 comments:

HC said...

I use Emigrant and VirtualBank, both of which allowed me to set up a beneficiary designation.

Emigrant actually has a tab on your account page dedicated to such a thing. With VB, they just asked me to send a message to my account rep giving the name and SSN of my beneficiary. Either way, it's pretty easy.

You should do whatever makes you comfortable, of course, but it's not hard to find an online account that will let you do it.

Chitown said...

HC -

That is wonderful news!!! Thank you so much for sharing. Besides, Emigrant has a higher savings rate anyway.

Anonymous said...

I think I have the same mindset as you. I'm still hesitant when it comes to online banks. I like having a local branch, so that if I do encounter a problem, I can meet with a representative face to face.

I did recently open up a side online bank account because of the rate.

Chitown said...

Tom -

I am right there with you. Once the holding period is over for my ING funds, I am going to switch them over to Emigrant.

Sharebuilder also has an attractive rate on their money market account. The 7-day yield as of 9/20/06 was 4.45%.