Update- This offer has expired.

In celebration of Independence Day, ING DIRECT is offering some great bonuses on their products, including their :

Electric Orange online checking accounts, Sharebuilder investment accounts, and their Easy Orange and Orange Mortgages, as well as special referral bonus for existing account holders who sign up friends on July 1st or 2nd.

ING Electric Orange Checking Promotion- If you open an electric orange checking account, ING DIRECT will give you a $76 bonus.

• Open Electric Orange July 1st – 2nd, and make a total of 7 purchases using your Electric Orange Card or Person2Person Payments (or any combination of the two) within 45 days of account opening. Your $76 bonus will be automatically deposited into your account on day 50 (either August 20th or 21st).

Sharebuilder – You can also get a $76 bonus for opening a Sharebuilder account on July 1st or 2nd.

• You must open a new ShareBuilder Account to receive the $76 bonus offer. Please note the $76 credit will post to your account approximately 4-6 weeks after the first trade executes. The $76 offer is not valid with IRA or Education Savings Accounts. First trade must be executed by 12/31/10.

ING Referral Bonus Promotion- If you are a current ING Direct account holder, you can get a $17.76 bonus for referring new friends to the Orange Savings account or the Electric Orange Checking Account on July 1st and 2nd.

• Refer a friend July 1st – July 2nd and for each friend that opens an Orange Savings Account^SM or Electric Orange^SM with a minimum deposit of $250 using the link in the referral email during the month of July, you’ll receive $17.76.

Easy Orange or Orange Mortgage Promotion- Apply online July 1st – July 2nd for Easy Orange or the Orange Mortgage or call a Mortgage Specialist at 1-877-464-3202 and get $776 off closing costs.

This offer is only good until 11:59 p.m. edt on July 2nd, 2010, so hurry if you are interested!

Update- This offer has expired.

Rent unlimited movies from Netflix for just $8.99 per month.

• Open an Online Checking Account from ING Direct and Get $121 Bonus – Today Only Black Friday Deal
• Best Online Bank High Yield Savings Accounts
• Online High Yield Savings Accounts Update- ING and HSBC Both Lower Interest Rates
• Get 20 Free Stock Trades When You Sign Up With Zecco
• The Emergency Fund- Where Should I Keep It and Why?

PerkStreet Financial℠, a relatively new online checking account is now offering 2% cash back when using the PerkStreet Financial Visa® Debit Card for signature (non-pin) purchases if you have an account balance of $5,000 or more, or 1% back if your balance is less than $5,000.

Plus, you can earn 5% cash back for the rest of June and July when you:

• purchase ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s, Culver’s, Dairy Queen and Cold Stone Creamery
• make home improvement purchases at Lowe’s, Home Depot and Menard’s
• buy gas by paying at the pump

5% cash back for gas and at home improvement stores is a great deal, PerkStreet also says there will be more opportunities to earn 5% back throughout the year.

Cash Back Debit Card

A cash back debit card tied to an online checking account is a great alternative for those who choose not to use credit cards for all of their purchases or don’t use credit cards at all and want to stick with cash based spending, still allowing you to get rewards back for your purchases which are on par with that of many rewards or cash back credit cards.

About PerkStreet Financial

PerkStreet Financial is an online financial services company offering online checking, offering “perks” in the form of cash back, music, or coffee when you make purchases with your cash back Visa® Debit Card.

A PerkStreet checking account lets you:

• Buy things with your PerkStreet Financial Visa Debit Card, cash or checks
• Withdraw money without a charge at 37,000 ATMs nationwide
• Find an ATM from your computer or mobile phone
• Withdraw money without charge at any merchant that allows you to get cash back when making a purchase
• Transfer money online between your other bank accounts and your PerkStreet checking account
• Pay bills online
• Check your balance online or over the phone and receive balance alerts via email or mobile phone
• Get help over the phone any time of the day – we answer most calls within 30 seconds

Your money is FDIC insured up to the current limits (currently $250,000).

PerkStreet has no account minimums, and no monthly fees, save a $4.50 inactivity fee for months when you do not use your account at all- you can avoid this by making a transaction with your debit card, writing a check that clears the account, using Online Bill Pay, initiating a withdrawal or making a deposit to the account.

Opening an Account at PerkStreet Financial

The account opening process is relatively simple and only takes a few minutes- you enter your information, fund your account with a minimum of $25.00 (you can use a bank transfer from an existing account). PerkStreet will send you an email confirming they have received your application, and say they will contact you within 2 business days to notify you of the status. I just signed up myself over the weekend, and the entire process took less than 10 minutes.

ATM Usage-

PerkStreet gives you access to the largest free ATM network in the country (STARsf®), located in the at CVS®, Walgreen‟s®, Target® and 7-Eleven® and more.  USage of ATM’s withing this network are totally free.

Also, according to the FAQ page, they do offer checks for usage with your account, and the 1st book of checks is free, for times when you may need to write a check instead of using a debit card.

Visit PerkStreet.com to sign up for your free online checking account and the PerkStreet Financial^SM Visa® Debit Card.

“The PerkStreet Financial Visa Debit Card is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc.”

Rent unlimited movies from Netflix for just $8.99 per month.

• Open an Online Checking Account from ING Direct and Get $121 Bonus – Today Only Black Friday Deal
• No Credit Needed or Rewards Cards?-Determine Your Personal Credit Card Usage Risk
• New Bank Overdraft Rules- Should You Sign Up for Overdraft Coverage with Your Bank or Have Your Purchases Declined?
• The Emergency Fund- Where Should I Keep It and Why?
• Making Your Hard Earned Dollars Work Harder For You

If you have a checking account at a bank, which most adults do, you’ve probably already gotten emails or letters regarding the new bank overdraft rules effecting ATM and debit card transactions taking effect on July 1st for new accounts and August 15th for existing accounts. Every time I log into my Chase checking account online these days, I  get a screen asking me if I want to sign up for overdraft coverage.

What the banks are asking, in effect, is for your permission for them to charge you up to $30 + for the privilege of covering your account purchases if you have an insufficient balance. With the passage of the new reform last year (federal reserve press release), in order for banks to continue with “business as usual” and charge exorbitant fees when you overdraft your account, you have to agree to it first. Otherwise, your purchase will simply be declined at the point of sale. (Note that banks can still charge overdraft fees without you having to opt-in for checks, as well as recurring monthly charges you have automatically charged to your debit card)

As I mentioned, I have a Chase Bank checking account, and according to this article from the Huffington Post, some people find the sign up page for Chase’s Overdraft Protection confusing, to say the least. I didn’t find it to be too bad, but I understand how some people could.

Also a bit confusing, and again, I’m using Chase as the example here, but I would guess other banks are similar, is the difference between overdraft coverage and overdraft protection.

Overdraft coverage allows Chase to cover your overdrafts, and charges a $34 fee- and up to 3 overdrafts in a day -so if you have 3 items paid for by overdraft coverage in a single day, they will charge you $102.  Chase Overdraft Coverage flyer (pdf).

However, a much cheaper option (again, at Chase) is overdraft protection, where you link a Chase savings account or credit card to your checking account to be used to cover any overdrafts, and Chase will only charge you $10 (max per day, also, from what I understand) to cover any overdrafts. Chase Overdraft Protection page.

Obviously, this would be the way to go, and if you end up overdrafting 3 items in one day, could save you $90.

According to the overdraft coverage flyer, overdraft coverage would still help you out if your linked savings account, for example did not have sufficient funds to cover your purchases. It seems to me though, if you get to that point, you have bigger problems to worry about.

The point of all of this is to make sure you know what you are signing up for  with overdraft coverage, overdraft protection, or whatever your bank calls it.

If you don’t have a problem with business as usual (and hopefully don’t overdraft much), then go ahead and sign up- but a better and cheaper option would be for overdraft protection (as Chase calls it) with a linked savings account or credit card in the unfortunate event that you do overdraft your account. If you would rather have your purchase declined, then you can do nothing- the new rules are such that you have to opt-in in order to continue with overdraft coverage and the cdorresponding fees.

Are you going to opt-in for overdraft coverage? Why or Why Not?

• New Bank Overdraft Fee Regulations- Will They Have the Desired Effect?
• FDIC Deposit Insurance- Rules, Limits, and Account Coverage Information
• Online High Yield Savings Accounts Update- ING and HSBC Both Lower Interest Rates
• Get $25 Free From Revolution Money Exchange
• Open an Online Checking Account from ING Direct and Get $121 Bonus – Today Only Black Friday Deal

ING Direct is offering a great deal for Black Friday if you open an Electric Orange online checking account today only, offering a $121 account bonus as one of their Black Friday deals.

I’ve had an online savings account from ING Direct for about 6 or 7 years now, and have been thinking about opening an electric orange account as well, so this is a no-brainer for me with a $121 bonus for opening an account today.

The Electric Orange account currently pays 0.25% APY (as of 11/27/09 for balances below $50k, higher for larger balances), so unlike most bricks and mortar checking accounts, they actually pay you interest instead of charging you fees.

Here’s how to take advantage of the offer, which is only good if you open an account today, November 27th, between 12:01 am and 11:59 pm.

Details from ING website:

1.) Open an Electric Orange checking with Reference Code EOSAVE.
2.) Use your Debit Card to make 3 signature transactions (you know, the ones you have to actually sign) within the first 45 days.
3.) On day 50, we’ll put $121 in your account. You have to open today to get the $121 bonus

Why $121? According to ING Direct, that is the average amount consumers pay in overdraft fees annually- Wow!

Additional Orange Checking Account info:

Free MasterCard® Debit Card for all purchases
Free Online Bill Pay
Free access at over 35,000 ATMs through the Allpoint™ network – find one near you
Free postage – we’ll mail your paper checks for you

Note: Unlike traditional checking accounts, the ING electric orange account does not give you paper checks, but allows you to pay bills online or have ING mail a paper check out for you.  Read the Electric Orange FAQ page by clicking the link in the upper right corner if you are looking for more details.

• ING DIRECT Financial Independence Day Promotion- $76 Bonus for Opening New Electric Orange Checking Account or Sharebuilder Investment Account Plus More
• Best Online Bank High Yield Savings Accounts
• PerkStreet Financial Review- Online Checking with Debit Card Offering 2% Cash Back
• Online High Yield Savings Accounts Update- ING and HSBC Both Lower Interest Rates
• 7 Reasons You May Not Have Received Your Economic Stimulus Rebate Yet

The Federal Reserve passed new regulations last week requiring banks that issue debit cards to let consumers choose whether they want to pay overdraft fees for debit card purchases and ATM withdrawals and have the charge,  purchase, or withdrawal  go through even if they don’t have sufficient funds, or have it declined. This effectively makes consumers  “opt-in” to pay overdraft fees. This move by the Fed comes at a time when Congress is considering even tighter restrictions on the amount and frequency that banks can charge consumers for overdraft fees. The new rules take effect on July 1, 2010 and will not effect payments made by check or “recurring” debit card charges.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? No one would actually “opt-in” and sign up to allow a bank to charge an outrageous overdraft fee, would they? (Fees banks charge from overdrawn accounts are expected to reach 38 billion dollars this year!)  This seems like an easy question, but I have a feeling more people will sign up for overdraft fees in exchange for letting their payment be made, than many, including the Fed and Congress, might think.

Why would someone “opt in” to pay fees if they overdraft their account at all?

Well, I can think of a couple of reasons:

1.) Embarrassment of having one’s debit card declined.  I can imagine someone in  a long line at Walmart or somewhere with several hundred dollars worth of groceries not wanting to have the cashier announce that their debit card has been declined in front of everyone after all of their groceries were scanned and bagged. And what would they do then? Start removing items one-by-one until they got under the amount they had left in their account? That could really slow things down!

2.) Having to pay certain bills (such as electricity, etc.) that you have to get paid-otherwise you lose power, etc.

Keep in mind, I am sure banks will phrase the opt-in as if they are performing a service for you (for a minor fee of $30 to $40 per overdraft!) if you should make a math mistake or “forget” you didn’t have enough money in your account.

It is kind of a Catch-22, in a way. If you overdraft your account once every 10 years, and it has only happened by some mistake of your own (forgetting to transfer money from another account, for example), you may want to have overdraft protection from your bank and be willing to pay the fee instead of getting something declined and setting off all kinds of other problems. If you do it more often out of a lack of attentiveness to your finances, you might be better off letting your card get declined once in a while.

According to this article, 30 percent of overdrafts stem from checks, so limiting the overdraft on debit card and ATM transactions may not wipe them out completely for some people. Also, Congress is looking in to setting even more stringent requirements for banks charging overdraft fees, so there may be more in the works.

Another big question is this- If banks are losing a large portion of 38 billion dollars in revenue, where are they going to make that up? It has to come from somewhere, and it may be all consumers, not just ones that pay overdraft fees, that make up that lost revenue stream for banks.

• New Bank Overdraft Rules- Should You Sign Up for Overdraft Coverage with Your Bank or Have Your Purchases Declined?
• Open an Online Checking Account from ING Direct and Get $121 Bonus – Today Only Black Friday Deal
• Get $25 Free From Revolution Money Exchange
• Some New Credit Card Rules Put in Place- What Will The Effect Be?
• PerkStreet Financial Review- Online Checking with Debit Card Offering 2% Cash Back