Co-author Shawn is a new daddy!

My BFF Shawn and his wife are the proud parents of baby Ava as of yesterday evening. His wife was in labor for a grueling 18 hours (1am to almost 7pm) and eventually had to do a C-section. Both the mother and baby are healthy and doing well, and Shawn didn’t faint (or at least he won’t tell me).

If you’d like to contribute to the baby fund AND earn yourself a free $25, you can hop on over to my ING Referrals page to open an ING Direct Orange Savings account. The minimum to open is $250, but you get $25 bonus cash instantly upon creating the account (as long as you’re not a current customer). There’s no minimum balance required on the account, just the $250 to open! And since the referrals are from Shawn, he earns an extra $10 for each account opened!

Create an ING Login ID (No More Account Number!)

FiveCentNickel alerted me to the “Saver ID” that ING Direct is now offering its customers the opportunity to create a login ID rather than using their account number to log in. This is a sigh of relief after needing to find my account number in an email I sent to myself any time I wanted to log into ING Direct.

To create it, just go to your My Info tab after you log in. It’s as easy as entering in the new name twice and saving.

If you don’t have an ING Direct account, click here for a $25 referral bonus. There’s no minimum balance requirement on their savings or checking accounts, and with an initial $250 deposit, you’ll earn $25. You can take that $250 out anytime and then the $25 after a month. However, you can only get the bonus through a referral link, so click for one today!

Get your ING Direct $25 New Account Bonus Here!

I just loaded up on some more $25 ING Direct new account referral links, so if you don’t have an Orange Savings or Electric Orange Checking account, click through and get your $25 bonus with a minimum $250 initial deposit! The linked page gives more information about the deal.

NOW GO GET YOUR $25!!!

Beware the Almost Closed Bank Account!

Hot on the heels of my warning about closed credit cards comes my own personal experience with a phantom savings account with Bank of America.

Yesterday, I opened a letter from Bank of America that turned out to be a bank statement for the savings account I closed 2 months ago. This savings account was only earning about 0.2% interest and I had to keep a $300 minimum balance to avoid a “monthly maintenance fee“. I decided that $300 dollars was worth more in my ING Direct Orange Savings account (get $25 referral here) so I closed the account.

When I closed the account, it was halfway through the month, so I was worried about how the would apply the interest earned during the first 2 weeks. They said they would just turn off “Keep the Change” and send me a check for the final amount (which I received).