Electronic and online banking has become a necessity in today’s trends. If you work full-time during the weekdays, then chances are, you probably don’t have the time to go to your local banks. Your commute also eats a lot of your time when going to the bank. Not to mention those long lines that you’ll have to endure while waiting for your turn at the counter. Lines that doesn’t seem to move.
Most banks are making their services more accessible than ever through fintech innovations. Making online financial services readily available at anytime of the day and week. In line with that, ING Bank N.V. seems to be one of the most innovative when it comes to it in the Philippines. In my experience, their customer service is also quite easy to get to in a few clicks from your phone. Which is a big thing for me and definitely one of the criteria I go for when choosing a bank for whatever financial services I need.
How To Open an ING Savings Account
- You NEED a smart phone to download their mobile app.
They do not have physical branches where you can walk into unlike an average bank. All transactions are fully digital. - Once you’ve downloaded their app, you just need to go through the simple steps that it will guide you with.
This can just take about 10-15 minutes and it will ask you for your information like name, age, address, etc. It will also ask you to take a picture of your face on different angles and also a picture of a valid ID with an address. The ID’s they accept are your passport, driver’s license, or Unified Multipurpose ID. All of this is done on your phone. - Wait for verification.
Once you’ve given enough information, the app will send a notification that your account has been verified and ready to take deposits. This wouldn’t take too long. If there is something lacking with the information you’ve provided, you will also be notified about it. If your current address does not match what’s on your ID, you will be asked to provided additional documents like utility bills where your name and address is clearly printed.
Why you should Open an ING Savings Account
- You need to have a savings account and ING by far offers the easiest and most convenient way of opening one. You can do it at home!
- They have a high interest rate. When I opened my account a few months ago, the interest rate was at 2.5% per annum. And then they raised it to 4% per annum.
- Opening an account is for free, there’s nothing to lose.
- No minimum amount to open and no maintaining balance required.
- Their customer service is great! The app has a button that you can click that will instantly get you a representative to chat with.
Some things to remember
Depositing funds:
You can only deposit funds to your ING Savings Account via bank-to-bank transfers or by E-wallet services like GCash. The transfer of funds is handled by PESONet or Instapay, which will incur fees. Currently, PESONet charges P40 per transfer of funds from my bank to ING. If the funds are transferred before the cut-off time at 2:30pm on a business day, it will reflect on your account by 10am on the next business day.
If you’re depositing a check, you’ll simply need to take a picture of the check through the app’s deposit portal. Additional guides are also shown there and cut-off time for check deposits is on 3:30pm and will also reflect by 10am on the next business day.
Withdrawing funds:
ING Savings Account does not have ATM/debit cards at the moment. I’m not sure when or if they even plan to have this available for account holders. The only way you can withdraw your funds is to transfer them again. This time from your ING account to your other bank accounts. There are no additional charges when transferring to another bank and the funds will show up almost instantly so that you can withdraw it right away if you wish.