Get Cash Bonuses During ING Financial Independence Days!

Until midnight tonight, ING is celebrating independence day with cash bonuses centered on the year 1776.

If you are quick on your feet, you can take decisive steps to your OWN financial independence in four ways:

1. Earn $76 by opening an Electric Orange Checking Account
2. Get another $76 by opening a ShareBuilder Trading Account
3. Save $776 off mortgage closing costs when you apply for a 5 or 7 Year mortgage
4. Refer a friend and earn the usual $10 plus $7.76 for a total of $17.76 for each friend who opens an Orange Savings Account or an Electric Orange Checking Account before midnight

Now for the fine print so you can play your financial cards well.

First the Electric Orange Checking:

Qualifying for the $76 bonus is easy: open an account today, make 7 purchases using your debit card or Person2Person payments (or any combination of the two) within 45 days of opening your account.

Debit card purchases can be PIN-based or signature (run as a credit). You bonus will automatically be deposited into your account in 50 days – August 20th or the 21st. this bonus is only for first time Electric Orange customers and don't try to open more than one account; only one bonus per person.

So is this a good deal? Yes because there is no minimum deposit and no long term commitment. Even though the electric orange account only earns .24% APY, it is worth it for the bonus.

Next, the ShareBuilder account:

ShareBuilder is actually a great way to invest in stocks on an regular basis with low commissions. You can often get a $25 bonus for opening an account but if you open an account before midnight, you get more than triple that.

To qualify for the $76 bonus, just open an account today and make at least one trade before December 31, 2010. 

Deal or no deal? Well, ShareBuilder offers a lot more than automatic investing, they have competitive commissions for trading:

• $4 per scheduled investment (only on Tuesdays)
• $9.95 per online trade
• $7.95 per option trade plus $1.25 per contract
• $0 for select mutual funds (applies only to 70+ no transaction fee funds)
• $19.95 for regular mutual funds
• $19.95 for broker assisted/phone trades

Choosing a broker involves much more than trading costs, you need to evaluate your needs for customer service, data, trading tools, charts, and auto trade services compatibility. ShareBuilder is probably best used as an automatic investment tool – make sure to check out their Advantage pricing program. For $12 a month you get a discount across the board.

Almost done, Easy Orange Mortgage:

ING only offers two mortgage products: a 5 year ARM and a 7 year ARM. This means you are locked into a rate (currently 3.50%) for 5 or 7 years, then the rate adjusts to the current rates at the end of the period. Many Americans have lost their homes because of ARMS (adjustable rate mortgages). Only use this type of loan if you are 100% certain you can pay the entire loan off within the guaranteed rate period. If you are close to paying off your house, it might be worth it to refinance with ING's 7 year mortgage because the rate and fees will most likely be lower than most banks.

Lastly, if you're an ING customer email your friends and get paid for it:

Get your friends to open an Orange Savings Account or an Electric Orange Checking and deposit $250. They'll get a $25 bonus, and if they open their account before midnight and deposit $250 before the end of July, instead of getting only $10, you'll get an extra $7.76 referral bonus.

Once you're logged into your Orange Savings or Electric Orange account, click on the "Refer a Friend" link and start emailing your buddies – they might just thank you for it.

If orange isn't your color and you'd like to go with another national bank offering high money market accounts rates, savings account rates, and CD rates.

Tagged as: bank deals, cash bonus, checking accounts, investing, mortgages, sharebuilder