It has never been easier to compare savings accounts, interest rates and banks. The internet has opened up a whole new world for those who want to save. But, few really take advantage of the wealth of resources that are available with the click of a mouse. Consumers will go online to research and compare almost everything under the sun except banks and financial institutions. Comparing savings these days, consumers not only have their choice of traditional brick-and-mortar banks, but also a burgeoning number of online banking services. This means that consumers have it easier than ever when it’s time to compare savings accounts and choose the best one. The one that lets their money earn the most money.

Most importantly, when you compare savings accounts, the first thing to look at is your rate of interest. Interest rates will fluctuate over time to some extent, and it may be hard to keep track of rate changes day-to-day. However, there are number savings account calculators on financial web sites that can help you predict how much a particular investment will earn over a given amount of time. If you calculate these numbers using a particular institution’s current rate of interest, this will give you a general estimate on what your initial principal, regular additions (such as monthly additions in automatic savings plans), and interest rate are over a given time period, such as 5, 10 or 20 years.

Today, Internet banking services offer slightly more aggressive rates of interest, usually, than some traditional brick-and-mortar banks do. You will find online-only institutions such as ING Direct offer a consistently higher interest rate than many traditional banks do. They have created a competitive environment. To check out various rates for several banking sites, you can go to different web sites and easily compare the current savings interest rates offered by several different banking institutions.

In addition to the interest rate, another important factor to consider when you compare savings accounts is minimum balance. Some banks require consumers to keep a minimum balance in an account to forestall any types of maintenance fees or other service fees. In addition, some banks also require that a minimum balance is established to open an account. For some banks, this amount can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars. Although this is possible for some people, this may be more than someone is able to or wishes to put away. This is especially true if the savings are intended to be short-term rather than long-term.

With so many choices, it shouldn’t be hard to find one that meets your needs. There are online savings accounts especially that offer both a competitive interest rate and that also require no minimum balance. If you have a lot of money to invest, you might want to look as one of the savings plans that requires a higher balance to avoid fees, but also offers a higher interest rate than do the no minimum balance institutions. Spend a little time doing some homework, and with some informed savings account comparisons you should find just the right banking institution for you.

Money deposited in a savings account is only intended to stay in the bank for a relatively shorter time span. This account usually offers much lower interest rates than most bank accounts. But still, like many other accounts, it accumulates interests. The rate of which is largely dependent on the conditions provided by the bank.

Savings accounts are normally maintained by commercial banks, credit unions, loans and savings associations, and some mutual savings bank that are offering interests that can never be used as money. However, the account may be utilized by writing a check.

These accounts allow customers to use parts of their liquid assets, which may be used for any transactions. But before a savings account is used, the balances in the savings account must first be transferred to checkable deposits or transaction deposits or currency. But due to the simplicity of transferring the saving accounts, they are often termed as “money”.

Though the use of checks is often not allowed, withdrawals are still easier when done using the savings accounts. The Money Market Deposit Account or the MMDAs on the other hand may restrict you on a limited number of transference of accounts and withdrawals.

With the advent of the Internet comes the development of a new system of banking- the direct-to-consumer banking system. This particularly addresses online savings accounts. Direct-to-consumer system allows direct access to savings accounts from the traditional bank online where money naturally transfers by means of electronic bank transfer. There are two types of banking institutions that create and allow this form of transaction- online-only banks and the traditional banks.

Online-only banking is the answer of the entrepreneurs to the growing consensus of the general public of who usually make banking transactions through the internet. These banks tried to accomplish what real banks have done. They offered almost the same spectrum of products that traditional banks have but offered them on consumer-friendly deals- high interest rates and low fees.

Online savings accounts often offer significantly higher rates of interest as compared to the contemporary savings account. This deal may be attributed to the fact that lesser expenses during online processing and that online market is naturally rate-sensitive.

Sadly, the majority of the consumers are not yet prepared to this new treatment in banking. This in effect, brought down most of such banks.

But by the end of year 2000, ING launched an optimized form of online-only banking. This was rather successful and brought great increase in the online banking industry. They created a much simpler savings account transaction that pays higher rates than the traditional banking. But this does not permit the use of ATM cards, checks, and other services. It was only intended as an account for which your money may be safely guarded.

For almost three years, ING had no other rivals in this system of banking. But recently, many other banking institutions have followed suit. Some were the pioneers of the online-only banking who eventually died down during the course yet returned to beat the market share ING has. Some of these banks offer the same services with that of the ING programs. Most have the same principle of high interest rates and no unnecessary frills.

One notable new entrant is the VirtualBank. This targeted the high-end techy society yet they offer much lower rates as compared to the ING Bank. Thus they gained some consumers.

Eventually, the industry expanded sometime in 2003 until 2004. And by the year 2005, savings account virtually revolutionized banking by means of online-only banking.

If you spend any time on line you’ve no doubt seen the name ING Direct. As an online bank they plenty of online advertising. We (my husband and I) received numerous e-mails from this bank that we sent straight to the trash folder even though we’d heard good things about this online bank. What made us finally take a look at ING Direct? Since we enjoy doing banking online anyway, the low, low (often less than one percent) interest rates we were being offered on savings from other banks became the push that finally shoved us to open an account.

ING Direct is an online banking institution that offers many of the same products and services of traditional banks. Because you’ll need to have another account to transfer funds to an ING Direct account, it cannot serve as your sole account. Also, because money transfers take up to three days and there are no ATM withdrawal options, you’ll always want to have a good reserve elsewhere. Despite these aspects, we’ve found many benefits to having this account and we’ve been pleased with our banking experience.

ING Direct and their subsidiary ShareBuilder, offer many products including:

Business accounts- savings, checking and 401K

Personal accounts- checking and savings (There are 2 types of each, Orange and Orange Electric.)

Loans- mortgage and home equity (The rates are competitive and there is a 60-day rate protection guarantee.)

Kids accounts- education savings and custodial accounts (These have no minimum balance or inactivity fees.)

Investments- securities, IRAs and IRA CDs

Investments at ING Direct are through ShareBuilder. ShareBuilder Securities Corporation is a registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC and is a subsidiary ING Bank, fsb.

Setting Up An Account is Easy.

-Log on to their website

-Fill out some forms

-Set up security questions and choose a security image

(If your account is ever compromised, the security image won’t appear and you’ll go no further. We’ve never had security issues.)

-Select accounts

-Transfer funds from another checking or savings account

It really is easy. There are many options including monthly drafts that making saving money easier.

The Pros of ING Direct:

Accounts have low or no fees and you can set up automatic investments on a certain day each month. The savings rates continue to be higher than traditional banks. The website isn’t fancy but it is easy to use and customer service is responsive, timely and helpful.

The Cons of ING Direct:

As we mentioned earlier, money transfers take up to three days and there are no ATM withdrawal options both of which need to be taken into account.

Our ING Direct Wish List:

We’re used to having more user tools and financial information available from financial websites. While we can find this information online else where at sites like Yahoo Finance, we find this is lacking from the website.

Overall we recommend ING Direct for people who enjoy banking online, have other accounts and are looking for a higher interest rate than other banks are offering.