To me, it appears that the general consensus among making a few thousand grow in a savings account is ING Direct. After searching through threads here, most people praise the ease of opening an ING account. I plan on transferring about $4000 to an ING direct savings account so that I can collest about $160-$200 a month in interest to use for steady pocket money while I'm at school this semester.

However, when I ran that by someone at my current local bank, a guy I've known since high school, of offhandedly said something like, "you do know that you need a house to open an Orange account, right?" At first I thought he meant that I would need an asset available to open an account, but I havn't found any such requirement on ING's website or the wikipedia page.

Would someone care to enlighten me? Maybe provide some details about their account, as well as any fun facts about the establishment.

Easy.

I've had my account open since September 11th of 06 and have a weekly recurring deposit of $200 deposited into my savings. You do not need a house to open an account or anything like that - all you need is some personal info and thats it. ING is a good bank - but during these times and the interest they like to pay out I don't know how good they will do in the long run.

Overall I've had good experience giving them my money.

ING Direct sounds like shit. They have a shitty looking website and I don't see what makes their savings account so appealing. Care to explain what's so appealing about this particular bank?

Interest is higher than most banks, however it can fluctuate. And apparently, there are no requirements for opening an account.

3% apy?

How does a $4000 investment at 3% apy translate to $160-$200 a month?

maybe Im missing something? its like midnight here im goin to bed.

Seriously. That's more like 50% interest. If they are offering that, please let me know. I would have to move some money.

Yeah, if you ever find a bank paying that much let me know. Otherwise I'd recommend HSBC over ING. I'm not a spokesperson for HSBC but why the hell would you go to ING unless you still haven't given a good reason.

HSBC:

3.5% APY, they are generally offering one of the best rates without fucking fine print (such as APY after opening account lol)

Minimum balance to open $1
Minimum balance to accrue interest $1
Minimum balance to avoid service fees $0
ATM/Debit Card
Manage online
FDIC insured

ING:

3% APY, 3.4% APY if you have an account with $100k+ lol
Some similar features, not all

So far I've made $3 from interest with my savings. YEAAAH BOI!

Well I'll be a nigger's uncle....

After some googling, I've learned that APR isn't what I thought it was. It seems I'll only have about $200 paid interest at the end of the year, not every month.

Shiiiit. I suppose prosper.com, mutual funds, or drugs are the next best options.

I'm off to drink more gin and smoke more weed and ponder my next move.