Comments on: How to Close ING Direct Subaccounts

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:51:16 +0000

Thank you posting this Jim. I was concerned about the difficulty of closing sub accounts if I had too many open. This is very helpful information.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:50:03 +0000

@coolio For a “firewall”, I believe he is using ING as an intermediate step in his money flow.

In otherwords, if your paycheck is direct deposited into your checking account, and you want to transfer money into paypal or similar. You could transfer the money into an ING subaccount, then transfer from there to PayPal. This way, paypal has no direct access or knowledge of your main bank account. This helps keep your other money secure.

I think this is can be very helpful for certain types of transactions that I dont want to have direct access to my checking account. For instance, when I sell books on half.com the money is deposited into a separate ING subaccount where I can distribute the money among my other accounts as I please.

By: PK

PK — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:26:16 +0000

Let it be known, the close option will not appear if there is an automatic transfer scheduled into or out of the account you’re trying to close. Cancel that first and then transfer the money and you’ll see the option.

By: coolio

coolio — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:04:10 +0000

Thanks! I was curious about how you set up a ‘firewall’ – could you explain how the firewall works?

By: byikes

byikes — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:21:13 +0000

Sad to hear they might have to close, I worked for them in the late 90’s as a programmer and they were a really good company.

By: eric

eric — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:00:44 +0000

nice. never had to close one but now i know how!

By: Austin

Austin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:23:51 +0000

I stumbled upon this yesterday and was surprised they don’t promote it a little more. I would expect this kind of trickery from a normal bank, but I hoped ING would be a little more forward with the information.

By: JB

JB — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:10:34 +0000

Thanks for this. I was wondering how to close a subaccount without having to call in.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:08:06 +0000

Nope, ING wasn’t ordered to close its bank, the EU ordered the parent company to divest itself of the US bank because the parent company accepted Dutch state aid earlier in the year. They have to divest itself of the bank by 2013, which is a long ways away.

By: blisster

blisster — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:28:15 +0000

just read today in the WSJ that ING is closing its US online bank in response to govt aid it received and an effort to repay that money. i love the sub-accounts, and don’t know of another online bank that offers them