• Tweet ^[1]
• Email ^[2]

• Tweet ^[1]
• Email ^[2]

A lot of folks sign up to ING Direct ^[3] to get the $25 signup bonus (email me if you want the referral link, you get $25 and I get $10) but then hesitate to sign up for the 4.0% that Emigrant ^[4] offers because they don’t want to withdraw money from ING to their account and then send it over to Emigrant. Well, the solution is presented quite elegantly (and less verbose than I have below) by MyMoneyBlog ^[5]. What you need to do is open an account at both ING Direct and Emigrant, make the required deposits, and then supply ING with the details so you can link the two accounts.

1. Once both accounts are open, write down the account number from your Emigrant Direct account.
2. Then login to your ING account, click on “click here” where it states: “For information on your Externally Linked Accounts click here” at the top of the screen.
3. Click on the “Add Link” button.
4. It should show you a picture of a check and three boxes, a gray box, and orange box, and a blue box. Into the gray box enter “Emigrant Savings Bank.” Into the orange box enter “226070319.” And finally, into the blue box, enter your Emigrant Direct account number.
5. Within a few days (for me it was three), there should be two small deposits into your Emigrant Direct account: write these down.
6. Login to your ING Direct account. A popup window should appear telling you that you linked an account and that your services will be limited until you confirm the two small deposits, click on the orange text “Confirm.”
7. A window should appear giving you two boxes to enter the two small deposits, enter them.
8. Once you complete all the steps, the Emigrant account will be linked just as your other account is and you have the freedom to transfer between the two as you please!

The best strategy is to get someone who already has an account to send you a referral email and you’ll get $25 (and they get $10). After it clears, open an Emigrant Direct account, link the two, and transfer all but $1.00 from ING to Emigrant Direct. If ING tops the 4.0% interest, then transfer it back. No need to use another account as a middleman (and waste time). Hope that helps and again, kudos to Jonathan for figuring this out.