ING Direct THRiVE account

[moomintroll]

Hi.

Has anyone opened one of the new ING THRiVE Chequing accounts yet? Any experiences to share? I'm thinking of switching as I've got some horror stories to tell about my current bank and I'm sick of paying $14/month for something that should be essentially free...

(Before anyone starts, I'm OK with banks making profits and even charging reasonable fees but paying them $14/month to give them money they can then use to lend out 10 times over plus not-great service is not reasonable).

I did think of PCF but I've heard some feedback saying their customer service hasn't been great sometimes - however, that could be the internet effect of complaints being WAY easier to find than compliments. My limited experience of ING so far has been reasonably positive...

So, any feedback about the THRiVE account specifically or ING generally would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

[DaveP]

I've been seeing the Thrive ads all over the intertubes and I'm thinking of opening an account. I've only heard good things about ING. I'll be interested to see what others have to say.

[ahatt]

I have a few friends who are with PCF and they are very happy with them.

I have several accounts with ING (TFSA's and ISA's) and I've been very happy with their service. We have had accounts with them for over a year. I haven't personally used their Thrive account yet, so I can't really give an opinion on that.

[win-star]

I have ING Thirve Account, it is really good. But the problem for me [and i think most of us] is not near an "exchange Network" ABM to withdraw and deposit money when in need without paying the fees to use another ABM.


I have PCF and only had 1 minor problem where i called in and had no problems. I've been with PCF for 10 years or so now and Happy with it. PCF uses CIBC machines to withdraws and deposit money and you don't have to look hard around to find and "exchange network" bank and machine to use.

[moomintroll]

I guess I'm lucky then, I have about 15 or 16 ABM's in the city with two actual ING ABM's near where I work.

This was one of the main concerns for me too but I realised I actually get cash very rarely (and can always get cash back at a retailer) and don't really get many cheques to put into the account so I don't think I'd actually use the ABM that much.

Admittedly though PCF definitely win on that count as they've got lots of ABMs available.

I think I'm going to give THRiVE a try running in parallel with my RBC account for a couple of months, see how I like it. It's free - nothing to lose...

[Shwa Girl]

Hi.

Has anyone opened one of the new ING THRiVE Chequing accounts yet? Any experiences to share?

I did think of PCF but I've heard some feedback saying their customer service hasn't been great sometimes - however, that could be the internet effect of complaints being WAY easier to find than compliments. My limited experience of ING so far has been reasonably positive...

So, any feedback about the THRiVE account specifically or ING generally would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

I have them both.
PC - no problems for years.
ING - with Thrive you get 20 free cheques and then you pay for more.

Try them both. There is no cost.
IMO, both work well as an alternative to high fees at the big banks.

[ashedfc]

If you are keeping other Banks Fee based account & paying their fees, than just opening & operating any of these ING/PCF free account does not solve the intended purpose of saving on the fees...
# Actual saving happens only when you close the fee based account, & save the fee saved every month over your life time.. that becomes a significant saving..
# Or else the whole exercise is waste of time & more paperwork/more computer User id /passwords.

[muggos0101]

If you are keeping other Banks Fee based account & paying their fees, than just opening & operating any of these ING/PCF free account does not solve the intended purpose of saving on the fees...
# Actual saving happens only when you close the fee based account, & save the fee saved every month over your life time.. that becomes a significant saving..
# Or else the whole exercise is waste of time & more paperwork/more computer User id /passwords.

Actually you will save fees for every cheque you write, as well as the savings of getting your first cheque book free. ING also pays much higher interest than any other bank I have ever seen, instead of pennies each month you earn dollars. I highly recommend ING for both chequing and savings.

[khipson]

I've had a chequing and a savings account at PCF for years now... I'm not even sure how many. I've never had a problem and I've found their customer service to be stellar compared to "real" banks - did you ever try to talk to someone at your bank at 8 pm on a Friday night?

[muggos0101]

Oh and don't forget to use an Orange key when you join, you will get a $25 bonus! If you don't have any friends with an orange key, please use mine: 16531622S1
You can earn up to $2000 referring people! So far I'm only at $25

[moomintroll]

If you are keeping other Banks Fee based account & paying their fees, than just opening & operating any of these ING/PCF free account does not solve the intended purpose of saving on the fees...
# Actual saving happens only when you close the fee based account, & save the fee saved every month over your life time.. that becomes a significant saving..
# Or else the whole exercise is waste of time & more paperwork/more computer User id /passwords.

Well, I do agree somewhat. I'm actively working to reduce the percentage of my wallet that RBC have given some less than ideal interactions with them recently (they screwed my TFSA by having my name but someone else's SIN on the account for an example).

I'm actually from the UK where I'm used to completely free consumer day-to-day banking. With the bank I used to be with in the UK I got a chequing account for free with unlimited cheques and unlimited debits AND I got a free £500 'buffer zone' overdraft which I didn't pay fees or interest to have. In fact, I'd never come across the concept of either having to pay for this type of account OR having a limited number of debits per month before I came over here. I know the Canadian system is different but it really blows me away that people accept the nickel-and-diming that goes on.

As for keeping the B&M account... I'd run the ING account in parallel until I decided whether I was going to switch and I've already reduced my package from unlimited to day-to-day which I qualify to get for free. However, I have no intention of keeping the products which allow me to qualify to get this account for free (which is another issue)...

The main issue for me is the lack of trust I now have in RBC's competence as well as the fees. I really don't see why I should pay RBC a fee for an account when I'm lending my money to them so they can lend it out 9x over (google how fractional reserve banking works if you don't believe this) and make massive profits from it.

The argument the banks use about chequing accounts being expensive is an absolute nonsense. 65c for a transaction is daylight robbery, it takes milliseconds for their mainframe to create a couple of ledger entries. If you say it costs them 0.001 cent per transaction you're overcooking it.

It really is time people stood up to the banks and said enough is enough and we're tired of being gouged just so you can make massive profits!

I'm absolutely not against businesses making a profit (I run a business myself) but the profit should be legitimate and proportionate, not several million percent more than their costs.

[ashedfc]

Exactly, So, Open the Free account (ING/PCF whatever) & Close the other account...
This saves you on all the fees (chequing, cheques, transaction, ATM withdrawals/etc.etc), Lets say the savings altogether is about $30/month...
Invest this $30 every month in a balanced fund (assuming a growth rate of 6% & deposits indexed to inflation at 2%), over the next following years: this is what you can expect in your investment account...
In 10yrs- $4400
In 20yrs- $13300
In 30yrs- $30400
In 40yrs- $62500
In 50yrs- $121700
By this time probably everyone starting an account now, gets retired & they start taking income from their account.... In this case lets say after 50yrs, you can expect to receive over $600 per month income (as a pension) for the rest of your life..
(its all free money, which would have been paid as fees; so you can see how savings builds up over time; infact value can be added by savings, & by actual growth on the savings)
.

[muggos0101]

What is a balanced fund? Is that like a mutual fund? I didn't even know you could get those for $30 a month. As far as comparing to a regular savings account, I have about $900 in my account that I simply wouldn't have if I hadn't started using ING years ago <TABLE width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-LEFT: 53px; PADDING-TOP: 4px" class=feesSave vAlign=top width="48%">Since you've
become a Saver... </TD><TD style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; PADDING-TOP: 4px" class=feesSave vAlign=top width="30%">Interest earned
Fees saved </TD><TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 8px; PADDING-TOP: 4px" class=feesSave vAlign=top width="22%" align=right>$913.96
$101.19</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[win-star]

Oh and I'll add if you write alot of cheques .. ING has free first 50 Cheques, after that you have to pay, PCF is unlimited cheques and unlimited writing

[chillys-willy]

Oh and I'll add if you write alot of cheques .. ING has free first 50 Cheques, after that you have to pay, PCF is unlimited cheques and unlimited writing

I have a PCF account and never pay for cheques but I don't use many. When I run out, I just order them from the menu at the top of my account's website.

Love both PCF and ING. I have Chq account with PCF and multiple other accounts with ING including my mortgage. (or tehehe my unmortgage)