ING Direct $25 Bonus and Bank Therapy

There’s one bank I love (ING Direct), and one bank I hate (Bank South Pacific).  Today I’m going to tell you a little about both, well, sort of …

ING Direct $25 Sign Up Bonus When You Open A New Account – The Good Bank

I have been a happy ING Direct customer since 2004 – long before I was a personal finance blogger. I have been using this product for just over five years, so I want to share reasons why I use and really like ING Direct.

But, I don’t want to make you endure another ING Direct pitch if your not interested so I put together an [download id="18"].   The handbook talks about all the great benefits and features of the ING Direct Savings and ING Checking accounts.  I wanted to share this information with you so …

You decide. Are you interested in a new bank account?  Do you want to view a PDF that describes all the benefits and features of ING Direct?  If so, get the PDF now – [download id="18"].

By the way, the PDF also tells you how to get $25 when you sign up for an ING Direct Bank account.

If you don’t want to hear about ING Direct, good, because it’s over now :).

BSP – The Bad Bank

Subtitle: I bet your bank is not so bad.

It’s therapeutic.

One of the reasons I blog is because it is therapeutic.  It certainly is cheaper than paying outrageous counseling bills.

As a signatory on our church account in Alotau, Papua New Guinea, I was asked to visit Bank South Pacific to get the end of the year balance for 2009.

Going to the bank here is about as fun as rolling up the windows on a hot day and taking a nap in a parked car.  I wanted to find some way out of the task, so I puzzled and I puzzled.

I first thought about checking through our old bank statements, but realized that it has been months since we had received a statement.

Of course, internet banking would have been a great idea, but our bank account doesn’t have an internet baking feature.

The phone, of course.  How could I be so dull?

Me – “Can I get the church balance?”

Bank phone rep – “Yes, of course.  You just need to come into the bank and ask the teller.”

My fate was sealed.  I had to make a trip to the bank.

Trip #1:

There were only six people in line in front of me.  This, my friends, was a lucky day.  It is not unusual to have 10-20 people in line.  I waited for 20 minutes and the line had not moved.  It seemed as if Silas Marner had decided to take his stash of coins the same day as me.  The guy at the teller had a back pack full of coins (literally).  No coin counting machine.  I waited another 20 minutes, and since the line had not advanced by a single person, I gave up and left – after 40 minutes of standing in the exact same spot.

Trip #2:

Trip 2 was much more successful.  After only a 15 minute wait, I was face to face with the teller.  She was quickly able to give us the church account balance, and then I remembered …

“Excuse me.  I don’t think we’ve been receiving our bank statement lately.”

Teller: “Just a minute.  Let me look into it.”

She returns some five minutes later with a stack of envelopes.  She politely hands them to me and smiles as if to say goodbye.

“Are these our statements?”

“Yes”

I take the stack of envelopes and slowly count them one by one.  The total: 10.

“Are you still mailing statements to customers?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you have 10 months worth of statements here then?”

“We haven’t had time to post them yet.”

“You … have not … in 10 months … had time to drop these envelopes in the mail box?”

“Yes.  Sir, if you prefer to get your statements any sooner, all we can advise is that you come into the branch and pick them up.”

With that, I walked out the door dumbstruck.

I was once told a little perspective goes a long way.  Hopefully the next time you have to wait in line for 5 minutes at the bank, you’ll think of me.  Hopefully the next time you bemoan the fact that your bank is so inefficient, you’ll think of me.

Does anyone else have a bank that is worse than this?