Want to make an easy $50? "What's in your wallet?"

So, a few years back, on the advice of my mother in law, I opened a bank account with ING Direct.  You've seen the commercials, I'm sure...("what's in your wallet?") 

Here's how it works:  It takes money out of your regular bank account and deposits it into your ING account.  You don't get a debit card or anything for this account, so the money is harder for you to access for impulse purchases (which I like).  In order to get to this money you log in to the ING website and have it transferred to your regular bank account, which takes a day or two.  So you have to plan ahead, which I like.  It forces me to save money, and because it takes a few days for it to transfer into my regular bank account I don't spend it stupidly. 

What I do is have a certain amount from each paycheque transferred over to this account.  A small enough amount that I don't miss it, but enough that it does add up as the months go by.  I don't even check the balance on this account very often, as most of the time I forget it's even there.  All the while, the money continues to add up :) 

My original purpose when I set it up, was for Christmas shopping.  This way it continued to build all year so when I was ready to do my shopping I wasn't panicking about where the money was going to come from.  Over the years it has also bailed me out on a few crazy hydro bills, and it helped me out after the tornado. 

You may have noticed the ING direct "orange key" widget on the lower left hand side of my blog's homepage. "Orange Key" means referral link.  Clicking on that takes you to the ING website and if you were to open your own account through that link, ING would deposit an additional $25 into your account as a thank you.  No joke, no strings attached.  They would also deposit $25 into my account as a thank you for the referral.

Today, I checked in on my balance and was thrilled to discover that I had enough to cover an upcoming girls weekend trip to NYC!!  I also discovered this morning that ING DIRECT is running a summer promotion right now:  If YOU open a new account, with at least $100, they will deposit $50 into your account as a thank you. (Disclosure: they will also deposit $50 into MY account as a referral bonus).  This $50 bonus is only for a limited time.  Then, once you are signed up, you can do the same thing if you want; encourage your friends and family to open an account through your orange key referral link (the website guides you through the process of how to do that), earning both you and them an extra $50 of FREE money!  Yes, the link above says $25, but right now, it's actually $50 for each new account opened! 

If you follow Gail Vaz Oxlade and "Till Debt do us Part", you know this exactly the kind of thing she'd approve of.  (Thanks Julie for that reminder!) 

It works very similar to the whole swagbucks thing (and you know how successful that has been for so many of us), except this is actual real money.  Your money. 


Whether its Christmas Shopping, a wedding,  a vacation fund, a college fund, new car fund....whatever, it's a great way to save money when you don't have a debit card or a bricks and mortar bank to access to spend it impulsively. 

Interested?   Want to learn more?   Click on the above link to get started.

Happy Saving?