$50 from ING Direct and at least 17 Air Canada eUpgrade Credits from me

ING Direct Canada has a promotion* (only for Canadian residents) that ends on Aug. 31 and this is the last time you will hear about it from me :). If you use my Orange Key 17148482S1 to open an account account with $100 or more in it you will get $50 and I will get $50 (sorry about that) too. More details here: www.ingdirect.ca/doublebonus.

Also, as I thank you I will give at least 17 eUpgrades (“the travel on an upgraded flight must be completed before the expiration date”, the expiration date in this case being February 28, 2013) to the reader who uses my Orange Key, in case of more than one I will hold a draw after the promotion ends on August 31. A second draw might be held towards the end of the year as very likely I will have a lot of eUpgrades left (my flights are under 3 hours, the food is not so good, so no point in upgrading and I don’t have any plans for a non-reward long flight).

I say at least because you will be my nominee until February 28, 2013 and for sure I will have many eUpgrades left. I’ll gladly share them rather than have them expire as it happened last year.
 
And I am not saying this because of the bonus but I like ING Direct (I am putting money where my mouth is):

• good interest rate 1.35% (it used to be 1.50% but that’s it)
• no minimum balances
• no fees, no service charges (I have an account with another bank and there I take great care not go over the number of free transactions and also to have a minimum balance no to pay the monthly fee – I don’t like paying fees, that’s me)
• free e-mail transfer, no cost to sender or recipient (only recently did I find out about this feature).
• ING is considering the sale of Canadian and UK online banks (Future of ING Direct in Canada) so very likely no more of these bonuses and all these features (enjoy it while you can :)).

Also, they had another promotion, where if you opened a chequing account and switched the payroll from other bank you would get $100 (I told you they are desperate for cash).

Of course the ING stock is a different story; average buying price around $30 and now it is around $7 and it has not gone over $10 for almost a year. However, I have lost money with Barclays, Citibank, Bank of Ireland also, so nothing new here. Only the Canadian banks have not disappointed me (yet).

*Last year the promotion was around Christmas, but it seems the European headquarters badly needs cash. However, the deposits up to $100,000 are insured by the still AAA Canada so no worries here if ING goes bankrupt.