ING Term Deposit

ING Direct offer highly flexible and friendly service for their term deposit accounts and if you have a minimum of $10,000 to deposit you can be earning hundreds of even thousands of dollars in interest without having to make any further investment or financial decisions. Benefits of choosing a secure term deposit investment include:

• A guaranteed interest rate from the start of your term to the end.
• A guaranteed return which you can calculate and plan for from the start of your term.
• A secure investment guaranteed to not go down or be affected by negative market movements.
• An investment which does not require significan’t time or effort on your part to open or manage.
• An investment which grows without your input, but can help secure your financial future.
• The removal of all temptation to spend your savings when they should be earning you interest.
• Term deposit investments up to $1 million are covered by the Government Deposit Guarantee until October 2011.

How to Use an ING Direct Term Deposit

Before you choose a term deposit account, you need to shop around to find the term deposit provider who will offer you the best interest rate on the term you have chosen for your investment. Not all term deposit providers offer the same interest rates on the same terms, and not all providers even offer the same terms, therefore, to help you make your decision you need to learn more about how an ING Direct term deposit can work for you:

• ING Direct term deposits are fee free. This means you can open the account and check your balances and receive your interest returns without being charged any transaction or deposit fees from ING and your investment remains intact.
• You can invest the minimum balance of $10,000. All ING term deposit accounts require a minimum balance of $10,000 as this allows the bank to calculate the best interest rate on your investment and ensure that you receive substantial returns. If you were to invest just a few hundred dollars your interest returns would be minimal and you would likely lose interest in savings and investing, but ING are encouraging you to get the best returns with the greatest investment amount.
• Your returns are paid at maturity. ING wants to help you save even after you have deposited your investment amount and so they will hold onto your term deposit interest payments until the end of the investment term. You can then choose to have your interest paid out, or you can look at the reinvestment options offered by ING; either way you can decide what to do with your investment returns at the end of your term, rather than spending them as part of your income each month and forgetting the benefits returned to you by your term deposit.
• You have the choice of shorter terms but higher interest rates. ING does not offer long five year term deposit investments as they know a lot can change in five years, especially as interest rates in Australia are on a steady rise at the moment. Therefore, they have made their one year term deposit interest rate the most attractive option because it is long enough to lock away your funds and earn a substantial amount of interest, but short enough for you to reinvest your funds in a year’s time when the interest rates are likely to be even better. The ING one year term deposit interest rate is also equivalent to many other providers’ five year rates, making the comparison easy if you are looking for a one year term deposit option.
• You can choose your maturity option even after your term has begun. At maturity you can choose to renew your term deposit for the same term with the current interest rate since you are already used to being without the funds and you can add more funds to your investment at the time too. Or you can choose a different investment amount and term at maturity, or have your investment and your interest transferred to a nominated bank account. You can make the decision about what to do with your ING term deposit until two days before maturity.
• ING will keep you up to date with the current rates. If you’re still not sure about a term deposit investment or you want to stay informed of your choices during your current term deposit term, you can join the ING term deposit mailing list and be sent regular email updates about specials on interest rates and when they are going up.

Apply Online for an ING Term Deposit Account

You can apply online, over the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or by downloading an application form and posting it back to ING. To take advantage of a fast and easy online application you simply need to follow these processes:

• You must be 13 years or older to apply for an ING term deposit.
• You must be able to provide an Australian telephone contact number.
• To avoid being taxed at the highest rate, make sure you enter your Tax File Number in the application.
• You will need to enter your personal details including your full name and date of birth, your identification details and your address details which must be an Australian residential address.
• Enter the details of the linked bank account you want to use for your interest returns to be paid to, and for your investment amount to be returned to if you decide not to reinvest at the end of the term. You can open an ING high interest savings account or transaction account at the same time, or you can link to any personal Australian bank account.
• If you are an existing ING customer you can enter your customer number to speed up the online application even further.

If you would like more information about the ING term deposit account, or any other Australian term deposit accounts available, you can view our term deposit comparison tables here. The comparison table will give you all the information you need to choose a term deposit account, investment amount and term of investment which suits you best and you can then follow the secure links included to start an online application process with your chosen provider.