I might possibly be Capital One 360’s (formerly ING Direct) biggest fan—I totally love them. At first, the idea of an online bank with no physical locations seemed kinda creepy. Then I realized the advantage to that, it would be harder to get to my money.

Therefore it would make it easier for me to save. I have been with Capital One 360 since October 19th 2007, and have never had any problems with them. I have had thousands ($18,000+ at one time) in my account with them, and was able to remove it all without any issues.

When I first signed up with them, a zillion years ago, the APY (annual percentage yield) was 4-something %. That’s pretty appealing, though it’s not that high now. Still, it is much better than most standard savings accounts, it even beat my credit union.

My Favorite Things About Capital One 360:

• Once you sign-up for a savings account, you have the ability to create lots of other accounts and give them nicknames. For example, you could open savings accounts and name them: Emergency Fund, Vacation Fund, Fun Money, Giant 3D TV Savings, etc.—you probably got the idea. The benefit to this is more directly reflected savings; you can set savings goals and see how you’re doing. Good stuff

***See my post about creating sub accounts with visuals.

• Minimum transfers rock! With Capital One 360, you have the ability to transfer as low as—wait for it—1 cent. You can choose from one-time transfers, weekly, bi-weekly, the 15th and end of the month or monthly transfers. Personally, I have weekly transfers set for every weekday at $1 and $2 each. This makes savings easier and automatic. I use the auto-transfers to save up for our car insurance, so that I can pay it as a lump sum and save money. You can also choose start and stop dates for non-one-time transfers.

***See my post about creating daily transfers or my post about how you can use these to start saving even if you’re broke.

• APY right now for savings accounts, beats all my banks and credit union. LOL Even the checking interest is better than my psychical banks/credit unions offer.
• Interest is paid monthly
• You can view how much interest you have earned so far for the month for each account.
• If you really need access to your money, they also have a checking account with a debit card. I got one, but of course I shredded my PIN number to avoid the evil ATMs.
• You can link it with your Share Builder account, if you have one.
• There is also free online bill pay
• If you download the CheckMate app, you can deposit checks (for free) from your tablet or smartphone.
• You can make P2P payments (Person2Person)
• You can send a check. Yep, no more buying stamps. That saves money.
• Their checking accounts under $50,000 earn .25% APY (which still beats my traditional banks savings rates). Checking accounts $50,000 to $99,999.99 earn 1.10% APY & $100,000 and higher earn 1.15% APY. Personally, if you have over $15,000 I would recommend finding an account with much higher interest.
• Capital One 360 also has: CDs, Roth IRAs, Roth IRA CDs, Kid’s Savings accounts, Teen checking accounts and more.
• I’m not sure if I can really explain how awesome Capital One 360 is, it’s probably one of those thing you need to see for yourself. If you are looking to find easier/better ways to save your money, this really might be a good option.

Just click on the image above and open a new checking account with Capital One 360. After opening the checking, it’s super easy to open your savings account. If you have any questions, just send me an email and I’ll do my best to help you out.