Freezing in NH

After using ING’s Electric Orange account for a bit (since the Netbank debacle last fall) I figured I’d share my thoughts.

The website is relatively easy to use, though sometimes it takes me an extra click or two to find a feature.  The billpay works great, I like that it reminds you what you paid last time when you are setting up the next payment.  It’s quite easy to have multiple accounts and change the nicknames on those accounts (”emergency fund”, “vacation”, etc).   It’s easy to set up recurring transfers from one account to another.  All these are great features for saving and paying bills.

Now the downside: no checks.  This isn’t a big deal if you’re paying VISA for example.  You put your account number in the little box and click “pay”, and VISA handles it quite nicely.  But I live in a relatively small town.  When you get your water bill it doesn’t have a return envelope.  You’re expected to take the two part form down to town hall where there is one clerk and have her take your check and stamp one half of the form as your receipt.  I suppose mailing a check is acceptable, but the water department doesn’t have account numbers, just name/addresses, so I don’t know what I’d put for account number (can I fit my whole name/address in that box?) nor do I know what they’d do with the billpay at town hall.

So, to make my life easier (hah), I now have two checking accounts.  One is Electric Orange and the other is a local account with real checks (but no interest).  It makes it easy to deposit checks and cash, and to write checks for occasional things like the quarterly water bill or the handwritten renewal notice for a local magazine.  I can transfer money to/from Electric Orange using ING’s system.

One other interesting thing that has turned up is the difference in overpaying my mortgage.  I have a standard first mortgage and then a second mortgage which is technically a home equity loan (I got it at the closing, and it has a 30 year amortization).  Both are with the same company.  Both have tickets you’re supposed to send in with the check indicating the amount of the check that’s for “current payment”, “principal”, and “late fees”.  But those tickets are different and go to different places.  And when I overpay my primary mortgage using the E.O. billpay they apply the overage (without a ticket to guide them) to the principal. 

When I overpay the second mortgage, they apply it to the next payment.  It took a while for me to discover this, but my last bill from them showed my next payment due in August.  In other words, the amount I’ve overpaid in the last six months is equal to the payments for April, May, June and July.  Oops.  Anyway, to make a principal-only payment, I have to send a letter asking them to apply the enclosed check to principal, and send it to different address.  Hard to enclose a letter with billpay.  So I’ll be using my local account for that as well.