ING Direct

ING Direct is part of the International Netherlands Group and was launched in the UK in May 2003. There is only one kind of account, a high-yielding savings facility.

ING Direct's original attraction was an unusually high savings rate, which it attributed to the absence of branches. Today, ING Direct still has no branches but its savings rate has slipped to 'merely competitive'.

Deposits are made by uploading funds from a linked non-ING current account. Withdrawals are made by downloading funds from the savings account to your current account. Simple enough, but still relatively clumsy compared with, say, the Egg Money account.