ING Direct has raised their rates to 3.5%. Good for the savers, but EmigrantDirect still has them beat at 4.0%. It seems like ING normally goes up a bit just after Emigrant raises their. No so this time, they are still holding at 4%.

Why is 4% important? Usually 3-4% is what inflation takes away from your money every year. If you have an account with less than 3% APY, the amount of money in the account goes up. But inflation says today's dollar won't purchase as much in the future. So actually the account is losing. If you're at 3-4% APY, at least the value of your money is safe. Most banks only give you 0.25%. So ING and Emigrant are considered high interest savings by today's standards.

Before opening an ING Direct savings account, drop me an email and I'll send you a referral link worth $25 when you open your account. I don't gain access to any of your personal information or anything weird like that. I do get a $10 credit from ING for myself though. Once you have an account, you can offer the same deal to your friends and family and get your own $10 credit per signup. If you're really nice and say "please," I might give you couple of extra bucks from my bonus. It's definitely worth opening an ING account just to get the free money, because there are no minimums, service charges or account fees.