ING Bank Black Friday Sale: Checking $125 / ShareBuilder $125

WARNING: Don't open an account to take advantage of the $100 Referral Bonus - Referrals can only be made by EXISTING CUSTOMERS with accounts open >30 days!

I opened the checking account and was going to refer my girlfriend and my dad to get the extra $100 bonus. Logging in and going to the refer a friend link there was a note that said they needed additional info and to call. After 3 calls to the INGDirect account security team, and being told that the feature would now work it still did not. I called back and was told that "New accounts cannot refer a friend for the first 30 days and there is no way to take advantage of the $100 bonus this weekend if you have a new account... Sorry!"


Use "SK483GXM2BU9" in the promo code section of your account in Sharebuilder to get " Your 5 Automatic Investment Plan trade credits have been credited to your account as part of the Gift of Stock!"

"The $125 bonus will post in your newly opened account within 4-6 weeks of your second trade. The $125 bonus is not available for withdrawal for 120 days after it is awarded to your account." (That's for ShareBuilder, not sure about Checking.)

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Note- ING direct does hard credit check for orange checking accounts. I opened account 3 months back and my mistake, didnt check the fine print. I feel sad about having had a hard pull of my credit building efforts. Hard pull may be worth for 150$, but not for folks like me working hard to build. Hope someone benefits from this.