From: Ronald Raygun 
Subject: Re: Passbooks .........
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 09:00:49 GMT

james wrote:

> In message <8sYbc.2668$aO4.26250474@news-text.cableinet.net>, Ronald
> Raygun  writes
> 
>>> Can anyone better that?
>>
>>Can anyone "worse" that, do you mean?  What use is a savings account
>>to a pensioner if it doesn't allow withdrawals?
> 
> I'm a pensioner, drawing down from a SIPP and qualifying for the basic
> crumblies state pension in July. I've just opened an ING Direct account.
> Once the account was set up, I dumped a fairly large sum into it. ING
> Direct is a very much a no thrills operation

I think you mean no frills.  If you want a thrill, I suppose you
should invest in pork belly futures.

> which operates through a
> link to a proper bank account. No ATM cards, no postal statements, not
> even a paying-in book. Interest is calculated daily and credited to the
> account at the end of each month.
> 
> To open the account required a link to a normal bank account with a
> monthly savings direct debit from that account to the ING account. Their
> account set-up software didn't allow that bit to be circumvented.

You are mistaken, and I know, because I have one too.  You don't have
to set up a monthly direct debit for a specified amount each month,
though you may do if you wish.  The basic requirement is for a variable
open ended DD, which is for the purpose of making "on demand" transfers.

This is because the normal method of transferring a sum from the "real"
bank account to ING savings account is not to push the money from the
main bank account, but to ask ING to pull it, using the "move money"
button on their menu.

> I suppose that now the account is set up, I can cancel the direct debit
> savings element. All I wanted was somewhere to dump some money.

You don't want to cancel it with your bank unless you want to lose
the ability to dump more money into it should the opportunity arise.
You want to cancel the regular pull instruction at ING's end.