quasify

In the past I was a big proponent of ING Direct, encouraging several family members to join to get a $25/$10 sign up bonus. When I first started using them, it made logical sense to keep cash there since the savings rate was well higher than my student loan rates. A few years ago, they were somewhat comparable to my mortgage rate, removing incentive to pre-pay that loan. But, as you can see above, there’s been declining reasons to bother keeping any money with them for a while now as their rate has fallen well below rates on my credit lines. So while I’m grateful they haven’t gone bankrupt, I still have the inconvenience of having to wait 10 days(!) for ACH deposits to clear, without the benefit of either a solid rate or a physical bank presence.

So in that context, I’ve recieved an email saying my debit card number has been exposed, and they’re just going to be employing a strategy of “actively monitoring” it, rather than canceling the cards and replacing them? What?! This is my checking account people. I’m having enough trouble sleeping these days without worrying about my cash money paycheck being put at risk.

A company that processes millions of credit and debit card transactions for merchants recently reported that it had data electronically stolen or compromised from its computer system.

The company’s records show that your Electric Orange MasterCard® Debit Card may have been among the cards that were compromised.

While the data intrusion/breach did NOT occur at ING DIRECT and the processing center is NOT affiliated with ING DIRECT, we are taking steps to protect you.

This isn’t cool. New plan of action. Step 1: Cancel debit card. Step 2: Start the long process of switching various auto-payments from ING back to my credit union. Step 3: Find some other bank with a better rate. Step 4: Bury remaining pennies in an undisclosed location. Step 5: Fail to register for Bay to Breakers in feeble protest.