ING offers 5.5% AER to lure customers from iBanesto

ING gives 5.5% AER to anyone threatening to move to iBanesto

Is it worth faking a transfer to squeeze half a percent of yield? For months, the answer was yes for many forum users. The mechanism was simple: the customer announced to ING that they were moving their money to iBanesto because it offered better interest rates, and within minutes, the orange bank countered with a deposit at 5.5% AER until December 31. No branches, no paperwork, and no account with the competitor. It was enough to have real funds and an amount that justified the bluff.

The requirement to have an account at iBanesto was bypassed, according to several users, with a trick: copying an account number from the demonstration section of the blue bank's website. An identifier that did not exist, belonged to no one, and which ING's system validated without blinking. Sloppy, yes. Profitable, too.

How much money must be moved for ING to bite

The key was not the story you told, but the volume. With €1,000, the manager laughs. With €2,000, no. The threshold that activated the offer was around €10,000, although several attempts succeeded with €5,000 and €12,000. The larger the amount, the faster the deposit appeared on screen. The website itself stopped accepting transfers exceeding the available balance: before yes, after no. Someone at ING refined the code.

The channel also mattered. By phone, the manager consulted and authorized in a couple of minutes. Online, the trick only worked if the balance was real and the amount, moderately significant. The phone version lasted longer than the digital one.

The day ING closed the door

The party ended when the bank introduced validation in the client with JavaScript that did not exist before. A technical triviality, but sufficient to cut off the supply to most. The last ones to try found that the system no longer accepted fake accounts or amounts above the balance. There were spies, some joked, and they were not entirely wrong: the change responded, point by point, to the holes the community had documented.

From then on, the story changes sides. Many of those who had been speculating with the trick ended up opening the iBanesto Blue Account, which they had been avoiding for months. Not by conviction, but because the blue bank settles interest monthly and ING's deposit settled it on December 31. The migration from orange to blue became the B plan of a B plan.

What alternatives remain with similar yields

With the trick dying out, the focus shifted to other products. On the table appeared offers from Barclays at 5.25%, Openbank at 5.35% and Uno-e at 5%. None matched ING's 5.5%, but all avoided the theater of the fictitious transfer. A deposit from Cajamar with 9% in the first month and a subsequent yield tied to an index was also mentioned, a product that requires reading the fine print before signing.

The underlying question remains unanswered: why does a bank with branches and a solid balance need to be lied to in order to offer a decent rate? The customer who threatens to leave gets 5.5%. The one who stays quiet gets less. That's how the business works.

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In the end, the trick worked for some, stopped working for many, and pushed some to open an account they had been promising not to open for months. Ironies of online banking.