Plumbing woes made me forget, but...

Happy birthday, fyrebloom!

Money makes the world go round. And orange.

So I've decided I need an actual savings account where I can earn some interest. ING Direct does one with a 4.5% APY. I can do a partial direct deposit there from my paycheck if I want, or set up an automatic monthly transfer from my checking account.

Anyone have any experience with ING Direct savings accounts? Good or bad? And what about their Electric Orange checking accounts? I'm not sure I want to do one of those because it seems like a bit more of a pain when you can't have checks at all. I tend to use them to pay some bills and my roommate at rent time. I'd have to set up a bill pay system for the bills, and I'm not sure how easy that would be with each of the bills I need to pay. I'd have to send my roommate an electronic check or have ING send her a paper check, which takes a few days due to mail. But that would give me a 3.93% interest rate/4% APY. Would it be worth it? Would it be a pain that the only fee-free ATMs I could use in my work and home areas are all a little ways out of the way from any of my usual routes? Hmm...

Any advice would be helpful!