Everbank launched its "What are you waiting for?" campaign today by giving away 2,500 free subway tickets at 6:01 AM in lower Manhattan. The time was chosen to coincide with the 6.01% APR promotional start-rate on its FreeNet checking account (see Note 1).
The campaign targets ING Direct's soon-to-be-released Electric Orange checking account, which currently pays beta users 3% on balances under $50,000 and 5.3% on balances greater than $50,000 (see Note 2).
Everbank launched a microsite called <whyruwaiting.com> with direct comparisons to ING Direct (see screenshot below).
Clicking the large Compare Banks button in the lower right leads to a comparison to ING Direct and several other major competitors (see screenshot below):
The campaign has not been extended to the Everbank website, which shows a banner for the 6.01% offer, but no mention of "Why are you waiting?" (see screenshot below).
Clicking through the banner leads to the following page:
Notes:
- The 6.01% is a promotional "teaser" rate is good for three months, then resets to the "regular" rate which are currently as follows:
Under $10,000 = 3.25%
$10,000 to $25,000 = 3.30%
$25,000 to $50,000 = 3.60%
$50,000 to $100,000 = 4.00%
More than $100,000 = 4.41%
The minimum deposit is $1,500 and the maximum that earns 6.01% is $100,000. - ING Direct customers can also easily transfer funds into the companion savings account which pays 4.5%. ING's Electric Orange account began rolling out in waves to its 4 million savings account customers in December (see coverage here). Coincidently, I received my invitation yesterday (see screenshot below).
