Barefoot Investor Scott Pape has issued a rare dig at ING, a bank he has frequently sung the praises of and recommended to followers over his career.
Responding to a question from a reader of his column named Angela, Mr Pape said the bank, which reinvigorated Australian consumer finance when it launched in 1999, had become stale.
'Let me count the ways that ING sucks,' Angela wrote.
'Their customer service absolutely sucks. Their security sucks; a four-digit passcode, really?' she said.
'And now they are dropping their international ATM rebate, which totally sucks because I'm heading overseas soon.'
'Are you still in the 'orange army' or, like me, do you think it sucks too much?'
Barefoot Investor Scott Pape recommended having 'a couple' of ING accounts in his bestselling book and is a customer himself but says the bank's offering has grown stale
Mr Pape recommended in one of his bestselling books to setup 'a couple' of ING accounts because they had 'zero account fees, zero ATM fees, and they pay a relatively high rate of interest'.
In one of his most popular recent columns he also revealed that he still uses an ING Orange Everyday account and clarified that he is not paid to promote them.
'Rest assured, I'm no ING cheerleader - I'm simply a fellow customer,' he said.
But it seems his fondness for the bright orange lion - an Australian operation which is a wholly owned arm of the Dutch ING Group - has waned recently.
'I had my own sucky experience with ING a while back,' he wrote in response to Angela's question.
'They called my wife about suspicious transactions on our account. It turned out they were actually payments we received. Odd, right?'
He explained the representative from ING pushed his wife to answer what the payments were connected to, which she 'honestly had no idea' about.
'I remembered I'd sold some sheep troughs on eBay, and that was the transaction in question. It was all very … sheepy,' he said.
He then went on to explain that he now thinks there are better accounts on offer than ING and compared them to a popular Irish rock band.
'ING is a lot like U2. The Joshua Tree was an awesome album, edgy and original … but now they're just a little bit same, same, lame.
ING Australia has 1.7million customers and routinely scores highly in customer satisfaction surveys
ING from August this year will no longer offer free international ATM withdrawals, a feature Mr Pape has previously written positively about.
'We only rebate eligible domestic ATM operator fees,' ING's recently updated Orange Everyday benefits schedule reads.
'Some ATM operators will charge fees in relation to transactions and enquiries carried out at their ATMs,' the schedule read.
'These fees apply to your account in addition to the ING International ATM withdrawal fee, even if ING does not charge a fee for that transaction or enquiry.'
Once an ING Orange Everyday customer has claimed five eligible ATM withdrawal fees, any withdrawals made internationally will incur a $5 fee with the addition of international operator fees.
An ING spokesperson said the bank was sticking to its formula because it works well.
'We're proud to be Australia's most recommended bank and, for three years in a row, Canstar's Bank of the Year,' the spokesperson said.
'We are committed to providing simple, effective banking products to help our customers to get on with the things that matter to them.
'We provide a wide range of award winning products including our Savings Maximiser account that offers one of the best ongoing savings rates at 5.25 per cent, for eligible customers.
'In addition ING is the only bank in Australia to offer a cash back of 1 per cent on eligible water, gas and electricity bills. There are also no international transaction fees for eligible Orange Everyday customers.
'We continually listen to feedback from our customers and use this to help further improve our products.'
