ING Orange One Low Rate Credit Card

Pauline Hatch

Pauline is a personal finance expert at CreditCard.com.au, with 9 years in money, budgeting and property reporting under her belt. Ask Pauline a Question about this card.

Who suits the ING Orange Low Rate card?

First Timer: you’re looking for a fairly simple card with a few little perks to get you started. You’d like it to have a low annual fee and a low interest rate.	Rainy Day Prepper: you want something low-cost to keep in your pocket. Even better if it has a few interest-free perks when you do have to use it.	Carefree Splurger: budgets are a bummer, and you might need help with getting on top of debt. Low interest rates and low fees would be great.

Overall Rating

The ING Orange Low Rate card lives up to the ING creed: simple, straightforward and good value (but ironically, not orange - it's a grey card). I give ING a nod for this one because this card does offer great value for those looking for cards with low fees, and has a few little extras up its sleeve. The instalment plan feature is unique in that you can pay off a purchase for up to 7 years, where most other banks only offer up to 4 months.

There are also a ING also offers a couple of great extras that you can unlock if you meet the eligibility criteria. These include a platinum card upgrade with free complimentary insurance, and a rebate on ING's international transaction fees when you're spending overseas or online. That alone is a pretty great perk for a card with no annual fee.

It's important to note that during the application process, you'll be asked to open an ING transaction account. There are no monthly costs on the account and it's up to you if you choose to use it, but using the account is part of the eligibility criteria for the international transaction fees. I'll explain this in detail below.

Editors Review: what I love about the ING Orange One Low Rate Credit Card

I've already given you the birds-eye view of this card and I think it's pretty easy to see what this card is for: it's a simple, cheap way to access a line of credit when you need it. It doesn't cost the earth in interest and the costs stay low as you stay away from fees and interest charges.

I'll run through its features first, then we'll look at any not-so-pretty parts.

Everywhere you look, this card finds a way to save costs. You'll get 45 days interest-free on new purchases as long as you pay your card off in full each statement period. You won't even pay a dishonour fee or an over-limit fee. It's a pretty neat card all round, if you're looking for something cheap to keep and save on some fees.

What’s not so great...

The ING Orange One Low Rate credit card does a great job of being a low-cost card, but it won't dazzle you with rewards and big features. The savings on foreign fees and the upgrade to Platinum is good if you're eligible, but otherwise this is a card suited for people who want access to credit and don't want to pay a fortune on interest charges and annual fees.

To be eligible to apply for this card you need to have a personal bank account with ING. If you don't have one, you'll be asked to create one during the application process. The ING bank account is where all payments and rebates will flow to and from, but it's up to you whether you use it as your primary account. Just know that to access the rebate on international fees and ATM withdrawals, you need to meet the other terms I've listed above, which includes depositing $1000 from an external account and making 5 fully-processed transactions each month. It's definitely a good idea to read the PDS to make sure you're ticking the boxes.

One final but very important note is that this card isn't currently available to self-employed people.

Who suits this card?

The minimum credit limit is $1000, which means it could suit a first-time cardholder or someone who wants an emergency fund that doesn't keeps annual fees down (in case you're wondering, the maximum limit is $5,999). It's also a good fit for those wanting very low interest rates.

The ING Orange Low Rate card has a few very specific extras like the free upgrade to the Platinum card and the rebate on international transaction fees, but those offers are very specifically targeted to people who meet the criteria. They're a bonus if you get them, but even without the bonuses this card has some great low-cost features.