ING Deutschland Reviews 34,014

Due to unknown reasons my card has been flagged and my payments have been declined for "suspicion of fraud". I tried calling the bank to get the card unlocked. It took 2 hours to get to talk to someone. In this timeframe I called 6 times, and waited for about 50 minutes in the line. The robot answering is available only in German and the menu is long, useless and repetitive. There is a loop when you try to identify yourself and navigate the menu to Karte sperren - Anderen. To get out of the loop I dialed 1 and ordered myself a new card by mistake... Which means that my curent card is deactivated until I receive my new card in 10 days... by POST. Unbelievable how bad the customer experience is.

Edit to add: this generic reply does not do much for me. What concrete steps will you take to improve the customer experience when a customer calls the hotline, based on my review?

Easy and safe to use

It's a ok bank dispte the when you have a problem you need to travel,to Frankfurt or call them since they don't have their office anywhere in Germany.

Happy user for more than 1 year already. Possible to get help by phone in English. Simple to use app, but could be in English. The main problem, but it's the same for all banks in Germany, sum on account changes not immediately after purchase. I'm from Lithuania, and you see real residual of the money on account immediately

My Visa card works everywhere (pos, atm, etc ) except online. I cannot even do repeating monthly purchases anymore, instantly gets denied with no app ping or anything.
Called Ing, no callback in more than 24 hrs.
Opened an email case and I get a s...d reply that it is due to some EU regulation from 2021.... when mine stopped working 2 weeks ago.
I totally DO NOT recommend this.

Edit: Someone re-emailed me and fix the issue. My card was blocked for online payments for suspicious activity on some RECURRING payments I do every month... I will however change the bank upon returning from holiday due to:

1. I got no message that it is blocked anywhere including the app
2. Lost one of my booking due to all this which no one will reimburse me for
3. Took me 2 days to fix this
4. Still no call back.
5. If an antifraud system blocks you on recurring payments...

I tried to create a bank account and when I spoke to someone to confirm my details he was incredibly rude. I tried to explain that my German wasn’t great and I need time, but he hung up on me. Not great customer service and I won’t be recommending or using this bank!

The free Girokonto does not offer instant money transfers.

The first time I recommended someone everything went smoothly.

The second time, my friend was asked to provide my (the referrer's) full name and address. After we provided that information, ING then asked for my IBAN number, even though my friend already used my referral link.

I tried to open an account with ING. I was told as a foreigner with Permanent residence, I need to do an online verification for ID. I downloaded the app and waited in queue for my video ID verification but I was told, that they don't verify passports from India and that I had to go to the post and do the verification in person. I then went to Postbank and finished my verification. When I didn't hear from ING for a few weeks, I thought of writing an email to enquire. I got a response back in "English" to tell me that we cannot help you with your enquiry as your question is in English. :) I think, other than wasting a lot of time and energy, it was a total flop experience for me with ING. Sadly!

I have been locked out of my account for weeks now going completely crazy. It is impossible to speak with a human on the phone and ING instead insist on sending a letter for every minute communication as if it's 1965. Worse still the crucial letter containing the one time password I need to access my account hasn't arrived for weeks. When I tried to use my passport to validate my identity, I was given access to my 2-year olds account instead of my own. Baffling idiocy that my username and password combined with my own passport is only capable of giving me access to an account in someone else's name, but not my own. As soon as I can, I will switch to another bank here in Germany. The other banks are surely equally low tech and letter obsessed but at least you have the chance to speak to a human in a branch.

this bank discriminates based on ethnicity. people should stay away from this racist institution.

just google Ing and discrimination online and you will find the news reporting articles

good online bank, easy to use, lots of functionality, able to open multiple accounts for different use. ability to cash out free of charge across Germany. Recommend

It is difficult to give an opinion for that bank in Germany. In general it is trusted and nice bank, I like saving and investing plans they offer. I have amazing experience from ING Poland, where service was offered in english as well as real time transfers (as all other banks. It is normality there)
Then I came to Germany and not only service is not avaliable in english, but I currently have to wait around 8 buisness days to see the money deducted from my balance. I just don't understand how this is still possible in 2025 to not have real-time transfers and account overview in Germany, while it is normality in many countries even much much less developed. I will not lie that was very negative shock, it is very misleading and I think unacceptable nowdays. How hard can it be to make that in one of the leading countries, when other countries do have instant phone payments and transfers and all is within seconds. I remember in Poland I didn't even need my card anywhere, only phone and one-time code to pay. Same when people collect money, everything happens in seconds. Like paypal but in banks. I saw money come and gone from my account directly. It is in Germany that I see something like "pending" for the first time in my life. How does it even make sense rather than just deduct that money? I don't understand.

Despite countless emails and letters, my issue remains unresolved. As I have closed my account, I can no longer access your services via phone or app. I need someone to call me directly in english or provide an email contact for someone who can assist me.

UPDATE - You are still not listening to me, your contact form does not solve my issue, I end up receiving lots of letters in the mail and no help via your email assistance. Please provide me with a direct contact.

I would really like to see english inteface since I am more familiar with english language. When it's about my money I would like to understand what I read as much better I can

in general good, however, as a foreigner investor in germany, I wish I could listen/speak English on important information

Pretty good bank. I haven't had any issues with them. Although there is one annoying thing (that's with ALL German banks) - inability to see my current "available" balance. When I do a payment of, let's say, 20 euros, it takes up to a week for the payment to go through. But during that weekend I don't have access to those 20 euros, so why are they showing in my account? I have no way of knowing how much money I actually have unless I do calculations, which can get hard with many transactions. It's very stupid in my opinion, there should definitely be an option to show current available balance.

There is no customer service. I have tried multiple times to contact them via email, but I never receive a personal response. I only get auto-replies stating that they will contact me, but they never do.

I sent an official letter to close my account, and I’ve been waiting for three weeks with no response. I am still waiting and continuing to send more emails.

You can do this via the ING app, but when I provide my new IBAN (which is not German), they claim they don’t accept non-German reference IBANs.

It’s a nightmare.

I am writing to share my extremely disappointing experience with ING DiBa, which has been nothing short of a nightmare from start to finish.
I opened my account during the Black Friday deal, which promised a €200 bonus and a 3.5% interest rate on savings for four months. However, my ordeal began when I did not receive my Visa card for 1.5 months. I sent an email after a month, but never received a response. As the situation became increasingly concerning, I asked my partner, who speaks German, to call ING DiBa on my behalf. We were informed that the card was at Deutsche Post, undelivered for some unknown reason. Shockingly, there was no prior communication from ING DiBa regarding this issue—no email, message in the app, or SMS. This complete lack of communication is unacceptable. When I confirmed that my address was correct and requested the card be sent, they assured us it would be.
After another two weeks of waiting, the card was still missing, and I was preparing for a month-long trip abroad. We called again, and this time a very rude customer support representative stated she could not speak through my partner because he is a man and I am a woman, despite my presence and confirmation of my identity. She did, however, advise us to request English support.
When I finally reached the English support team, I was informed that my account had been blocked by the previous representative. This was done without any notification—no email, no app message, nothing. The audacity of blocking my account without informing me is beyond comprehension.
To make matters worse, this blocking occurred on January 10th, and I was told a code would arrive via post within three days. Despite informing them of my urgent need to resolve this before my trip, only a letter arrived stating that a code would come in the following days. To this day, nothing has arrived.
Furthermore, none of my emails have been answered. The only response I received was an automated message instructing me to write again if my issue was still unresolved.

Overall, the customer support is abysmal—0/5. The resolution of my case is non-existent—0/5. My account remains blocked with my money inaccessible. Despite numerous calls and emails, I have received no proper support or solutions. It is unfathomable that such incompetence can occur in the 21st century. I am now worried that closing my account will be another impossible challenge.

I am considering taking legal action due to the severe mismanagement and lack of communication from ING DiBa. This experience has been incredibly frustrating and stressful, and I strongly advise others to avoid banking with ING DiBa.

Application great, they opened my account quickly but there is a big downside I opened the account last December, I ordered cards for the account well to this day I have not received them, no one can answer why, so I only have a virtual card but through it it is impossible to withdraw money I have been waiting for the card for over a month now

The reason I chose (for the time being) ING as a second German bank account, is because I'm in the process of closing my accounts with other "popular" online-only Banks due to their questionable practices and limited chat-only customer service and support, and a very good friend of mine and former employee of ING Germany, recommended it and swears on their security procedures.
BUT...
ANY company, bank, etc. that DO NOT offer their products, services, etc. also in the INTERNATIONAL language of English, DO NOT have my respect and are NOT worth my business!
I hear some of you saying "You live in Germany, so learn German..." but that's not the point. I dare you to move for example to an Arabic country due to professional reasons and have to learn Arab in order to conduct some basic business...
We live in Germany, one of the biggest countries in Europe and economies in the world, and NOT supporting the English language is a disrespect and discrimination to all the foreigners living and working here!
So, I do feel for the other reviewers and their experiences with "arrogant" and "rude" customer support who even get "offended" when asked if they speak English and hang up on you!

To go back to ING.de itself...

PROS
- Smooth procedure opening an account.
- Secure identity verification (luckily in English as it's carried out by a third-party provider) following industry standards.
- Customer support available over the phone (unlike the chat-only support provided by other online banks).
- Extra savings account opened automatically with a better interest rate than the other brick-and-mortar banks.
- Free ATM withdrawals around the world, also in remote African counties (based on the experience of my partner).

CONS
- Internet banking and app available ONLY in German.
- Even though customer support over the phone is available, the waiting times are too long (over 30 minutes as witnessed by my partner while writing this review).
- Girocard (aka EC card) available for a monthly fee.
- Girocard cannot be added to Apple Wallet, a service already offered by other banks.

CONCLUSION
- If you speak German, then I would recommend it.
- If you are a foreigner and you can only communicate in the INTERNATIONAL language of English, then I don't. What good is a bank if you wanna make some basic transactions or need customer support, but cannot understand the language ?
- I personally, will test the functionality of the online banking for a couple of weeks and make my decision, but as I intend to deposit a substantial amount of money, the answer is most likely not.
I wanna feel trust and respect by my bank and someone who is managing my money!