The ING Cafe Is No Ordinary Branch Bank

Online banks often claim they can offer savers better interest rates because they don’t have the expense of brick-and-mortar branches.

So we were curious to see what one of the largest online banks was up to after it built seven “cafés” in seven cities nationwide.

The ING Direct Café sounded like it might be a cool place to hang out, with free Internet access, free ATM withdrawals, and coffee and treats at competitive prices.

Is this the future of banking?

We don’t think so after visiting the New York location.

It’s in midtown Manhattan at the corner of Third Avenue and 58th Street.

The modest two-story building among the skyscrapers of the business district is friendly and inviting.

ING Direct’s iconic orange orb is visible from the street. The exterior walls are comprised mostly of windows and orange and yellow squares.

Upon entering, visitors are greeted warmly and offered a place to sit and relax, surf the Internet, sip coffee and nibble on Greek pastries.

Staff members can help you manage your ING Direct account, set up a transfer or open a new account.

A scrolling ticker rolls across the building, and slogans are scrawled throughout. One reads “How this little investor went to market” above a wall of ING merchandise that’s for sale — not only T-shirts and water bottles but umbrellas and sporting goods, including a bicycle.

Upstairs you can watch the several wall-mounted TVs or check your e-mail at one of the many work stations. A spacious lounge area has several chairs and full-size couches for work lunches or a quick meeting with friends.

The cafés work with local community and charitable organizations in various ways.

The New York location recently held a Restaurant Day, offering a lunch special to all visitors for $10 that included food from several local restaurants such as Hello Pasta, PopBurger and Nom Wah.

Proceeds were to benefit Books for Kids, a nonprofit organization that builds libraries for at-risk children in underprivileged areas across the nation.

But despite everything the café offered, I felt like something was missing.

There aren’t any tellers and only one ATM machine.

All of the tasks that staff members offered to help with can be done online and at home.

Although the cafés are supposed to host regular financial seminars, only four are scheduled on the bank’s website, and they’re all in Chicago.

(The other ING Café’s are in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Honolulu, Wilmington, Del., and St. Cloud, Minn.)

In the end, I decided they were more about marketing and creating a hip, modern image for the Dutch-owned banking conglomerate than helping me manage my money more wisely.

The warm fuzzies and half-price coffee were nice.

But I went home wishing it had been a little more about real banking.

Here are a bunch of photos I took while I was there so you can get a better sense of what it was like.