November 5th. There is a Facebook page. The idea is to take your money out of Bank of America, Chase Bank, Citibank, Wells Fargo (among others) and deposit it in credit unions (or local banks). The Fifth of November was chosen to match up with Guy Fawkes's Day, but hell, there is no reason to wait.
Vote with your feet and your wallets. Fuck those guys, move your money!
There is the funny thing: One of the big winners in this will probably be USAA, for they offer free checking, free debit cards and free use of any ATM, up to ten times a month.
What's funny is that USAA started out as the United Services Automobile Association, an auto insurance company for military officers, retirees and their families. (I've been a member for decades.) USAA then expanded into financial services and for that, they'll serve anyone. For car insurance, you still have had to have some tie to the armed forces, though it's no longer limited to offices.
So it's pretty safe to assume that finding a Democrat in the upper management of USAA would be a rare event. And it's not exactly conservatives that are going to push the "Fuck the Banks" movement.
(H/T)
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7 comments:
I fired 5/3 in May (moved to a local bank). I've been weaning off of BoA for several months—got down to just a safety deposit box in July. Emptied the S-D box in August and then forgot about it. When they sent me the auto-pay notice a couple of weeks ago, I went in and closed it out completely. Got a $20 deposit back. Bastards. What did they need a deposit for?
My mother has $thousands with them, but I have to tread carefully to get her to move on anything financial. I'm doing administrative assistant stuff for her (she's 92) so I still have to hold my nose when I do things for her at BoA.
She still thinks they "know her" at the branch she goes to. My guess is no one knew her about two weeks after she opened her account. I can't believe the turnover in those places.
LRod
ZJX, ORD, ZAU retired
In addition to USAA for banking, there are the PenFed credit cards, which are low/no fee and about as reasonable intrest rates as you're likely to find.
I've been with a local credit union for a couple of years now. I like it.
They did reduce services when the debit card fee caps went in place. The interest rate on my checking account* went from 4% to 3%. I think I'll survive.
*: They only pay interest on up to $15k in the account. Any deposits beyond that don't get you interest, but it's still a nice feature.
Thing is, they don't make any money off of individual deposits anyhow, so they don't care. They still have plenty of institutional deposits because credit unions aren't allowed to have merchant accounts, which are what credit card receipts get deposited into when you swipe your card at a restaurant or grocer. And there's a lot more money in the hands of business than there is of individuals.
That said, it certainly is worthwhile moving to a credit union, it's always -- ALWAYS -- better service, and better interest paid. And as a symbolic act it certainly can't be beat -- having hoards of people go in on the 5th of November to close out their accounts for cash would create a panic amongst bankers like you haven't seen since the Great Depression, because no bank in the country keeps that much cash on hand anymore.
- Badtux the Financial Penguin
Merchants can use local banks. They still exist in many places. They don't have to use the big banksters. A smart local merchant will find that he or she will get better service from a local bank.
The operative word being local merchant. In today's chain environment, where local merchants account for a tiny percentage of total retail sales, that's not a whole lot of money. And I can guarantee you that local merchants are *already* banking with a local bank, because that's the only way you can get reasonable rates on things like, e.g., depositing cash and checks (the big banks charge you out the wazoo for the privilege of dumping your coin and bills into an automatic counting machine that does all the actual work).
Still, it'd be worth it if every individual or local merchant went into their bank on November 5 and demanded the total contents of their account as cash. The look of panic on bank managers' faces would be priceless as they realized that not only do they not have enough cash on hand to do that, but that their entire bank doesn't have enough cash on hand to do that (since most money exists as electronic bits and bytes nowadays).
- Badtux the Evil Penguin
There are "public funds" (county and municipalities) deposited in banks. Believe me when I day those accounts are service charge free and have to pay interest. The government agencies that have these funds demand this. I had one gumment funds administrator call to have me reverse the service charges on his personal account or he would move the gumment money.
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