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First the Tea Party, then Occupy and now Bank Transfer Day. Lots of kooks involved obviously, but it appears people are getting pissed beyond normal levels of pissed. But for the bank transfer, I think a few of us here have been on this path for a while now. I know I have.
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/113658/bank-transfer…
Bank Transfer Day: A Protest With Your Money
by Brian O'Connell
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
tweet78EmailPrint.provided by
Occupy Wall Street has dominated headlines for the past few weeks, with advocates and critics jaw-boning over whether it was government or Wall Street that fueled the financial crisis (here's a vote for both).
More from MainStreet.com:
• How to Quit Your Bank
• The Best Credit Cards With No Annual Fees
• Here's How to Get Around New Debit Card Fees
But even critics can't argue about the growth prospects of the "occupations" taking place in urban centers across the U.S. Now comes an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street that takes aim at banks where it hurts them most — in their vaults.
The social uprising — called "Bank Transfer Day" — encourages bank customers to take their cash out of big banks and put it in smaller banks and credit unions instead. The movement is ostensibly in response to aggressive fees institutions are rolling out to recover profits lost from new financial regulations, notably Bank of America's (BAC - News) decision to stick debit card users with a $5 monthly fee and Wells Fargo's (WFC - News) $3 test of the same.
On the movement's Facebook page, protest organizers say that, even with new government regulations in place to keep banks in check, they're still making out like bandits. For example:
• With the Durbin Amendment in effect, banks will still make 19 cents profit per processed transaction.
• The average consumer uses his or her debit card 24 times per month.
• Without the additional fee, Bank of America stands to turn a $3.3 billion annual profit from its 59 million customers' debit card transactions.
Here's an explanation from the organizers of Bank Transfer Day, straight from the group's Facebook page:
"Together we can ensure that these banking institutions will always remember the 5th of November!! If the 99% removes our funds from the major banking institutions on or by this date, we will send a clear message and give the 1% a taste of the fear that we experience every day when we aren't able to pay for our rent, food, medication, utilities, student loans, etc."
As of Oct. 10, the group's organizers say 6,500 Americans have already signed up in support of the event. How many of those consumers will actually yank their deposits from big banks is an open-ended question that won't be answered until Nov. 5, if at all.
But the protest won't be going away. Consumers who want to join in only have to take three simple steps, organizers say:
• Open an account with a credit union.
• Transfer your funds to the account (online or in person) by Nov. 5.
• Follow your bank's procedures to close your account.
Bank Transfer Day organizers are not only hoping to piggyback the media interest on Occupy Wall Street. There's a deeper well of consumer dissatisfaction that the group wants to tap into — that "I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore" frustration, immortalized in the 1976 film Network.
Six thousand, five hundred bank transfers won't cut it, even though the movement still seems to be growing. In the way they treat customers, big banks could keep those numbers where they, shrink them — or cause them to grow into something truly significant.
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/113658/bank-transfer…
Bank Transfer Day: A Protest With Your Money
by Brian O'Connell
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
tweet78EmailPrint.provided by
Occupy Wall Street has dominated headlines for the past few weeks, with advocates and critics jaw-boning over whether it was government or Wall Street that fueled the financial crisis (here's a vote for both).
More from MainStreet.com:
• How to Quit Your Bank
• The Best Credit Cards With No Annual Fees
• Here's How to Get Around New Debit Card Fees
But even critics can't argue about the growth prospects of the "occupations" taking place in urban centers across the U.S. Now comes an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street that takes aim at banks where it hurts them most — in their vaults.
The social uprising — called "Bank Transfer Day" — encourages bank customers to take their cash out of big banks and put it in smaller banks and credit unions instead. The movement is ostensibly in response to aggressive fees institutions are rolling out to recover profits lost from new financial regulations, notably Bank of America's (BAC - News) decision to stick debit card users with a $5 monthly fee and Wells Fargo's (WFC - News) $3 test of the same.
On the movement's Facebook page, protest organizers say that, even with new government regulations in place to keep banks in check, they're still making out like bandits. For example:
• With the Durbin Amendment in effect, banks will still make 19 cents profit per processed transaction.
• The average consumer uses his or her debit card 24 times per month.
• Without the additional fee, Bank of America stands to turn a $3.3 billion annual profit from its 59 million customers' debit card transactions.
Here's an explanation from the organizers of Bank Transfer Day, straight from the group's Facebook page:
"Together we can ensure that these banking institutions will always remember the 5th of November!! If the 99% removes our funds from the major banking institutions on or by this date, we will send a clear message and give the 1% a taste of the fear that we experience every day when we aren't able to pay for our rent, food, medication, utilities, student loans, etc."
As of Oct. 10, the group's organizers say 6,500 Americans have already signed up in support of the event. How many of those consumers will actually yank their deposits from big banks is an open-ended question that won't be answered until Nov. 5, if at all.
But the protest won't be going away. Consumers who want to join in only have to take three simple steps, organizers say:
• Open an account with a credit union.
• Transfer your funds to the account (online or in person) by Nov. 5.
• Follow your bank's procedures to close your account.
Bank Transfer Day organizers are not only hoping to piggyback the media interest on Occupy Wall Street. There's a deeper well of consumer dissatisfaction that the group wants to tap into — that "I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore" frustration, immortalized in the 1976 film Network.
Six thousand, five hundred bank transfers won't cut it, even though the movement still seems to be growing. In the way they treat customers, big banks could keep those numbers where they, shrink them — or cause them to grow into something truly significant.
We in small town middle America still use the same local banks, which are not part of the huge corporate conglomerate national banks, and we still get good customer service, free checking accounts, easy relationships with local loan officers, free use of ATMs and so on. We have been hurt by the big banks because savings accounts only draw something like a quarter percent instead of 5.25% like they used to.
This is kind of like complaining about your local Kawasaki dealer not having a clutch lever in stock when you needed one in a hurry on a Saturday, but for the last 5 years you've ordered everything online.
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The reason they can offer free checking and other free things is because they recoup the cost. However, with government regulation and oversight it hurts the customers. So I wouldn't be so quick to blame Bank of America and look at the governments role in it.
Eventually even the dummies get it. Maybe. God bless America.
Banks should be in the business of taking depositor money and lending it out, making money on interest. If they want to do speculative trading, they should do that in a totally separate subsidiary that can fail without forcing taxpayers to keep it alive.
Pit Row
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/creditcards/view/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/breakingthebank/view/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tentrillion/view/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/view/
S
https://youtu.be/Y_YxNG3nUUk
^This.
The OWS protests are misdirected. I won't pretend to understand banking (although I worked in banking when this crap started after the repeal of Glass Steagall) or the "too big too fail" but there is something un-American about telling an industry how much they are allowed to make. Doesn't anyone think the timing of BofA's fee for debit card usage suggests some sort of retaliation against government (over) regulation of the banking industry? I dunno. JP Morgan Chase pays the postage on all my bills every month...
and should I take my money out of BofA before there's a run on the bank?
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/statistical/guide/
There are services that mine the data and make the same conclusions. Here's one http://problembanklist.com/problem-bank-list/
Bank of America was the first bank to implement new fees, like a $5 monthly debit card transaction fee for customers that use their debit card for purchases instead of ATM transactions. The new fees are to offset revenue lost from regulations that limit the amount banks can charge merchants for credit card transactions, Arvest Bank Vice President Dena Lewis said.
Republican lawmakers are attempting to repeal the new rules that have led to the new fees. Paul Bass, president of First United Bank in Shawnee, believes the new regulations are an over-reach of government that will have negative effects.
“They need to let the market dictate where customers go based on competition,” Bass said. “That is going to provide the best possible financial solution because the competitive environment is always the best environment from our perspective.”
The new regulations only affect banks with $10 billion or more in assets, according to the Associated Press. Although local banks like First United do not have plans to increase or start any fees, it could be a matter of time before smaller banks start charging new fees, Bass said.
“As Bank of America leads the way ... and a couple of the other national banks follow suit, we wait for them to set the precedence,” Bass said.
House Democrats asked the Justice Department on Thursday to investigate whether Bank of America and other major banks are colluding to charge customers new monthly fees and breaking anti-trust laws, according to a story in the Associated Press.
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