As "Move Your Money" caught on like wildfire, even the mainstream media got in on the story. ABC News called it a "Lightning bolt warning" to the "Goliath banks", and reports that 1 million customers have actually moved their money.
Credit unions saw $4.5 billion in new deposits in October according to the report, and a Seattle business owner reports that he's taking four of his businesses and $3 million in business away from Chase and Bank of America.
So have the banks learned their lesson, and will now stop gouging their customers at every opportunity? Don't be so naive.
And of course, ABC notes, the banks say that they're going to have to recoup the losses from the customers who have left--with more fees.
Not much of a surprise really, if there are fewer people left to gouge, than just gouge the ones that are left a little deeper.
If you have not yet moved your money, don't despair as it is certainly not too late. Remember it is YOUR money!
You know, I do support this on many levels. However, if ALL of us did this - our economy would collapse, as it did in 1929.
ReplyDeleteSo I have misgivings.
But, 1,000,000 sends a strong message, and that is good.
One of my kids switched from Wells Fargo to her local credit union on her day off last week. The other one will when he moves from one state to another in January.
ReplyDeleteOur own bank accounts are complicated, including two businesses. But we're sorting it out, getting ready to quit Wells Fargo and move to the Valley credit union. A non-profit I serve on the board of voted to do that last month.
When we started back in the 70s at the bank that is now Wells Fargo, it was local - Alaska Bank of Commerce. Kept on getting swallowed up by bigger fish. Time to go back to local.
Watch for congress to pass legislation on behalf of Wall Street to make it hard to do these switches in some cases. Can't think of a good reason for this myself, but I'm sure the banksters will give the bill some bullshit basis.
The fact that they've already said we'll have to recoup those losses somewhere else just lets us know that they don't get it and don't care.
ReplyDeleteWe've been with our credit union for years and here we will stay.
Alaska USA FCU seems to have new fees for me every month. They are lucky I don't pay enough attention to cry foul. . .I deserve the services I take for granted I guess.
ReplyDeleteThere was a finacial reporter on WGN in Chicago this morning talking about this. She was based in NY. She mentioned it then said "it costs a typical bank $400 a year to service an unprofitable account, so they probably won't even notice these people are gone".
ReplyDeleteI guess this skank thinks everyone who moved their cash had none to move. She'd be wrong as my multi-millionaire neighbor moved all of her accounts from Chase, BOA and Wells Fargo into small, local community banks. I moved my money a few years ago into a credit union.
What makes anyone think they will listen? It's not like they have their ear toward the customer, like many successful small businesses do. Or like Google does, all the time looking at data about what users seem to prefer.
ReplyDeleteBig banks are eager to make the most profit. Period. Which they will continue to try to squeeze out of us.
I've used a credit union for years (and love it). I'm paying off my credit cards and will stop using them ASAP. But I don't have illusions that big honchos in the big-time board rooms are saying: "let's listen to our customers." Although I bet we will soon see slick ads that say they are. Really really are.
So they're threatening new fees for anyone remaining? Um, won't that make those remaining every bit as unhappy as those who just left?
ReplyDeleteGo ahead banksters, raise your fees. Pretty soon you'll be able to use your vaults as walk-in closets.
Bastards.
@4:43, what on earth are you talking about? Whose economy will collapse? The 1%, maybe, but not the 99%. At least we aren't at the mercy of Wall Street anymore after already losing so much under GWB.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago I banked with US National but got turned off by some of that bank's practices. I no longer remember what.
ReplyDeleteTook my business to Benjamin Franklin Savings and Loan. Liked Ben Franklin just fine. At the time I was privy to private bank newsletters. The banking associations were actively doing everything they could to kill the S&Ls and talking about it out loud. Right about that same time the Feds started changing their rules for the S&Ls. It was things like the required ratio of assets to liabilities changed. Also, some of the S&Ls were required to merge with some other S&Ls that were failing. Then, voila! The S&Ls that had to take in the failing institutions no longer met the asset to liability ratio, for instance, so were forced to close, including Ben Franklin. I thought it was all deliberate to make the mergers fail and it worked. When that all happened, I switched again to a credit union. It's great.
S&Ls no longer exist far as I know. Plus the history I see about that era says the S&Ls did it to themselves. Credit unions would probably be harder to attack this way. Now it sounds like the banks may have written off "little people" anyway so maybe we're safe for the moment.
And the stupidity continues. If they gouge the customers they have left more, more will get disgruntled and leave, thus perpetuated the vicious cycle.
ReplyDeleteThey will become even more hated.
Good. Let them.
It's clear the bank CEOs making the big bucks are totally out of touch with their customers and reality. Otherwise, how could they think that $5 debit card fee was going to fly. And the timing totally sucked. And I'll bet the moron that came up with that will get a 7 figure bonus despite the damage the fee and then the backtracking did for B of A's image. Didn't their CEO say something else stupid and disparaging?
Let them shoot themselves in the foot. Let them feed on their customers until their kill their hosts. Because that is what parasites do. And they have become parasites on society.
Anon 4:43: if everyone moved their money to small banks/ credit unions, the economy would not collapse. In 1929, the banks had insufficient capitalization and were unable to survive a run on the bank. Today our accounts are insured by the FDIC (there's a similar group for the Credit Unions). Go ahead, move to a local bank. Then your money will stay in your community and help your community. With the big banks, your money is used for God knows what.
ReplyDeleteTo anon 4:43:
ReplyDeleteThe money is not gone just moved. Why do you think our economy would collapse? I think it is great to move our resources to local based interests. My only fear is that the Credit Unions might start to get greedy and go the route all the BiG Banks followed. For the time being, I think this is great. If all the money were moved to local banks and credit unions, the only ones that would fail would be the banks and all the American Money would still be intact.
...and once the too big to fail banks lose enough business(aka profit), they will spend millions of dollars on lobbying in order to acquire government subsidies. Can't have the market place interfering with their profits and power (money is their power).
ReplyDeleteMoving checking accounts is a good first step, but what will REALLY make big banks sit down and start crying is moving Retirement accounts and PAYING OFF YOUR CREDIT CARDS.
ReplyDeleteI am so loving this! Years ago, we switched our money from BOA constictor inc. to a Credit Union. The one we chose, at the time, had a grand total of five physical buildings. In the course of 18 years, it's grown to 38 and growing.
ReplyDeleteNow that people have become aware of this, I'm hoping the same business model can be adapted to other big businesses.
I'm a huge proponent of shopping local, keeping the money in the area we live helps small business and the community they serve.