Remember, remember, to move from big bank to credit unions
I find the obsession with Guy Fawkes Day and the V for Vendetta masks to be somewhat ridiculous, to the extent that it advocates passivity while waiting for a black-caped savior to rescue the masses from government control. (Think about it — the downtrodden Brits in the film did little aside from show up at the alloted time and place wearing a creepy mask.)
Nonetheless, November 5 is as good a day as any to move from big banks to credit unions:
The growing anger directed at U.S. banks (especially the big ones that took federal bailout funds) over recent fee increases coalesced this weekend into a Facebook-driven campaign urging Americans to close their accounts at large banks and move their money to credit unions by Nov. 5.
Though not initiated by the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York and other cities around the country, the effort has been embraced by the protesters, and their “We are the 99%” mantra is all over the “Bank Transfer Day” Facebook page — making this the first specific action by a political movement that has been criticized as unfocused and incoherent.
Bank Transfer Day was started by a 27-year-old Los Angeles art-gallery owner, Kristen Christian. She says she’s not affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street protesters but that many organizers of those demonstrations had reached out to her to express support.
Christian chose Nov. 5 because of its association with 17th century British folk hero Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the House of Lords but was captured on that date in 1605. In an interview with the Village Voice, however, Christian and Occupy Wall Street leaders who discussed the effort to get Americans to move their money from large banks to small institutions emphasized that they weren’t trying to create a collapse of the financial system. ”I’ve been very careful to state that this is not … anarchy,” Christian told the Voice. “It’s shifting the money to a company people respect the practices of. It’s like, if you don’t like Walmart’s practices, shopping at a local grocery store instead.”
I’m planning on moving my money from Citibank to a credit union. Even if I were still making the big bucks and therefore had no concerns about maintaining a balance of $6,000 per month, it’s important, I think, for The Riches™ to stand in solidarity with The Poors™.
I also think it’s important to flip big banks a vigorous bird.
UPDATE: You can find a credit union near you here, and here’s a link to the Facebook event.
[via TIME]
P.S. My griftathon — as some are wont to call it — enters its second week.
[cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]
You And I And George
Think about it—the downtrodden Brits in the film did little aside from show up at the alloted time and place wearing a creepy mask
As compared to what? You perhaps have done more courageous crusading? Stood down a tank or machine gun maybe?
In the democracy game, just showing up is winning the battle.
What pointless cynicism.
singfoom
As I do in every bank transfer thread, USAA is a great bank if you can’t find a credit union near you that you can join or has the features you want.
Trooptrap Tripetrope
I moved my money from a bank to a credit union in 1989…one of the smartest things I ever did. I can’t say enough good things about credit unions.
cleek
is there an official General Assembly Approved List Of Evil Banks?
i want to know if my bank is OK, or if i risk losing my Liberal Certification if i stick with them.
Felinious Wench
We’ve been using my husband’s Soshulist Teacher’s Credit Union for 12 years. It’s great.
Kola Noscopy
I just came from attempting to cash a check from a client at Citizen’s Bank in Boston. The client has an account with them, on which the check was to be drawn.
Citizen’s wanted to charge me ELEVEN FUCKING DOLLARS to cash a check written by one of their own customers.
I told the teller that was ridiculous and left without the cash. I will deposit it in my bank account, which means I will have to wait for the few days that the banks play games between each other over where the money really is.
assholes.
Litlebritdfrnt
Been with SECU for donkey’s years and love them. Easiest people in the world to do business with and my bank charges are approximately 50 cents a month. (Actually a whopping $1.00 a month but that is offset by the tiny amount of monthly interest on my checking account).
The Other Chuck
Nov 5 is a Saturday. Maybe next time choose a date when transfers can actually happen.
Peggy
Already shut down BOA accounts in September. Does that count?
elmo
Application to join Navy Federal CU was just approved (my dad’s retired Navy). I can’t yank my HELOC out of BofA just yet, but I’m done direct-depositing my paycheck there.
Martin
@The Other Chuck: Yeah, that was my thinking too. Talk about failing before you even get started.
geg6
I keep my savings in the university employees’ credit union, but because the closest branch of it is 3 1/2 hours away, I have my checking at a relatively small regional bank, the headquarters of which is in a local small town just a half hour down the road from work and home. They also have one of their branches (and there are several within my county) just 5 minutes from my house. What’s great is that they have partnered with other small banks in a network so that I can go to any of the ATMs of banks in the network and not be charged a cent. Small banks are just as good a deal and smart a choice as a credit union.
Just sayin’.
Bill E Pilgrim
OT but I keep wanting to see Megan McCardle’s picture on one of these with her holding up a sign saying “I don’t blame Wall Street, I blame my calculator!” and claiming to be “one of the 5300%”
Trinity
I have been a member of an amazing CU my entire adult life. Every time I go to our office bank to handle any business they always ask where I do my personal banking and I gleefully sing the praises of my CU. They raise the issue of “convenience” and suggest opening an account with them for “easier access to my funds”.
To which I sternly reply “Absolutely not. You took more than enough of my funds when I bailed you out.”
Response: silence.
F them
Mnemosyne
So if my credit union is tied to the Giant Evil Corporation I work for, is that better or worse? ;-)
geg6 is right about regional banks, though — if you can’t join a credit union but still have access to a state or regional bank, that’s not a bad option. The parent company of my current bank is actually in Japan (which is why all of our ATMs let you choose, English, Spanish or Japanese) so I guess I’m one of those evil international bank (customers) they talk about in poorly-spelled pamphlets.
Asdf
Thanks for the credit union link. I will also be xfering funds from Citibank to a credit union or local bank next week. I would also like to send a message to CB when I do this.
Chris
From Cracked.com:
“In the film, the anarchist revolutionary V incites the population of Britain to don his mask and rise up against the government, because nothing captures the spirit of anarchy better than a mob of people in identical uniforms unquestioningly obeying one man.”
parenthetical
@cleek: The “bad” banks are the big banks, for the most part. As in, the top 10 or 20 banks based on asset size. Here’s a link showing the top 50 bank holding companies by asset size as of last week.
It cuts off at about $20 billion. Smaller banks, in the 10B and below range, usually had a lot less to do with the crash. They weren’t the ones collateralizing bad debt, etc. And, it’s almost exclusively banks on the top 50 list that are jacking up prices now. Smaller ones may follow suit. They are hoping to pick up some disaffected consumers for the time being, though.
Dave
You don’t even have to choose a credit union. Local banks that aren’t driven by shareholders but are “owned” by the depositors are just as good.
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
What I like is that they know my name when I walk in the door. It’s like some bizarro futuristic Mayberry or something, where the tellers and bank managers know who you are, who your SO is, and ask about the kids and dogs. And it’s not just at the one branch that’s within walking distance of my house. Another branch is managed by a former student. And a third branch’s head teller went to high school with my older sister.
Ruckus
Already started the process. For once ahead of the game.
Both the old and the new institutions are open on Saturdays. There is no reason you can not open/close accounts on a Sat.
My biggest delay is in getting new checks so I can’t close the old Bunch of Assholes account till then.
USAA won’t work for small business, no way to handle cash.
Some of the credit unions around here charge for the use of a debt card or have charges for too many activities per month.
So I had to find a local bank in good standing, financial health, with no charges. Took about 5 minutes with the google.
Sasha
Hey, don’t dis on my Alan Moore.
Roger Moore
@Sasha:
If you’re going to dis Alan Moore, you’d be bagging on the original graphic novel. Moore apparently hates the idea of making movies from his graphic novels and fought quite hard against making movie versions of both V for Vendetta and Watchmen.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Martin: One of the banks I am looking at around here is the bank at the WalMart, 1st Convenience Bank. It has hours 7 days a week, and pays you 9.95 for every direct deposit.
gbear
My main bank is a credit union. My checking and savings accounts and car loan are there and I have a credit card there which I use for internet purchases.
I also have a PNC card that I use locally. I pay off the balance monthly, haven’t paid them a penny in service or interest fees in many years, and I receive a bonus-points check from them every year or so for $100.
I’m what the banks call a deadbeat, but I still wonder how much the small businesses where I use the card are getting shafted by increasing transaction fees. I know PNC has made some asshole moves in the last year (I can’t remember if they were financial or political), but my interest rate is still 14% so I haven’t quit them yet. Anybody have any thoughts on PNC?
RosiesDad
We have done our personal banking at PSECU for over 10 years. It is a branchless credit union–we can make deposits at a couple of local credit unions for instant availability or by mail. No ATM fees and we just moved our home mortgage there. (15 years, 3.75%, closing costs were minimal)
My business uses TD Bank–$500 minimum on free business checking and they don’t nickel or dime me in any other way. Might be Canadian business philosophy but TD is a pretty easy place to do my banking. (Of course, if that changes, I will move the business accounts to the credit union as well.)
FlipYrWhig
What the movie does with Guy Fawkes is bizarre. I get the point, who’s the real terrorist, etc., but, honestly, the American equivalent would be dressing up as the Underwear Bomber to send a message that the government should be fearful, because there are people out there who want to blow shit up.
Nellcote
@The Other Chuck:
It says BY Nov 5.
MikeJ
@Roger Moore: And he was right. Well, I don’t know, I’ve not read the original, but they certainly didn’t need to make a movie of it.
The Other Chuck
@Roger Moore:
Hope you’re the 70’s James Bond guy and not related to Alan, because I found Watchmen to be one of the most overrated pieces of self-indulgent tripe I’d ever read. Graphic novel readers have standards as low as sci-fi fans if that stands as an example of the best. Good art style though, and I guess that trumps story.
Thankfully the movie excised the whole comic-within-a-comic thing along with the “island of geniuses including visionary comic book writers like MEEEEEEeeeeeee”. Unfortunately it sucked in so many other ways. Pro tip: “The city screams like an abbatoir full of retarded children” isn’t actually a good line. And another one: even if the ending act features an outside, a cold distance, a wildcat, and two riders, and howling wind, “All Along the Watchtower” is still not automatically called for.
Paul in KY
@Roger Moore: I really liked ‘V for Vendetta’. Didn’t really like ‘Watchmen’ movie.
Might have just been because the V plot was better & had no giant glowing penis ;-)
Paul in KY
@FlipYrWhig: I don’t think there is a parallel to Guy Fawkes in American history, at least not in the context ‘V for Vendetta’ uses him.
Linnaeus
When my bank got swallowed up by Chase, I took that as my opportunity to move my banking to a credit union. It’s worked out great so far.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@elmo:
I’ve been a member of NFCU since 1985 even tho I’m long past working as a civilian for the Navy.
Fantastic institution. You’ll never leave.
Chris
@The Other Chuck:
I thought I was the only one! Not actually a “Watchmen” fan at all either, and “overrated indulgent tripe” quite exactly describes it for me. Matter of taste I suppose.
MarkJ
I transfered the bulk of my cash to a local credit union a couple weeks ago. I still keep a few thousand in a Capital One account (are they one of the bad ones?) because they have ATMs everywhere in DC.
My choices are: switch to the CU completely, but go broke on out of network ATM fees; or inflict high fees on retailers using my ATM visa card; or get a huge wad of cash at the credit union when it’s conveinient so I have enough cash on hand to avoid said ATM fees; or keep some money with Capital One so I can get cash from their ATM (sans charge) when necessary to pay the small business owner. So far, keeping some money with Capital One seems like the best option.
Wordsmith
@Kola Noscopy:
Yes! Same here. While I was in school in Ohio went to a LARGE bank where the check writer had their account. I had my account elsewhere. I – foolishly – thought this would be an easier transaction. Fuck! $7.00 in 2002. Fortunately for the clerk, I just stared at her when she said – I would have to have an account at that bank not just the check writer.
I’ve had Bank of America for years, years…but we’ve switched to a local credit union and a local bank.
dollared
Done, along with the letter to Jamie Dimon with the attached copy of the picture of him arguing with President Obama at a press conference.
NonyNony
@Sasha:
You can’t read ABL’s comment up there as a dis on Alan Moore because that scene doesn’t happen in the book – that’s a movie creation. Nobody in the book was showing up wearing Guy Fawkes masks because they were too busy razing Parliament to the ground and brutally attacking the fascist government leadership to be making political statements by dressing up in costume.
Roger Moore
@The Other Chuck:
I’m an American and hence not (closely) related to either one. I’m also not the former editor of Dragon Magazine, the professional poker player, the implementer of APL\360, or the adventure photographer. I thought Watchmen was an interesting “what if” concept- what if there really were costumed crusaders?- that has a bit too much inside baseball. There were definitely some nice bits, but I think you’d be better off reading Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series.
Martin
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Your new bank may have hours 7 days a week, but that doesn’t mean you can transfer your funds 7 days a week from your old bank. That’s usually a ‘come back Monday’ operation.
Wordsmith
@elmo: And I’m not yanking my BofA account until they match my ‘Keep the Change’ pledge.
And, I’m not understanding the first paragraph up there. If you’ve read the book you know it’s as NonyNony just pointed out – “that’s a movie creation.”
Roger Moore
FYWP and your ridiculous spam filter, too.
John Weiss
@The Other Chuck: “Graphic novel readers have standards as low as sci-fi fans if that stands as an example of the best.”
There’s lots of good science-fiction being written, and has been since the late 50’s. But you have to look, just as one must, whatever the genera might be.
So I suppose you don’t know much about SF?
Ruckus
@Martin:
Why do I have to be there to transfer the funds? All I need to do is fill out the application and deposit the min amount. The financial institution does the rest at their leisure. They sure don’t do it just because I’m sitting in their office. And with any new account I have to wait for checks and debit card to arrive and need to use the old account until they do. All of that takes about a week to ten days no matter when I start the process.
James E. Powell
Why would Americans choose Guy Fawkes as a symbol of anything good for Americans? He was a dick.
Karen
I left Wells Fargo and put my money in Capital One. Why? I don’t qualify for a Credit Union, Capital One didn’t have a fee and they actually came to my apartment when I told them I was disabled and couldn’t get to them. That impressed me.
As for online banks, they may be fine for some people but I’m moving money from my online bank (ING) because I want a brick and mortar bank I can actually get to.
YMMV
Heez
Jesus fuck, what gods forsaken shithole did all the pointy headed pseudo-intellectuals crawl out of all the sudden?
The worst thing about the internet is you can’t smack these assholes silly.
Matt in HB
I guess my experience with the CU associated with my employer is an outlier, but, in a word it sucked.
No Direct Deposit
No convenient ATMs
One location, which happened to be across town from where I work.
All my transactions with them required that I take a 20 minute car ride and kill my whole lunch hour to have the glorious experience of banking circa 1973. I don’t care if they know my name; it’s an asinine way to bank.
In fact, I still have an account open with them with about $6 in it because the paperwork and hassle associated with closing it were absurd. So, for the last decade, I’ve gotten quarterly account statements from them showing how 1% interest on low single digit deposits grow over time. Look honey we got a penny in interest this quarter. Yippee!!
I’m not sure what it would take for me to go back to using something like that CU; it was absurd.
YMMV
JJ
Not a new idea: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/move-your-money-a-new-yea_b_406022.html
Hopefully this time people will listen?
drkrick
@Matt in HB: I don’t think anyone is recommending you go back to using something like that CU. Why in heaven’s name would you sign up with one that lacked so many services you wanted?
JJ
And let’s not forget WI: http://www.thenation.com/article/159190/walkers-big-bank-donors-take-hit
Anybody got any data as to membership rates for the bailed out banks for the past few years and will we be able to assess if Nov. 5th works? I think Occupy Wall Street could finally be the unifying message to galvanize people to finally do this? I hope so.
CarolDuhart
@Matt in HB: It’s an outlier. Cinfed Federal has had online banking for years. Same with my neighborhood bank. Both places know who I am.
A few weeks ago my unemployment check was deposited, but not yet posted. I needed lunch money. I called my local bank, and I got someone without phone tag who posted the funds right away. I was able to get lunch :)
Ruckus
@Matt in HB:
Had a salesman in the shop the other day who told me his boss will not have a website because it’s a new fangled time waster. They have computers for inventory, they have one upstairs from the offices for email. But someone has to go upstairs to use it. No internet access in the offices.
And I thought I was an old fart. I probably will not use this supplier again, there are others, the price is average and I don’t like to support idiots.
Some people will not keep up. They are stuck in some alternate time. They don’t recognize that sometimes new can be better. Sometimes much better. The old, slow, sometimes idiotic methods work for them, it worked for their dad, maybe even their granddad, that’s as far as progress needs to go.
Sound familiar?
Zifnab
@James E. Powell: Why would American’s choose the Dutch interpretation of an elderly Greek Saint to sell them soft drinks at Christmas time?
People do crazy things.
FlipYrWhig
@Paul in KY: Yeah, I know, and that’s what’s weird. Guy Fawkes was essentially one of these crackpots whose plot to do serious damage to the government was sniffed out before it could happen. The point of Guy Fawkes Day, the real holiday, is to commemorate that the plot was foiled. Moore (from what I understand from the film; I don’t know the graphic novel) decided to change it all around.
Matt in HB
@drkrick:
It was the CU connected to my employer. I didn’t sign up, it came with the lovely girl who became Mrs. Matt in HB. But, that is my experience with CUs. It’s probably not representative, but I’m scarred.
I can’t quickly think of other CUs that I’m “eligible” to join. Although to be honest, I’ve never given much thought, given my experience.
FlipYrWhig
@James E. Powell: Maybe we can arrange a swap, and the Brits can make a big hairy deal out of Squeaky Fromme Day.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Wordsmith:
Yeah, the movie departs significantly from the book in several key areas, to its detriment. The book is actually pretty good, if a little heavy-handed.
Ruckus
@Matt in HB:
The requirements to entry of most credit unions is pretty low these days. Some are job or city or organization limited but there are many around that take almost anyone who walks in the door. They have multiple branches and act very much like a bank is supposed to.
Matt in HB
@CarolDuhart: Carol, a smaller regional bank (some do still exist) may be a good compromise for those who don’t have access to a good CU.
It may be heresy to say, but I’m pretty satisfied with my TBTF bank — Wells Fargo. They’re annoying with all the cross-marketing they do for their other services, but it’s not too hard to say no and ignore their mailers.
feebog
Once upon a time I was the President of the Board of Directors of the San Fernando Postal Employees Credit Union. We only had a couple hundred members to start. Then we allowed the San Fernando Police Dept. to join. Eventually we merged with the USPS Federal Credit Union. They only have two offices, one in Clinton MD and one still in the San Fernando CA Post Office.
I used to have a BoA account, but closed it because they charged $8.00 per month service fee. No service fees, no checking fees, a reasonable rate on their credit card, and I can still walk in and deposit a check five days a week. Whats not to like?
lamh34
Nov 5th also happened to be my DOB. I will be making 35 yes old.. So if any one wants to transfer their money to my bank account…just let me know!
General Stuck
My gramps was Grapes of Wrath old school, and kept his cash in a burlap sack buried in a field underneath a jug of moonshine he made his self, which was where most the money came from.
He used to show it to me now and then, when he was thirsty, and I asked him one day why he put the money underneath the jug. He just gave me toothless grin and shook his head like it was the most obvious thing ever. Boy, he said, if you found a jug of moonshine, you gonna keep lookin’ fer money?
I didn’t get it then, though later on it made more sense.
gelfling545
@Trooptrap Tripetrope: I’ve had an account with a credit union & one with a very large bank for several years -the one with the bank -about 35 years through some name changes & the cu about 20. There hasn’t really been enough difference for me to transfer all my accounts to the cu. My bank is, however, about to transfer me. It has sold all it’s non-commercial business locally to a local bank that (so far) enjoys a pretty good reputation. We’ll see. Over all, I’ve paid less in charges to the bank than the cu.
gelfling545
@Trooptrap Tripetrope: I’ve had an account with a credit union & one with a very large bank for several years: the one with the bank about 35 years through some name changes & the cu about 20. There hasn’t really been enough difference for me to transfer all my accounts to the cu. My bank is, however, about to transfer me. It has sold all it’s non-commercial business locally to a local bank that (so far) enjoys a pretty good reputation. We’ll see. Over all, I’ve paid less in charges to the bank than the cu.
Menzies
Do purchases of Guy Fawkes masks still give money to Warner Bros?
(Though I might add that that part of the movie was not exactly linear. Dead people showed up and took their masks off too, if I remember correctly.)
Lojasmo
I have been with my credit muon since 1995. I will never go back.
Jess
Switched from Wells Fargo to a credit union (Massachusetts State Employees CU) when I moved to Massachusetts four years ago, and have been delighted with the change. No fees–they actually pay me a modest dividend each month. Their bureaucracy is a bit clunky, but they’ve never tried to gouge me on anything. I’ve never set foot in their building–I do everything via mail and online, and I get cash when I do my grocery shopping, so it hasn’t been inconvenient at all. Best of all, I don’t have that creepy feeling that they’re lying in wait, ready to screw me over if they get a chance, like I always did with WF.
El Cid
Try to remember the context of the movie.
In the height of Bush Jr.-led 9/11 anti-dissent paranoia, a movie comes out in which the audience identifies with the terrorist against the repressive government. It was not your usual audience exit for an action feature.
It was very, very different.
Fahrenheit 9/11 came out in the same ultra-authoritarian culture period — I went to see it in a theater in an area with an overwhelmingly white population.
And this Michael Moore movie showed to a theater filled with African Americans.
And we all walked out and there was a serious dark tone among the audience, and there was a lot of “I am tired of this shit” said about the Bush Jr. little junta. “About time somebody said it” I heard.
It was nearly the same for this movie.
Wordsmith
@Menzies: Yes…I was listening to something on NPR last week, or Christ, maybe it was Democracy Now that said for every mask sold Warner Bros (or whomever came up with it) gets a royalty.
Lurker
@Matt in HB:
Maybe not that credit union, but consider Alliant Credit Union. Alliant gives me 1.1% on savings, 1% on checking if two conditions are met, a network of 80,000+ ATM machines, no monthly fee, and I can use my scanner to deposit checks from home.
It’s a lot better than the $8/month checking and stingy savings account interest rate that I had at Bank of America back in 2007.
tkogrumpy
I have had my funds in a small local bank for thirty years. Everyone from the CEO to the tellers know me.I keep a significant chunk of money there in an interest bearing account and have never paid them a penny for any fees etc.They have no connection whatever with any national bank.
tkogrumpy
I am Surprised that more people don’t understand that the only leverage the average Joe has with the banks is their money. In the big picture it doesn’t even matter if they are giving you a higher rate of return on your money if they are using your money to destroy the country.Once again these trillion dollar banks can’t operate one- single- day- without your money. Please use that leverage.
Paul in KY
Thinking last night about the reasons I liked ‘V for Vendetta’ & didn’t really like ‘Watchmen’, I wondered if the dialogue might be the key.
I’m pretty sure that they kept quite close to the novel (dialogue-wise) in ‘Watchmen’. Alot of it was pretty corny (IMO). I wondered if in ‘V for Vendetta’, they didn’t hone quite so closely to the novel’s dialogue & instead reworded some of it so it wouldn’t sound quite so soap-operaish.
Just a thought.
Lex
The last straw for me was when Wachovia (now Wells Fargo; still insolvent and in desperate need of liquidation by the FDIC) wanted to charge me $5 a month to use electronic banking and electronic bill paying, which saves THE BANK money.
My credit union isn’t perfect. It claims, for example, to support Quicken, which is true if, by “support,” it means “stagger under the weight of.” And their computer system upgrade last weekend resulted in phantom transactions and duplicated entries in my account data going all the way back to July. It took me three hours to clean all that crap up, and it’s not like I had a paper to write for grad school that night or anything.
But the bottom line is that the CU means well, it treats me like a human being, and where Wachovia was effectively charging me $150 a year or more to do business with them, the CU is actually paying me (a little) to do business with them.
And the CU hasn’t gotten huge taxpayer bailouts which it then blew on hookers and blow for its executives, which is nice.