Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
- Boycott of Standardized Tests Spreads as Seattle Teachers Revolt
- The Five-Step Process to Cheat the Middle Class Worker
- The Myth of Human Progress
- Anonymous Comments, Gutless Trolls, and Why It's Time We All Stop Drinking This Digital Poison
- Friends, Colleagues Mourn Web Pioneer Aaron Swartz, Key Architect of Creative Commons
Popular content
Today's Top News
‘Bank Transfer Day’ Causes Credit Union Buzz
Even with most credit unions closed for Columbus Day there was plenty of online buzz, and uncertainty, about what the credit union industry role might be on “Bank Transfer Day,” the latest event surfacing from the “Occupy Wall Street” protests.
Industry sources, speaking off the record, suggested any wholesale switch from large banks to CUs on Nov. 5, the day designated by one Californian and carried atwitter Monday, could conceivably put net worth ratios out of whack.
The balance sheet problem was raised by several industry officials as a potential hazard as online articles focused on what “Occupy” supporters are calling now for a specific action to underscore their complaints against big banks and corporate “greed.”
For the record, Mark Wolff, CUNA senior vice president-communications, said only that the trade group welcomes the idea of “a viral 'Bank Transfer Day'” since it shows “just how angry consumers are becoming with their treatment by big banks” and will now look at CUs.
CUNA said its Facebook posts have already witnessed big jumps in traffic on www.asmarterhoice.org. There also have been big gains on www.findacreditunion.org.
Many consumers, said CUNA, are already “discovering” credit unions online and “many more no doubt will as a result of this Bank Transfer Day initiative.”
Wire service reports Monday identified the ringleader of “Bank Transfer Day” as Kristen Christian, a 27-year-old Los Angeles art gallery owner who said she is not affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street protest, but that demonstration organizers had reached out to her to express support.
Christian reportedly chose Nov. 5 because of its association with 17th century British folk hero Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the British House of Lords but was captured on that day.
A Facebook page for the event states that “”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."
The protests began in New York and have popped up around the country. A few hundred protesters gathered in Las Vegas, for instance, on Thursday night and were escorted by police for a march down the Strip. Among the calls for action on the flyers being distributed was to move banking accounts to credit unions.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
85 Comments so far
Show AllBanksters are a slimy lot that can squirm out of attempts to cut support for their crooked enterprises. They will take their looted billions with them and metastasize to other financial scams.
Instead of wealth redistribution by trying to shame oligarchs into taxing themselves, we could be talking about direct democratic ways to keep the money-power under control of the 99%.
Slimy, yes! But if enough support is withdrawn their investors will look elsewhere to invest. If they have no customers or investors they will collapse. And no amount of bailout will save a bank that has no customers.
Move your money!!!
"direct democratic ways to keep the money-power under control of the 99%."
Right on. The way to do that is to insure that the credit unions we put our money into are CO-OPS, in which every customer can elect the Board of Directors. ...... And if there aren't enough co-op credit unions yet, and there aren't, then we should ask the co-ops to expand quickly to take advantage of the surge.
The "money-power" is under no one's control. The Fed is privately held since 1913. They control us and Congress. Runs on banks will just lead to another govt(read taxpayer) bailout which just involves printing more money in our name. Bernancke said he was going to devalue the dollar. Printing a few extra trillion is the fastest way
Agree 100%, already in a Credit Union in fact.
”The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarch, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than a bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at the rear is my greatest foe.” -- Abraham Lincoln
The financial impact of the transfer of personal bank accounts from exploitative financial institutions to Credit Unions may be relatively small, but it will be a signal of people's concern and, in the long run it will be better for the individuals who choose to transfer their money: Credit Unions almost always offer a better deal to their members than banks do to their customers.
For example, I have an unsecured credit line at 5.3% at my local CU. Try that a BofA.
Agreed, Leatherman ... whether or not the Wall Street casinos will be irreparably harmed, individual citizens will benefit from their switch to credit unions. A mass action Nov. 5 is fine for statement-making, but I recommend making the move immediately.
If not sooner.
Remember the multiplier effect. For every dollar of deposits, the bank lends out $12 or $30, depending on how risky they have been leveraging. For every dollar of withdrawal, the bank has much less money to play with. Many people moving money is essentially a run on the bank, and that is one thing that banks fear most.I had my big bank write me a check for $8000, and the clerk asked why I am moving money. I said, "This is what a run on the bank looks like."
Noice!!!!
When I asked a bank I once had my money in for a check taking a large amount out, and the clerk asked me why, I told her I was going on a world-wide cruise. I didn't see that it was any of her or the bank's business.
They ask so they can report you to the Feds for 'drug running' cuz, god forbid, you should want your own money, especially over 10K at a time... you see, us plebes aren't allowed to work in big sums, that's for the federal government to waste.
Next, can we get people to stop paying taxes? It's all going to kill people overseas without our consent. Manufactured terrorists, manufactured enemies, manufactured lies... all backed up by scare tactics, the IRS is gonna get you if you don't comply.
Welcome to the land of the Imprisoned and the home of the Resistance.
Amazing isn't it, the little people have to wait five days to clear a 10,000.00 check but Bernie Maddoff pulled off his scam involving millions if not billions.
the impact doesn't have to be small. could any business you are affiliated with sustain even a 10% loss of daily free money pouring in to use for most of a month? stick big piggy where it hurts-in cash flow. move your direct deposit accounts, and, the sooner, the better.
I have been with my credit union for twenty three years. Every one there knows me by my first name. Every there knew my wife by her first name. I will stay with them as long as I breathe.
I also strongly suggest REPEAL OF CORPORATE PERSONHOOD as an Occupy goal.
This is what should be the #1 goal of everyone with any sense.
This should be the #1 goal of everyone without any sense also.
We should give Texas a chance to execute one of their corporation persons who have committed murder.
Absolutely. Without this nothing is possible.
Indeed. Let's start the process of passing a new amendment to the U.S. Constitution: No corporate "personhood" will be recognized, and more money will never be the same as "more free speech".
YES, HIT EM WHERE IT HURTS!!!!!
Why were credit unions closed today?
Columbus Day! The holiday celebrating the horrible man who tortured the Indians he met.
Just like the banks.
Remember how brainwashed we were as kids? Columbus good. Indians bad.
Same with all the patriotic songs we sang and the Pledge.
I am in Rev. Wright's camp.
Columbus Day?
So again...if credit unions are pretending to be unlike banks, why were they closed?
Not every credit union has much of a left-of-center social conscience. Most of the ones in my area are in fact quite conservative in the way they present themselves to the public. They have to be; resentful lower-middle-class libertarian-leaning-Rethug with a big Jesus streak is the predominant sociopolitical demographic around here.
While I understand your points, I disagree that "they have to be that way". We're not talking
Bailey Savings & Loan. Occupy Bedford Falls!
George Bailey would be with us.
Well, they don't have to be; but they'd have a difficult enough time explaining the matter to their own employees. And given that their boards are pretty conservative to start with, it's not going to happen anyway. Might as well ask them to give a burnt flag with each new account.
Credit unions aren't megabanks, and for that we should be duly thankful. But they aren't by their nature agents of progressive change.
Well now here is an "agenda" item that the MSM can jump all over. They can talk it up as a plot to destroy America or some such malarky. Personally I have been in favor of credit unions for over 40 years and I'm super pleased to see this catching on. The big banks will notice if enough people follow through.
Do it.
Excellent idea. In reality, we "99%'ers'" deposits make up a very tiny fraction of the trillions in $$ deposits on the TBTF Banks' books - the VAST majority of their deposits are the big corporations/Wall Street money. I doubt they would really notice much if we all pulled our $ and switched to a CU. But, nonetheless, since they don't need us anyway, we certainly don't need them.
Maybe they wouldn't notice, BUT... If the 99%ers move over to credit unions, leaving corporations and Wall Street in the banks, will the banks bilk those high-flying customers out of their money with the same violations of their rights? I'd be happy to see banks ONLY for corporations and Wall Street. How would the banks survive if they cannot steal from those customers as they have done to us? FWIW, I left Wachovia two years ago (which is now Wells Fargo) and moved my account into a credit union. I have a small limit credit card now in addition to my bank card for emergencies, online banking, very helpful customer service, and they know my name, only a $1 charge for VISA oversease transactions, and a host of other benefits that Wachovia didn't offer. Demonstorm, who knows if they need us, but I sure don't need them, as you say.
Here on Long Island, NY, I transferred to The Teachers Federal Credit Union!
Just a wonderful, inspired action, and TPTB can't label it violent or subversive. Just common, good sense. My 15 years with a local CU will attest to what has been THE best financial decision I've ever made.
BTW, Guy Fawkes Day falls on a Saturday this year, so why wait? DO IT NOW!!! Or whenever. Every individual actions adds to the impact of the whole.
What other individual actions can we devise to undermine and cancel the effects of the cancerous beast that's eating us all alive?
In addition to transferring banking activities from banks to credit unions, consider transferring long term savings from mutual funds to silver coins. A 1 oz US silver dollar is essentially a $30 bill now. If inflation starts to the degree that the Fed's fabricating of fiat money suggests it will, then a silver dollar might become a $50 or a $100 or higher. Silver just dropped in price. Now is a good time to switch from paper to metal. Move mutual funds retirement savings to silver or gold coins. Banks won't like that either.
Hey, will one of you open a bank account for me so I can transfer the balance to a credit union on remember remember eleven september day? No? What a bunch of selfish hosers.
Then send some money to Liberty Park.
hmm, i had $106 plus a few ¢¢¢ in a subsidairy of goldman $U¢k$ . i sent a check for $106 to julian assange defense in august, but september's statement still reads 106 plus.
guess i'll have to call them today. i thought i'd let them keep the ¢¢¢, but might have to rewrite the check and surrender my $5 lunch money.
whatever
Five dollars for lunch!
Does sugar water really cost that much?
I quit corporate banking years ago. I wrote a check to a client for one thousand dollars (bank one) when he went to cash the check the bank would only pay $995, Five dollar charge to cash the check. The local branch didn't even have a phone number. Several hours and phone calls later ( some to other countries) I drove down to the bank withdrew all my funds. They asked why and I told them you withdrew $1000 dollars from my account and kept $5 for yourselves there is nothing in our contract that allows you to do that. They think the monies deposited in their bank belongs to them to do as they will. Hit them where it hurts! GO OWS!
Yeah, that's just like the politicians who think that our tax money is their money, to do with as they wish. Our only duty is to pony up on demand and provide cheap labor and cannon fodder for the MICC.
Regarding the DemoPublicans, as Mercutio says in Romeo and Juliette, "A plague on both your houses."
Unless this is something new or missing from the story, a check is a promise for the full amount. That is why tradesmen drive to the bank from which a check is written to cash it. No account is needed, just i.d.
And you work for which bank?
What makes you think i work for a bank? Just cuz I know my way around bank fees does not mean i work for one. It just means that i research stuff instead of whining...
If the check is DRAWN on that bank (look up "drawn" if you don't know that doesn't involve crayons), they are (or we used to consider them) obliged to honor that check regardless of which bank the holder of the check belongs to.
That check, is simply a set of directions from the account holder who wrote the check, it is not a license to steal any fee from the check's payee, just because he doesn't choose to bank with this bank.
Whether the holder of the check has an account with YOUR bank is irrelevant. Your CLIENT, sees fit to pay this person (some DUDE off the street) and the check is your instructions to do so. Your duty to the account holder is to verify identification, pay the "dude", and that is ALL!
Criminals rationalize why they do what they do all the time.
There were no mentions of foreign entities in the original post, but I suppose your bankster mentality inserted that to rationalize a (should be) illegal practice (check cashing fees). All big bank affiliates charge foreigners (non-account holders) a fee to cash checks now. Banks could careless about what country you come from, the only foreigners are people who don't choose to bank with them.
This type of sheeple response is why the Occupy movement is so important.
We've been taken to the point we are now...gradually. A check from an individual is a promise to pay to the holder. When banks invent "check cashing fees" to a non-account holder, they are stealing. In real, business terms of what it is happening, there's no difference between an account holder going to his bank and cashing a check for $100 and someone he wrote a $100 check to, cashing that same check. To charge them a fee for simply doing their job (distributing funds as directed by the account holder) is abusive and theft. Don't let them provide rationalizations for this "fee"...it's simply theft.
I applaud the poster who closed his account over a $5 fee.
Credit Unions, from my past, 20 years' experience, are much more responsive to their customers, less likely to start adding bogus (and I still believe ILLEGAL) fees, and always more willing to loan small sums that big banks don't want to be bothered with.
We don't NEED Banks, they need US!