I admit to harboring a deep seeded contempt for the too-big-to-fail-banks. Especially the big four that took our bail-out money and gave us higher fees and higher interest rates in return. Many of the big banks recently sent out a flurry of fine-print rules and regulations to cover anything and everything they might want to do to us in the future ( that will of course screw us and profit them) before new Federal guidelines kick-in that will not allow certain unethical banking practices to continue. Practices like automatic over the limit fees and charging $39.00 on a 35 cent overdraft will not be allowed. So, the big banks, utilizing their infinite stick-it-to-the-consumer wisdom and bottom feeder status on the economic food chain, are trolling for new stupid fees that are not yet illegal, just immoral, insensitive and blatantly greedy.
Now evidently , the consumer has reached its’ collective breaking point with these giant economic gluttons and this Huffington Post inspired campaign (www.huffingtonpost.com) to move your money out of the big mismanaged banks into community banks and credit unions is catching on. It is not just lip service it is consumers dumping big banks and heading to small local banks for real service. While I have been with a credit union for years because they are non-profit, are member owned, and actually know my name, I do have a big bank credit card that recently raised my interest rate 5% even though I have great credit and pay off my balance every month. Since I don’t maintain a balance I won’t have to pay their rates but because I have been with them for years and they raised it for no reason, just on principle I will be tossing them to the curb soon.
In the week that the Huffington Post started this initiative searches for community banks were 370,000 on Google in 16,000 zip codes. Community banks are known to give back to the community, give loans to the community and have a vested interest in the community. Credit unions today have 92 million members, and since they are non-profit their money goes back to members in the form of lower fees and good rates. Don’t think for one second that moving a small amount of money won’t make a difference. These are the people that made our economy fail. They have had no repurcussions, we have. No apologies or admissions of guilt or wrong doing were ever given to the American people, they just kept raking in those millions in bonuses until the government stepped in and cut them off. These are the people with no conscience and dollar signs for a heart. If large, small and medium accounts were closed in droves, who would be left for them to screw? Themselves.
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