So what happens if 100,000 people move their money to small banks?
The fees charged by the big banks have gotten progressively ridiculous, and several of the major banks like Bank of America purposefully manipulated customer accounts to maximize overdraft fees to the tune of $2o billion a year…
Bank executives continue to get massive multi-million dollar bonuses… despite the fact it was American taxpayer money that bailed those very same banks out of a crisis created by the banks themselves.
Wall Street Protests Get Specific: Could ‘Bank Transfer Day’ Pit Americans Against Their Big Banks?
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.”
Btx3's Blog 
brotherbrown
October 11, 2011 at 7:01 PM
Can we talk? My very first passbook savings account (age 13) was at Security Pacific Bank, long since absorbed by BofA when it was still HQ’d in San Francisco. In my professional life, I have only ‘banked’ at credit unions, the one exception being the time I ran a small business and thought there would be an advantage to being a bank depositor, on the advice of the local SCORE Mentor. $10 a month to be able to make deposits at the Merchants Window was not such a good deal.
Credit Unions are definitely a better option for most people.
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btx3
October 12, 2011 at 12:04 AM
Agreed. I run my international business with a regional business bank, that only has about 10 branches. The biggest issue so far is the lack of ATMs, and when I go to some countries and pay a large bill like a Hotel bill for my team it triggers whats called a FRIS alert. So I have worked out a system of calling them before I go, and giving them an idea of the anticipated expenses. So far, that has worked pretty good. The other advantage is their “hold” time on incoming checks is much shorter – typically only 2 days, which makes a hell of a difference to a business. Wells Fargo and BOA take 7 days or more to clear even a bank check, which means they are ripping you off.
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Jeremy
July 15, 2012 at 8:59 PM
Purposefully is not a word…
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btx3
July 17, 2012 at 10:12 PM
Unfortunately for you – it is. use Google – purposefully – and yo will find the specific word you are trying to malappropriate.
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