The Nation: 'Move Your Money' Is 'Lighting Up The Internet'

thenation.com:

Are you angry about Wall Street's reckless excesses? Are you disappointed with President Obama's limp approach to reform? You can change this, acting individually and collectively. Withdraw your deposit and savings accounts from the large banks that brought the system to ruin and were subsequently rescued with billions in government bailouts. Put your money instead in smaller, safer banks or credit unions closer to home--the thousands of community institutions that do not harvest their profits from greed and recklessness.

Read the whole story: thenation.com

Comments

[Bardmess]

12:12 PM on 01/21/2010

I love my credit union almost as much as I hate Wells Fargo that is foreclosing on every other house in my neighborhood and then auctioning off the houses for less than a cram down would cost.

[isee61]

12:10 AM on 01/19/2010

You want to take control of your life and your money?

Read the "Total money makeover" by Dave Ramsey.

It tell YOU how to clean up the mess YOU have make with YOUR finances. It also teaches you that if YOU change your behavior with money, YOU change YOUR life for the better.

YOU can do it, I have.

[theDailY BAILOUT]

12:07 PM on 01/18/2010

recession not over yet
good articles: http://iamned-website.blogspot.com

[Yaxchibonam]

09:59 AM on 01/16/2010

I've been with a local credit union for 9 years and have felt really secure. The credit union has its own ATM/credit card as well as a Visa, so I don't experience any inconvenience. I'm getting my daughter and her husband to change over. My son is already with a credit union. This is an exciting movement!

[trinity]

06:26 PM on 01/15/2010

As soon as I can get our from under credit card debt from Chase, I plan to close my Chase account once and for all and move to a local credit union. At this point, it is just easier to auto-pay down my cards when my bank account is also at Chase. Chase bought out Bank One, which bought out First National Bank of Chicago where I started 18 years ago. It has been downhill ever since.

[drymartini2]

03:49 PM on 01/15/2010

I moved my money to Chase by opening a new checking account.

they are offering 25000 Miles on Continental Onepass account (good for a free roundtrip ticket in continental US). Just make 5 purchases with debit card in 2 months.

After the miles are credited, I plan to withdraw it and open a citibank account. i heard they have good plans with American Airlines AAvantage plan.

[trinity]

06:27 PM on 01/15/2010

Interesting plan...but by then, I am sure they will have sooooo....many restrictions on those miles, it won't be worth it...

[drymartini2]

07:57 PM on 01/15/2010

I plan to use it by this summer :). they do have restrictions on miles (weekend stay required, cant fly friday I think)...but still...just for opening an account its a good deal.

there is a 25$ yearly fee though. I dont plan to keep it open to pay it year after year.

[my whitehouse]

11:46 AM on 01/15/2010

let's move our money!
hat tip to http://iamned-website.blogspot.com

[NoPCZone]

11:15 AM on 01/15/2010

Would that be like "The Nation" trying to get me to get a bankster credit card to help "The Nation"? Tell KVH to get a clue.

[Badbone]

09:58 AM on 01/15/2010

Will this be as successful as "Don't buy gasoline on Thursday"?

I LOVE the sentiment behind it, I really do. I'm glad that people are doing something with their anger. But why don't we do something constructive? Do you think any banker is worried over this?

If every single consumer moved their money, it would barely impact them. I have about $5000 in my bank account, most people do too. We simply make no difference. I wish we did, but we don't.

This is feel good, that does no good.

[Artos]

10:22 AM on 01/15/2010

You are absolutely wrong and it is due to that type of thinking which induces so many people never to do anything. You may not think that your paltry $5000 will make any difference to the Banks but it does, because if you multiply your amount by the same paltry amounts that others have in their accounts or savings it becomes a huge amount. Think of it like the Lottery, each Person who plays may only put in a small amount but look what happens to the total Lottery Prize. It becomes a lot. In addition to savings and checking accounts people also have their investments with these banks which derive fees for maintaining the investments, then too their are the ATM fees and God only knows all the other little fees they get away with. That adds up. So unless you happen to work for one of these Too Big to Fail Banks and are merely here to help deter people with counterproductive propaganda do the rest of us a favor and restrain your pessimism. It is better to do something than nothing at all.

[Hobbit78]

10:58 AM on 01/15/2010

You are absolutely correct. One penny from each of the 300 million US citizens is 3 million bucks. $3.33 from everybody would yeild $1 billion. They didn't get the money in one big heist, they got it a few bucks at a time with millions of fees & transactions every day.

[KaptainKen]

05:11 PM on 01/15/2010

It's even more powerful than that, Artos.

Demand deposits can be used as required reserves. This means that for each $100 deposited the bank can make loans of about 10 times that amount: $1000. (The actual required reserve is less than 10%; I'm not sure exactly what it is but 10% makes a good figure for illustrative purposes.)

Removing your deposits from a TBTF bank reduces their economic clout by 10 times whatever your deposit was. Moving your money to a local bank or credit union makes 10 times that amount available to loan locally.

If enough people do this we can change a TBTF (To big to fail) bank into a TSTM (To small to matter) bank.

[tompoe]

07:41 AM on 01/16/2010

The impact for your moving your money is permanent. The TBTF banks lose you forever. As mentioned already, whatever your account is, the bank sees it ten times more. That's a significant loss, when many accounts are closed. Their operations costs can be crippled by your move. Do it. Don't look back, and join the movement, knowing it really will do some good in the fight to get our country back on track.

[inthedesert]

08:36 AM on 01/15/2010

If you are thinking of doing this, choose a credit union and NOT a small community bank!! CUs are owned by the depositors not a larger entity. A lot of small community banks are failing these days. I moved my banking from a big bank that I had been with for over 20 years to Altura CU and I love it.
The main point here is to do some homework and research before you move your money. I had not had any problems with my bank over the years but I am sick of big banks in general and their bailouts.
Although moving my banking will have little effect on the bank, it certainly felt good to "make a statement" as a private citizen. It was actually very empowering!!

[smiththomas]

08:36 AM on 01/15/2010

They are getting us to look at the banks while they feed the unions

[LaHenche]

03:25 AM on 01/15/2010

FOR "FANS" OF CHASE BANK, DOWNLOAD THIS IMAGE:

http://www.photoanon.com/images/27t5rp47swgj2phjga0.jpg

CUT/ TRIM, CIRCULATE.

I ACTUALLY TOOK A STACK OF THEM AND PLACED THEM AT MY LOCAL CHASE ATMS.

[Steve Magruder]

12:26 AM on 01/15/2010

It's amazing to me how this simple, yet powerful was lost on the tea baggers. No, actually, I wasn't surprised at all. The tea baggers only hate the bank bailouts and who conducted them, not the banks who got the bailouts and who were the main cause of our near-depression.

[windup]

10:48 AM on 01/15/2010

Good point.

[AirViceMarshalPark]

10:13 PM on 01/14/2010

So, we now have a few hundred people moving their profitless checking accounts into the wholly owned subsidiaries of big banks that masquerade as "community banks".

So what? Where are the indictments like we had in 1937? How many bankers are in prison?

[lisakaz2]

10:57 PM on 01/14/2010

This is why you check out the lists given to find local banks, esp. ones like credit unions, that are owned by the members. They do still exist.

[ClassicalGas]

02:17 AM on 01/15/2010

Good point, however - not all Community Banks are subsidiaries. I checked out our local bank and it is a stand-alone local bank and not publicly-traded. Credit Unions are owned by their depositors. I got my few dollars out of the reach of the conglomerates while awaiting news on said indictments.

[Dan Kushner]

10:04 PM on 01/14/2010

I reject the economic populism of this movement the same as I reject the economic populism of the tea baggers.

And it's not "lighting up the internet", unless you count the forced effort here at huffpo.

[Artos]

10:25 AM on 01/15/2010

Reject all you want, Who cares.