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Bruce Hartford

Bruce Hartford

Posted: February 17, 2010 10:07 AM

Refuse to Be Abused by Your Big Bank

What's Your Reaction:

I refuse to be abused by my big bank. My name is Bruce Hartford, and I'm in an abusive relationship with Bank of America.

They used my money for their Wall Street gambling. Then when they crashed the economy, they blackmailed my government into bailing them out with my tax dollars.

They're still using my money to pay themselves obscene bonuses while laying off thousands and bankrupting small businesses.

After looting the public treasury for their own benefit, they're now bribing Congress to prevent any regulation that might prevent them from doing it again. Yes, I know they call it "campaign contributions," and "issue-oriented free speech," but it stinks like bribery to me.

They run ads in the newspaper bragging about how they're helping homeowners and investing in the local economy, but that's a lie and everyone on the block knows it. They suckered people into predatory mortgages and now that their house of cards has collapsed they're forcing people out of their homes and into the streets. Instead of making loans to businesses to restart the economy that they torpedoed, they finance corporate mergers and acquisitions that destroy jobs and devastate communities.

There used to be many solid regional banks in my community who competed with each other for my business. Now there are just four huge MegaBanks who compete with each other in how far they can jack up fees, how many new tricks they can come up with to gouge another buck out of their depositors, and how high they can raise credit card interest.

I'm told that the first step of ending an abusive relationship is to admit you're in one. The second step is to get out. Last week I went to http://www.anewwayforward.org/bankbreakup to learn more about breaking up with my MegaBank, and then I went to http://moveyourmoney.info/find-a-bank to find a good, safe, local bank or credit union. As soon as my new accounts functioning, I'm walking out on BofA.

If I can break out of an abusive financial relationship, so can you. Please join me by breaking up with your MegaBank.

Move Money1

 
 
 
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blissfulfun
ready to do something NOW
03:38 PM on 03/13/2010
I love this idea to break up with your big banks. the fact is these megabanks come whining like little wussies for government entitlements, tax breaks and big bailout bucks on the premise that they are too big to fail, all the while abusing the public trust, abusing and casino gambling with the public monies and buying the public representatives in congress.
this kind of bribery and abuse is unacceptable. The corporate welfare addict CEOS who have grown fat off the bonuses funded by public bailout money though they claim they're too big to fail, doesent mean they are too big for jail.
Id be happier if the most corrupt of the bunch were found by an independent regulatory agency to be criminal and jailed.
Mary Bottari has an article dealing with how these fat cat scamsters are doing their best to handcuff the regulators and lobbying to have their oversight taken over by that other elite insider syndicate known as the Federal reserve bank.
her article is over at
http://www.banksterusa.org/content/progressive-senators-fight-real-reform
and i salute and thank you both for having the tenacity, the smarts and the voice to bring light to these criminal parasites that are sucking the livelihood from main street right into their bailout bonuses and Geneva bank accounts.
thanks and take care
bryan
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Wood-Harp
Truth Reveals Light.
08:42 PM on 02/17/2010
Another connected "abusive financial relationship" is with the credit card syndicate. The credit union aspect of the American Debt Relief Challenge and Move Your Money campaign is an answer. Facebook: Credit Card Predators
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=326306798759
06:34 PM on 02/17/2010
I just closed my account with Chase today. I opened up a new account with a credit union, and after all the bills had been paid and everything settled, I walked right into Chase and relished the thought of closing my big bank account.

Naturally, I had to wait over 20 minutes to be helped, and then, when asked the inevitable question of why I was closing my account, I began my little tirade against wall street, mega bonuses and why my pittance would do more good elsewhere. The lady looked at me like I was off my rocker, and I'm pretty sure she was sorry she had asked me why I was leaving.

I didn't care. It felt SO good to walk out of that place knowing it's highly unlikely I'll EVER step foot in a mega bank again.
03:52 PM on 02/17/2010
this is really great. this flyer is perfect and needs to get into more people's hands! see how the raging grannies have converted people at atm's simply by going out there and giving people a flyer. we need to reach the people we can't reach on the internet.

http://www.anewwayforward.org/blogs/2010/02/17/raging-grannies-breaking-up-peoples-relationships/
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HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Bruce Hartford
08:22 PM on 02/17/2010
Thanks for the kudos. You're certainly welcome to use the flyer. There's a [download] button up at the top. Or, if that doesn't work for you, I've posted a PDF version on my personal blog at:
http://ohfreedom.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/move_money1.pdf.