650K Joined Credit Unions Last Month, More Than in All of 2010

[PatColo]

650,000 Americans Joined Credit Unions Last Month — More Than in All of 2010 Combined (http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/690159/650,000_americans_joined_credit_unions_last_month_ %E2%80%94_more_than_in_all_of_2010_combined/)

initial commentary from a collapsenet.com (http://www.collapsenet.com/) staffer:


http://www.collapsenet.com/images/Chris%20Martenson/anonymousflagmask.jpg
Only 600,000 Americans joined Credit Unions in 2010, but 650,000 joined up in October 2011 alone. With increasing fees from megabanks like Bank of America, growing discontent towards the banking sector in general, and the Occupy Movement's call to transfer funds out of "too big to fail" banks by November 5th, it seems more people are putting their money where their mouths are. -Max Mogren, CollapseNet Staff
650,000 Americans Joined Credit Unions Last Month — More Than in All of 2010 Combined (http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/690159/650,000_americans_joined_credit_unions_last_month_ %E2%80%94_more_than_in_all_of_2010_combined/)


One of the tactics the 99 Percenters are using to take back the country from the 1 percent is to move their money (http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/) from big banks to credit unions, community banks, and other smaller financial unions that aren’t gambling with our nation’s future.

Now, the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) reports that a whopping 650,000 Americans have joined credit unions (http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/176_214/customers-flee-for-credit-unions-1043783-1.html?zkPrintable=true) since Sept. 29 — the date that Bank of America announced it would start charging a $5 monthly debit fee, a move it backed down (http://inagist.com/rob_sheridan/131449581878779904/?utm_source=inagist&utm_medium=rss) on this week.

To put that in perspective, there were only 600,000 (http://opcashback.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/650000-new-members-have-joined-credit-unions-via-anonops_/) new members for credit unions in all of 2010. “These results indicate that consumers are clearly making a smarter choice (http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/176_214/customers-flee-for-credit-unions-1043783-1.html?zkPrintable=true) by moving to credit unions where, on average, they will save about $70 a year in fewer or no fees, lower rates on loans and higher return on savings,” said CUNA President Bill Cheney.

This Saturday, 99 Percenters are calling on Americans to move their money from big banks to credit unions and community banks on what is being called “Bank Transfer Day (http://www.facebook.com/Nov.Fifth).” If you want to stand with the 99 Percent and take part in this action, use the Move Your Money project’s community bank and credit union finder tool (http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/find-bankcredit-union)to find out how. (HT: [at]blogdiva (https://twitter.com/#%21/blogdiva/status/132162114210111490))

By Zaid Jilani | Sourced from Think Progress (http://thinkprogress.org/) Posted at November 3, 2011, 2:03 pm (http://thinkprogress.org/)

[PatColo]

pretty good ad, sorry to see it branded "MoveOn.org" but it's hard to dispute the message of moving money out of BigBanksta and into community/CU's.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sGz4BidPH8

but how do they keep it going after Nov 5 (tomorrow/Sat) ?? maybe that's the rub? Well according to the OP story, plenty were doing it in advance of 11/5, so why not plenty after too?

[Twisted Titan]

I wish 650k would have moved a chunk of their into phyisical Silver.

The markets would seize up

[Sparky]

I wish 650k would have moved a chunk of their into phyisical Silver.

The markets would seize up

One step at a time, TT.

Remember, silver went from $8 to $48 in just 30 months. That's a whopping 500% increase. So somebody's been moving into physical. It also went from $26 to $48 in just 3 months, which is an annualized rate of 340%. That's seizure-like.

[PatColo]

video inside link-


Bank Transfer Day: Marches Planned on Banks Nationwide (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/bank-transfer-day-marches-planned-banks-nationwide/story?id=14889051)
By ERIN McLAUGHLIN
Nov. 5, 2011



http://a.abcnews.com/images/Business/gty_bank_line_jt_111105_wg.jpg
Customers line up at a bank. (Jason Dewey/Getty Images)










Today is Bank Transfer Day (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2011/10/bank-transfer-day-gains-momentum-on-facebook/) -- a deadline of sorts to a movement calling for people to shift their funds from for-profit banking institutions to not-for-profit credit unions before Nov. 5.



More than 82,000 people have RSVPed to the movement's Facebook event, which is supposed to "ensure that these banking institutions will always remember the 5th of November," by sending a message "that conscious consumers won't support companies with unethical business practices."



"The principle behind monthly debit card fees weren't something I could support as a conscious consumer," said Kristen Christian, Bank Transfer Day's sole organizer.



"Investigating my options, credit unions were clearly the most logical choice. I decided ... that I had to take further action to educate the American people in how credit unions serve local communities."



And that's how Bank Transfer Day was born. Just don't confuse it with Occupy Wall Street.



"I'm humbled that OWS has chosen to adopt BTD's directive, but felt it is necessary to distinguish between the two movements because of growing fear among Bank Transfer Day supporters that I was advocating and supporting disruptive actions a select few OWS organizers have chosen to engage in," Christian told ABC News.



The 27-year-old art gallery owner from Los Angeles said she had never participated in any Occupy activities, and posted the following disclaimer on her website:



"While the Bank Transfer Day movement acknowledges the enthusiasm from Anonymous and Occupy Wall Street, the Bank Transfer Day movement was neither inspired by, derived from nor organized by Anonymous or the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the Bank Transfer Day movement does not endorse any activities conducted by Anonymous or Occupy Wall Street," the Facebook page for BankTransferDay.org (https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=281139538577206) states.



Several Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested last month for entering a bank in downtown Manhattan looking to close their accounts with the bank.
At least one group has advised businesses of a "heightened risk of violence" today, but so far there have been no reports of violence stemming from the event.



The social media research company ListenLogic said it analyzed several million online posts that have identified "a significant increase in support for key Occupy events during the Nov. 5 weekend." The spike includes a 25 percent increase in threats made by protesters during the past week, nearly 70 percent of which target police.



The other most commonly targeted groups include: politicians (10 percent), corporate executives (8 percent) and reporters (3 percent). More than 80 percent of Occupy-related videos viewed on YouTube for the 30-day period ending Nov. 4 include such acts of violence, destruction or arrest activity. There are more than 1 million online posts per day about the Occupy movement, according to ListenLogic.



ListenLogic said marches to bank branches have been organized throughout the United States related to Bank Transfer Day.



At least 650,000 people have already switched to credit unions since Sept. 29, according to the Credit Union National Association, after Bank of America announced plans to charge a $5 debit card purchase fee next year. The bank announced Tuesday it was canceling the fee (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/bank-america-drops-plan-debit-card-fee/story?id=14857970#.TrQnpnImzTo).



The association estimates that credit unions have added $4.5 billion in new savings accounts.



"More than four in every five credit unions experiencing growth since Sept. 29 attributed the growth to consumer reaction to new fees imposed by banks, or a combination of consumer reactions to the new bank fees plus the social media-inspired Bank Transfer Day," the association said in a statement.



Christian said she did not intend to start a big movement when she shared her plans with her 500 Facebook friends.



Christian also explained the reference to Englishman Guy Fawkes who tried to assassinate King James I in an attempt to restore Catholicism on Nov. 5, 1605. Fawkes' mask (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2011/11/occupy-protesters-embrace-v-for-vendetta/) has become more widely used in the Occupy Wall Street protests.



ListenLogic said Guy Fawkes masks are used by Occupy protesters to symbolize anarchist intentions and, "more recently, to maintain anonymity while being destructive," Christian said.


Occupy protesters with anarchist intentions are planning bonfires in city streets, according to Christian.



Christian said she hopes the use of Eddie Colla's Guy Fawkes imagery would replace any previous negative association of this date with the image of Americans in peaceful solidarity fighting for ethical business practices and community growth.
While many credit unions have cheered on her effort, some have said Saturday is not an ideal date for thousands to transfer their accounts.



Stephen Ranzini, president of University Bank in Ann Arbor, Mich., said there could be technical difficulties in transferring money on a day when money can't be transferred between institutions because the Federal Reserve is closed.



Bank Transfer Day: Marches Planned on Banks Nationwide - ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/bank-transfer-day-marches-planned-banks-nationwide/story?id=14889051)

[PatColo]

Big Banks Plead with Customers Not to Move Their Money (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/big-banks-plead-with-customers-not-to-move-their-money.html)
Posted on November 9, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog

[PatColo]

thread on this story by MNEagle, cross posting here for posterity,

Thread: Banks Quietly Ramping Up Costs to Consumers (http://gold-silver.us/forum/showthread.php?55819-Banks-Quietly-Ramping-Up-Costs-to-Consumers)




Even as Bank of America and other major lenders back away from charging customers to use their debit cards, many banks have been quietly imposing other new fees.

Need to replace a lost debit card? Bank of America now charges $5 — or $20 for rush delivery.

Deposit money with a mobile phone? At U.S. Bancorp, it is now 50 cents a check.
Want cash wired to your account? Starting in December, that will cost $15 for each incoming domestic payment at TD Bank. Facing a reaction from an angry public and heightened scrutiny from regulators, banks are turning to all sorts of fees that fly under the radar. Everything, it seems, has a price.

“Banks tried the in-your-face fee with debit cards, and consumers said enough,” said Alex Matjanec, a co-founder of MyBankTracker.com (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/SIG=11dcfk3da/EXP=1322505176/**http%3A//MyBankTracker.com/). “What most people don’t realize is that they have been adding new charges or taking fees that have always existed and increased them, or are making them harder to avoid.”

Banks can still earn a profit on most checking accounts. But they are under intense pressure to make up an estimated $12 billion a year of income that vanished with the passage of rules curbing lucrative overdraft charges and lowering debit card swipe fees. In addition, with lending at anemic levels and interest rates close to zero, banks are struggling to find attractive places to lend or invest all the deposits they hold. That poses another $8 billion drag.

Put another way, banks would need to recoup, on average, between $15 and $20 a month from each depositor just to earn what they did in the past, according to an analysis of the interest rate and regulatory changes on checking accounts by Oliver Wyman, a financial consulting firm.

For consumers, the result is a quiet creep of new charges and higher fees for everything from cash withdrawals at ATMs to wire payments, paper statements and in some cases, even the overdraft charges that lawmakers hoped to ratchet down. What is more, banks are raising minimum account balances and adding other new requirements so that it is harder for customers to qualify for fee waivers.

Even the much-maligned debit usage charges have effectively been bundled into higher monthly fees on checking accounts. Bank of America abandoned its $5 a month debit card usage fee in late October amid a firestorm of criticism. Yet, it more quietly raised the cost of its basic MyAccess checking account by more than $3 a month earlier this year. Monthly maintenance fees now run $12 a month, up from $8.95.

Chase and Citigroup, which quickly distanced themselves from the debit card usage fee, ratcheted up the price of their entry-level checking products without the public relations nightmare. This month, Citigroup’s basic checking account jumped to $10 a month, up from $8. Chase raised the fee on its standard checking account to $12 a month in February; many of those customers were previously charged nothing at all.
Officials at all of those banks are adamant that they have been transparent about the price increases and are providing ample ways for customers to avoid the monthly charges, like maintaining a minimum balance or signing up for direct deposit. Given the uproar, some bankers say the ultimate answer lies in enticing customers to give them more of their business in other services — not by making up the lost revenue on checking accounts.

“The long-term game is improving customer experience scores, so over time you win more business and make more money,” said Todd Maclin, the head of Chase’s retail and commercial bank.

It costs most banks between $200 and $300 a year to maintain a retail checking account, from staffing branches to covering federal deposit insurance premiums. In the past, the fees banks collected from merchants each time customers swiped their debit card or overdrew their account covered much of that expense. Banks offered “free checking” to the masses as a result.

But the economics have drastically changed over the past two years. Income earned on deposits has fallen, while the revenue gained from fees has plunged by as much as half because of the new regulations. Today, according to Oliver Wyman, banks are expected to take in, on average, between $85 and $115 in fees a year per account — making it especially hard to turn a profit on customers with low balances.

“They have got to make up the income some place,” said Vernon Hill II, the founder of Commerce Bank whose retail-oriented approach transformed it into a large regional player before it was sold to TD Bank. He added: “I think we will see a lot more fees.”

Some policy makers are already fed up. This month, two Democratic senators, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Jack Reed of Rhode Island, urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to adopt a more consumer-friendly disclosure form, akin to the nutrition label on food packaging, for all the fees attached to a checking account.

“Simply put, consumers have had enough of banks that try to sneak fees past them that are hidden in fine print or imposed with no notice at all,” they wrote (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/SIG=13sghd94o/EXP=1322505176/**http%3A//durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/statementscommentary%3FID=690fc5d1-f6ac-49bc-ba75-46a6aa1b512a). Last year, a Pew Charitable Trusts study found that bank customers could potentially incur 49 different fees (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/SIG=12pcli3ad/EXP=1322505176/**http%3A//www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx%3Fid=85899359140) on a typical checking account.

New fees, of course, will cover a small part of the gap in profits. Banks are also hoping that new products catch on. Some are steering lower-income customers to prepaid cards, which were not affected by the reduction in debit card swipe fees.
TD Bank officials say one of their hottest products is a simple checking account with no minimum balance requirement introduced in March. Even though it comes with a $2.99 monthly fee, almost 300,000 customers have signed up. And nearly every major bank has embarked on a cost-cutting campaign, eliminating branches and staff. After a 15-year expansion, the number of branches has fallen almost 1.4 percent to 98,202 from its peak in 2009, according to SNL Financial.

Banks are also lowering the rates they pay savers. The average interest rate for deposits has fallen to 0.74 percent from 0.8 percent during the first six months of this year, according to Market Rates Insight. Most consumers barely notice, but it translates into real money — about $1.5 billion a month in savings industrywide.
Banks may also be betting that consumers will not notice the quiet creep of existing fees. As Richard K. Davis, U.S. Bancorp’s chief executive, told investors on a recent conference call: “We’ll see if our customers complain and move, or just complain,” he said.

Some consumers suspect that banks have deliberately made it difficult to move into a cheaper checking accounts.

Ben Ryan, a 33-year-old novelist in Manhattan, said he recently spent 45 minutes on the phone with several Citibank representatives just to switch out of a midtier checking account that would carry a $20-a-month fee and into a more basic one, where he could avoid a charge. Citi officials say they would violate the law if they automatically switched a customer into a different account, and believe requiring a conversation with a representative helps customers better understand their choices.

But Mr. Ryan said the experience left him more confused. “You call, and they don’t know what you are talking about. And then there all these different options,” he said. “There is no simple way to switch.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/banks-quietly-ramping-costs-consumers-121507286.html?l=1