"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is a well-armed lamb disputing the outcome."
--(Attributed to) Benjamin Franklin
Monday, January 4, 2010
Move Your Money! Out of Citi, Wells-Fargo, JPMorgan, BoA, All the Trans-Nats
The only problem with moving your money to a community bank is that if you need to take out cash from an ATM anywhere in the US and you're not at home, you have to pay exorbitant ATM fees. Not because the community bank charges high fees, no indeed, they often only charge $1.00 to take money from an out-of-network ATM. Instead, the ATM owner, even another bank can charge up to $5.00 to take money if you are not their customer. And the big banks are the worst at charging high fees. You would think that their fees would be less because they have more customers, but rather it's the opposite. And that's because the banks are indeed in charge of regulation in this country.
In Europe, ATM owners cannot charge you for using their ATM if they're a bank. They can only charge their own customers, because otherwise, it's a double fee that the customer is getting hit with.
That being said, I do business with a local bank, and I like them way better than Bank of America. When I walk in, they know who I am (or pretend to anyway LOL) whereas, BoA, they're totally impersonal, and don't seem to care who you are. If everyone would move their money out of big banks, it would break them.
1 comment:
The only problem with moving your money to a community bank is that if you need to take out cash from an ATM anywhere in the US and you're not at home, you have to pay exorbitant ATM fees. Not because the community bank charges high fees, no indeed, they often only charge $1.00 to take money from an out-of-network ATM. Instead, the ATM owner, even another bank can charge up to $5.00 to take money if you are not their customer. And the big banks are the worst at charging high fees. You would think that their fees would be less because they have more customers, but rather it's the opposite. And that's because the banks are indeed in charge of regulation in this country.
In Europe, ATM owners cannot charge you for using their ATM if they're a bank. They can only charge their own customers, because otherwise, it's a double fee that the customer is getting hit with.
That being said, I do business with a local bank, and I like them way better than Bank of America. When I walk in, they know who I am (or pretend to anyway LOL) whereas, BoA, they're totally impersonal, and don't seem to care who you are. If everyone would move their money out of big banks, it would break them.
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