Forum Post: Have you moved your bank account to a small, well-established community bank?
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 17, 2011, 9 p.m. EST by mbsss
(92)
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If you have not already done so, consider moving your bank account (if you have any money left after this crisis), to a reputable, ethical, small community bank.
Plan ways to pay off your debts--do not use your credit cards at all--and consider renting your home to those who need to rent as a means to pay your mortgage down--and then rent something less expensive yourself.
We need to help ourselves to get out of this mess too--while putting pressure on the businesses to stop selling products and services that WE have been buying.
I owe a bunch to BofA, Citi and Wells
What about if I just go bankrupt, I am about there anyway
Bankruptcy is an easy way out. Bush and company re-wrote the laws to make it harder though. If you are getting close rack those cards up and stock up on necessities
Yes, all my banking business (except for my credit cards) is with my local bank. And I really love the service - they are efficient, friendly, helpful, offer AT LEAST as good rates as the megabanks, AND they support my community. Can't ask for better than that.
Yes! Have been there for some time!
I have always banked at small credit unions, but I live in Canada where our banking system is a little different than down south. Also, as a child in the 80's I learned a lesson I will never forget. Watching my parents cut up their credit cards and my uncles lose properties due to unexpected astronomical interest rates was something I never forgot. As an adult I never had a credit card debt higher than $1000 and when I bought my condo I made sure that even if the interest rates tripled, I could afford to pay my mortgage. Yes, for awhile I let my personal line of credit get a bit out of control but never anywhere near the double digit damage zone and it was for a worthy cause-fixing up my place. At this point I am renting my place out and living in another place that costs less, but in Canada we have to pay taxes on any "income" and the money received from a tenant is viewed as such. It all works out a little better for me, not much, but enough to make it worth the effort. Good luck to people in the world right now with the amount of personal debt owed. Your points are worth following and would be fruitful for those who try the same in their lives.
Thinking about your having to pay tax on the rental income from your home--it might be a useful interim plan by governments to make that income tax-free for 10 years or until a mortgage was paid years (whichever came first) as long as one did not own any other property and could prove that this was a means to pay off a mortagage. Better than a bailout--and more specific to individuals and need.
I like that idea!
With all do respect, this is terrible advice. What will get them out of this mess is to stop in one of our friendly branches and talk to us about a Debt Consolidation Loan. Rates are low. You will thank me for it we will all be Happy!
Another bank service to make money on debt trade. Are you kidding? The best debt "consolidation" is through finding means to bargain interest rates down among those from whom you are borrowing and then find ways to pay down the debts as quickly as possible. There are no short cuts. Yes, your job depends on selling your service, but you might thank me if you were to consider getting out of anything to do with debt, mortgages, or financing of loans.
That won't work for most. Check out our Home Equity Line of Credit. You can even make interest only payments. We gotta be more Happy in this country and nothing says Happy like a line of credit!
Either you are still under 28 years of age and believing what someone told you in business school, or you have been in the system so long that you've been brainwashed. Sorry, but "line of credit" is also part of the broken system. You may be right to say that it's considered an important part of a person's history, but this doesn't make it right. I have NEVER in my 35 years of having credit cards, carried a debt on the cards beyond the month when I made a charge. I am considered a terrible customer and I am proud of it. Of course, if everyone were like me, then credit card companies would not have much in the way of profit would they? In fact we'd probably no longer use credit cards.
Speaking of Credit Cards, rates have never been lower!! We all deserve nice stuff so why not stop by and apply? It only takes a few minutes and you can walk away Happy!
Ok.Ok. I get it! It's late where I am sitting--in Europe. Time for bed "happy".
I guess you see where I going with all this?
Awesome! I'm in the process of implementing your second bullet. I realized I don't need all the space I have. I can live with less. I'm going to be renting out the house I bought 9 years ago to a family that needs the space I don't.
There are so many positive steps we can take. Stop buying stuff (especially stuff that depreciates) on credit. I saved hard and bought a 5 year old used car this last May for $10K instead of financing!
True. Most cars that are 3-5 years old are the best to buy--maybe from places like Craigslist unless you feel you can trust a good, local car dealer ;-)
We can be thoughtful about what we buy too---the "ethics" of food is a whole area that belongs to this protest I guess:
corn subsidies to create 3liter soda containers designed to make America fat (I learned this from Peter Jennings on ABC 10 years ago probably)
yogurt--without yogurt cultures and filled with pectin, starches and gelatin to make us think we are getting more than thickened water
ice cream and other products fluffed with air
In other words, we need to stay one step ahead of the marketers that call us suckers every day of the week!
I agree with the food comments. I remember when diet coke came onto the market, it tasted weird to my 14 year old taste buds and I can't stand the stuff. So as a result I've never liked any soda with aspartame in it and have read over the years of the soda sugar connection to body fat. As for yogurt, you can make your own! Flavour it with locally grown fruit. In British Columbia we are very political about our food sources, organic farmers, locally grown food and non-GMO foods also. I shop at farmers markets year round here, and buy locally grown jams, wines, honeys and all other sorts of culinary delights, including Natural Pastures Brie and Camembert made on the island I grew up on and winner of the Gold 2008, and Silver 2009 World Cheese Championship Awards Medals. Ya, we are serious about food security and the politics of food, locally and worldwide in Canada.
Agree on the food comment too, but mainly for health reasons. Whenever I can I by individual ingredients and I prepare all my own food. I make my lunches once a week, freeze some, refrigerate some, and eat it throughout the week. That is the only real way to know what is in your food. And even then, it's hard to be 100% sure about pesticides, hormones, etc.
It's also cheaper to do this than to eat out or by pre-packaged lunches.
That's a good variant on 'voting with your feet'. Small banks have shown themselves to be very stable next to the big banking/investing conglomerates, so it's a move of practical sense as well.
If several million OWSers moved accounts this week and next--slowly and strategically--maybe region by region--we might see something....The worst case scenario would be that we'd hurt a bank so badly that the government bailed it out again! acckkkk