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When I'm not writing, I work in the online financial services industry. I currently have my money in a large, "Too Big To Fail" national bank. I've been happy with them - their home and remote banking systems are top-notch and I feel safe and secure using their tools. As a security specialist, I think they're contentious and care about keeping me and my money safe.
And yet, I'm thinking about moving ALL my money out of them and into a local Community Bank or Credit Union. Why?
Because I fundamentally disagree with all the greed and deregulation that big banks have imposed on us, their customers. 2008 and 2009's most recent round of huge bailouts and the banks' resulting REDUCTION of lending capital (all while posting record profits, don't forget), has me soured on the Big Banks, even though as a
consumer I like many of the positive and forward-looking security and rewards products they've put in place.
Recently on HuffPo, I saw
an article on the "Move Your Money" movement and decided that it makes sense. Why keep empowering these large institutions to screw me
sans lube? Why not put my money into my local community, where it will make the most impact? Why not?
The link above contains a pretty shmaltzy movie promoting this idea, but I don't hold that against the authors of the plan. There's also a link there for the site
MoveYourMoney.info, which has a handy community bank locator - just type in your zip code and it will direct you to local banks in your area.
As of this posting Credit Unions are NOT on the list, but the site admins promise to have them added in early 2010. As soon as I do, you can guarantee I'll be shopping for a new bank. Sucks that it's come to this, but getting Rewards Points on my Visa or a spiffy iPhone app that lets me log into my accounts remotely (as cool as they are) aren't worth getting screwed in the bigger ways that matters.
Anyway, check it out and
Happy New Year!!..
