Surely the banks know about November 5.

Which is why people should actually show up on Nov. 4.
With the added bonus that understaffed banks have long lines on Friday afternoons.

This is What Fascism Looks Like.

Thanks you dumb f*cking bankers for making our point so brilliantly on camera.

Yeah, They are just proving the OWS folks are the “good guys” by behaving so meanly and badly. We have been running scared since they almost tanked the economy in 2008. But, today, I hope people will empower themselves and their money by moving it to credit unions.

Surely the banks are violating some law by preventing people from closing their accounts. Perhaps it would be a good idea to appeal to police departments and sheriffs across the country and point out that people are merely exercising their property rights as well as their rights under the first amendment. If a bank loses customers that is not a problem for the police department.

I closed my BofA account with the original BofA in 1972 cuz they fucked me over. Been with a Federal Credit Union ever since. Almost wish I had an account with the current BofA just so I could close it again.

Arthur MacEwan was on the Real News and talked about a long term solution of operating the banks as public utilities, but that the political climate would not allow that.

My wish is that the OWS movement becomes so large that it (we) can define the political climate. We shouldn’t have to play by rules that favor the 1% exclusively.

Can’t you just withdraw all your money online and transfer it to a new bank. You don’t have to go to the bank itself do ya?

Just goes to show that our MOTU’s are some of the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet. Keep up the good work Citi, Chase, BoA and Goldman Sachs, no doubt this stupidity makes us want to sharpen our pitchforks even more.

“That’s right, they brought in riot police and refused the group entry into the branch to take out their own money.”

I suspect that from the perspective of BoA, it’s their money not the customer’s. BoA is one of the Owners. They own that money not us. They may let it circulate among the 99% for purposes of BoA profit, but that is as far as our “ownership” extends.

Here. Take my sunglasses and go to Morgan Keegan for me :)

I’m going to do it, I’m just procrastinating.

Amazing. Now you can’t take YOUR money out of the bank. These banks are out of control. Unbelievable.

The number one responsibility of management of a corporation is to protect the safety of its staff while on the job. That includes both physical and mental safety. When organizations put profits – or customer relations – above the safety of their staff, disaster strikes, as witness Massee. That is why the CEO of Massee should be in jail and would be in many countries, for example China, if not tried, convicted, and executed already.

Angry protestors en masse are not a force that bank employees can assuredly handle gracefully and with no damage to themselves or the bank. Emotions get out of hand, particularly when one is part of a similarly emotional crowd. Letting 30 or 50 protestors into a bank at the same time is not a cool move, and could lead to harm to the staff (and lets get real, maybe even something in the bank, a sign, whatever).

The bank SHOULD and in fact HAS TO not let that happen. Closing the doors is totally logical at that point. Their only other alternative would have been to ask the protestors to wait, get substantial extra security personnel over to the bank, and let the protestors in in small groups. To my way of thinking, a much better alternative. You can be sure we would still be hearing plenty about this in that case, though.

BTW – don’t anyone start telling me where my sympathies lie with respect to OWS. I consider the big investment banks to be full at the top levels with crook / con artists many of whom should have been prosecuted by our great pretend leader. I have no sympathy for them but plenty for some ordinary person in charge at a branch, a job that sounds great but conveys no real authority in any dimension, be it making loans, changing any rules with respect to any account type, managing employees, you name it, someone above them has decided how to do it. They are simply well paid patsies.

dcblogger @4:

“If a bank loses customers that is not a problem for the police department.”

One would think. However, the primary mission of the police is to serve and protect the interests, when push comes to shove, of those with serious power and money. The US has a long history of business calling out the cops in defense of their private profits.

They’re putting your money to work for them. How dare you want to use it yourself! s/

Not that I know of. Both times I closed the Samm Simpson campaign accounts with Wachovia (04 and 06) I had to go in and do paperwork. Took most of an hour and they issued me a final bank statement. I knew the exact balance in the account and wrote checks to close it out about 10 days before I closed the account so that they would clear.

I am beginning to wonder if the ATM fee was just a ruse to get people to use “charge” more….

Here is what happened to my mom last year. She is old so she still actually goes to the bank a lot. Rather than using the internet or drive thrus. She got sold on a “rewards” program and encouraged to use the charge feature rather than debit.

Now I immeditely smelled scam since there was a yearly fee of like $20. And if she charged $1000s she would get a $10 gift certificate at some store like Old Navy. I tried to explain she’d be better off just spending the $20 on a something rather than hoping for rewards points and just use the free debit card.

Later I was looking something up and found the real motive behind this rewards program. Everytime she choose charge instead of debit, Chase got to collect about a nickel from the retailer. So they charged my mom and the store for the transaction.

Having worked at a Credit Union years ago, I know we really really really encouraged our customers to use the debit cards when ever possible because it basically cost us nothing. Checks had to be processed, scanned, microfiched and then often mailed to customers in their statements.

Doesn’t hurt a bit. Just don’t go in with a sign. *g*

I would with draw all but 5$ and write them a letter and tell them to fuck off. Sorry for the abrasive language but this is bullshit. I am glad i bank with a regional bank. I shop locally and try my best not to support big chains. I also buy what I need and not toys to play with. You have given great advice and we should all heed it. *g*

Yep, $60 a year times however many debit card holders there are is a pretty good chunk o’ change. No effort, no services provided, no nothin’. Pure profit.

There is a difference though between transferring/withdrawing money and CLOSING an account. I am sure you can do it online or via phone but there is a little more too it than just removing your funds.

I am sure there is but I would still draw down all my money and not use it eventually they should close it from inactivity. At least that’s what I would do. *g*

This may also bring on a run on the consumer banks. WtF? Are the banksters that crazy?

Got kicked off the site for a few minutes.

No sign. Check. :)

I would love to see a run on the big banks. Would scare the bejabbers out of Wall Street.

But if you have a minimum balance level they will debit your account monthly and won’t let you close it until you settle with them, one way or another.

This is what I buy:

Monthly
Food
Cat food (I spend more feeding them than I do to feed myself)
Gasoline
Rent
Electricity
Water
Phone
Internet

My Toys
Books
Music
Movies (DVD)

For monthly expenses I use cash or check. Books I get from an indy bookseller in St Pete, Haslam’s. If they don’t have it used I buy new. Music CDs and movie DVDs I buy online with a debit card. I try to avoid Amazon whenever possible cuz they’re big supporters and funders of ALEC.

Is that you Larry Summers?

I quit using Amazon, Ebay etc. I buy my books from Borders online or in the store. I have over 500 gigs of music so I think I am set on music. *g* The rest of my money goes for necessities. I think I am on the right track. Thanks for the good advice.

I pay most of my bills on line. Just checked with the CU, and they do have that feature.

Something about computerized music turns me off. I’m old fashioned. Got a stereo receiver, CD player and good speakers. Do a bowl and Crank. It. Up.

Heh, you need to look for a new source for books. Border’s ain’t around no more.

All my music are mp3′s ripped from cd’s. But doing a bowl and cranking it up is always good. *g*

We have the same toys. :) I don’t buy clothes because I rarely go anywhere – although I did buy a new pair of sneakers, online.

We still have a turntable, but don’t use it much. Most everything is on CD at our house, and it really is awfully convenient.

I listened to a little of WMNF on Thursday. Missed the Music of the Isles but caught some of Postmodern Hootenany.

Break is over. Back on our heads. Or, back on my head, anyway!

Good afternoon to you all.

ohmmmm

Have a great day OmAli. See ya at swim tomorrow. *G*

Looking forward to it! Thanks.

If Saul Alinsky were advising about some of the OWS tactics, he might suggest opening accounts at banks like BofA. All day long. And making $5 or $10 deposits on the hour and $5 or $10 on the half hour, all day long.

When you open your account and you’re asked to show some ID, hand over your FDL Founding Member card.

Wasn’t Alinksy’s Oilbomber’s friend?

err, and withdrawals on the half hour.

err, and Saul Alinsky

Maybe. Alinsky died in 1972.

Heh, Osterity was 11 when Alinsky died. Doubt Saul met him. Might have liked him as a kid, though. As prez, prolly not so much.

The reason the moniker “banksters” fits so well is that they are indistinguishable from gangsters in that they view you as a means to their ends. When confronting either clan, your legal act of protecting your money or your neighborhood from gross or subtle criminal use is considered by the banksters & gangsters to be stealing. There’s also the neo-Feudal component of “respect” that further poisons any interaction with them.

Considering the “move your money” action on another vector, I’m very interested to see if the Fed or Treasury (or Federal law enforcement) intervenes. My interest is both political and pragmatic. The latter is born of actual analysis and skepticism regarding the true liquidity of the nation’s “banks”. It’s my opinion that they’re insolvent, and have been so since 2005/6 and remain so even after Obama “secretly” created and gave away $16 trillion in free-cash to the banks.

Remember, the global derivatives market was, on the eve of the nation’s financial implosion, valued at over $650 trillion. It’s now valued at a sum $50 – $100 trillion less than that. The portion of that markets’ assessed value that is/was locked-up in mortgage/finance connected instruments is unknown (to me anyway). Never-the-less, the evaporation of ~$75 trillion in virtual wealth is a sum that’s 2x and maybe 4x larger than the sum of bank bailouts globally. That’s one potentially massive black-hole at the center of the nation’s (globe’s) financial facade, ahhh system.

I think the bank just showed again how they are not concerned about the future of it’s customers. This little show they put on will convince even more people to move their money. Dopes

The protesters were wrong on this one. The manager of the bank was correct when she stated to the protesters that you cannot be a protester and a customer at the same time. They could of left their signs outside and close their accounts. They wanted to create a scene and were lucky they were not arrested for trespassing.

If I ever see a guy in sweats picking up one of my female friends like the guy in the video, I swear I will take him down. And I am female and under 5 feet tall.

dancewater,
Hopefully the gal in the video will press charges.
There seems to be plenty of reasons and the video evidence

The guy in the sweats happens to be a plain clothes cop. The video you seen happens to be a heavily edited video. I seen the REAL video and the guy in the sweats identified himself as a police officer and showed her his identification. This is clearly not some big burly civilian guy that took matters into his own hands.

My community bank was taken over by one of the big banks a couple of months ago. Just today, I received notices that payments I made were not transacted, because the routing number is not correct. I have never been given a routing number for the new bank, no checks, nothing. They will let us use our checks, but the new routing number is not on them. So interest rates have gone up on my credit cards, and I am being treated as a scofflaw, despite that I have never been late on my bills.

I went to a CU today and opened an account to make my transition on Nov. 5 as smooth as possible. I am out of there. Fuckers. Sorry for the late-night language.

As it turns out, credit unions may have more no-fee atms than the big fucking banks.

Credit unions can belong to a system where you can not only use the atms of other credit unions without a fee, but also many atms at 7-11s!

So more than 28,000 no-fee atms for my local credit union nationwide, versus about 5,000 for bofa and wells fargo.

As of Wednesday, screw you Wells Fargo.