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Guest Post: Ten Reasons Not To Bank On (Or With) Bank Of America
Submitted by Nomi Prins
Ten Reasons Not To Bank On (Or With) Bank Of America
Charging customers for a debit card is just one reason not to bank at BoA. Recent Occupy Santa Cruz Bank of America incident illustrates how sensitive B of A is to protest. This "too big to fail" bank may collapse like a house made of junk bonds and become a taxpayer burden. Here are a few other reasons why you shouldn't bank with them.
There is no shortage of hatred for the biggest banks. Indeed, the Occupy Wall Street movement is leading a national revolution against these byzantine, powerful Goliaths for the economic devastation they have caused. This makes it difficult to choose the worst of the bunch. That said, a strong case can be made that Bank of America deserves the title of the nation's most despised bank.
Here are ten reasons to take your money out of Bank of America - and park it at a credit union or community bank near you. (And yes, that may be near impossible if you have a mortgage with them, as refinancing away from any big bank nowadays is a nightmare.)
1. B of A rejects the right of customers to protest. When two Occupy Santa Cruz protesters in California marched into a local Bank of America to close their accounts, the response was, "You cannot be a protester and a customer at the same time," followed by a threat to call the police if the women didn't leave. (The attending officer later reiterated the bank manager's message.) Meanwhile, the fact that Bank of America charges a fee for closing an account prompted Rep. Brad Miller (D-North Carolina), who resides in Bank of America's headquarters state, to introduce a bill to protect customers from such fees.
2. To recoup ongoing losses from its stupendously dumb acquisitions of Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch, B of A pillages its customers. Thus, despite massive public outrage, the $5 debit usage fee for customers with less than a $5,000 balance and no mortgage with the bank will begin in 2012. B of A was the first large bank to confirm it would charge this fee, which is the highest in current discourse among the banks.
On October 18, Consumers Union wrote a letter to B of A chief Brian Moynihan asking him to reconsider this fee, which impacts poorer clients disproportionately. The letter summed it up nicely: "Consumers should not be required to pay a costly fee that appears to be arbitrary and designed to generate income to make up for Bank of America's bad business decisions rather than covering the costs of providing debit card services." Banks collect 24 cents from retailers for each customer swipe, much more than the median 8 cents it costs a bank to process the purchase. Senator Dick Durbin's (D-Illinois) response was to urge customers: "Vote with your feet. Get the heck out of that bank."
3. B of A's other fees are just as bad. According to its last annual report, the bank has 29.3 million active online subscribers who paid over $300 billion worth of bills in 2010. In May, B of A raised its checking account fees, which included e-banking, to $12, in line with JP Morgan Chase's decision to do the same, up from $8.95 per month. In June, it started a $35 overdraft fee, even on overdrafts of one cent. Next year, it will incorporate basic checking with a new "essentials'' account structure that makes monthly fees unavoidable, that will not include free bill pay, and that has a mandatory $6 minimum fee.
Last Monday, Bank of America was charged (along with JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo) with colluding with the two major credit card companies, Visa and MasterCard, to keep ATM fees high; in other words, they were charged with "price-fixing," in direct opposition to antitrust laws. This is the third of three such suits filed recently, each seeking class action status.
4. Bank of America takes gross advantage of the military.
It is the official bank of the US military and has branches by or on many bases, which provides the firm with another locus of extortion. B of A can entice military personnel to take out loans at usurious rates. Personal loans made to soldiers for a few thousand dollars can actually keep them indebted for the rest of their lives.
Last May, Bank of America paid $22 million to settle charges of improperly foreclosing on active-duty troops. The firm spun these foreclosures as being Countrywide's fault for having started them before becoming part of B of A.
5. Bank of America is officially rated the biggest, scariest bank. Its stock price also fared the worst of the group of banks (which also included Citigroup and Wells Fargo) when Moody's Investors Service downgraded it on September 21.
B of A's long-term holding company (parent bank) rating was chopped two notches to Baa1 from A2, and its retail bank rating was cut two notches from A2 to Aa3, placing B of A four notches below rival JP Morgan Chase and one below Citigroup, the third-largest US bank. Its bank holding company has the lowest rating among the top five banks with the largest derivatives positions.
This caused great fear for investors involved in derivatives trades with the Merrill Lynch division, prompting them to request trades be moved to the part of the bank with the better rating - the retail part with the insured (peoples') deposits. That way, B of A doesn't have to pony up as much collateral to back the trades, as it would in a subsidiary with a lower rating. The Fed was recklessly happy to approve, despite the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's (FDIC) misgiving about having to insure more risk, even if it can borrow from the US Treasury to do so. Meanwhile, Bank of America's stock price got so crushed that Warren Buffett scooped up a $5 billion preferred stock deal, effectively betting that the government won't let this big bank go bust.
6. B of A's derivatives position keeps rising. The total amount of derivatives in the FDIC-insured portion of B of A as of mid-year was $53.7 trillion, up 10 percent from $48.9 trillion the prior year, and up nearly 35 percent from its pre-fall crisis level of $40 trillion (the Merrill Lynch securities division holds $22 trillion in addition.) The bank has $5 trillion of credit derivatives, nearly double its $2.7 trillion pre-Merrill amount. In addition, because of its inherent zombie status and rating downgrades, the cost of insuring B of A against a possible default continues to rise in the credit derivatives market - a pattern that American International group (AIG) once followed.
7. Bank of America got the most AIG money of the big depositor banks. By virtue of having acquired Merrill Lynch's AIG-related portfolio, B of A got to keep approximately $12 billion worth of federal AIG backing, too. It also received more government subsidies than any other mega-bank except Citigroup. Its stimulus package included an initial Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) helping of $15 billion for the bank and $10 billion for Merrill, plus a second helping of $20 billion in January 2009 after it became clear that Merrill's losses had spiked to $15 billion - in order to ensure the takeover from hell went through and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and then-Merrill Lynch executive John Thain could pat themselves on the back for saving the world. The government guaranteed $118 billion in assets, mostly Merrill's, in the new merged firm. With the benefit of the Fed's nearly 0 percent money policy, and a depositor base to plunder, B of A repaid that aid.
In terms of overall federal subsidies (including TARP), Bank of America was second only to Citigroup ($230 billion compared to $415 billion). None of that got in the way of former B of A CEO Ken Lewis' personal take, a $63 million retirement plan, in addition to the $63 million he scored during the three years before his departure.
8. Bank of America leads the big bank fraud lawsuit settlement tally. So far, it has racked up the largest settlement, $8.5 billion in June, to settle claims related to $100 billion worth of Countrywide-spun mortgage securities backed by faulty loans, with bigwig investors like Pimco, BlackRock, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
B of A is also being sued by state and federal regulators for questionable foreclosure practices and a union benefits plan for hiding foreclosure problems that impacted its share price. It is one of 17 major US financial institutions being sued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency for billions of dollars of mortgage-securities-related losses that may require B of A to potentially repurchase $50 billion worth of allegedly fraudulent securities. Earlier this year, B of A settled for $3 billion regarding bad loans that they had repackaged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as agreed to a $624 million settlement in a securities fraud class-action suit filed by New York Sate and City pension fund regarding Countrywide stock losses. Then there's AIG's August lawsuit, in which AIG wants $10 billion in damages for mortgage-related securities it bought and against which it claims B of A committed securities fraud.
That's a lot of pain for a Federal Reserve-approved $4.1 billion acquisition. Meanwhile, since the settlement didn't lead to a financial restatement, under the supremely elastic (read: useless) Dodd-Frank Act, executives get to keep their related bonuses.
9. Even after lawsuits, B of A would still rather please investors than customers. Investors that won money in the $8.5 billion settlement were upset that B of A was continuing to service loans, instead of foreclosing on them more quickly. Now, B of A had a nasty incentive to kick people out of homes faster, rather than work with them to refinance or restructure mortgages. Two months later, their foreclosure process has, in fact, sped up.
Bank of America foreclosure notices are surging again following a slight robo-signing- related slowdown, meaning they are now sending out a greater increase in default notices (90-day overdue loans) than other banks. The bank has $30 billion in residential mortgage loans in default, which will become foreclosures for thousands of families.
10. Bank of America, despite having been buoyed up by the government, did not pay taxes, and, given its glorious ineptness, will be laying off 30,000 workers. Not only did the bank pay no federal taxes for 2010 (or 2009) by making use of its posted pre-tax loss of $5.4 billion, it actually cited a tax benefit of $1 billion. Meanwhile, it has announced plans to cut up to 30,000 jobs over the next few years as part of its plan to save $5 billion, ostensibly due to the settlements it's paying for engaging in upper-management-approved fraud.
Finally, consider the two reasons that any of this list is possible. One is the Glass-Steagall Act repeal, which enables banks to comingle straight costumer business with reckless securities creation and trading. The second reason is coddling by a Fed that finances and approves every bad move. B of A is the poster child for a Glass-Steagall repeal gone wrong. Lewis pulled in a slew of other banks under the B of A umbrella, making it - at one time - the country's largest bank, including the infamous Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch. Now it has $2.26 trillion in total assets and $1.8 trillion assets in insured subsidiaries, $1.2 trillion of customer deposits ($1.066 trillion in the United States) and about $804 billion in FDIC-insured deposits - all part of the giant, risk-laden mess that is B of A.
Without being broken up via a new, strong Glass-Steagall Act, when banks need to find ways to make money, they resort to extorting it from their sitting ducks, er - customers. Meanwhile, that's where credit unions, which are not-for-profits owned by their members and not by outside shareholders, come in. They generally don't engage in crazy derivatives trades, or charge unnecessary fees for holding your money or for letting you pay bills with it, or for online banking. In terms of personal attention, among other economic reasons, the credit and smaller community banks are a much better bet.
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11. It's got the word 'America' in the title. A true sign of evil. Stay away from evil.
So categorical in your thinking. You're a dope.
we are all dopes...we are the 99%.
'we're all dupes...'
fixed that for ya.
BAC is just one part of that huge economic drain-team of welfare dependants hiding behind and protected by the false label of capitalism.
HELP TBTFs FAIL - DON't PAY YOUR MORTGAGE.
Then - you can buy more consumer junk from China - isn't that what US life is all about?
Do not pay your mortgage! Instead invest in the metals Siver, Gold, Brass, and Lead (the last 2 come together in a convient package).
How did that need fixing?
but everyone wants to be the 1% - right? memory foam
12. When you go BAC, you never come black*
*black as in black Friday
this is not funny!
"a billion ways to leave your lover."
Ain't got no stash, Nash, ain't got no doe, joe, got too much fraud, claude. So burn the mother fucker down, clown.
I may have sped-read too fast....what number was this under:
"Bank of America is shifting derivatives in its Merrill investment banking unit to its depository arm, which has access to the Fed discount window and is protected by the FDIC."
Weeeee, now we all get to pay for the $79 trillion of derivatives/gambling debts/fraud. Isn't that awesome?
What this means for you is that when Europe finally implodes and banks fail, U.S. taxpayers will hold the bag for trillions in CDS insurance contracts sold by Bank of America and JP Morgan.
Hmm....79 trillion divided by 300 million citizens.....$263,333 (plus compounding interest - mmmmm)....yea, you're all f'd...for at least the next 10 generations. Okay, I was being an optimist....you're never paying that back (not that it was ever yours to ever repay, but they'll make you do so)! EVER! What a thought process that this all is....each newborn kid is/will be immediately indebted for life. Bwah-ha-ha-ha!
And you thought that transferring your slave wages to a credit union was going to save you? HA!
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/236509-Holy-Bailout-Federal-Reserve-No...
...and becuase you need this...this man is MY fucking prophet!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBZDSSky0
This is horrible, truly horrible. When Europe implodes, it will definitely take down the US.
Has to be ok -- it was approved by the BHO administration.
agreed... walk in freezer
Semi OT, speaking of OWS, Peter Schiff went down to talk with them...
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/10/26/peter_schiff_takes_on_occupy_wall_street_protesters.html
Folks like Peter Schiff, Brandon Smith and others have the most common sense solutions to change the system... Stop participating in it! It's very simple; If you don't like BoA, switch to a credit union or a small local bank... If you don't want to be in debt servitude for the rest of your life because of student loans that benefit Wall Street, go to school overseas where education is vastly cheaper.
Thinking radically different about student loans, college, or even where you bank doesn't require a ton of effort. The establishment tries to convince you that the only solutions out there are the ones they offer. That's nonsense. If you want to make the corrupt establishment obsolete, turn your back on their corrupt system altogether and create your own.
The only way to win is to refuse to play...
"If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own"
-Wes "Scoop" Nisker (1968)
definitely we need the change. beacon payday loans
Sorry ResFam, there is NO escape. Not when BOA's gambling debts have been shifted to the depository arm, guaranteed by both the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, to the tune of 79 trill. Going to a credit union is a 'feel-good' solution. it'll give you the sensation the you're keeping some of of that fiat currency to yourself while it's value plummets further.
Fair enough... Then move your accounts overseas. Buy gold or silver. Buy hard assets. The sentiment stands.
good idea Inteligator
my boy said there is a national movement growing, it smells a little bit too coordinated to me. Just like occupy half the people don't know why they are marching. I smell BAC going under and the government going to make it look like the people caused it so everyone feels good
Funny how that works, eh?
So keep buying some cheap Way OTM puts on BAC? and just wait for the inevitalbe...
Shithole bank is always "under"
Under in value
Under the law
And under my sore ass. Did I mention they are also "behind" alot of shit?
"
"Follow the trail people. House of Rothschild ----- George Soros ------ Open Society Foundation -------- Tides Foundation ------- Adbusters ------------- Occupy Wall Street. There you have it. PRS Problem - Reaction Solution.
Now, what is this REALLY all about? Could the ultimate goal of these Satanic human pieces of excrement (AKA the Global Elite) be Martial Law imposed in every U.S. City leading then to the total financial collapse of the U.S. economy following the tried and true model of the Bolshevik (Rothschild-sponsored) Revolution of 1917?"
http://www.rense.com/general95/red.htm
Very possible. When disinfo campaigns and market pumping no longer pacify the masses, then martial law and tyranny rule.
You getting a frontrow view, sheeples. Ignore it at your own peril. Go long and prosper on bogus financial, broke institutions. Only a moron will not predict the result. This game has become the dual of good verses evil. Evil has the upward bias. technicals of fraudulent fundamentals backs up my thesis.
very accurate picture... SurveysPaid
I say we let this thing fester a bit longer - let it really swell up.
sounds like a slamdunk put play to me
No it don't. I've held puts for as long as these shitbags got countryshitbagnotworthafuckingdime wide. This is not alot new info. The people should pull their cash out and kill it before it eats everything in its sights. Give em what they have comin.
Let's break the government's hold on the economy and then banks will have to earn their living honestly.
Separate the economy from the state.
You're gonna have to get rid of the IRS first. As long as they are able to shake-down employers and merchants, there is no mechanism for relief.
Word.
agree... french door refrigerator
STOP STOP with the disinformation. OWS is NOT protesting against banks. They are campaigning for obama, NWO and socialism.
How many OWS outfits have bank accounts and how many are forming corporations
BINGO.
Also, they want to rape your sons, force you to smoke the reefer and make everyone a Muslim.
They are protesting against the banks and the socialism that allows them to live and steal. I'm not sure what kind of nonsense you are trying to spread.
That would explain all the "End the Fed" and Ron Paul posters at the NYC #OWS protest I checked out on Saturday. The *only* campaign related posters were the Ron Paul people....
Quit making up bullshit and spewing it here.
Muddying the waters, are we?
BAC?
Blood-Alcohol-Content?
BAC - Blood (for) Account Closure.
There, fixed it...
Everyone I know that had an account there is now gone. Worse than the Giant Squid, and that is bad.
Where does "squid" originate in relation to GS?
vampire squid...coined by Matt Taibbi....meaning a creature that wraps its tentacles around society and sucks out the lifes blood (or savings). I would say that's a pretty good description of the TBTF banks. And, even thought the OWS incident in Oakland was unique, rare and possibly caused outside troublemakers, I think it's a sign of things to come. As our President incites a class war and divides the population, nutballs will follow his example and use it to justify extreme actions. It will have a bad outcome except for one thing: it will eventually change the way the TBTF banks do business, if not break them up. Note to Jaime Dimon and the rest of the TBTF CEO's: find a safe island to retire too and keep the jet engines idling.
thank you.
I have no proof but, if leftists want violence, a leftist city sure seemed happy to oblige.
Have a junk for such an ignorant comment. A veteran was demonstrating and was shot by the cops. He is(was, don't know current status) in critical condition.
"have a junk for such an ignorant comment?" Apparently, I'm too ignorant to understand what that means but what does the fact that a vet was demonstrating have to do with what I said?
I didn't say everyone there was violent or that even all the demonstrators were leftists. Is there no possibility in your mind that leftists may want to escalate a demonstration to violence and that other leftists would be happy to oblige?
Some people are just sensitive. I would also like to point out that the military pays people to do violent acts. Why anyone would be suprised when a vet is in a violent situation is beyond me.
The Great American Bubble Machine
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405
The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.
this is bad! walk in cooler
When the FDIC liquidates BOA the ownership of the name "Bank of America" should be retained by the FDIC. No future bank should be permitted to use such a name - and this bank should never have been permitted to use such a name in the first place.
Press "1" to speak English, Press "2" to speak Spanish.....WTF!!!!!
English by default. Who sells this voice menu?
They should change it to: 'Bank Owes America' now.
But BofA... Bank of Assholes... fits them all from Jaime to Lloyd...
you had me at the $53.7 Tril of derivatives co-mingled with retail bank deposits, nomi!
The bank I was working at was taken over by this group. They are heartless ***holes. It is a culture with that bank. They also eat their young. To try and change this group would be impossable. They need to be nationalized. NOW.
So, you want to go from the frying pan into the fire?
There is only one real solution, they should go bust and be left to die. Besides, they are already nationalized, it just isn't in writing.
The only defense for BoA is they were forced into Countrywide Fraugages and Merrill Stench by the gubbermint. Otherwise, they pretty much fucked up everything themselves.
It seems so unjust for folks to keep their homes without paying their mortgages. But, in my opinion, the harm was caused by Wall Street packaging MBS for resale and the TBTF banks, and the nowhere to be seen regulators, for allowing MERS to exist, and that is where the Pain Should Be Felt. Not with homeowners who bought homes at inflated prices and now have properties with clouded titles.
Where were the regulators, where were state governments (AGs), where was the US AGs office? When everyone's getting fatter.....
A bitch, Karma is.
B of A has no defense...the gubbermint did not force them to buy Merrill or Countrywide...they asked them politely while holding a gun at their heads! B of A had the chance to make the deal of a lifetime and fucked it up...who ever agrees to a deal without doing due diligence or receiving guarantees to cover the unknowns? Whoever negotiated this deal must've been a total rookie or incredibly stupid. As much as I abhor the sociopath Jaime Dimon, I have to admire the deal he made for WAMU and Bear.
Solid points.
"Whoever negotiated this deal must've been a total rookie or incredibly stupid."
Yes.
Ken Lewis was and is incredibly stupid...
Not incredibly stupid, kind of smart: There are dumb shysters, and smart ones. A guy that walks off with millions for fucking dogs is a smart one, at least until the people with torches and pitchforks breach the walls of his compound. Then he's a sniveling wretch.
Everything happening in the world of finance today leads one back to a stark reality: Bankers should be walled off from the rest of the world that speculates and trades, because as you can read from every headline since Phil Gramm and company screwed our pooch in 1999, with Bill and Alan blessing the fucking, is that bankers can fuck up a rock fight, and become gods for the effort.
Then considering that banks and bankers are linked right into central banks, the paper inflation and deflation racket, and various other schemes to stay two steps ahead in the dance, unless they are put back out to pasture to graze on retail customers, they'll continue to fuck up markets, since they have the obvious inside edge in this kind of free market.
The real schmucks here are the ones thinking that killing the fed here will solve that problem. It won't, it will just turn one big banking problem into a trillion smaller ones. Ken Lewis times a few tens of thousands, still fucking dogs by being black holes of market wanna be's packaging shit to be sold in markets as something valuable, until everyone quits paying their bills, at which point it's revealed for what it is: a screwed pooch. The fed is a good place to gather the brain trust where the rest of us can keep an eye on them, and getting the rest of the bankers out of the speculation business should net the obvious here: removing semi-smart shysters from the world of traders that perform well, more out of a singular self preservation, than the singular self aggrandizement displayed by the gods of banking that has crafted the CDO, the synthetic CDO, Quants, the CDS basis points formula, and a whole slew of shit that takes a team of bankers, and their minion’s years to build, that can wreck an economy and erase wealth faster than Sarah Palin can wink.
Until bankers and the Ken Lewis et al crowd are neutered, more dogs will suffer.
Sounds kind of crazy but banking needs to be yanked the fuck out of high finance here, so that the individuals can get back to making money, instead of wringing their hands over which central bank is going to be the next in line for a doggy style party on their backside wealth.
Ken Lewis knows where the biscuits are buried, and there seems to be more just like him. That makes him a smart, French-poodle-puppy-fucker.
So grab yer poodle, and bring back Glass Steagall. The longer banks are the masters of the markets, the more the dogs are going to suffer. Make sure the Ken Lewis crowd is left to lick their dangly parts under the front porch, where they belong.
BofA, my bank for 25 yrs, checking, savings and credit card. I asked for a "cashiers check" for $500 and they wanted $8.95!!! WTF? I told them they're my bank. They said I can go to one of those money order places. I told them FU, I'm done.
That's right brother, vote with your feet.
I too have closed all my BoA accounts and am soon to be suing them for mortgage fraud. Just waiting for the calendar to do its work....
Cheers,
Explain please. BofA bought my mortgage and I would love to send them a big fuck you. What's your basis for the suit? No clear title? No consideration? Love to know a reputable defense or claim when I decide to stop paying mortgage.
BoA bought you mortgage? From Countywide I presume. It all depends my friend on which state you are in. Do some google searching, lots of lawyers in the game now.
I kinda want to open an account just so I can go in and close it.
Take a deep breath and try youporn instead of entering Bofa to open an account only to close an account.
Yeah! And we all know what happened to Stan when he did that. "AND... it's gone"
If all their customers would do that, all the govt. money in the world couldn't save them.
Here's the contact info for BofA. Call the number and ask to speak to one of the head guys. The phone operator will tell you that you cannot speak to anyone and offer to help and eventually admit that she really cannot help and is only there to stonewall people like you. Go ahead. Try it.
Bank of America Corporation
Bank of America Corporate Center
100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC 28255
United States - Map
Phone: 704-386-5681
Mr. Charles O. Holliday Jr., 62
Chairman and Chairman of Exec. Committee
Mr. Brian T. Moynihan , 51
Chief Exec. Officer, Pres, Director and Member of Exec. Committee
Mr. Bruce R. Thompson , 46
Chief Financial officer
Mr. Thomas K. Montag , 54
Co-Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Charles H. Noski , 59
Vice Chairman and Exec. VP
Pretty much true with any large corporation. Ever asked to speak to the CEO of Boeing to complain about the lack of seat recline? I am originally from Wisconsin, so I like to buy Wisconsin products. I wrote a letter to the CEO of Koehler company because I had a defective $500 custom toilet installed. They would only replace half the toilet, lol. The CEO would not talk to me, got some flunky, and I just determined I would never buy Koehler again. Given I am a lawyer and tend to get more of a response, I can just imagine how these companies treat folks who work at Wallmart. It is unfortunate.
There must be a joke here about flushing money down a toilet ;O)
go to local credit union
write a check for balance in bank of america.
leave 1 penny .
then close account .. they can have the penny .
And they know what your thought is for that penny and are pretty much indifferent.
If you leave $.01 in that account, I GUARANTEE they will charge you the monthly fee for not maintaining an appropriate balance, probably $14 worth. Then they will bang you for another $14 the next month, and again, until they send you to collections and ruin your credit. They'll be able to grow their accounts receivable and prop up their share price with this tactic as every real customer leaves and credit unions struggle to figure out what to do with the onslaught of cash they're now receiving.
I think that having good credit is WAY overrated. It is propoganda led by the banks.
I have decided to do what is right, protect myself, and let the chips fall as they may.
The banks can charge you all the fees they want, but if you dont pay them you dont pay them. I mean really, how bad of consequences can there be?
Part of me believes the best thing we can do for overselves is ruin our credit.
then just close the account ..
no fuss.. no charge ..if it shows up on credit just add a line to your report .. closed account .. credit people have alot more to do then try to collect a 14.00 bill.
and if this ruins the credit .. then hell you have bad credit any way so who cares .
so many try to hit a knat with sledge hammer .
so much hype and non news over B of A.
ranting of teeth ..much ado about nothing .
That's fucked up
BOA had the government credit card contract, issued to everyone in DOD for travel expenses. They made it "mandatory" to have one, with the individual responsible and their credit was on the line. Direct transfer from the travel pay system often got screwed up. Young service people with weak financial understanding had problems managing the cards. Plenty of screw ups on the BOA side. Service was awful. It was an administrative nightmare, but BOA got their cut from every transaction and DOD got a 1% kickback.
In Europe, the Community Bank (a BoA subsidiary) (the only bank on military installations over there) charge outrageous Foreign Exchange Fees to convert US Dollars to other currencies.
Say a soldier wants to buy a $30,000 vehicle. Community Bank (BofA) would charge him a Foreign Exchange Fee of ca. $300 to covert his dollars to Euros so the solider can pay the German car dealer for the vehicle.
Many complaints lodged but so far the Army has done nothing to reduce/stop the outrageous fees.
Community Bank’s rate: http://www.dodcommunitybank.com/home/products/currency_exchange
Compare to a regular Currency Trading House rate: www.xe.com
I've had nothing but trouble closing my accounts with these bastards, but I finally managed to get them closed, until they re-opened them again without my permission.
They threatened me that if any automatic withdrawl attempt happened by our cellular phone company, cable company, etc, it would trigger an overdraft fee on the account. Well, we couldn't get all the auto withdrawls killed off in time; but to our surprise we got a postcard from BAC the very next day, on each of the 3 ocassions, stating a withdrawl had been attempted, they refused it and there was a $0 charge for it. We were happily surprised, until my wife's automatic DEPOSIT attempted to put money into the account. Guess what happened?!? They automatically accepted the money, re-opened the account, and we didn't get a postcard alerting us to the deposit.
I called up the branch a week after my wife's employer couldn't find the money and told us to go talk to BAC. I called up the branch, explained the situation, told her I wanted to close the account and get my money out. She said she was busy with a customer and would call me back. I called again an hour later and got the same story. I called another hour later and she told me the same thing, I told her I'd be in her lobby in 5 minutes so she'd have to deal with me after that customer.
I went to the branch and sure enough, my wife's paycheck was sitting in the BAC account we had closed a week earlier and they never bothered to tell us about it. The BAC employee then went through the whole BS process of closing out our account, again, and picked the reason "Unable to maintain minimum balance" as the reason code for our cancellation. I asked her why she picked it and she said it didn't matter, no one looks at it, and when I asked her if no one looks at the reason codes, why did she scroll down the list to pick that one instead of the first one in the list and she seemed baffled.
She gave me my receipt and I went to the teller for the money. The teller then told me she couldn't give me it in cash because her drawer didn't have enough and that I could only get a cashiers check. I told her no, I wanted cash. She insisted on giving me a bank check and I insisted I wasn't leaving and she better get my cash instead. She gave up on resisting my simple request, took the money out of her drawer and I ended up closing my BAC accounts for the second time in a week.
The only thing that reasonable people can do to them is vote with your feet. I voted.
Sounds about right. I've been telling my g/f, a Manhattan bartender, to stop banking with BofA for 2 years. The petty fees and outright thefts by BofA have been piling up. Most recently, after making a cash deposit with BofA, she discovered a month later on her statement that the bank had simply taken $10 out of her account, noting that the deposit was $10 off.
There is no record of any error, of course, nor could there be: the deposit receipt is the only evidence of what was deposited.
But if you live in Manhattan, where DO you bank? The Big 4 Zombies are everywhere, while a reasonably normal bank like U.S. Bank has virtually no presence there. Anything near 3rd Ave. b/t midtown and Upper East Side would work. Any ideas?
I don't "bank" anymore. Go to a credit union: http://www.findacreditunion.com/Home_Page_2.html
I 'closed' a corporate account with them which had a biz partner on it that was milking the account. I got a new account number, new cards, etc. Called them up some months later about some weird charges. Turns out they not only sent him new cards on the new account, they gave him online access which was outrageous since my personal account was linked in the same portal. I about blew the poor C/S pricks ear off on the phone. I walked into their branch the next day and closed the accounts. They had two people trying to talk me out of it and when I lowered my voice a bit and reiterated my issues with them, they sent a third person over with the funds. The first two didn't even look at me as I walked out but the bank manager's lip was quivering so badly while trying to convince me to stay I thought she was going to cry. I thought this very odd for such a small account(4-5 figures).
Instead of everyone closing their accounts, they should just empty them out. That way, you will still cost them the overhead to service the account. I've kept an account going now for almost ten years with a $1.02 in it, occasionally transferring the dollar from checking to savings. All because they stole $8 from me (by upgrading my account level) and wouldn't give it back.
Every month I get the statement in the mail, and I get a good laugh.
I'm bored of people fashioning their essays into "top ten" lists.
Dave, is that you?
Sometimes you gotta wonder why someone gives you a down arrow for a simple funny remark. Are they just grouchy, I dunno. Maybe the guy or gal didnt get the Letterman reference?
Dave's not here!
Cancelled my account of over 30 years.
Brian is clueless.
He wants to be charitable at the depositers expense.
Oh the pain....Now ZH has called the last 3 weeks short covering rally....Now this a short covering feeding fest....crazy inverse ETF leverage fuck job...every up tick on the euro..some crazy bear leverage etf comes apart...these things shouldn't even be allowed to trade....pain for somebody today...pain
Oh the pain....Now ZH has called the last 3 weeks short covering rally....Now this a short covering feeding fest....crazy inverse ETF leverage fuck job...every up tick on the euro..some crazy bear leverage etf comes apart...these things shouldn't even be allowed to trade....pain for somebody today...pain
I've been looking at volume all day. When it spikes, nothing happens. When it's flat, the indicies spike. Something is very, very wrong.
Here is a letter I sent them (Investor relations) AND, their response!
To whom it may concern,
I've been doing business with bank of America since 1996. I recently learned that Bank of America has taken questionable derivatives from it's Merrill Lynch brokerage side and moved them on to B of A books. This puts tax payers at risk AGAIN! You people bought Countrywide, you people bought Merrill Lynch, you people decided to over extend credit which caused the housing bubble, take responsibility for your own actions. My deposits are not going to be second in line behind your bad derivative bets. You people have a lot of nerve even trying this. You people already had the power of fractional reserve lending which is a huge privilege in itself for profit and you screwed that up. You people play games with your accounting, hiding your true leverage, play games with end of quarter window dressing which may be within the law (somehow) but that is still disingenuous at best and lying at worst in my book. You lobbied the FASB to suspend mark to market accounting so you could hide your losses, then even worse, you guys had the nerve to claim profits and award bonuses! Basically "You're Fired"...... further more, quite frankly I hope that Occupy Wall Street protesters pull you people out of your offices by your ears and personally explain to you why they are so angry.
RESPONSE:
Thank you for your correspondence. We appreciate your insight and concern.
There are many reasons trades are moved across entities, this is common practice across the industry and done at the request of the client. These trades do not impact FDIC insurance or insured deposits. Derivative positions are hedged and subject to robust risk-management practices and do not pose any material risks to the bank.
Regards,
Investor Relations
My response-haven't heard back yet! :-/
"There are many reasons trades are moved across entities, this is common practice across the industry"
-That doesn't make it right.
"and done at the request of the client."
-who if you don't mind me asking?
"These trades do not impact FDIC insurance or insured deposits."
-until they blow up.
"Derivative positions are hedged and subject to robust risk-management practices and do not pose any material risks to the bank. "
-Great! Then why move them? they should be fine where they are right? What are your hedges? who are your counter parties? will they be solvent? Are you solvent now using GAAP accounting?
Look, besides even that, I am not paying 5$ for your debit card fees. You already make money on transaction fees. You've bled the country enough already.
It's really Nations Bank. The real Bank of America died a long time ago... This is the most poorly run organization out there. I'm absolutely amazed that they're still in business but of course the Fed has seen to that they are...
"This is the most poorly run organization out there."
Obviously you have been fortunate enough to have avoided ever doing business with PayPal...they make BAC appear reasonable....
Trudat!
They stole $500 out of my account. I tried telling them of their " mistake" numerous times and could not get anyone to understand what they had done. My attempts eventually got automatic responses of "dispute closed" and they would no longer communicate with me.
True story. True scumbags.
Panic for nothing. Bank Of America will be nationalized, so depositoholders run no risk. Bye bye collapse.
Bubble bath Buffet would not have put five billion into Skank of America without assurances from his government contacts.
You forgot ... Boring world we live in
It is not difficult to refinance a mortgage to a credit union. I did it to get it away from Wolf Forego and it feels GREAT!!!
DO IT!!!
I stayed with WF due to the fact they don't have a proper interest in the property. I wondered why they kept wanting me to refi. Kept telling them no.
4 years after they bought my note they finally registered it with the county. Yeah, things are that fucked up in mortgage land.
No reason for me to give them a do-over on my dollar.
pods
Days like today you could throw darts at a stock board and make money. That is what a casino is all about. I imagine there are few short traders out there doing well today. Miners looking a little better now. Dollar taken out back and left for dead.
This is an amazing rally today, cannot be denied. And silver, YES!
BTW the Democratic National Convention will be in Charlotte so they really need to maintain the shambling corpse for at least that long. Could be a pretty penny more from us taxpayers.
If anyone has a list of Banks or Credit Unions that are making loans to small business, then please show them so that the folks that need a new bank can go to whose that are actually helping the community.
Now you’re telling the truth, Nomi, speaking from a leftist advocacy group founded by Barack Obama and others, and after your stints as a former managing director at Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Chase?
Why now this hit piece on Bank of America, that was solvent when the Goldman boys at the U.S. Treasury and Fed took it down and are now using it to collect toxic paper in preparation for making it the bankers’ toxic waste dump? Makes one wonder who you’re representing in your role as a senior fellow with the progressive advocacy group, Demos. As I recall with help from Wikipedia:
"In the late 1990s, Demos was conceptualized by Charles Halpern, President of the Nathan Cummings Foundation (1989-2000). Halpern wanted to create a counter-argument to the growing influence of the many right-wing think tanks and establish a multi-issue organization that would focus on progressive policy development and advocacy. David Callahan, a Fellow at the Century Foundation, and Stephen Heintz, Vice-President of the EastWest Institute, joined Halpern in helping to found Demos. Founding Board members included Arnie Miller, of Isaccson Miller, an executive search firm; David Skaggs, a Colorado Congressman; and Barack Obama, an Illinois State Senator."
I’m sure current charges against BofA fit well with your recent book, Jacked: How "Conservatives" Are Picking Your Pocket (Whether You Voted for Them or Not).
Please note that Bank of America was the largest retail banking establishment in 2008 with substantial real estate value, and repeatedly refused to play the bailout game until threatened by Fed Chair Bernanke and Hank Paulson, then U.S. treasury secretary cum Goldman Sachs CEO credentials.
And for BofA, it’s been downhill ever since. And now every Wall Street-connected columnist, economist and blogger has joined in the “trample-them-while-they’re-down” strategy.
By now all of the investment bank sympathizers are praying that BofA will succumb to the rumors, law suits, threats and lies and will sink into oblivion to take their bad paper to the bottom. Then, when the sun comes out and shines on the new Bank of America, its new owners will be the Goldmans and the Morgans—both JP and Stanley.
You say, “Bank of America deserves the title of the nation's most despised bank.” And I say, not with Goldman, Chase and Citi still in the running.
Its 3 card monte BOA CITI and goldman .. move the CDS
Go out ..bang a hooker bare back after you drank 40oz of sotch.. drive home...
same risk.
Nomi Prins -- LOL!
Been following the BAC discussions for a few years. I'm a "customer" but use them mostly as a transaction clearinghouse vs. a store for money. The branch in my neighborhood has been turned into a small fortress once they added bulletproof enclosures at the teller windows about a year ago (preparing for things to come?). Given the way that government has been overreaching, I'm not certain that even credit unions are a safe alternative to any bank.
Maybe $2 million worth of 4 dollar November puts was a bad idea.
thanks
great article
makes my blood boil, period!
Today or yesterday the front running GOP candidate's Perry and Romney want to tweak the Sarbanes/ Oxley Act [SOX] and rid it of section 404
Chris Dodd is behind the legislation, the chairman/ceo of the motion picture industry
summary: Enron and WorldCom brought about this oversite because of gross malfeasance, but now it's really not needed and overlaps available laws already on the books AND will save companies of a $billion+/+ some much needed accounting expenses,... etc., etc,. etc.,
what's going on or better yet - "What's Up" by 4Non Blond's
thankyou tyler
Why doesn't Zerohedge start their own bank, where we could have silver and gold accounts and could access those accounts with a debit card. Is there a anything like that?
Goldmoney.com
What if Tyler doesn't wish to be the new Qaddafy?
Kristen Christian, Who Created 'Bank Transfer Day,' the November 5 Bank Boycott, Tells Us WhyBy Jen Doll Fri., Oct. 7 2011 http://blogs.villagevoice.com
Earlier today we wrote of what appeared to be an Occupy Wall Street-related bank boycott planned for November 5th. We've spoken to Kristen Christian, the 27-year-old creator of the event, who has clarified some things. For one, it's not an Occupy Wall Street-organized event, though members of the Occupied movement support the idea and are planning to join in.
************************************************
What's the relationship between Bank Transfer Day and Occupy Wall Street?
It's not being organized by Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Wall Street is supporting it -- every branch I've connected with has been amazingly supportive of the concept and a single person standing up and saying "I'm done."
*****************************************
Have you spoken to Occupy Wall Street?
I've been in contact with members from Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, where I live... some of them have been taking it upon themselves to post on their Facebook pages and websites. But this is literally a private citizen who had enough. In terms of what you are going to accomplish with a sign, standing on the sidewalk -- you can't just sit in a public street until you get your way. This is taking direct action, saying OK, we've had enough. I think that's why we've garnered so most support.
Just closed my BAC account on Monday after opening an account with a local credit union. I get 6% interest in my savings account with my credit union now, compared to 0.1% with BAC. What a joke.
Pull all your money out of these TBTF banks and open accounts with credit unions, and ask your friends to do the same. Because of how the banks are leveraged, every $1 you pull out takes away $10 that they are able to make money off of.
Vote with your feet and we will hear these crooks howl.
B B B But BofA is FDIC Insured. It's backed by the United States Government. What could be safer? /sarc/
I did not need 10 reasons.
Take a long good look at the murals at their headquarters sometime (and who they took that HQ from), and then reference the people they've supported, and why F&M moved their liabilities there.
Ironically, they may be the guard dogs, watching out for the OWS pensioners. Then again, we all knew that, didn't we - dump toxics on BaC, trash, split off viable assets and flush.
Then again, I'm reminded of this story - http://www.sharpedgenews.com/index.php/news/recent-news/171-american-man... ... [Hint: Home > Fin//ban//k PLC story for ze irony]. Moral can go two ways: either don't keep dangerous "pets" and expect them all to not get culled when you stop looking after them, or [QED] stop damaging wild animals via inhumane controls. That was 0.5% of the entire stock of Bengal tigers killed off right there - what other genetic DNA rarity is being wasted / culled through cowardice, fear and ignorant management, or worse, keeping caged without breeding in captivity?
Can we move forward?
Goldman Sachs’ fingerprints are all over Bank of America. Using former CEO Hank Paulson while U.S. treasurer and the full threat of the Federal government through Ben Bernanke, they forced themselves in, and used the solvency of BofA to revive Merrill…now using all of their communications connections to scapegoat Bank of America.
The Charlotte Observer reported Feb. 01, 2011, that the Bank of America's top four executives -chief executive Brian Moynihan, chief financial officer Chuck Noski, global banking and markets executive Tom Montag and consumer banking head Joe Price - are getting stock grants worth a total of about $33 million, “though the ultimate payouts will depend on future company performance.”
The Observer noted that “Montag, a Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs alumnus who runs the Wall Street side of the company, could make the most money, about $16.1 million. That's actually down from 2009, when he reaped $29.9 million, mostly from stock awards granted as part of his Merrill contract.”
As Ben Stein said: “Should there not be some inquiry into what the invisible government of Goldman did to create this disaster, which has caught up with some Wall Street firms but not the nimble Goldman?” Nor should it be forgotten that Goldman Sachs is the NYFed, which rapidly assumed dominance over the Federal Reserve System when Benjamin Strong, a Morgan/Rothschild man, was appointed Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 1914, reigning until his death.
I saw an article about a serviceman in Iraq or Afghanistan that came back and his mother was fighting to keep his house, so he went over there to get sniped, blown up, and god knows what else. Gets maybe 10 seconds to himself, then comes home and still cant get 10 seconds to himself to rest or hang his hat up. To top it off, at the end of the article this has happened 29 times before to servicemen. I told the girl "I just have too many rinky dink accounts" and closed it. But that article made my mind switch....... to myself. That's one.
DAX monthly chart at blog shows recent bullish candle revealing aggressive short covering rally enclosed within big picture bearish pattern.
Bullish USD weekly/monthly and bearish SP500/DOW monthly
charts will eventually ensure a violent reversal of equity uptrend.
http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com
Nomi Prins .......... a super young lady who will go far in life, bless her heart .
Reason #4 is one of the few reason's to do business with BofA
Bank of America's customers, past and present, might get part of a class-action settlement. But don't expect a windfall. A federal judge in Miami Tuesday ordered the banking giant to pay parts of a $410 million settlement to more than 13 million of its debit card consumers. The case alleges that the financial institution used a policy in posting its debit card transactions that resulted in more overdraft charges. I found this here: Bank of America settles overdraft fee class-action suit. Customers who can claim part of the settlement are those who were charged overdraft fees caused by the bank’s practice of posting debit card transactions from largest to smallest amount, instead of in the order they were made. It is a practice the bank discontinued in May, 2009.