I hate the big banks. I hate them so much. I don't do business with them (been happy with USAA since 2001). I don't have credit cards with them. I wish I could be with the Occupiers in New York, or even my home city of Atlanta, but I just can't. But there is something I can do to support them.
It seems that every day I get offers for their shitty credit cards, complete with postage paid return envelopes. So today, using a tip from this website, I exacted a little revenge. I sent Citibank three bricks, on their dime.
I got the bricks from outside my front door, taking a few from my patio. I had a few appropriately sized boxes, so I placed the bricks within and taped the box up tight. Then I neatly taped the envelope (which clearly says that postage will be paid by recipient) to the outside of the box.
The final weight of the package was 8.5 pounds. At $.20 an ounce, that adds up to $27.50. Not insubstantial. Now imagine if a thousand people did it. A hundred thousand. Now imagine if everyone wrote "OWS" as the return address. Think they'd get the message?
And it doesn't have to be bricks either. It could be a bunch of paperbacks in a shoebox. That old iron that doesn't work but you can't seem to throw away. A whole load of screws. Whatever, just so long that it's heavy.
I want this practice to go viral in the worst way. Not only will it suck some lucre from the giant banks, it will deposit that money directly into the coffers of a USPS that could sorely use it. Credit card companies would have to rethink their direct mail practices, saving untold numbers of trees. And it's really, really funny. You can help by a)sending the credit card companies a brick, and b) contacting these websites and letting them know that you sent a credit card company a brick: Adbusters, The Consumerist, Lifehacker, and make sure to post your story to Facebook and Google+.
So, if you can't camp in a park through the winter and you already moved your money to a credit union, here's your chance to engage in another form of civil disobedience. Send the credit card companies a brick, and make them pay for the privilege.