I really hope many have started to move their money from these predatory banks. As bad as this economy is, the last thing one who is not working need to worry about is a fee to get your unemployment benefits:
Out of work and living on a $189-a-week unemployment check, Rob Linville needs to watch every penny. Lately, he has been watching too many pennies disappear into the coffers of the bank that administers his unemployment check via a prepaid debit card.
The state of Oregon, where Linville lives, deposits his weekly benefits on a U.S. Bank prepaid debit card. The bank allows him to make four withdrawals per month free of charge. After that, he must pay $1.50 for each visit to the ATM and $3 to see a teller. Managing his basic expenses, including rent, bus fare and groceries, typically requires more than four withdrawals, he says. Unexpected needs -- Linville recently bought a sport coat for $20 to prepare for a job interview -- entail more. He's afraid to withdraw his full benefits in one shot, knowing that the bank could sock him with a $17.50 overdraft fee if he exceeds his balance. So he pulls out small amounts of cash as he needs it, incurring about $15 in fees in the last two months he says.
"I'm so broke," Linville said, his voice expressing resignation that this is simply how the world works. "But I don't really have any other options."
See, it is shit like this that makes many livid.
While, we the tax payers, bailed out all these banks (and yes, many regional ones too, here is the list), the banks in return play out their predatory card on the ones who literally can not fight back. The unemployed worker.
Why are states cutting DEALS with these banks for these debit cards at the huge expense of the umemployed worker? This predatory behavior is just as bad as Citibank charging its customers up to 20.00 a month for the priviledge to have a checking account, or Bank of America's 10.00 fee to move money from your savings account to your checking account, or TCF Bank's outrageous 28.00 a day FEE if your account is negative (I KID YOU NOT, that 88 cent slurpee can end up costing you in the hundreds of dollars).
TCF spokesman Jason Korstange says the bank wants to see if the experimental NSF policy in Michigan can discourage overdrafts, while helping the bank keep existing customers.
Speechless on that one from TCF, boo. In the end, it is the behavior by these banks that represents the bottom of the barrel and should incense everyone reading this.
There are some hints of how much money is flowing from America's poorest families to banks. In 2008, California's welfare families paid $8 million in surcharges to access their cash welfare benefits, according to a Western Center on Law and Poverty analysis, which advocates for the poor. Surcharges paid by welfare recipients will exceed $16 million this year, the Center projects.
While it is quite notable that Bank of America FINALLY
decided to abandon its 5.00 fee to access your money via a debit card, it still does not remove the tarnish from its image. The image of a bank that is so far removed from the average American that it truly believed it could play roughshod all over the public and the public will just willfully take it.
NOT ANY MORE.
Saturday, November 5, 2011, is Bank Transfer Day. This is a designated time for average Americans to make a decision about their financial health and where it is best served. This is a day to say "enough of the predatory behavior of these too big to fail banks" and invest your financial health in your community, where it is best served.
No American should be forced to pay to access his/her money, period. Not after the trillions given to these banks, who were directly responsible for this economy collapsing. (I know it did not officially collaspe, but let's have real talk here, with unemployment over 9% families in America are collasping)
If you have not switched to a small community bank or credit union, please consider to do so. This is not about a bank run, this is about moving your money to an environment that cares about you and your family's financial health, not the other way around.
Start your search for a new financial home, search for a credit union right now.