Remember, remember the 5th of November — because this Saturday is “Bank Transfer Day.”
BTD is a highly popular Facebook event (over 70,000 are attending) initiated by Kristen Christian, a young woman from California who decided she’d had enough of corporate greed. Her feelings resonated with tens of thousands of others, and the big banks will be taking a whopping hit this week as people rush to close their Big Bank accounts in favor of local community banks and credit unions.
One anecdote from a friend of mine who works in a small California-based credit union: “In an average month we hope for 400 new accounts, this past month we’ve gained 1100 new customers.”
People’s motivations for choosing to close their accounts do vary: bank fee hikes, predatory lending, failure to support small businesses, environmentally destructive lending. And much like the reasons that have brought so many people into the streets for #OccupyWallStreet, these are all symptoms of banks that are too big to care, that prioritize profits over people and the environment. And we’ve had enough of that mentality.
Some of our friends and allies, like us, are coordinating Move Your Money pushes this week. Here’s a selection:
- Rainforest Action Network (our own): “Bank of America: Not One More Dollar“
- New Bottom Line: “Move Our Money“
- MoveOn / Rebuild The Dream: “Move Your Money“
- The Huffington Post: (The original) “Move Your Money“
- Progressive Change Campaign Committee: “Hold Bank of America Accountable: Move Your Money“
And if moving your money isn’t quite enough for you, how about this idea for a creative, easy — and free — method of directly communicating with the big banks?
Twitter Updates
Here is my dilemma. On the back of my Working Assets credit card it says “Bank of America”. So, Working Assets is Bank of America? Do I cut it up?
Hi Carol,
This is a good question. Working Assets (also called Credo Mobile) is not Bank of America. The reason your card says Bank of America (BoA), is due to a banking arrangement that Working Assets/Credo has with the bank.
We’ve heard from people in the RAN network about a few different BoA credit cards that give a small portion of profit to causes that you want to continue supporting. We are writing to every group / cause that we hear about to explain our concerns with BoA and urge those groups to switch to a better bank.
How about contacting Working Assets to share your concerns and urging them to consider another bank?
Is Wells Fargo among the banks being boycotted? I’ll consider Working Assets. Are there local credit unions that you recommend?
@Dan,
Check out MoveYourMoneyProject.org, they have tons of great info on how to move your money and local banks/credit unions to move your money to.