Enough talk. All we need to do to send a message to the big banks is to

[Dover]

move our accounts to community banks. Based on his speech tonight, I think Obama would approve and it would make his job much easier and provide some important leverage.

At the very least, move half of your assets to a community bank.
The big boys will get the message loud and clear.

[leftstreet]

1. 'Our' money pales in comparison to the gazillions they just got n/t

[gateley]

5. If enough of us do it, it'll still hurt. nt

[laughingliberal]

6. Move it anyway

:-) that bailout money won't last forever.

[Dover]

10. In a similar move, many more people now use their debit cards and have torn up credit cards.

And everytime we make choices at the grocery store for organic products or locally grown that registers too. And on and on....

[RainDog]

2. I've banked with a credit union for decades

and highly recommend local banking.

[lib_wit_it]

21. All my loans for the past 30 years have been from my Credit Union, but I keep my savings in ING,

due to ease of use and much higher interest return than my CU. So, is ING one of the bad guys? I guess the obvious answer is yes, as they're sure not local. I never did understand finance.

[gateley]

3. Done. I wonder if there's any numbers of the people who have done so, or

the dollar amounts that have been moved.

[Dover]

8. I moved half of mine to community banks and will be moving more.

It will work if people do it. We have much more power than we give ourselves
credit for. It's just that people don't know immediately what their individual actions can do and wonder if they are just throwing a pebble into the ocean. It's time we recognize we're not alone.

I heard the other day on a PBS Frontline piece that many people have done away with their credit cards and are now using just their debit cards, checks or cash. That was music to my ears because I tore up my cards a few years ago without any sense of how many others were doing the same thing.

[Arugula Latte]

9. Info. on the "movement:" movement:

http://moveyourmoney.info/

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100201/editors?rel=emailNation

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/move-your-money-a-new-yea_b_406022.html

[Dover]

15. Wow! A "MOVE YOU MONEY" Movement! I wasn't aware of this...thanks!

I hope everyone will read and circulate these articles.

[gateley]

23. D'oh! Thanks! Don't know why it didn't occur to me to check that site! nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I haven't dealt with a big bank since 1980.

So what measures can I take?

Everything I have is in a local credit union.

:shrug:

[Dover]

11. Bravo!

You might encourage others to follow your example, and let them know how
well it has worked for you.

[Make7]

18. You could start robbing big banks and moving that money to credit unions.

(After properly laundering of course.)

:sarcasm:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

20. ROFL!

:rofl:

[Luciferous]

7. We already do our banking at a community bank.

[Dover]

12. Great! Good for the local economy and good for you.

[librechik]

13. They don't care about your checking account. They are all investment banks now.

all their money comes from pension funds and so on. A lot of that money is still our money, but we don't necessarily control where our pension fund managers put it. I really doubt a consumer boycott would have any effect on the banks, although I'm sure the consumer would feel better in a non-fascist institution for daily banking.

[Dover]

14. Also, you might refuse to purchase bank 'products', such as insurance.

These behemoths don't seem to get (or assume WE don't get) just what a conflict of interest this one-stop-shopping banking is.

We need new banking models similar to the micro-credit system.

[Cleita]

16. I already joined a credit union a year ago and

I do try to get others involved. Everything they do is local. :hi:

[proud patriot]

17. I've been spreading the word about this

[Dover]

19. It's a quiet revolution. Gandhi would be proud! n/t

[Dover]

22. Well it seems like I'm bringing up the rear rather than at the front of this parade..lol!

Power to the people!

[Statistical]

24. Moved 3 checking accounts & savings account from "too big to fail BofA to USAA

Now USAA isn't a community bank but they are 100% member owned with no shareholders.

I also stopped using my BofA credit card, cut it up (I kept it open w/ $0.00 balance to improve credit score).

As soon as our CD matures in 2 months we will move that too.

BofA just sent me a letter to re-open a checking account and they will give me $100. It went into the trash.