Chaning Banking Company?

[theBruiser500]

I was in a bank of america and this particular one in San Francisco, I believe in union square if anyone else knows it had a bunch of TV's on the wall which playing radical right wing news, it was either Fox or worse than Fox I forget which. It was ridiculous stuff, about a murder or something they kept harping on it, you all know this type of "news." I begged them to change the chanel - it was infurating to be forced to watch that trash while waiting - but they said they couldn't, I asked why they had it on? And the manager told me probably cause Bank of America is a right wing company...

That's not where I want all of my money sitting. It doesn't even hurt me to change what bank it's in. This seems like a fairly straightforward easy and powerful way to use my money as leverage and suport what I want. Thoughts on this, is it easy to transfer a lot of money from one bank to another, are all banks going to be the same, new bank suggestions, anyone know about what Bank of Americas right wing leanings actually mean, anyone else want to do the same as me?

And now a question about posting in this forum. I almost named this thread "Doing Socially Concious Things" because so far all threads in this forum have been pretty grand in scope, is this post acceptable for here, should it be broadened changed forums?

[firstyearclay]

bruiser,

I left BofA this year for greener pastures at HSBC. BofA just had too many absurd fees. HSBC is a has a solid reputation worldwide. I also get 5.05% APY on a Internet Savings account. They have a new promotion that gives you 6.00% on new money.

more of an FYI then a respond to your question /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

FYC

[scotchnrocks]

i don't know if you have Suntrust over there or not, but they gave me a free hundo for switching to them from Wachovia...no TV's in my local Atlanta branch either...switching over is easy...takes about 5 mins or less and they cut you a check

[kidcolin]

aren't all banks right wing companies? I could be wrong, but I'm guessing most the suits in a bank vote Republican.

I left BoA when I moved out west, but it had nothing to do with political motivations. They're just a crappy bank for personal stuff. I switched to Washington Mutual.

You're in Boston right? BoA is definitely the most convenient there, but there are other options.

As for switching your money, I think it's pretty simple. At worst you have to wait a few days for your money to clear.

If I were you I'd keep a couple Gs in BoA for ATM purposes, and use an ING or Citi bank type online savings account with a solid interest rate.

[theBruiser500]

btw i also think this is pertinent becuase this is a poker forum a lot of dudes have a lot of money lying aroun din banks

[daryn]

i have mine in BOA also but i'm thinking of getting it out of there.. not due to any political BS but i can just get a higher rate elsewhere.

[The DaveR]

I've had a BofA account since 1993. I worked there briefly too. It's a crappy company to work for. But nonetheless, I'll keep the account because their online bill pay is the best I've come across.

[fifield]

I'm pretty sure Consumer Reports (someone w/ subscription confirm?) rated BoA as the best bank. Best rates, access to locations, and even their fees were much better than most other banks, iirc. That said, their marketing department must really suck, because I cannot think of any bank where I would want my money less. I [censored] hate BoA, and moved my accounts from them about a year ago.

Very happy at a credit union.

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
I've had a BofA account since 1993. I worked there briefly too. It's a crappy company to work for. But nonetheless, I'll keep the account because their online bill pay is the best I've come across.

[/ QUOTE ]

here here...I switched to my GFs CU when we combined accts and I still miss the BofA bill pay.

if you want a local bay area bank that DEFINITELY not right wing, you can go with the bank choice of organized labor
www.laborbank.com (http://www.laborbank.com)

[cbloom]

Bruiser, to address your more general point :

It used to be quite common in the US for consumers to use their choices to voice their politics. There was the grape boycott, the tuna boycott, the Carl's Jr. boycott, etc. From what I've seen, this basically doesn't happen any more (meaning it doesn't happen with enough support of the populace to have any significance). People care more about getting what they want right now than with influencing the corporations. This is a damn shame. Much like your vote is your voice in politics, your choice of what you buy is your voice to the corporations.

[TheGrifter]

In this political environment, EVERY large corporation is right wing. BoA is much, much better than most national banks. If you want your bank to treat you like a human being, join a credit union.

[guids]

Making financial decisions based on a tv, and a branch manager? C'mon bruiser.....I had BoA myself, but I left, becaue they suck for checkings (I dont have a savings other than Emmigrant), Im at USBank now, I like it actually, if you have any problems they dont send you to a call center, they put you in contact with your branch manager, and he helps you out. Sometimes it is a pain becuase he takes an hour or two to call out, but you are def dealing with people on a personal level.

[TheGrifter]

[ QUOTE ]
Making financial decisions based on a tv, and a branch manager? C'mon bruiser.....I had BoA myself, but I left, becaue they suck for checkings (I dont have a savings other than Emmigrant), Im at USBank now, I like it actually, if you have any problems they dont send you to a call center, they put you in contact with your branch manager, and he helps you out. Sometimes it is a pain becuase he takes an hour or two to call out, but you are def dealing with people on a personal level.

[/ QUOTE ]

I had Usbank and had many horrible experiences. The problem with USBank is if your branch manager is an idiot then you have no recourse. Either the branch manager at the branch where you opened your account helps you or you are screwed.

My account became overdrawn when I deposited cash in the morning and made charges later in the day (they automatically put the debits through 1st, charged overdraft fees and then credited the deposit).

There were 9 fees of 35 dollars charged and the branch manager credited one back. After much effort I spoke with a regional manager whose response was "these matters are handled on a branch level".

All the while the branch was very rude, another instance involved bank error and it took 2 weeks to get them to fix it because my fee had "multiple overdrafts" due to the earlier incident.

[theBruiser500]

[ QUOTE ]
Making financial decisions based on a tv, and a branch manager? C'mon bruiser.....

[/ QUOTE ]

maybe it's just a TV, but it's propoganda that if we're to use that bank are forced to watch and I can't think of a better word for it than the one I used above, infurating. But I think it's representative of what the bank stands for and supports and I don't want to be supporting that with my money. Plus "financial decision" - part of what is cool about this is it doesn't matter much to me what bank my money is in, so it's easy for me and will hurt them a lot if I move a lot $$ out of them.

[guids]

If you are young and conservative you hae no heart, if you are old and a liberal, you have no brain. If it were up to me, id want the rich old boy network handling my dough, than anyone else, but then again, I put money before ideals.

As far as usbank goes, the comment someone said earlier I can def see happeneing in retgards to teh branch manager thing, but i made friends with mine fairly quickly, and he takes good care of me.

[2/325Falcon]

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so it's easy for me and will hurt them a lot if I move a lot $$ out of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lol. BoA doesn't care about one customer. Will you still be at college next year? When I was a freshman at UMass, the local banks were all on campus in the fall trying to get kids to open accounts. Do something at school in the fall semester to encourage other students to put their money elsewhere.

[SackUp]

I keep most of my money in online savings accounts and use BofA for bill pay and day to day transfers. There is no real reason to keep a ton of money at BofA, but they do offer a lot of conveniences that other banks don't have - such as a really great billpay system.

Transferring money b/w banks is not hard at all. You can typically do it online or over the phone. You just need you account number and routing number of the bank (both of which are on your checks.)

[mmbt0ne]

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so it's easy for me and will hurt them a lot if I move a lot $$ out of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lol. BoA doesn't care about one customer.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or thousands.

http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/2006/10/25/

[2/325Falcon]

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Or thousands.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hadn't heard that story. That poor guy got pwned by Idi and BoA.

[Messiahkid]

You may want to check out ING Directs Electric Orange Checking.

3.00% APY , free bill pay, free sending of checks, free debit card, etc.

[gamblore99]

My brother was able to get a bunch of fees removed by threatening to switch banks. He had like 5k in there. This was Canada Trust.

[Duke]

Yeah maybe a branch manager will do something for you, since I'm guessing that you have high 6 to low 7 figures in there. The corporation won't care much about you leaving unless you have more than that.