Solving the banking crisis - one customer at a time.

The leader of the increasingly inaptly named “free world” recently slew 1000 bankers with the jawbone of an ass.  At stake: increased lending for small businesses.

Nice political street theatre that …  trot out the eeeevil bankers and blame them for not lending to “credit worthy small businesses” reasoning that the small businesses will borrow money willy-nilly and spend without restraint to “get the economy moving again.” In psychology this is called “projection”.

Thanks to banking regulation changes, the definition of “credit worthy small business” has shifted to mean Exxon-Mobil and, maybe, Microsoft.  I am researching to find out who controls those banking regulations … my search has narrowed down to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. – I’ll let you know when I know who is responsible.

Don’t get me wrong.  Many of the banks in question are despicable.  Banks on the one hand are foreclosing on mortgages, raising interest rates to (ever more) usurious levels, lowering credit limits, and then threatening consumers with “inactivity fees”.  So … lower the credit limit and then charge a fee for inactivity as the poor slob tries to pay off the card.  This is what is known in banking circles as “five-star customer service”.

But we, the people, don’t need Washington, D.C. to teach the megabanks a lesson … we can do that ourselves.  All we need to do is vote with our feet … or, our dollars … we merely need to close our accounts.  Last I checked, we are still free enough (so far) to choose where we will bank.

So, here is my simple three step plan for fixing the banking system:

1. Locate a sound local or regional bank or credit union.
2. Using most of your money from your soon-to-be-former bank, open savings and checking accounts at your new, sound local or regional bank or credit union.
   • For those of us who are still lucky enough to have a regular paycheck, you will need to move your direct deposit to your new bank. And,
   • if you do your banking and bill paying online then you will also need to move your automatic and online payments to your new bank.
3. Go to your very-soon-to-be-former bank branch and tell them you want to close your accounts.

When we tried to close our accounts at a “too big to fail” bank, they put some barriers in the way of actually closing the accounts.  They needed a letter requesting the accounts be closed and we had to visit in person, but in the end they had to give us our money and we walked away.

Oooooh, it felt so good.

More anon.

[Via http://drwilltx.wordpress.com]