A lot of interest has been paid to “Bank Transfer Day” on November 5, the internet grassroots campaign to get people to change from retail banking to a credit union or community bank. It obviously worked, as thousands of individuals apparently changed. I found this here: Early Bank Transfer Day numbers show success
Already lost 700,000
Customer anger over fee gouging at the nation’s numerous large retail financial institutions has hit a fever pitch. ”Bank Transfer Day” is an online campaign. It started as soon as Bank of America announced the monthly $5 debit card fee. With the campaign, everybody was anticipated to switch banks quickly. This was supposed to occur before or on Nov 5 and would take consumers to credit unions and local banks rather than large financial institutions.
About $4.5 billion in assets were added to credit unions as 650,000 individuals joined credit unions in the Credit Union National Association. This all occurred between Sept 29 and November 5, as reported by the New York Times. Credit unions all across the nation were reporting huge increases in membership. CNN reports that credit unions got 600,000 brand new members total last year.
Enormous surge over weekend
The National Association of Federal Credit Unions reported a 54 percent increase in new member applications over the weekend of Nov. 4 to 6. Individual unions are reporting large increases in data while other credit union associations are collating data still.
The Wall Street Journal reports a huge increase in the Boeing Employees Credit Union in Seattle, Washington. The credit union got 659 brand new members on Saturday breaking a record for the company.
According to CNN, Digital Federal Credit Union did really well also. It got 133 brand new members that signed up. Digital Federal is the largest CU in Brand new England and typically signs up only 85 brand new members on Saturdays.
The Missouri Credit Union Association, according to the Maryland Heights Patch, reported opening 7,100 new accounts across the 131 credit unions that belong to the MCUA in the past six weeks, including Bank Transfer Day. The brand new customers added more than $49 million in deposits.
NorthJersey.com reported that there were many new accounts opened on Saturday at the North Jersey Federal Credit Union too. There were 48 brand new accounts opened that day. Five is typical.
Is it the switch for you?
As reported by ABC, credit union members are less likely to be charged maintenance fees. A Moebs Services survey discovered almost 80 percent of credit unions offer free checking without requiring a minimum balance, compared to 64 percent of financial institutions. Charge card rates of interest will be lower at credit unions too.
However, only 500 credit unions in the nation have more than one branch. Credit union ATMs are also difficult to find. They're generally not discovered very several places.
Articles cited
CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/07/pf/move_your_money_day/index.htm?iid=SF_...
Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020373350457702197235808582...
New York Times: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/did-you-participate-in-bank-tr...
Maryland Heights Patch: http://marylandheights.patch.com/articles/bank-transfer-day-pumps-up-mis...
North Jersey: http://www.northjersey.com/news/133418053_Bank_backlash_a_boon_to_N_J__c...
ABC: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/WorldNews/credit-unions-54-percent-increa...
Tags:
»
- keithR's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Credit Unions rock
Our credit union charges far less in any kind of fees than the banks where we kept our money before. They are easy to work with and we actually have plenty of ATMs available for our credit union. Banks are getting ridiculous with the amount and size of the fees they charge.