You may recall that a couple of weeks ago Bank of America Bank of Greed instituted a $5 monthly penalty for customers who use a debit card that is tied to their checking account. All the while, modern-day Scrooge, CEO Brian Moynihan was whining that the bank “has a right to make a profit” and cited a need to institute the fees to make up for lost revenue which came as a result of consumer protection measures passed by Congress.
Well, the earning reports for the third quarter are in and Bank of Greed raked in a cool $6.2 billion. So much for that robber baron Moynihan needing to implement his $5 duty on banking services in order to keep his cash cow/golden parachute dispenser afloat.
It’s time to break out the tiny violin and play a sad song for Mr. Moynihan. It must really be a struggle to earn $1.9 million a year, lead a company to billions in profit, and have to hear from customers who could really use the extra $5 monthly for their families. How dare Congress pass laws protecting consumers from banks!
Mr. Moynihan and Bank of Greed have made their profits (and we still get a lousy interest rate on our savings accounts). Consumers should now stand together and make a statement. As we’ve said here many times before, strongly consider removing your money from the big corporate banks and invest in your community owned credit unions. While banks are subservient to shareholders and the Almighty Dollar, credit unions are locally owned and operated and won’t nickel and dime you into poverty.
We closed our BofA account at one of the Bellevue branches last weekend. I was all set with my prepared response as to why we were closing our account, but to my disappointment, they didn’t even ask. I guess we’re not the first people they’ve had come in to close their account recently.