Ten Reasons Not To Bank On (Or With) Bank Of America

[Roland99]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-ten-reasons-not-bank-or-bank-america

Charging customers for a debit card is just one reason not to bank at BoA. Recent Occupy Santa Cruz Bank of America incident illustrates how sensitive B of A is to protest. This "too big to fail" bank may collapse like a house made of junk bonds and become a taxpayer burden. Here are a few other reasons why you shouldn't bank with them.

There is no shortage of hatred for the biggest banks. Indeed, the Occupy Wall Street movement is leading a national revolution against these byzantine, powerful Goliaths for the economic devastation they have caused. This makes it difficult to choose the worst of the bunch. That said, a strong case can be made that Bank of America deserves the title of the nation's most despised bank.

Here are ten reasons to take your money out of Bank of America - and park it at a credit union or community bank near you. (And yes, that may be near impossible if you have a mortgage with them, as refinancing away from any big bank nowadays is a nightmare.)

...

[tblue]

1. You don't even need to go to your bank to close your acct.

Just go to your new local bank/credit union and ask them to do what's called a "sight draft" to close your account in your original bank and deposit the funds in your new bank. All you have to do is sign the draft paper and open the new account. Make sure you bring i.d. and your old account info.

Easy as pie! You never again have to set foot in any bank you don't like. I used to be a teller. Banks do this all the time.

[coalition_unwilling]

3. How would your auto-pay and auto-deduct functions (for car

insurance, for example) be impacted by such a move?

[Roland99]

4. You would have to set them up with your new bank (or with each payee on their site)

Or so I would imagine.

Closing the old account would end all auto bill pays out of that account.

Worth it, imo, to switch away from the big banks. I love my credit unions!

[coalition_unwilling]

5. Yeah, that's my concern right now. (I'm with WFargo.) Don't want

to let my car insurance lapse or get myself into trouble because utilities or cell phone payments bounce. Ironically, my car insurance is auto-debited from my WFargo account on the 5th of each month!

But I'll be noodling on it some more. WFargo pissed me off by starting to charge a $15/month fee for checking accounts with less than $7500, so I've got some personal motivation to switch, even without the OWS call.

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

[Roland99]

6. Just open a new account with, say, a credit union first. Setup bill pay with the new account.

*then* close the old one.

no lapse. :)

[tblue]

7. You'll have to set them up with your new bank.

A pain, I know, but it's worth it.

[coalition_unwilling]

2. Skank of America - n/t

[demosincebirth]

8. I quit that bank 25 years ago for the same reasons people are upset now...charging

you fees for this and fees that. I just got sick of it.

[Jankyn]

9. We had a car loan with BofA...

...and just switched it to the local credit union. All that, and a lower interest rate to boot!