Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again: Americans fed up with banks turn to Wal-Mart

[KamaAina]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/High-Bank-Fees-Give-WalMart-a-nytimes-3177514040.html

Americans say they are fed up with banks. They are protesting on Wall Street and raising a ruckus over outsize fees. Now there is a surprising beneficiary: Wal-Mart....

The Wal-Mart here has a clerk in a brightly painted Money Center near the entrance, like more than 1,000 other Wal-Marts across the country. Customers can cash work and government checks, pay bills, wire money overseas or load money on to a prepaid debit card. At most Wal-Marts without dedicated Money Centers, the financial services are available at the customer service desks or kiosks.

Four years ago, Wal-Mart abandoned its plans to obtain a long-sought federal bank charter amid opposition from the banking industry and lawmakers, who feared the huge retailer would drive small bankers out of business and potentially conflate its banking and retail operations. Ever since, Wal-Mart has been quietly building up à la carte financial services, becoming a force among the unbanked and “unhappily banked,” as one Wal-Mart executive put it.

Even before the recent outcry against banks, the services had become popular with cash-poor customers, many of whom never had a bank account and found the services more affordable than traditional check-cashing operations. Now newcomers to the ranks of the banking disaffected are helping to swell the numbers, Wal-Mart officials said.

Aaaaauuuugggggghhhhh! :banghead:

[frazzled]

1. Yeah, be careful what you wish for.

I saw that this morning in the NYT, and felt the same way.

But this is why OWS needs more than just "attention getting" tactics. The issues will not be solved by people simply pulling their money out of one place and putting it into another. (Watch those credit unions start to make credit default swaps, as Wal-Mart creeps its way into the mega-banking business sight unseen.) We need specific laws made by Congress, specific consumer protections, and other legislative efforts.

As people set up their camps, the masses are decamping to Wal-Mart. Not what was hoped for.

[gejohnston]

2. there are some areas that do not have

credit unions. So, what do you suggest?

[KamaAina]

4. Smaller, community-owned banks

there are still some that haven't been hoovered up by the Big Four.

But for FSM's sake, not Sprawl-Mart!!

[gejohnston]

6. cool, which reminds me

I looked up the small town bank I used to use before I enlisted 20 plus years ago. Still is independent. When I was a kid, I would be walking to school and see the bank pres. walking the four blocks from his house to the bank.

[RegieRocker]

3. I dont believe this at all. What money could they pull out of banks if they

Cash their payroll check at a store.

[Luminous Animal]

5. As expected, no numbers just PR. This is, essentially an advertisement for Wal-Mart's

services. I call bullshit.