Bank Transfer Day

[pmbug]

Anonymous calling for moving funds from big banks to non profit credit unions on Nov. 5. Credit unions have seized upon the idea and incorporated it into their marketing:

International Credit Union Day proved to be a great day for credit unions to further leverage the Bank Transfer Day movement.
...

More: http://www.cutimes.com/2011/10/21/bank-transfer-day-international-day-used-to-push-l

 

[DSAbug]

Consider how little capital the OWS people have, this wont make any real impact.

 

[dontdeBasemebro]

I've been looking into a credit union and was having a bit of trouble deciding between 2 local ones that both looked pretty good. I found a resource that provides the financial data for the credit unions that can be used to determine which institution is more financially sound.

http://www.creditunions.com/

 

[DoChenRollingBearing]

I like the idea though. A year or so ago, "Village Idiot" and I at Zero Hedge tried to get people to take $500 from the ATMs on a certain day, only a bare handful did (that I know of).

If your place is reasonably secure you can make the argument that your money is safer at home (well hidden) and since they aren't paying any worthwhile interest, you have no "opportunity cost" either.

And taking money OUT of the bank allows you to do cool things like buy gold and ammunition...

 

[pmbug]

If you didn't jump on Bank Transfer Day, you might wish to reconsider your banking choices now:

Only days ago, we learned from the Financial Times that the 19 largest US banks are $50 billion short of meeting new capital requirements under Basel III accords, with their smaller lending cohorts needing an additional $10 billion. Amazingly (or not), omniscient Fed officials have divined "that most banks should be able to reach the new levels by retaining earnings during the next few years rather than by raising capital in the market" (emphasis ours).

Presumably, this earnings retention would not include most of the aforementioned smaller community banks because Paulson's TARP has trapped them in a Zombiefied state of smothering debt and capital starvation (not unlike what the World Bank and IMF did to its pirated victems circa 1990-2008), aided and abetted by Fed-induced yield starvation .

Who wins? No less than the Federal Reserve itself, because Treasury has recently been auctioning off its preferred stock in the smaller banks at firesale prices, which guarantees the state regulated banks will be folded into the Fed securitization and rehypothecation cartel. Of course, well-connected former bank regulators, such as a former Comptroller of the Currency, will (and already are) profiting handsomely from these transactions, which we detail below, as well as recently in the second segment on Capital Account with Lauren Lyster:
...

More: http://www.zerohedge.com/contribute...rgeted-former-treasury-inside#comment-2517407

 

[benjamen]

If you didn't jump on Bank Transfer Day, you might wish to reconsider your banking choices now:

More: http://www.zerohedge.com/contribute...rgeted-former-treasury-inside#comment-2517407

I work in a bank and directly with FED. These are the things I have learned:

1) All the new regulations will kill the smallest third of banks while making the bigger banks bigger. It simply costs banks a huge amount of money to comply with the new, ever changing regulations (the Dodd-Frank act hasn't even been completely written yet)

2) The FED auditors have no idea what they are doing. For laughs at meetings we look over the FED's analysis. For example, to calculate losses on car loans, they used the home price index as a major variable?
:rotflmbo:

 

[69mach351]

I personally like to keep things spread out between a few different banks and CU's. The CU's have always been easy to deal with, offer a higher interest rate than banks on common accounts, and there are a lot of other benefits that they can offer that most people don't realize - discount shows to tickets and events, discounts on insurance, cheaper loan rates, etc. They also support the community more than most banks in the area. I don't have a hatred for banks, but I feel the credit union does a better job of looking out for my interests.

 

[DCFusor]

I'm pretty fond of my local regional bank. While I've not audited their holdings in detail, I'm more or less aware of their situation - they got stuck with some very prime development land in the crash, but otherwise just never took part in the mortgage/securitization debacle - they're pretty conservative and kept skin in the game, and didn't make a buncha bad loans in the first place. Or my "personal banker" - a local branch manager, is the best lier on the planet. I kind of doubt she is. It's also a fun stock to trade, as I know most of the other players at the poker table on this one, and it swings pretty nicely a few times every year.

Of course, I don't keep huge sums there, most is in my market accounts to trade with. They've offered to do that for me too, but frankly, I don't think they're as good as I am at this game.

 

[DSAbug]

Anything beyond 7k in the bank is asking for problems.

 

[69mach351]

Anything beyond 7k in the bank is asking for problems.

Is there any particular reason for your 7k number? Unless there is something I am not seeing, I don't think that there is a set number that you can say X amount is too much to have anywhere. It is going to be up to the person and their personal financial situation. IMO, no matter what you do with your wealth, you are taking a gamble that it is going to out-perform other options. Diversification is king I guess.

 

[benjamen]

Is there any particular reason for your 7k number? Unless there is something I am not seeing, I don't think that there is a set number that you can say X amount is too much to have anywhere. It is going to be up to the person and their personal financial situation. IMO, no matter what you do with your wealth, you are taking a gamble that it is going to out-perform other options. Diversification is king I guess.

I agree with you mach; the amount I keep in the bank is more a function of liquidity. I like to keep around 3 months of expenses in cash, along with another 3 months of expenses worth of silver.

 

[DSAbug]

Is there any particular reason for your 7k number? Unless there is something I am not seeing, I don't think that there is a set number that you can say X amount is too much to have anywhere. It is going to be up to the person and their personal financial situation. IMO, no matter what you do with your wealth, you are taking a gamble that it is going to out-perform other options. Diversification is king I guess.

Of course it's dependent on the person but realistically, if trouble strikes you will want to be able to remove all cash within 2 weeks. For me, I have a business account and a personal account. That gives me 2 cards I can use to withdraw funds from an ATM each day. At a max of $300 per card per day I should be able to get all my money out inside of 2 weeks. That is the goal.

 

[69mach351]

I guess it is something that I am not too worried about. I keep my cash spread out between multiple accounts and institutions. A little birdy once told me that as long as you keep you cash withdraws under a low...low five figure amount (like 4 figures), that it doesn't have to be reported to certain agencies. You could clear 7k in a day if the institution has some cash on hand - catch them on pay-day.

There are other ways to tackle it as well. Call and get the limit on your debit card increased (most I have seen have a $2500 limit unless you get it raised). If you can't get your money out in cash in a hurry, buy things you need with your card. That will pull it right out of your account too. You could clear the accounts in hours rather than weeks.

 

[DSAbug]

I guess it is something that I am not too worried about. I keep my cash spread out between multiple accounts and institutions. A little birdy once told me that as long as you keep you cash withdraws under a low...low five figure amount (like 4 figures), that it doesn't have to be reported to certain agencies. You could clear 7k in a day if the institution has some cash on hand - catch them on pay-day.

There are other ways to tackle it as well. Call and get the limit on your debit card increased (most I have seen have a $2500 limit unless you get it raised). If you can't get your money out in cash in a hurry, buy things you need with your card. That will pull it right out of your account too. You could clear the accounts in hours rather than weeks.

Yet, if you are in a situation like BNI customers in Italy, you aren't given a chance to withdraw anything. $7k wont destroy me financially.

 

[69mach351]

Yet, if you are in a situation like BNI customers in Italy, you aren't given a chance to withdraw anything. $7k wont destroy me financially.

I am looking at it in terms, if that happened locally, then cash at ATM's would be in short supply as well. I would do my best to run down my account with the debit card. There is probably no "right" way to go about doing this if it was ever necessary, but it makes sense to have a plan for everything.

 

[pmbug]

Debit cards can be frozen or limited just as easily as ATMs.

 

[DSAbug]

Debit cards can be frozen or limited just as easily as ATMs.

Exactly..

If it's an abrupt shut off, i'll be ok because i'm only risking $7k. If they set limits on withdrawals, I should be able to get most out within a few weeks even if it's only 300 bucks a day.

I just don't see it being realistic to be able to pull 5-6 figures out of a bank account during a crisis.