[Noisebridge-discuss] community banks?

girlgeek girlgeek at wt.net
Tue Nov 1 17:10:21 UTC 2011 

There is one point that I should have mentioned when I voiced my 
concerns.  My money already is at Redwood Credit Union and I have no 
intent to move it to Monster Bank.  The negatives associated with BofA 
et al are much worse than the concerns that will come after the large 
influx of money into Little Bank and Credit Union.
-Claudia
On 11/1/2011 9:22 AM, walter park wrote:
> I utterly agree that we need systemic bank reform, so BofA et al, if 
> still viable a year from now, don't swallow up every Little Bank in 
> the country.  I used to bank at Hibernia, a small bank on Castro 
> Street.  Then it became part of four other banks before finally being 
> swallowed by BofA.  (When customers are more stable than their banks, 
> we have trouble.)
>
> But, moving money out of the Big Banks is a step to create pressure 
> for systemic reform, so it's still a good idea.
>
> I've been banking at San Francisco Federal Credit Union since 1999.  
> They used to be the SF City Employee Credit Union, just as the Fire 
> Credit Union used to be only for local fireifghters.  Anyone who lives 
> or works in SF can open an account there.  They're nice people.
>
> They DO have computers!  I don't think doubling their customer base 
> will lead to mass RSI.  Their main branch is at 770 Golden Gate, a few 
> block north of City Hall.  They have three (count 'em -- 3) ATMs in 
> the Civic Center area.  But they belong to the same Credit Union union 
> of ATM others do, so you can use many.  I do nearly everything online, 
> anyway.
>
> As to the 'big' financial services they don't offer:  There are some.
>
> The housing coop i live in tried to refi through them a few years ago, 
> but we categorized as 'commercial,' not single-family housing, even 
> though we're a non-profit homeowner group, so they wouldn't.  But then 
> our big-ass bank, Wells Fargo, the same year sent us a letter saying, 
> 'We just abolished your $100,000 line of credit -- not because of a 
> damned thing about YOUR finances or payment history, which is perfect, 
> but because of ours!'  Don't count on Big Bank services as lenders.
>
> I recommend that NB move AN account with SOME money over to a local 
> credit union.  NB can still keep a toe in the Big Bank water, if we 
> think we may need them someday.
>
> walter
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 04:36, girlgeek <girlgeek at wt.net 
> <mailto:girlgeek at wt.net>> wrote:
>
>     I have a strong feeling that Move Your Money is going to be a
>     mixed blessing to all involved.  These are small, sometimes sleepy
>     institutions that often rely on doing less common operations
>     manually because that is appropriate to current scale.  What is
>     going to happen when the sudden influx of customers overwhelms
>     manual operations?
>
>     I strongly support move your money.  I also recommend patience
>     with your new institutions while they scale up.  Consider how good
>     it will be for community investing if we all move our money into
>     small banks, and then just as they commit finances to new systems
>     we move our money back out.
>
>     Pessimistically I also wonder how much we are going to see of
>     cases of moving our money to Little Bank of San Francisco only to
>     find six months later that Little Bank of San Francisco is bought
>     by Bank of America.  I guess this is why we need various legislation.
>
>     -Claudia
>
>
>     On 10/31/2011 6:25 PM, Olya K wrote:
>>     Does anyone have experience with New Resources Bank?
>>     https://www.newresourcebank.com/
>>
>>     Apparently they're about sustainability..
>>
>>     Olya
>>
>>     On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 10:22 PM, Ryan Rawson <ryanobjc at gmail.com
>>     <mailto:ryanobjc at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>         charles schwab is great - smartphone checking deposits and
>>         refund of
>>         ATM fees.  no cash services, but oh well.
>>
>>         On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 10:16 PM, Nick P <nickbp at gmail.com
>>         <mailto:nickbp at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>         > SF Fire does have a catch -- their deposits are only privately
>>         > insured. Since the insurance risk pool is far smaller
>>         compared to
>>         > FDIC/NCUA, and since they lack government backing, if one
>>         member
>>         > institution fails, there is a much greater risk of a
>>         panicked run
>>         > powerful enough to bring down all other member
>>         institutions, even
>>         > those which may have been solvent before the run began.
>>         >
>>         > To put it a bit plainly, SF Fire's management decided a few
>>         years ago
>>         > that saving a bit on deposit insurance fees was worth the
>>         tradeoff of
>>         > more risk for their members' deposits. So if you do decide
>>         to go with
>>         > them, I don't recommend leaving a significant amount of
>>         money in your
>>         > account. See also: the failure of RISDIC back in 1991,
>>         which closed 45
>>         > institutions and froze 300,000 accounts, and the similar
>>         failures in
>>         > Ohio and Maryland in 1985:
>>         > http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/neer/neer1993/neer393a.pdf
>>         >
>>         > I use USAA checking myself; their banking is open to all.
>>         They, Schwab
>>         > Bank, and Ally Bank all offer ATM refunds, but if you
>>         frequently need
>>         > to see a banker in person then these are probably not too
>>         practical,
>>         > since they mostly do things by internet/phone/mail, but
>>         with things
>>         > like free postage-paid deposit envelopes, they're a good
>>         option for
>>         > most people.
>>         >
>>         > Mechanics Bank also offers ATM refunds with their Relationship
>>         > Checking account, though they're mostly East Bay, with the
>>         exception
>>         > of a branch in the financial district.
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