And I don't mean Hamster Dance evil, I mean full on Dick Cheney with a weapon evil. If you don't have at least $10k to keep and do nothing with, they don't give a damn about you. Even if you meet this minimum *and* have a mortgage with them, you only get upgraded to whipping boy. The only thing poor people (anyone who rents and has less than $10k of liquid assets) are good for to a bank is credit cards (debt).
Think, for just a second, about how evil they are: You give them money (which they invest) and they give you nothing. Then they make something as meaningless as free checking sound like the second comming. "Oh, my, God. You mean I can use my own money? You mean I can take cash out at an atm, or look at my balance online, or write as many checks as I like without getting overdrawn? You won't charge me for any of that while at the same time you will earn 15% interest on every dollar that runs through you including my paycheck? What kind of interest does it pay? Zero, really? Oh, if I maintain a $10,000 balance then I can get 1% return. No, no I'm sure your service is worth that." It's only a big deal because banks are greedy bastards. Try and obtain an unsecured loan at a bank and the interest rate you receive will likely be worse than that of many credit cards. CREDIT CARDS!
Credit Unions are the brick and mortar answers. Profit is all returned to those with shares (savings, checking, cd...). Interest rates are better, loans are easier to come by and there are fewer penalties. In terms of savings alone, the internet is king. Zero minimum balance, no load, highly liquid money market accounts can easily earn upwards of 4% interest. You often need at least $25k at a bank to approach that number. The competition is actually making banks offer slightly better deals, but they still make any tiny little thing seem like some amazing, shocking, benefit that they do because they care so much for people. If you must use one, and I must, then do a "free checking" deal and keep the balance as low as possible (I like using PayPal--4.25%--and a cash back credit card paid off each month).
I don't like banks because they reap massive profits off of people in horrible debt.
1 comment:
Banks ARE evil. True, true, true. And the US are by far not the worst off nation in this respect. My country here has the cynical byname "Banken-Republik Deutschland" - Bank Republic of Germany (normally it is Bundesrepublik = Federal Republik). There are no credit unions in this country, and Banks are not only Banks but also Brokers and Real Estate Agents. There are horrid conflicts of interests, and yes - banks basically do absolutely nothing. And yet - what profit margins do they have! If you get one percent interest on your money and the bank lends ot to someone for, say, 11% - what is the profit margin? It is amazing how many people say "10 percent" instead of 1000, and that is continuously and self increasing, interest upon interest. It is a deeply diseased system, and yet the world is lulled into believing that it is normal - just the way things are. The interest is also one of the main reasons that forces our credit financed economies into growth spirals. Wise people have warned against this development for Millenia.
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