Who Should Liberals Bank With?
It is a legitimate questions. Liberals have lots of money, and don’t really want to use that money to support banks that drove the economy off a cliff, then profited from it. Citibank, Chase and Bank of America are obviously out.
So where should I apply for a mortgage if I want to live my values?
Where should I keep my checking account?
What are the downsides to credit unions ?
these aren’t rhetorical questions. I’m curious.
Del-One. They don’t try and hit you with useless and expensive services like “over-draft protection” or lots of user fees. The only draw back is few branches, however, there’s always WaWa for free ATM with drawals. I don’t know if they do residential mortgages.
But don’t buy any cars at the annual rental car sale. The prices are ridiculous.
Downside to credit unions is lack of no-fee ATMs. You will be paying a fee to the big banks whenever you need cash from an out-of-network ATM. In the end you may pay more to the big banks per month in ATM fees than you would in checking fees (and maybe a fee to the credit union itself, I’m not sure). But at least your money would be moved.
Checking is Citizens – they pay me a few bucks per month for making point-of-purchase sales, so it is a good deal (ending this year though). Branches are in Acme and are open late and on weekends. Not sure where Citizens falls on the “evil” scale.
I have a BofA mortgage, but so far am not interested in risking a refi with an unknown.
Various 401(k)s scattered among Big Evil investment firms. I’m not smart enough to do something else with it.
I bank at WSFS because it’s local. I know, Clatworthy works there, but they have pretty good consumer relations. Free checking if you’re over 55, or maintain a minimum balance, and they give me free checking for the non-profits I look after. So far, no fees on my debit card and lots of convenient ATMs in my neck of the woods. I’ve banked with them for 16 years and never had a fee or an issue.
This isn’t necessarily about whether we get a good deal on fees or not. This is about depriving evil banks of the use of your money. But it’s nice to get a good deal too.
First National Bank of Wyoming or WSFS.
Credit unions are largely bogus.
PNC ranks poorly in director accountability, under standards set here:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2446/is_n3_18/ai_n28639530/
We use 3 or 4 banks, mostly local. You’d have to ask my wife, she’s the financial wizard. She plays them all like a cheap fiddle. I do know we dropped M&T after they changed from Wilmington Trust. I don’t like those dumbass vertical signs, but that’s not why we bagged them. I have a pantsload of money in a credit union. Best rates, and good service. We’ve never paid any interest on any credit card, ever.
That’s how we roll.
My Wilmington Trust is now M&T. Their on-line banking system sucks (2-4 day delivery of payments), so until I can find a good local bank with no fee checking and a decent on-line banking system, I’m stuck with BofA.
Citizen bank has founding fathers in their commercials…they seem legit.
It’s not the banks you have to worry about though in all honesty. It’s the ones that are investment houses/banks that you don’t want to do business with right? That’s why Chase, BOA, Wells etc are so fucking awful.
I would think going with folks that have service our local unions would be the best place to start.
As far as the mortgage goes, you don’t have much control over that one. It’s going to get bought by one of those guys no matter who you start out with.
I really like banking at WSFS, and like that their local. Their credit cards are done by BOA though (as are most local banks in the area)
It is a good point. Even if you try to do the right thing, if you have a Visa card, you are probably feeding the beast.
Smartphone data plans and premium cable TV packages are provided by equally evil corporations and are discretionary luxury item liberals could easily afford to boycott.
Years ago I had a Best Buy credit card, and we bought all our major appliances on sale using their interest-free deals. Then they started sending us 10% off coupons, and we only bought stuff from Best Buy when we had that coupon (and also when it was on sale). They completely failed to lure us into paying interest and late fees, so they cancelled our account themselves. We never bought their damn $25 DVDs. We definitely got the better of them, and they didn’t like it. Now we have a Lowes credit card and we are working it the same way.
I am very happy with PNC. I have been with them since they were Bank of Delaware. Their on-line banking system is very easy to use. I have zero reason to leave PNC, unless they merge with a major bank, then I will be on the move to WSFS.