As I continue to “decorate” the new version of KoHoSo.us, one of the things I am finally getting to that I never did on the old site is greatly expanding the other links that I offer to my readers. I am trying to stick to things that not just fit within the subjects that I will be getting to around here but also sites that are not necessarily very well known (especially among the “older” age groups that will be reading this blog, thus explaining to the younger and more “hip” portion of my audience why I linked to Homestar Runner).
Whether well known or not, I am also going to include links that I feel are extremely important — sites that offer vital information and/or things upon which I believe that almost anybody of any political stripe will want to act upon. In that vein, I want to highlight a particular link — a site I heard about a few months ago that every single citizen of the United States should take a look at.
Everybody who is not a banker or an investment broker is madder than a wet hen over how the financial industry took advantage of well-meaning laws as well as engaged in pure, unadulterated buggery on the high monetary seas. Big banks swallowed up smaller banks, bigger banks merged with other big banks, and all of the money went from our towns, cities, and states off to the big financial companies in New York City or even overseas. The customer service went into the toilet and, worst of all, fewer of those dollars were truly invested back into the community. Then, as we all painfully know, they had a massively disgusting financial orgy and fiduciary drinking binge after which they all puked all over our economy and gave it a bad case of the crabs.
Now, thanks to Move Your Money, you can find out what local banks and credit unions are left in your area and, best of all, the list will contain only institutions that are financially sound. Yes, believe it or not, there are still plenty of locally-owned banks left that did not go ape-shit during the past ten years on shaky mortgages and other financial shenanigans. In addition, despite what you might think, your little community, state, or regional bank usually offers the exact same services at the same prices (if not lower) than the big guys.
However, I should point out that Move Your Money should only be used as a starting point as you consider moving your accounts to a bank that doesn’t use your money to screw other people over and then yourself. You should definitely do further research from searching Google News to YouTube to even just asking around to see if anybody else you know uses any of these smaller banks.
Yes, if you are like me, you might not be able to move all of your accounts right away for any number of reasons. Definitely do not screw yourself just to hop on the anti-big-bank bandwagon. As with any financial decision, think it through carefully especially if what you are planning might affect your credit score or foul up any automatic payments you have coming from that bank. Most especially, make sure that you are on absolutely solid footing before changing banks if you have more services from them than just a basic savings or checking account. Some of the big banks are being very vindictive these days if you make any complaints or ask too many questions (and I have seen it happen in front of my own eyes to friends of mine that use Bank of America, Chase, and Citi, all of whom basically froze credit card accounts because the customer called to complain about an increase in their interest rate).
Again, do be careful. On the other hand, do it as soon as you can. The best way to protest the way these bastards raped our country and the whole world is to no longer let them play with your money like it was a fucking game of Monopoly.
