Today, I put my money where my mouth is. Literally. No, no, wait – figuratively. Well, my point is that I took action based on a principle. Specifically, that big banks are evil and should be avoided.
Some of you may have heard of MoveYourMoney – – I was told about it a few weeks ago. The basic premise is that, between the bailout and the risk they entail, big banks are bad news for citizens of Earth, like us Slopers here, and it's time to move your money out of your big bank and into your local community bank.
Now, I've been with Bank of America for decades, and although I liked the idea of MoveYourMoney, my initial reaction was that it sounded like a bit of a pain. I mean…….new checks, new ATM card, changing auto-pays, and all the rest of it. But it kept gnawing at me, because I felt it was the right thing to do, and today I took the plunge………..
Now, the fine chap on your left is your humble narrator, and the fellow on your right is Tom Fehrenbach of Borel Bank. So for my fellow Bay Area citizens, Borel Bank – which received really high ratings from the research I did – has branches in Burlingame, Palo Alto, Los Altos, and San Francisco. Please call Tom at 650-463-8717 or email him at thomasf@borel.com if you're interested (and, no, I'm not getting anything for referring folks his way; come on!)
For those not in the Bay Area, MoveYourMoney has a handy Find a Bank link. This will help you find a bank in your own community.
The bottom line is this – there's no shortage of huffing and puffing on Slope about the banks. If you're serious, then do something about it! My account isn't going to mean that much to Bank of America, but it's six-figures large, and that means there's a seven-figure amount that they can no longer lend out (ahem, not that they're lending much anyway these days). Take action! Leave your big bank! Take a stand! Move Your Money!
