Sports illustrated has a cover story on Concussions.
Pretty serious.
But all of America has a financial concussion from nickel and dime bank fees.
Football players know the risk.
The average American opening up a bank account, retirment account and in my case an HSA account (trying to get a tiny government induced break from Blue Cross thieves) have few options re banks and fees.
I am so sick of this bank moat. I hope this new web bubble (woops rally) better last long enough to fund 1000 startiups to put an end to this shit.
As we now know, the government lends bank money at zero interest, I depost 5k into my HSA to earn zilch and get charged $60/year in fees to withdraw it only via a debit card to pay my doctor or a pharmacy with said card (which gets declined for some mystifying reason half the time). That’s a racket. Government sponsored.
While this is going on, the bank lends the money at 12 percent to my dog, who defaults but the bank gets the money back from the government so I can continue to buy cheaper ipods.
In my case that bank is Wells F*()_$%#g Fargo.
If you know me or see me and you work at Wells Fargo, you better cross the street cause I will get my 60 bucks back.
This is not over.
Rock on man. Short, but to the point. I too am extremely frustrated (to put it nicely) with the banks and their non-stop plundering of the tax-payers all with the blessing (and assistance) of the Fed. Sad.
i just thinnk its a very simple and stoppable crime.
Howard, if you want to discuss a real plan to take money from the banks legally and efficiently using their same tactics, let me know. I’m working on a plan to bury Goldman and Morgan Stanley and BankAmerica and Wells Fargo and all the Shittybanks.
They’ve been living too high off everyone else’s work for far too long.
I have a fun and fantastic follow up to this that just happened.
WFB put me through hell trying to get $300 back from an ATM withdrawal that I didn’t make. They wanted to CHARGE ME to look at the video tape to see who (if anyone) made the withdrawal.
vote with your pocketbook. say goodbye to the bastards
IF you are as smart as your blog implies and IF WFC et. al. are as corrupt as you claim…. then why the hell do you have an account open with them?
The bombastic and contradictory behavior between this blog post and your having an account with WFC can only lead anyone with half a brain to think you are either very stupid or very stubborn. Really, how different are you than a guy who rails against the mafia but does business with them when he doesnt have to….?
Or maybe you are just a pot calling a kettle black? Because in the end your actions [account with WFC] and your words [the above post] are really no different than what you accuse banks/bankers of doing – saying one thing and doing another.
Seriously, open a friggin account in a small bank or credit union, transfer all any accounts you have with these banks you claim are so corrupt – and tell everyone via this blog you did so, THEN blather all you want about right/wrong and the banks. At least in doing so your credibility and sanity wont be called into question; by not doing so they become very credible questions.
but you are an idiot. thx
Let’s say Howard moves his money into “Small Town Credit Union” how would he get his money when he travels to NYC and other major cities? He’d be charged ATM fees at the major banks still for using their ATM network. The problem of fees still exists.
he’s just hating.
hi matt – I meant the commenter HCS Knight.
I dumped my HSA several years ago after your same experience with watching my HSA account shrink from fees and no interest. I found 1-2 banks in the whole country that offer no fee HSA. But for me it’s not the worth the hassle. I just pay my deductible out of pocket using my Discover card for a little cash back. :)
intreesting. the HSA has been a nightmare experience all around and am
looking for better solution.
the government should just allow us to deduct the 5 goddamn k off the top
Why haven’t we started any new banks in this country? We’ve lower the cost of bank capital to zero % and been spinning our wheels for three years waiting for mega-banks to clean-up their balance sheets and start lending money to small businesses and consumers. Doing the same thing over and over expecting differnet results is indeed inane. Its time to let the old rusty corrupt banks rot and die. New banks run by fresh faces and a modern view……
you cant get a bank charter thats why. banksimple.com is hoping to start a
new thinggggg
I had a check stolen from an envelope in the mail recently so I cancelled the check. Chase said there would be a $25 fee to cancel the check. My response was something to the effect of, “Why are you charging me to protect my money at your bank? Don’t you want me to keep my money at your bank?” The fee got reversed.
We all need to wake up to fees. There are “convenience” fees everywhere and we take it because we *THINK* we have to. We don’t.
we need to ask nicely first. than screm, bitch and threaten like you. That
said American express told me to fuck off
oh its MUCH worse then this…for every dollar that you deposit and they book, according to the Basil II agreement, they get to lend up to $30(!!) and collect the interest on this “money” that they created out of thin air!! Basically, every bank is a mini-version of the Fed, and is legally allowed to do this…
this is what led to the bailouts…banks had, say, $100mil in deposit “assets” before the RE bubble burst…this allowed them to “lend” 3 BILLION DOLLARS for mortgages…one day, the 3BIL turned into 1.5B, causing them a 1.5BILLION DOLLAR LOSS with only $100mil in total assets to cover!!!! talk about melt down!!
and these same banks have the friggin NERVE to call hownowners who stopped paying on mortgages “irresponsible”?? give me a break!! most of the bank executives deserve to be in jail as many of them were shorting their own portfolios!
Howard if you gave up the white flour, white sugar, and processed falsity fake food pyramid products you would not the the medical services. be your own doctor.
That’s exactly true. U got me.
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