Saturday's Bank Transfer Day nets credit unions 40,000 new customers

Eileen Ambrose

12:05 p.m. EST, November 9, 2011

Last Saturday was Bank Transfer Day, the deadline created by campaign on Facebook for bank customers to switch to a credit union.

The Credit Union National Association, which surveyed 1,110 of its members, says credit unions around the country reported adding a total of 40,000 members on Nov. 5^th. The new members also that day deposited $80 million in credit union savings accounts. Meanwhile, credit unions reported making $90 million in new loans on Saturday.

In the weeks leading up to Bank Transfer Day, about 650,000 people joined credit unions and deposited $4.5 billion in them.

Credit unions should send Bank of America a dozen roses. The bank’s plan to add a $5 monthly debit card fee next year caused an uproar and encouraged a 27-year-old gallery owner in California to come up with the Bank Transfer Day.

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Jay_Gould at 5:22 PM November 10, 2011

This credit union vs. big banks thing seems to me to be a non-issue. Young, less-educated and low-income Americans are the worst affected by the side effects of the Fed’s rule to limit debit card interchange fees to about $0.24 per transaction, down from an average of $0.44 , we learn from a new Federal Reserve study. Joanna Stavins, an economist at the Boston Fed, tells us that:

"Because banks stand to lose revenues when the interchange fee rule becomes effective, they may raise fees – either on consumer bank accounts more broadly, or specifically on debit cards – to recover their losses...

"Any price changes may take the form of reduced rewards on debit cards or increased fees, either in a form of fixed term fees or as variable per-transaction fees. Fixed one-time fees are more likely to affect the adoption of a payment method, while per-transaction fees are more likely to affect the use of payment methods."

We know from other studies that young, low-income and less educated consumers are the ones relying most heavily on debit cards, partly because they have no access to credit. So at the end the issuers will manage to at worse recoup their losses and those consumers who can least afford it will be net losers from the interchange reform. http://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/young-less-educated-and-low-income-consumers-most-affected-by-higher-debit-cost

damotclese at 2:24 PM November 09, 2011

Love this! And more to come. American citizens continue to flee these criminal treasonous Wall Street banks in droves, it didn't end with BTD, we're packing up and going to Credit Unions because Americans have finally awaken -- except for FOX "News" drooling rightards who are told it's all some Communist plot. LOL.

KILL these banks! KILL THEM! They work for our nation's enemies, just as their pet politicians do. America has had enough, we're in the streets demanding a revolution to restore Democracy and impose legitimate Capitalism.

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Saturday's Bank Transfer Day nets credit unions 40,000 new customers

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