[conspire] OT: One way to feel cleaner

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Thu, 2012-02-09 at 02:15 -0800, Rick Moen wrote:
> The recent (2008+) financial crisis was also triggered largely by
> ill-advised deregulation, where controls and monitors were removed
> from
> both depository banks and investment banks, and -- surprise! -- they 
> started making risky, bad investments, and then demanding to be saved
> by
> the taxpayer (shades of FDLIC) when the consequences came home to
> roost.
> 
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The
deregulation of the FSLIC and later the FDIC were perpetrated to achieve
specific short-term economic objectives without regard to long-term
effects. It stands to reason that at some point the same might be done
with the FCUA. What will we do after that? It would be 1929 all over
again.

My father dumped BofA at some point in the 1980's when they were still
BofA, switching to Eureka Federal Savings, which became EurekaBank when
the FSLIC floated face-down. Some time later, without asking anyone,
EurekaBank sold some of their branches to Coast Federal Bank (née Coast
Federal Savings) ALONG WITH ALL ACCOUNTS OPENED AT THOSE BRANCHES. He
decided to keep his accounts at Coast even after that, despite their SF
branches being less convenient, because they still had the best rates he
could find, especially on CD's. (He had opened them on the Monterey
Peninsula.) Just a few months after his demise, Coast was acquired by
Home Savings of America, which almost exactly two years later was
acquired by WaMu, which of course is now part of JPMorgan Chase Bank.

Somewhere I have lying around my old BofA (NationsBank) ATM card that
says "Customer since 1985" which I threw in the teller's face in
mid-2010 as I closed all accounts there. I later learned that I could
keep an empty account there for rainy-day convenience purposes, the
"e-Banking Checking" which has no minimum balance and will not be
auto-closed no matter how long it remains dormant. As a result, I now
have a newer ATM card from there, which looks identical except for the
"Customer since 2011" line. I keep the balance on it at zero maybe 95%
of the time.

The person I now live with, after having Travis Credit Union membership
effectively revoked forcibly by the actions of their management (avoid
them if possible; they seem to be the Wells Fargo of credit unions), was
attracted to BofA's then-exclusive offer of Hello Kitty debit and credit
card designs, and now has the debit one attached to an e-Banking
Checking account, with Hello Kitty checks printed up as well. During the
debit card fee scare, I shopped around for a new credit union local to
Sacramento, and found Schools Financial Credit Union's promotional 7%
APY on the first $500 in share savings. We then both moved savings
there. I additionally opened a share savings at San Francisco Federal
Credit Union, attracted by their low-APR Visa with currency conversion
at below the interbank rate. Recently it came to her attention that her
parents bought two series EE treasury bonds in her name in 1992, locked
into a 4% APY. It made sense to cash them out into the 7% APY account,
but Schools informed me when I asked them that credit unions cannot do
such a thing, saying they should be taken to an actual bank, such as
Wells Fargo or BofA. Furthermore, she recently misplaced her Hello Kitty
wallet and called BofA in a panic, where they advised her to try to look
for it before asking for a replacement, because the Hello Kitty cards
were now discontinued. As such, there is currently no pressing reason to
keep the BofA account, but also no pressing reason not to, ESPECIALLY
since she did find the wallet. Immediate plans are to fund the BofA
account only on an as-needed basis from the Schools checking exclusively
to maintain the opportunity of the novelty of using the Hello Kitty
card. The use of Hello Kitty checks is less of an issue, because WalMart
Checks can cheaply print those up for the Schools account.

My mother still uses BofA exclusively, and their BankAmericard Cash
Rewards Signature Visa seems to make that worthwhile in her case.

Yes, folks, in case all y'all haven't noticed, I do tend to ramble
pointlessly.