Find a Better Bank
I've been banking with Wells Fargo since the mid 90s when I moved to California. I've been getting tired of Wells Fargo specifically and big commercial banks generally for a variety of reasons:
- Their penalty and fee schedules are predatory. Minimum balances, overdraft penalties, ATM fees, and other issues can get very expensive ( Read more... )
- Their penalty and fee schedules are predatory. Minimum balances, overdraft penalties, ATM fees, and other issues can get very expensive ( Read more... )
Comments 19
I don't recall - were you for or against the government takeover of GM because it saved jobs?
If you were for it, I'm just curious as to why "to big to fail" banks are bad, but not other companies. If not, then I'm just remembering wrong and no biggie.
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If the GM takeover money came out of TARP, then I'm against it. TARP was passed to prevent systemic failure, and GM does not seem systemically crucial or involved in the systemic failure.
On the other hand if the GM takeover money came out of the stimulus bill then I *think* I'd be in favor of it, because that bill was actually intended to preserve jobs and keep the economy moving. Then again the stimulus bill was also intended to increase demand via Keynsean spending, not recapitalize a failing business, so taking over GM might still be a bad idea even in that case. I should probably defer to someone who knows more about this than I do.
Update: Wikipedia says the bailout money came out of TARP, so I'm against that.
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(GMAC was GM's financing division, whose shenanigans were the proximal cause - not the first cause - of the events that brought the company down.)
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Keenly. That's what I was referring to when I wrote "not sure to what extent Ally's past as GMAC, helped them unfairly sweeten their deal".
On the other hand I've heard that GMAC Bank (a bank now headquartered in Midvale Utah and called Ally Bank) separated from General Motors Acceptance Corporation (a lending institution now headquartered in Detroit and called Ally Financial Services) prior to GMAC Financial (not bank) getting TARP dollars. What actually happened remains unclear, and I've been meaning to dig into it more as time permits.
In the meantime, I should clarify my objectives. One of my goals is to mitigate systemic risk, not "give a thumb in the eye" of anyone. As such I'm getting out of Wells Fargo, the nation's fifth largest bank which holds 364,120,000,000 in assets, to join Ally Bank whose two branches hold only $91,538,972 in assets. If Ally Bank fails, it will join the hundreds of smaller banks which have failed this year, rather than the ( ... )
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Actually, all this stuff happened after the house got converted, so maybe that doesn't count. Opening bank accounts triggers credit checks, and I didn't want my score to be dinged while setting up my new financing.
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