Sunday, November 06, 2011
That $5-a-month debit card fee was a great idea by Bank of America…for credit unions.
From the date BofA announced the controversial idea until this week, credit unions across the U.S. gained 650,000 new customers. To put this number in perspective, during all of 2010 only 600,000 people signed up to join a credit union.
With the new customers came a significant infusion of cash for credit unions: $4.5 billion, which is about equal to what credit unions gain from their entire base of existing customers in a typical month.
Credit unions, which are owned by their members, number almost 7,800 in the United States. Americans who want to leave big banks and move their accounts to credit unions and smaller banks can search their neighborhoods at Move Your Money or Findacreditunion.com.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
Credit Union Business Grows as Consumers Sour on Banks (by Jilian Mincer, Reuters)
Credit Unions Pounce After Banks Raise Fees (by Danielle Douglas, Washington Post)
Credit Unions Bask in Backlash (by Jennifer Bjorhus, Minneapolis Star Tribune)
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