Bank transfer day in America

Bank Transfer Day Receives Tremendous Customer Support

Third Age

6 November, 2011

Bank Transfer Day, a movement that urges bank customers to close their accounts in favor of credit unions by Saturday, has many people preparing to move banks.

The support behind "Bank Transfer Day" began with the Occupy Wall Street protests around the country. As of Friday, there are more than 79,000 supporters on its Facebook page, The Associated Press reports.

Furthermore, the movement has already helped in the fight against Bank of America's plan to start charging a $5 debit card fee. During a time of so much economic struggle, consumers were outraged at the prospect of such a steep additional fee.

"It's too little, too late," said Kristen Christian, the 27-year-old Los Angeles small business owner who started "Bank Transfer Day," according to The Associated Press. She already opened accounts at two credit unions in preparation for cuttingties with Bank of America this weekend.

"Consumers are waking up and seeing that they have options," she said.

However, despite the great deal of customer support, it’s unlikely that any account closings that take place on Saturday will make a substantial difference with banks such as Chase, which is the largest bank in the country with approximately 26.5 million checking accounts.

Dan Blakemore, a Bank of America customer for the past 10 years said he no longer plans to close his checking account now that the debit fee has been tossed.

"I'm pretty confident they're going to find some way to get that extra money," said Blakemore, according to The Associated Press. "I'll just have to see if it offends my sensibility enough to close the account."

According to the Navy Federal Credit Union, new account openings in September and October were up 38 percent from a year ago. National Capital Bank, a two-branch community bank in Washington, D.C., says the bulk of its new account openings in recent weeks have been by ex-Bank of America customers who were fed up with their policy changes.