National Move Your Money Day

[Robster]

I hope this is in the right section, I'm posting it here because its being organised by Occupy Bristol. They are calling on the public to move their money out of high street banks into their local credit union, here's the blurb from their website:

"On Fri 2nd Dec Occupy Bristol, part of the global Occupy movement is calling a national day of public action and asking the people of the UK to move their money out of high street banks into their local credit union.

Large sections of the population, particularly the most vulnerable are being forced to pay for the reckless mistakes of the banks, either through government cuts or recession related redundancies.

The banks continue to perpetuate a culture of high risk and pay large bonuses to their top employees, in some cases with taxpayers money. In many cases these banks also use their customer’s money to invest in unethical and environmentally damaging companies.

Credit Unions are owned and controlled by their members and exist to provide a service to the local community, not to create profit for shareholders, or pay fat bonuses.

We are asking the public to show their dissatisfaction with the banks by voting with their wallets."

You can show your support for this day of public action by attending and inviting people to the Facebook event and of course opening an account with your local credit union.

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=245678218822024
Website: http://www.moveyourmoney.org.uk/

 

[BigTom]

I'd suggest adding this link onto your website to help people find a credit union, as probably most won't know where their local one is http://www.findyourcreditunion.co.uk/home

afaik it's only savings that can be kept with credit unions, and not current accounts with direct debits etc. Unfortunately this will prevent many people from using them, as so many people don't have any savings.

It's also worth noting that in Birmingham, cuts to Working Neighbourhood Fund has menat that credit unions have lost all their funding from Birmingham City Council. I've no idea if the Working Neighbourhood Fund is a national thing, it could be, and it may be worth looking locally to see how CUs have been affected by cuts.

Good luck and all, but I think this is about the 3rd or 4th attempt to get a large number of people to move their money on one day and it hasn't happened yet.

 

[Robster]

Thanks for your thoughts, there is already a link to the credit union finder on the website.

Most of them now offer current accounts with a normal debit card and standing orders/direct debits etc. Apparently also the ones that have an agreement with the co-op, which I think most of them do will soon be able to offer full internet banking.

I realise this is not a new idea but its a case of trying to use the publicity that the Occupy movement is now getting to get people to participate in positive action.

 

[sim667]

Well I live near gatwick and according to the website, my nearest money union is in woverhampton. So Ill decline to move my money on this occasion

 

[Onket]

I really like the idea of this, but it's such a hassle to close accounts & change banks, plus if I move I'll have to do it all over again, or as sim says, if I move to the arse end of nowhere I'll have to go crawling back to a bank.

I guess there'll always be excuses, and that's part of the reason the banks can utterly take the piss like they do.

 

[barney_pig]

I will happily do this, can you tell me whether they can accept my £3500 overdraft?

 

[nino_savatte]

I'd move to a credit union if

1. They gave me a debit card
2. The local Tories weren't involved in it

 

[ska invita]

ive just moved to Co-op (still waiting for direct debits to transfer). Only worries i have are that the co-op got 'downgraded' or similar when they ran bank safety tests the other day - I dont think it came out well at all, which makes me wonder about how the money is invested. Also, I read a good 5 years back that the co-op dont have enough ethical investment opportunities, so lots of cash gets invested 'elsewhere'.

Slightly sketchy post this - if anyone has more details I'd like to know - but either way, it must beat being with Bastard Barclay Bros.

BTW moving accounts wasn't that hard - a lot of it is done for you, or at least the Co-op service was good.

 

[_angel_]

I want to move to the co-op and fuck off the Halifax.

 

[Flanflinger]

lol