Banking Crisis

I opened my first bank account with less than five dollars at the Citizens and Southern Bank branch on Peachtree and 12th Street. I cut through their parking lot every day on my way to and from Clark Howell Elementary School 50-plus years ago. The school, on 10th Street between Juniper and Piedmont, is long-gone in favor of a fire station and the old brick bank building replaced by a sleek, modern structure that fits in with the new skyscrapers in my old neighborhood. After a generation or so of cross-breeding the bank now calls itself the Bank of America. BOA is a whale of a bank. It swallows up all the little Jonah Banks and Trusts, Pinocchio Savings and Loans. Which is their right and manifest destiny under every economic theory with the possible exception of Socialism and taxpayer bailouts, whichever comes first. Since they are so good at doing the things banks do, lend money to people who can and will pay it back, safeguard deposits, and provide customer service with a smile rather than resorting to automated telephone labyrinths.

Bank of America has been among banks criticized recently in a couple of states that issue debit cards for payment of unemployment benefits. Although unemployment checks can take 10 days or more to arrive, debit cards are issued immediately upon application. Additional attractions of the debit cards instead of unemployment checks include convenience for those without checking accounts, as well as avoiding the need to carry cash. The nation’s largest banks have contracted with those state unemployment departments to provide the debit cards. However, the banks are charging fees against the debit cards, "A $1.50 here, a $1.50 there. Forty cents for a balance inquiry. Fifty cents to have your card denied. Thirty-five cents to have your account accessed by telephone," according to a report on CNN.

I’ve had some troubles myself with Bank of America. They quit sending me my cancelled checks, a major inconvenience for me, because I sort my checks like a game of solitaire to allocate my expenses according to my income taxes, Schedule-C, Schedule-E, Itemized Deductions, separate piles for medical expenses, mortgage payments, charitable contributions. For a while, BOA sent me little Monopoly Money photocopies of my checks printed front and back on standard size stationary. Then they quit sending those. I called the bank several times. The last time, they promised to send me copies of my checks. Instead they sent me about 25 envelopes with printouts saying most of my checks were unavailable. So I set out one morning last week to move my account to a different bank. Of the 8 or nine bank branches closest to my home, more than half are owned by Bank of America. All but one of the remaining banks are either in danger of going out of business or are in the process of being taken over by a national mega-bank, which is itself in need of a bailout from the federal government. Two banks told me they could not return my cancelled checks or provide me copies. One said they did not know if they could or not. The other wants to charge me $3 per month for the special service.

After I finished my banking business, way into the lunch hour, I was hungry. Maybe I could find some place where I could have it my way.

Copyright 2009 by William C. Cotter