this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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hmmm
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These huge national banks are almost certainly devastating for communities the same way a Walmart of a dollar store is.
It's one of the major drivers for the worsening US urban development patterns. Community-based financial organizations that can meet complex needs of a developed community just can't compete with these huge national banks. It drives standardized, product-based development -- which means suburban sprawl, industrial parks, and strip-malls -- instead of complex mixed-used development and infill.
The community banks were capable of that kind of thoughtful, complex product design to work with local developers, but they just can't out-compete the national ones. And so instead of keeping money in the community and fueling healthy development, we instead have it extracted from the community to fuel the kind of development that is a net negative to the city's finances. The drain is so severe that most community-based banks simply... don't exist anymore. Or at least aren't much more than a franchise for some bigger banking entity.
Credit unions aren't immune to getting absorbed into larger entities either, happened to mine. The US is in the process of basically nationalizing its banking system, the financial environment strongly disincentivizes keeping cash in a bank now, and big banks have effective bailout assurance from the federal government.
Why is it that in europe, community banks were able to survive?
I think the reason why my family uses bank of america is for cashback. Other than that, all big banks are garbage. There are some credit unions around here but there's not too many incentives to choose them.
Do you mean APY? Even if, none of the major banks have offer the best APYs. Yea, a local credit union probably doesn’t either (usually the online-only banks) but regardless.
Not to mention the big banks are going to take money from you for things like transfers, monthly fees, etc.
No I'm talking about cashback for purchases you make. With certain cards you can get a certain percentage you spend on gas, shopping, traveling, groceries, etc. If bank of america didn't offer this than I would probably switch to a credit union.
Is it a debit card? Otherwise what stops you from switching?
I actually have a BOA credit card too for the same reasons though.
Nothing is preventing me from switching, I could transfer all my money to a credit union if I wanted too, however, I get some cashback with bofa that my local credit unions don't have. I would very much like to use a credit union but I'm kind of earning some money back by using bofa