Death of Bank of America
June 16, 2015 8:37 AM Subscribe
My frustration with Bank of America has reached epic levels recently after some housekeeping of my accounts with them. I've always known their surreptitious charges/practices have being toeing the line as far as the law is concerned, for instancing their structuring of consumer transactions in such a way so as to trigger certain fees.
I'm a law student in Canada and would like to reach out to non profit organizations/groups/activists that target large banks like it, or any class actions that I might be able to contribute to. So far I have reached out to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding my beef with the bank and how to get in touch with other like-minded groups.
I know the easiest way (to put a dent?) would be to set up a 'I hate Bank of America' twitter account and start an alert-the-public campaign or some sort of journalistic piece but that would have pretty superficial effects in the long run. What would be the best law-related way to channel my efforts against this financial t-rex in a productive manner?
I'm a law student in Canada and would like to reach out to non profit organizations/groups/activists that target large banks like it, or any class actions that I might be able to contribute to. So far I have reached out to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding my beef with the bank and how to get in touch with other like-minded groups.
I know the easiest way (to put a dent?) would be to set up a 'I hate Bank of America' twitter account and start an alert-the-public campaign or some sort of journalistic piece but that would have pretty superficial effects in the long run. What would be the best law-related way to channel my efforts against this financial t-rex in a productive manner?
Just change banks. If you've got decent credit, almost every bank would love to have you as a client, particularly if you've got debt; transfer your balances to another bank, set up a savings/checking with them too, and be done with B of A.
their surreptitious charges/practices have being toeing the line as far as the law is concerned, for instancing their structuring of consumer transactions in such a way so as to trigger certain fees.
That's the thing, though; none of them are illegal. Are they ethical? That's questionable, but that also doesn't matter. What matters to big financial institutions is making as much of a profit as they can, and they have entire battalions of lawyers constantly finding ways to push the edges of what they can legally do out just that little bit further.
If they do things in a way you don't like, walk away from them and find an institution that does. Easy.
posted by pdb at 11:27 AM on June 16, 2015
their surreptitious charges/practices have being toeing the line as far as the law is concerned, for instancing their structuring of consumer transactions in such a way so as to trigger certain fees.
That's the thing, though; none of them are illegal. Are they ethical? That's questionable, but that also doesn't matter. What matters to big financial institutions is making as much of a profit as they can, and they have entire battalions of lawyers constantly finding ways to push the edges of what they can legally do out just that little bit further.
If they do things in a way you don't like, walk away from them and find an institution that does. Easy.
posted by pdb at 11:27 AM on June 16, 2015
Response by poster: I have every intention of transferring banks, as soon as this dispute is settled.
However, I'm highly interested in securities law, and would like to get involved in a non-academic way right now. For instance, this is an excerpt from WSJ regarding Bank of America's legal costs:
Much of the expense decline, though, came from the drop in legal costs, which fell to $370 million from $6 billion a year ago. It was the bank’s lowest quarterly legal expense in years.
The number of lawsuits its faced and are facing definitely show that its practices were/are illegal. As well, changes in the regulation of the banking industry show that the government is clamping down through the law (though prospectively and not retroactively) practices that are harmful to the economy. For instance the Dodd-Frank Act changed a lot of the billing practices of the biggest banks.
I know that Bank of America has a huge legal team, but I'm interesting in finding out how I can make things even harder for them legally, if possible.
posted by kinoeye at 2:47 PM on June 16, 2015
However, I'm highly interested in securities law, and would like to get involved in a non-academic way right now. For instance, this is an excerpt from WSJ regarding Bank of America's legal costs:
Much of the expense decline, though, came from the drop in legal costs, which fell to $370 million from $6 billion a year ago. It was the bank’s lowest quarterly legal expense in years.
The number of lawsuits its faced and are facing definitely show that its practices were/are illegal. As well, changes in the regulation of the banking industry show that the government is clamping down through the law (though prospectively and not retroactively) practices that are harmful to the economy. For instance the Dodd-Frank Act changed a lot of the billing practices of the biggest banks.
I know that Bank of America has a huge legal team, but I'm interesting in finding out how I can make things even harder for them legally, if possible.
posted by kinoeye at 2:47 PM on June 16, 2015
Well, to take a stab at a useful answer, Jennifer Taub wrote Reforming the Banks for Good [Dissent] and Other People's Houses [book], and has 1500 Twitter feeds you may wish to investigate. Mine is hardly a definitive list, either, but I do follow several financial/economic reform feeds that she does not, so I'll leave the sifting to you.
posted by dhartung at 3:37 PM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by dhartung at 3:37 PM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
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The only reason I have ANY accounts with BoA is because they bought out a credit card company I had a card with. I'd like to get rid of that card ASAP.
posted by tckma at 8:58 AM on June 16, 2015