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SALT LAKE CITY — We've all heard the talk and seen the ads about anger over proposed debit card fees and other costs associated with banking. Now the numbers are showing the extent of the backlash banks are getting.
"Bank Transfer Day" began about a month ago, an idea by a California woman who chose Nov. 5 as a target date for frustrated bank customers to switch their money to credit unions.
The Los Angeles art gallery owner posted the initiative on Facebook, urging friends to support not-for-profit credit unions in switching over. The movement went viral, and thousands of people are on board.
- Nearly 650,000 people opened new credit union accounts, totaling more than $4.5 billion transferred.
- More than 10,000 Utahns have switched, Totaling more than $70 million transfered.
The anger toward many of our nation's banks has been going on long before this Facebook campaign, and Utah's banks and credit unions are seeing the effect.
"You know, it's not an easy thing to do to transfer your financial affairs from one institution to another. But people are doing it," said Scott Simpson, president and CEO of the Utah Credit Union Association.
"This is a phenomenon that's the result of the new world that we live in," he continued, "that some person can bat their butterfly wings in California and ignite this financial revolution; and that's exciting."
Numbers crunched by the Credit Union National Association show thousands of people have been swayed by the "Bank Transfer Day" movement.
Between Sept. 29 and Oct. 29, nearly 650,000 people opened new credit union accounts, totaling more than $4.5 billion transferred. In Utah, more than 10,000 people have switched, moving $70 million in the process.
Related:
Layton man files lawsuit against Chase bank for holding money
A Utah man is taking on the nation's second largest bank after he says the company held $472,500 of his money for months without applying it to his home mortgage loan."One of our credit union CEOs just told me that they've had two months of the largest net increase in membership they've had in the history of their organization, and that's significant given the times," Simpson said.
In checking with Utah's banks, there were no hard numbers in terms of client defections. But Rob Brough, Zions Bank executive vice president of Marketing and Communications, said tellers are hearing plenty of talk.
"From our perspective, we have had an increase in the number of clients coming in and asking questions about what we're doing related to fees and what's happening," Brough said.
Zions Bank does not charge debit card fees, and has no plans to do so. "We have run ads in the last couple of weeks just to remind people about some of the fees that we don't charge, because it reached the level where we received so many questions that we felt it was important to communicate that," Brough said.
Bank and credit union managers point out that there are many choices as far as financial services go, and they urge people to do their homework and find out which type of institution will serve their needs the best.
Email: kmccord@ksl.com
