Have you heard of this “Move Your Money” movement? I don’t know if I’m getting emotionally tricked by the video or not (see below), but this has really inspired me! It’s all about moving your money OUT of “too big to fail” banks, and INTO local community banks and/or credit unions – places I’m already a huge fan of.

Here, watch the movie created by Move Your Money.info:

The Huffington Post sums it up much better than I could:

“The idea is simple: If enough people who have money in one of the big four banks move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it’s meant to be. It’s neither Left nor Right — it’s populism at its best. Consider it a withdrawal tax on the big banks for the negative service they provide by consistently ignoring the public interest. It’s time for Americans to move their money out of these reckless behemoths. And you don’t have to worry, there is zero risk: deposit insurance is just as good at small banks — and unlike the big banks they don’t provide the toxic dividend of derivatives trading in a heads-they-win, tails-we-lose fashion.

Think of the message it will send to Wall Street — and to the White House. That we have had enough of the high-flying, no-limits-casino banking culture that continues to dominate Wall Street and Capitol Hill. That we won’t wait on Washington to act, because we know that Washington has, in fact, been a part of the problem from the start. We simply can’t count on Congress to fix things. We have to do it ourselves — and the big banks are the core of the problem. We need to return to the stable, reliable, people-oriented approach of America’s community banks.”

What do you think? Pretty convincing, huh? I’m the farthest thing from being a political pundit or economics guru, but I have to admit I could see this taking off. Personally, I use USAA for all my banking/investing stuff (as if you didn’t know ;)), so it doesn’t affect my financial situation directly, but if YOUR money were in one of the “Big Four” you’d have a chance to actively participate. This Big Four meaning Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. And I could tell you for damn certainty that I would have already left most of those guys! Okay, well maybe not Wells Fargo since I own their stock, haha, but definitely that dreaded Bank of America. I know each branch is different, but the customer service alone there drives me insane!!!

There would be some downsides here affecting you directly too though. One being the convenience factor. If you’ve got a billion ATMs all over the place, and BofA is right across the street from you I imagine it would be hard to switch so quickly. Then, of course, we have all that paperwork and updating site logins, Amazon.com, Paypal, bleh! Who wants to do all that?

When all is said and done though, if The Movement really IS in our best interest, I say more power to it! What’s the worst that could happen? ;)

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Major thanks to Dave @ Life Excursion for sending me this info. You really got me thinkin’, sir!