Story of the Day 11/ 14/2012

Occasionally, it is a dry week and I wonder if I will ever write another Story of the Day. Usually, however, another one smacks me in the face , rather quickly.

My son sent me a link to an article from the New York Times.
I love the New York Times, but I do not subscribe.
Ely does. He is a good citizen.
He is paying , so that I can enjoy their wonderful articles.

So is Harriet.
Harriet pays to have the New York Times, that wonderful, elegant, and very , very heavy paper delivered to her door on Sundays.
Then, she carefully pulls out things she thinks I will be interested in, clips them and gives them to me at synagogue on Saturday, so I will have something to read.
Well, you don't' really expect someone like me to have enough of an attention span to pay attention to services, do you?
So, I have my own personal preview and clipping service, thanks to Harriet.

Today's article, ( the one emailed to me by Ely) brought up something that is near and dear to my heart.
Banking.


Okay, banking is not really near and dear to my heart.
In fact following the economic meltdown of a few years ago, which owes a large part of it's power to really bad banking policies by what I tend to now think of as really bad banks, those banks do not tend to be at all dear to my heart.
However, as a result, alternate forms of banking are.

I had always admired the concept of credit unions, but had largely been too lazy to ever move my money from the same bank I got started with when I started college in Philadelphia ( which is not to be confused with when I started college in Delaware, or New York, or Milwaukee, or a host of other places).

I was 18 and needed a bank that was in walking distance from campus and ....I have been with them ever since.

Incidentally, that was the only college for which I actually ever owned a t-shirt with the logo/name of the university.
Thank you, Lynne.

When I lived in Milwaukee, I did own a t-shirt that said
"Hooked on Oriental Drugs",
Oriental Drugs being the name of the hardware store that had started out as a pharmacy that was basically downstairs from the art studios and where I was always buying bandaids.
Oh , wait, I never did own one of those shirts, I just bought one for my sister,Kim, because I thought it would look good on a future physician.

Anyhow, back to banks.

I have grumbled, over the years, about how much I hate them, how they mess up the checking account balance on a regular basis, how the safe deposit box doesn't' work (no one working at the bank was able to open ours for a few years, no matter how many keys and neckties were tried) and the fact that after out house burnt down, we could not get emergency checks or access to our money because our bank branch happened to "temporarily" not have a branch manager.

Grumbling is one thing; actually getting around to close the account and move our money to a different place has taken my husband and me about 16 years.
That is how long ago I finally convinced him that we should do it. That was after my griping about them for several years and not convincing him.
You might notice that we are not impulsive.

So, we are actually in the process of closing that account and moving our money,a process we started a few months ago. We did this by opening an account at a different bank.
Now we just have to get around to closing the first account.

During the many years, getting back to the start of this story, or ,maybe not the start, but some point at which I was talking about credit unions, during the intervening years,
I realized there was this thing called a credit union.
And that they actually were a lot more user friendly than traditional banks, even the one on Ditch road that actually has brownies in the lobby. ( Mine has Dum Dum suckers, which will do in pinch.)

Apparently, instead of mollifying their clients with sugary treats, credit unions do this really odd thing called make the clients "members". Member meaning stakeholder or whatever the correct term is.

In case you hadn't realized it, we are all actually members of banks, even the ones we don't' bank at. At least, we are stakeholders.
That isn't' because Obama's administration did a bank bailout, most of which has since been repaid, although,not with the original dollars, since those went to pump water out of places that were underwater and to bonuses for boguses, which is what I call it when I am watching how many swear words i am using.

And I do not watch that very often.

We were all and are all stakeholders because there really is this thing about when they fail they drag us down with them and when they falter, many of us have a very hard time getting anther job.

Who knew?
I thought banking was for people in polyester suits and who wore nice quality name badges.
Then I found out that the people at the top were wearing suits that were made from only the finest cashmere from the back of a very rare critter , and that we were all working for them in one way or another, even those of us who were scrubbing dishes at the nursing home.

So, in these intervening years, I have become rather interested in credit unions, and all of that, so if you are looking for a new place to save or to check or to take out mortgage......

you can go to Costco.

That is what the article said.
Costco.
Or Sams or Walmart.

Brilliant, although, I am still more enamored of the credit union idea, even though I actually am a member of Costco.
Which does not mean I get to vote of their board, but does mean that I can buy my gas for 12 cents less than at the next lowest place in the neighborhood, and I can get my oversized bags of organic carrots and my mega sized bottle of allegra 180 for a good price.

I must admit , though, that this new foray into the banking business by the big box retailers and by the biggest box retailer ( Wally-mart) does have certain attractions that the credit union may not.
Apparently, one of them is also selling life insurance.

Life insurance.

I stumbled as I read this. At first, I thought, "What a good idea!", but then I realized it ws being offered by Wal-Mart and I just cannot think of going to Wal-Mart to buy life insurance without shuddering.
And I never thought of myself as a consumer -snob until now.