Monday, January 30, 2006

This is my bank, kids.

BB+T has vowed to not loan money to building projects that got their land by taking it away from private citizens under eminent domain. As the article points out, the stand will in the end probably be profitable for them, but I will take my friends where I can get them.

The Supreme Court screwed the pooch big time on this one, IMHO. I'm sort of amazed that the liberals were the ones who voted for it as opening things up to abuse by large businesses is usally more the conservatives' racket.

Here's the story of an LA furniture maker who was kicked off of his property so the city could build a new animal shelter on it. $17,000 in campaign donations from a competing furniture maker later, the land is being sold to the competing furniture maker. At a cost of millions to the taxpayers.

Suffice to say, I'm happy to be a BB+T customer this morning.

CC

8 comments:

Psyton said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Joel Monka said...

I'm going to suggest this to MY banK!

CC, I'm surprised at your amazement that liberals did this- I think you were thrown off by the land finally ending up in the hands of big business- but the end use isn't the issue; the issue is power. Conservatives believe that all rights, power, and authority lies in the hands of individual citizens, and the government merely has the temporary use of some of that authority delegated to them by the citizens. For a liberal, all rights and power does (or should) begin with the state, and the citizen must make do with whatever the state decides is good enough for him. The eminent domain decision is squarely with that view; the individual citizen is not sovereign even in his own home- his proper role should be humble supplicant to the government for the right to live in a house. The previous demand that eminent domain be used only for public projects was an unacceptable restriction on the government's ability to rule on a whim.

Don't worry bout me, just a touch of heartburn- it will pass :)

Psyton said...

Ironically, I went from liking to really, REALLY hating BB&T in about 5 minutes.

Some lady calls the apartment (the home "you won't get here until after 5" number, as opposed to work and cell numbers also listed in my account) to tell me that the ~$4000 expense cheque is arbitrarily being held 5-extra business days.

This is a cheque that was supposed to covor a big payment to Amex that I scheduled to post today (giving enough time for the ATM deposit I made 5:35 Friday... when banks are supposed to be open...) to clear.

If an overdraft occurs they will have a very, VERY upset person to deal with.

Chalicechick said...

IMHO, Psyton, EVERY bank does what you describe.

But only one bank has taken a stand against Kelo.

CC

Chalicechick said...

IMHO, Psyton, EVERY bank does what you describe.

But only one bank has taken a stand against Kelo.

CC

Psyton said...

CC:

Every other bank doesn't have systems as antiquated as their clients. BB&T's systems are SO old that they make the big-boy banks look speedy (despite the fact that they have about 10-times the customer base to deal with).

BB&T pretty much operates on the idea that if you don't keep >$4000 in your accounts at all times, you aren't worth their trouble. They have constantly been annoying whenever I tried to do ANYthing through a branch location through a combination of shitty hours and shittier attitude.

Now, I can understand the push for online banking as it saves them money... but then they should actually set up free online checking accounts (didn't exist in GA last time I checked).

At this point, I think BB&T is refusing Kelo is just a stunt to make people go "oh, wow, I should support THAT bank" considering they are too crappy to attract customers based on actual banking merit.

I think I am going to switch to SunTrust or one of the other local banks that doesn't have this whole "crappy hours and sparse locations of a failing bank with international banking fees and penalties" feel going on.

Chalicechick said...

Shrug. In VA, you get free online banking if you have direct deposit. I don't really do much that requires going into the branches, so I don't know.

I do keep my savings account wiht ING.
CC

Psyton said...

That's pretty much 95% of my issue with them: They f*(# it up SO BAD every other time I have to do branch stuff I am just getting sick of it.

Their "free checking" still charges me $4 a month for online banking (they very well might have forgotten to close my old NC accounts even though I have no access to them). They are servile when you can get them, but they don't keep their posted bank hours... The fact that I get to walk in and have them orchestrate a cash-advance from my credit card is just the final straw.

I am about to get a home mortgage, and GA is notoriously screw-happy in terms of "whoops, you missed a mortgage payment, time to auction your house!". I feel like I might lose my house to this type "whoopsy, did we forget to mention this policy?" bullshit.