Skeptics insist that the Occupy Wall Street protest and its spinoffs here in Washington state will have little impact on their intended targets, but don’t tell that to the busy folks over at BECU, who have seen a 280 percent increase in new accounts over the past few months. Writing in a diary on Daily Kos, local activist Robert Sargent reports on the once humble credit union’s stunning growth:
I spoke with Todd Pietzch of BECU earlier today. He told me that they acquired a record of 8700 new accounts in August, a record of 9400 in September, and as of yesterday, have hit a new record of 10,500 new accounts for October, through just two-thirds of the month.
The credit union will soon exceed $10 billion in assets, subjecting it to the “Durbin Amendment”, which slashes the debit card transaction fee cap roughly in half, to about 24¢. This will cost BECU, but they will not increase fees or add new ones as they expect to make up for the loss with growth in deposits.
You can read my own account of switching to BECU here.
@30, you could always do a 2-stage closure that wouldn’t require you to carry around much cash. You can open your new account online (em, er, don’t know about each CU specifically, but for most of the larger ones, I just joined Navy Federal this way), and do an electronic transfer for all but, say, $100, and then once your new account is ready to go, you can go into Chase and close your account, and walk out with a reasonable amount of cash. This is also beneficial because you’re never without a bank account.
@51: Diversification is great advice. Seattle has lots of great smaller credit unions, including Watermark, Verity, WSECU, Salal (formerly Group Health), and others. You won’t go wrong with any of them.
I disagree that BECU will start to act like the big banks, though, simply because they’re a consumer cooperative. It’s owned by its members, not any investors (public or private), and it’s not allowed to make a profit. So even if it gets “too big”, it’s pretty hard for them to actually become evil.
For another example, look at Vanguard, the investment company. The Vanguard Group is owned by its member funds, which in turn are owned by their investors. There are no profits, and no outside owners to take a share. Despite being one of the largest companies in the world, it’s pretty much universally regarded as “not evil”.
@53 Is exactly right – diversify! SMCU is a great bank as well.
Oh and btw, @46, I left BoA because they are fucking evil and #ows inspiration, not because of the $5 fees. That was just a cherry on top.