[GPSCC-chat] YOUR EXPERIENCE with Credit Unions? --> for anti-bank brochure; text: Tu, Nov. 30; fold @ pot luck, Th., Dec. 2
spencerg
spencer.graves at prodsyse.com
Sat Nov 27 05:59:42 PST 2010
Hi, Drew:
Thanks very much for your reply. I sent this email precisely to
get input from people. May I ask you more about this?
How much experience have you had with "www.meriwest.com"? What
do you like about them? Have you had any negative experiences? What
have you heard about them from others?
Also, just to make sure I understand, what do you mean by, "Green
is Collective!"? The Wikipedia entry on "Credit Union" gives me the
impression that all credit unions are officially member / customer owned
cooperatives and not-for-profit. However, in practice, I'm not sure
what that means. In practice, I would expect that some of them might
have been sucked into some of the negative practices like trying to
steer customers into riskier loans because the credit union made more
money from those or investing overseas in ways that manufacture the kind
of financial instability that generated the current, "Great Recession".
I want to avoid those if they exists, but I don't know how to get this
kind of information.
Meriwest (www.meriwest.com) was one of 8 credit unions I found
with local branches at
"http://local.yahoo.com/CA/San+Jose/Legal+Financial+Services/Credit+Unions
". This web site provided "Customer Ratings", but there were so few
ratings, it's difficult to generalize. Meriwest appeared twice on this
list: first with 2 customers with an average of 3 (out of 5) stars and
then with 4 ratings of 1, averaging 1-2/3 stars over the 6 people. This
makes Meriwest the worst among the 8, though there were so few ratings
it does not make sense to give that analysis too much weight. Beyond
that, I looked at the web site for advertisements of services inviting
customers / members to do stupid things. I found Meriwest advertising
"$25 statement credit". I don't know what that is, but it didn't sound
responsible to me, so I counted that as a negative.
Thanks again for your input.
Best Wishes,
Spencer
On 11/26/2010 11:16 PM, jamboi wrote:
> Note that any residents of Santa Clara County can join Meridian West
> Credit Union: https://www.meriwest.com/ or
> https://meriwestonline.meriwest.com
>
> Green is Collective!
>
> Drew
>
>
>> Hello:
>>
>>
>> I'm drafting a tri-fold brochure to distributed around the Dec. 7
>> international bank rebellion day, and I could use help. A quick
>> response would be appreciated so we can complete the text by next
>> Tuesday, Nov. 30.
>>
>>
>> 1. Where should people go to if they want to leave an abusive
>> bank like Wells Fargo?
>>
>>
>> 2. For people who want to change, what is a sensible process for
>> selecting an alternative and then moving?
>>
>>
>> 3. Where do you bank, i.e., have a checking account, etc., and
>> what do you think about that organization? My wife and I have banked
>> with Wells Fargo for almost 30 years. We decided almost a year ago we
>> wanted to leave but haven't because we do not yet have an acceptable
>> answer to questions 1 and 2 above. So far, I've tentatively decided to
>> limit consideration to 10 credit unions with operations in and near San
>> Jose. I'm focusing on credit unions, as they reportedly are
>> cooperatives, officially owned by their members, presumably invest the
>> money locally and do not engage in the kinds of speculative practiced
>> that have manufactured the current "Great Recession", now now
>> threatening the economic stability of Ireland and possibly, Portugal,
>> Spain, Italy, and perhaps the entire Euro zone. However, I don't know
>> how true any of this is.
>>
>>
>> *** There are 8 credit unions in or near San Jose listed with
>> "http://local.yahoo.com/CA/San+Jose/Legal+Financial+Services/Credit+Unions";
>> listed below. Some of these have customer reviews. However, there are
>> so few reviews that I hesitate to give them too much weight.
>>
>>
>> San Jose Credit Union (www.sjcu.org)
>>
>>
>> Valley Credit Union (www.valleycu.org)
>>
>>
>> Star One Credit Union (www.starone.org)
>>
>>
>> Santa Clara County Federal Credit Union (www.sccfcu.org)
>>
>>
>> Meriwest Credit Union (www.meriwest.com)
>>
>>
>> Alliance Federal Credit Union (www.alliancecreditunion.org)
>>
>>
>> Technology Credit Union (www.techcu.com)
>>
>>
>> Commonwealth Central Credit Union (www.wealthcu.org)
>>
>>
>> Thanks. More soon.
>> Spencer
>>
>>
>> ###############################
>> subj: Re: [GPSCC-chat] Holiday Pot Luck -- we need to announce to San
>> Mateo!
>>
>> On 11/26/2010 2:51 PM, jamboi wrote:
>>> Yes, and as a matter of fact, we talked to a San Mateo Green at Junior
>>> States who hadn't heard of the event yet, so we need to post the info
>>> and
>>> get it out to San Mateo and everyone else.
>>>
>>> Green is Connection!
>>>
>>> Drew
>>>
>>>> What time is the pot luck, Thursday, Dec. 2? I've only seen a date and
>>>> "Fred's Clubhouse", but not a street address, etc.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Spencer
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 11/26/2010 7:00 AM, Caroline Yacoub wrote:
>>>>> Sounds good to me. If we could get them printed by Thursday, we could
>>>>> maybe
>>>>> spend some time at the potluck at Fred's folding them, and people who
>>>>> wanted to
>>>>> stand outside banks and pass them out could get some.
>>>>> Caroline
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ________________________________
>>>>> From: spencerg<spencer.graves at prodsyse.com>
>>>>> To: Jim Doyle<j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net>
>>>>> Cc: sosfbay discussion group<sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org>; Betsy
>>>>> Wolf-Graves
>>>>> <betsy237 at prodsyse.com>
>>>>> Sent: Thu, November 25, 2010 8:43:36 AM
>>>>> Subject: Re: [GPSCC-chat] suggestions
>>>>>
>>>>> Happy Thanksgiving (Día de Acción de Gracias, in Spanish)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> What do you think about a tri-fold using the "No on 14" template,
>>>>> something like
>>>>> the following:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> *** NOTE: If we are going to have an impact by Dec. 7, we need to
>>>>> move
>>>>> very
>>>>> fast with this.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> HEADLINE: Dec. 7: International "Move Your Bank" Day(1)
>>>>>
>>>>> (1) -> footnote referencing something discussing bank protests in
>>>>> Europe and
>>>>> elsewhere planned for Dec. 7.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE: If you don't like your money being used to
>>>>> destabilize
>>>>> the international economy to make the rich richer and the rest of us
>>>>> poorer,
>>>>> consider moving your money to purely local credit unions, savings and
>>>>> loans or
>>>>> banks.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> *** Then follow this with a table of local institutions, names,
>>>>> addresses, web
>>>>> sites, phone numbers AND some symbols that summarize their investment
>>>>> policies
>>>>> and some assurance that they have NOT been involved in "liar's loans"
>>>>> and
>>>>> similar abusive practices.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> *** OR refer people to a web site that contains such a list.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> *** NEEDED: I need help compiling this list and checking to make sure
>>>>> that the
>>>>> financial institutions listed are actually clean, i.e., have NOT been
>>>>> involved
>>>>> in the most egregious, abusive practices.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ADDITIONAL CONTENT: Then we could say something about the repeal of
>>>>> Glass-Stiegel and the Republican promise to make further gifts at
>>>>> taxpayer
>>>>> expense to the financial industry. This should include, I think, the
>>>>> plot I
>>>>> previously distributed showing the profits in the financial sector as
>>>>> a
>>>>> percent
>>>>> of total US domestic corporate profits jumping from 15 percent
>>>>> historically to
>>>>> between 30 and 40 percent over the past decade since the repeal of
>>>>> Glass-Stiegel. We should include, I think, a reference to bais in the
>>>>> media,
>>>>> e.g., stating that the popular perception of a liberal bias to the
>>>>> media
>>>>> is
>>>>> equivalent to saying that the media routinely bites the hand that
>>>>> feeds
>>>>> them.
>>>>> Then note that commercial media is a business and lose money when
>>>>> advertisers
>>>>> decrease their advertising. The only way the media can survive doing
>>>>> that is by
>>>>> getting a substantially larger audience, which rarely happens when the
>>>>> public
>>>>> believes the media have a liberal bias. Then briefly describe the
>>>>> Herman and
>>>>> Chomsky worth and unworthy subjects model and reference Wikipedia
>>>>> articles on
>>>>> media bias.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Comments?
>>>>> Best Wishes,
>>>>> Spencer
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> #######################################
>>>>>
>>>>> On 11/24/2010 8:38 PM, Jim Doyle wrote:
>>>>>> Spencer named the topic - abusive banks.
>>>>>> Caroline named the places: outside of banks.
>>>>>> And abusive banks triggered "state bank" in my mind.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have not received a response from the high school senior
>>>>>> from presentation high school as yet. Her last email - on Monday -
>>>>>> was she would talk it over with her friends.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And Andrea has reported that "the printer" is working - the one
>>>>>> that was given to us and is now in her garage.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Are there any other ideas we could use in the future?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Jim Doyle
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> sosfbay-discuss mailing list
>>>>>> sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
>>>>>> http://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss
>>>>>>
>
--
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Operating Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph: 408-655-4567
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