This morning I went to my bank (grow financial) . The last time I went I chronicled here. I usually use the drive through but I went inside to make the deposit because I wanted to close one of my accounts. I was greeted by smiling faces and even called by name from memory at the reception desk. What a great bunch of people who have taken care of me many years.
This morning was also the first time I entered the bank with an awareness that I could not rely on them to secure my money. I knew deep down that everything had changed. My long held expectation of a bank committed to protecting and growing member assets was shaken. The bank had used a scheme I was unaware of to attempt to take $164.00 from me by allowing me to spend beyond my means. When given the opportunity to return the money they kept $84.00 as a penalty for using a service I was unaware even existed. They called the whole thing a “Courtesy” to me. Do the individuals in the organization who perpetrate these schemes believe an individual wants to pay $28.00 a transaction on debit purchases when they do not have sufficient funds to pay for the purchases to begin with? What ever they believe they know for sure the they will profit greatly by using these penalties to take money from people who have entrusted them to secure the very same.
I have had time to contemplate this series of circumstances. I though about the statement the assistant manager of the Gandy branch made that in essence Grow Financial was now looking for ways to get money because the banking industry was hurting and I would have a hard time find any other bank that was not doing the same. I have gone from being confident that my bank has my money safe and secure to the realization that there will be an ever increasing campaign to get what little I money I have from me by any number of fees and penalties. It is an uneasy feeling and I get it with every transaction I make and every piece of mail I receive from the bank. It is a sorry state of affairs. It is more evidence that Americans want personal wealth over freedom and they will end up with neither.
