Re:Finance is Not the Economy
by eli_gottlieb on Monday September 26, 2016 @09:58AM
(#12581823)
>Those banks turned around and raised fees for everyone. Don't loan to most small business. Don't loan to most self-employed. Are just horrid institutions.
>
>They have just seemingly given the wealthy credit?
Let me relate a short story about my experiences with my regional retail bank.
Since I don't have my paperwork in order with Vanguard after changing my address, I haven't been able to put my saving money into ETFs and bonds and such like I should. So it's been piling up for more than a year (yeah, irresponsible of me, I know!) in my retail bank accounts, checking and savings.
When it piled up to more than $25k, the bank "invited" me to join their "Platinum" accounts. These would impose a whole bunch of minimums on how much I have to keep in my accounts (minimum $10k in checking, minimum $15k in savings, something like that), in exchange for which they would... waive a few fees. And raise my interest rate on savings to the highest heights of 1% annually!
Whereas for the normal account, you get 0.02% interest annually, and for a credit card, you can get 1.5% cash back on your spending. They'll pay you more to spend than to save!
To the banks, us tech workers with our measly six-figure annual incomes are just more plebs, not even worth an interest rate above inflation.
Let me relate a short story about my experiences with my regional retail bank.
Since I don't have my paperwork in order with Vanguard after changing my address, I haven't been able to put my saving money into ETFs and bonds and such like I should. So it's been piling up for more than a year (yeah, irresponsible of me, I know!) in my retail bank accounts, checking and savings.
When it piled up to more than $25k, the bank "invited" me to join their "Platinum" accounts. These would impose a whole bunch of minimums on how much I have to keep in my accounts (minimum $10k in checking, minimum $15k in savings, something like that), in exchange for which they would... waive a few fees. And raise my interest rate on savings to the highest heights of 1% annually!
Whereas for the normal account, you get 0.02% interest annually, and for a credit card, you can get 1.5% cash back on your spending. They'll pay you more to spend than to save!
To the banks, us tech workers with our measly six-figure annual incomes are just more plebs, not even worth an interest rate above inflation.