Close Your Bank of America Account to Fight Injustice

Climate action group Rising Tide is joining forces with City Life/Vida Urbana, a housing justice organization, to announce a mass action against Bank of America. Instead of the usual sign holding and chanting (which has also been taking place), they are asking people across the country to close their bank accounts on February 14th– Valentines Day.

Why?

Because Bank of America continues to kick poor families out of their foreclosed homes and finance the ecologically devastating practice of mountaintop removal. The two causes may seem unrelated, but house foreclosures affect primarily low income families- many of them minorities, and harmful coal extracting practices often take their biggest toll on poorer rural families. According to Rising Tide, the pollution from mountaintop removal poisons the water in Appalachia and has forced people to leave their homes.

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A series of protests in Boston have been calling for Bank of America to renegotiate bad loans and allow residents of foreclosed homes to pay rent to the banks. Instead of addressing these demands directly, the bank made the weak promise to “review our policies and procedures”.

The proposed action is the latest in a growing trend where traditionally moderate or even conservative cultures in America are teaming up with left-leaning and radical elements to work on a shared vision. Saving the earth is as much in all of our interests as protecting the rights of all people of all backgrounds to have safe, affordable housing.

The action is currently centered around mass account closings in Boston, MA, but more information is expected soon about a nation wide protest. Contact Rising Tide Boston for more information.

Photo Credit: Tomathon on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

11 thoughts on “Close Your Bank of America Account to Fight Injustice”

  1. Hello, I feel Bank of America at least tries, they go to all the Naca events, and was just in Boston. The lender you should post and everyone should pull there money from is Chase, now this group pulled out of Naca after Naca spoke to them about not following through what they promised. At Naca several friends were able to get 2% fixed for the life of the loan at the Naca event visit http://www.naca.com

  2. Wow! Apparently BoA is raising ire on the left as well as the right. It looks like you guys hate them for taking advantage of the poor and the right hates them for donating to ACORN and providing accounts to illegals. There was also a minor backlash over their mistreatment of a fraud victim back in 2006. In addition to this, there is a growing apolitical, purely consumer-related backlash against their poor customer service, harsh penalties, and deceptive marketing practices. This backlash has already spawned several internet sites and forums. I myself was given good reason to close my accounts when I realized I was not alone in hating the Bank of America customer experience. Given all this, they have got to be losing accounts by the metric ton. I bet you that any future increase in BoA’s stock price stem from a vile combination of TARP money and shady accounting.

  3. KG New Hampshire

    I closed my BOA account today. Their increasing credit card interest charges, 21 day billing cycles and late charges are extortion. If this is the way they treat customers that pay on time, I would hate to be a family with a BOA mortgage that is suffering finanically. BOA needs a new moral compass.

  4. I have paid B of A regularly, with no late payments ever, and far more than minimum for more than a year. My credit score has progressively gone from Fair to excellent over the last 3 years.
    I received a notice from B of A Dated Dec 2, 2008 stating that my interest rate was to be raised from 11% to 14.99% on new and existing purchase and balance transfers.

    The reasons given were “proportion of balance to credit limits were to high”, and that “the number of accounts with delinquency”.
    I had recently looked at my credit report as my goal is to own a home, the last late payment was over 2 years ago, then the next was a year before that.. My credit was/is excellent, and it was unbelievable to me that this company which I have been with for so long had stooped to this.
    I phoned and the representative on the phone told me that they had done a “soft” credit search (“to spare my credit score the points of a full scan”)and found the two passed delinquencies to be a risk and thus my intrest rate would be adjusted up. I told her it was years ago and my credit was stellar. She acknowledged, looking at my account, that I had been impecable in my payments with B of A, but there was nothing she could do about the situation. I asked to speak to her manager and I was put on hold for 10 minutes and at that point I gave up.
    She did give me an address to petition, but I am to furious to ask them for mercy when I need none. On top of the fact that I work 9-10 hours a day, and go to school. My other option was to “pay it off by Feb 2009. I am doing my best, but am still 1500$ shy of being done with them. I, like most folks I know, don’t have the extra money to wipe out the debt in the time they allot. I am still in the process of paying off the debt of a business lost over 911. I am trying to take it all in stride, but as I watch what is happening to my friends, neighbors, my self as well as other Americans, I decided to write! What can I do to help? I believe that I will make it through this. I have a job that is stable for now. Many don’t. There must be something collective we can do.
    Thank you.

    Robin

  5. I’m in. I’ve been with them for years and they really haven’t done anything for me. Hopefully this will have an effect.

  6. Hey Michael,

    Thanks for posting this! This is going to be an exciting and interesting couple of months for energy activism. The Valentine’s day Breakup with BofA is only 1 day in a series of 100 days of action! Have you heard of Power Past Coal? You will be hearing more about it soon…

    powerpastcoal.org

  7. Robert, you write “They sent me monthly statements, new debit and Visa debit cards, and offers of credit. It cost them hundreds of dollars in postage and maintenance costs and they got no new deposits.” do you realize that it is not a cost to BoA that matters – they just increase the price of their services to compensate. look at how much trash and CO2 you put into the environment for your folly? duh?

  8. B of A ticked me off years ago and I say withdraw all but a couple of bucks. I kept a BofA account open for years with less than 5 bucks. It was an interest bearing free checking account. They sent me monthly statements, new debit and Visa debit cards, and offers of credit. It cost them hundreds of dollars in postage and maintenance costs and they got no new deposits. It may not work anymore, as we closed that account a couple of years ago and will not do business with them. I still have a BofA credit card. I leave it open and never use it. They get no money and have to maintain it for free.

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