Bank of America wants to price gouge low and middle income families. Postal banking is the better alternative.

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Tell the Postmaster General: Support postal banking for middle and low income families!

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    Petition to Postmaster General Megan Brennan:
    Bank of America’s cancellation of free checking accounts – after earning $21 billion in profits in 2017 – is just the latest proof that middle and lower income Americans need an alternative to big, for-profit banks. Please institute a return to postal banking services, a policy championed by Senator Elizabeth Warren and successfully in place in numerous other countries.

    Last week Bank of America announced that they’re getting rid of free checking accounts – and charging customers a monthly fee if they can’t keep a $1,500 minimum or guarantee direct deposit of at least $250 each month.1

    This gut punch for low and middle income families comes after Bank of America made $21 billion in profits last year2 and then got its taxes slashed by $3.5 billion a year in Trump’s tax scam.3

    Luckily there’s an alternative that Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have been championing that would provide an alternative to greedy big banks: postal banking.4

    Petition: Tell the Postmaster General to implement postal banking to give middle and low income families banking options other than cutthroat commercial banks.

    Postal banking lets people use their neighborhood post office for basic financial services like checking and savings accounts, without dealing with a commercial bank’s profit incentive.

    This isn’t even a new-fangled concept, it’s commonplace throughout the world. In fact, we had postal banking in the U.S. up until 1966.5

    When Bank of America price-squeezes their lower income customers and Wells Fargo defrauds their customer base, while both report record earnings, the message is crystal clear: banks won’t be accessible or accountable to real working people.

    As Senator Bernie Sanders said on the 2016 campaign trail, “Today, if you live in a low-income community and you need to cash a check ... where do you go? … One important way to provide decent banking opportunities for low income communities is to allow the U.S. Postal Service to engage in basic banking services.”6

    Postal banking is a simple, old-school solution to the problem banks created themselves.

    Sign the petition to tell the Postmaster General that we need postal banking.

     

    Sources:
    1. Slate, “Bank of America Just Reminded Us of Why We Need Postal Banking,” January 23, 2018.
    2. Washington Post, “Why it costs so much to be poor in America,” January 25, 2018.
    3. ThinkProgress, “How the White House and Wells Fargo are trying to manipulate you, in one chart,” December 21, 2017.
    4. The Atlantic, “Bernie Sanders's Highly Sensible Plan to Turn Post Offices Into Banks,” October 20, 2015.
    5. Slate, “A Short History of Postal Banking,” August 18, 2014.
    6. MSNBC, “Bernie Sanders makes the case for banking at post offices,” January 5, 2016.