DITCH Wells Fargo - Move Your Money

So…When are You Going to Kick Wells Fargo to the Curb?

How much longer are you going to let them destroy our economy?
How much more evidence do you need that Wells Fargo doesn't give a damn about the 99%.

Today on the Ed Schultz show I heard a piece about how Wells Fargo is planning on laying off employees – and the kicker is they are being required to train their replacements – IN the PHILLIPINES.

And being that Wells Fargo had caught my eye last month with this:

From the Take Action Minnesota Report

The report finds that executives from Minnesota’s three largest banks—Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank and TCF—led and funded a series of inter-related campaign entities that were instrumental in the Republican takeover of the Legislature that put members of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) in the House leadership and placed an attack on the voting rights of Minnesotans at the top of the 2012 legislative agenda.

#Alec

And this

The Wealthy One Percent That’s Behind Minnesota’s Voter ID Push

An example of this is Wells Fargo executive vice president Jon Campbell chairing the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, the state’s top lobby, joining together with the Minnesota Business Partnership, the state’s third largest lobby, for a mega-lobby called MN Forward, which focuses on slashing corporate taxes and cutting government spending. All the entities — the Chamber, the Partnership, MN Forward — have flooded hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past few years into the coffers of Republican candidates, some of whom are architects of a photo ID voter mandate that Republicans would like to have placed on a referendum ballot in November.

Well – I decided it was time to put Wells Fargo in the hotseat and here's what I found.

Wells Fargo adding $7 service fee in Georgia

Mar 09, 2012 at 04:29 AM 

Wells Fargo & Co. said Thursday that it will introduce $7 monthly service fees in Georgia, along with five other states, for the use of its basic checking account. Spokeswoman Barbara Nate said customers in those states with the Essential Checking account will receive a notice this month that as of June, they must pay the fee.

She said it can be waived if the customer has a minimum monthly balance of $1,500 or makes direct deposits of at least $500 during the statement period.

And then four days later this hits the news:

Published Tuesday, Mar. 13, 2012

Wells Fargo nearly doubles 1Q dividend

The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO Wells Fargo & Co. says it will nearly double the size of its quarterly dividend after passing the Federal Reserve's stress test.

Earlier this month the San Francisco-based bank paid out a first-quarter dividend of 12 cents per share. It now will make another payout of 10 cents per share on March 30 to shareholders of record on March 26, boosting its total quarterly dividend to 22 cents

So the curiosity kicked in for more information and I found this:

WELLS FARGO

Total TARP funds owed: $0

$25,000,000,000 on Oct. 28, 2008

$-25,000,000,000 on Dec. 23, 2009

Twenty Five BILLION taxpayer dollars

– which Wells Fargo held onto and worked with

for FOURTEEN months

before returning it to the taxpayers.

Let me see - did any of us get money from the banks while Wells Fargo was sitting on TWENTY FIVE BILLION DOLLARS while people were losing their homes?

Earnings Yield

Wells Fargo Earnings Yield Chart by YCharts

Not too shabby – looks like they are seeing a healthy recovery while the rest of us are still suffering.

And their stock market price seems to be rebounding better than the price of my house. 

Wells Fargo Stock Chart by YCharts

And then there is this – how do you like all those zeroes – I put them in for effect instead of putting in only three digits with a B for billion behind it.

And then I found this little goodie from another blog that evidently doesn’t have a love affair with Wells Fargo.

Other Info About Wells Fargo

Unemployment

Despite record profits and bailout money,  Wells Fargo has not created any new jobs, instead choosing to increase its profits by cutting jobs.[3]

Wages, Benefits and CEO Salaries

While the average American yearly salary is $41,673.83,[4] Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf made over $17 million in 2010.[5] In 2011, the Bank had one of its most profitable years by earning $15 billion in net income.[6] This even during the housing crisis they helped create. They continue to cut employee wages and benefits in their aggressive pursuit of profits.[7]

Immigration

Wells Fargo is one of the largest investors in the GEO Group, Inc.[8] — one of the two largest private prison companies in the U.S.[9] GEO Group supported and lobbied for Arizona’s HB 1070 law which is one of the worst anti-immigrant laws in the country.[10]

Communities of Color

Before the Housing crisis hit, Wells Fargo was targeting communities of color for their “ghetto loans” or sub-prime loans.[11]

Tax dodging

Unlike most taxpayers, Wells Fargo isn’t paying its fair share. In fact, in 2010, our tax dollars went to paying a $4.42 billion federal tax refund to Wells Fargo, $54 million of which came from Oregon taxpayers.[12] If Wells Fargo had paid its fair share, that money could have paid for hundreds of jobs, medicare coverage, housing assistance and other essential services that we’re being told have to be cut.

http://weareoregon.org/2012/02/6-reasons-to-stop-supporting-wells-fargo/

The strong results in the fourth quarter helped the bank make $15.9 billion in profit for 2011.  This is an increase of 28% from 2010.  Profit gains were limited by declining revenue, as new federal regulations continued to weigh on revenue at banks.  Fourth-quarter revenue at Wells Fargo fell to $20.6 billion from $21.5 billion for the same period a year earlier.

The banks get richer and at the same time they layoff their employees – so they can replace them with cheaper workers so the bank can make more money.

The bank raises fees on people who can least afford to pay more fees while they raise their dividends to people who could afford to go without.

When are you going to change your bank account – please tell me when?

PLEASE keep the movement alive.
Move Your Money!!!
Why You Should Move Your Money?

·         Invest in main street, not wall street

·         End too big to fail

·         Fewer fees, more savings

·         Get more personal service

·         Lend a hand to local businesses

The big banks have the financial resources and the political connections to water down nearly every legislative attempt at reform. Yet the one thing we have more then the banks? The collective power of you and me

Put your money into your community

and NOT into dividend checks for the 1%