Sunday, November 29, 2009, 8:02PM
Article by Inge cdsapi@shaw.ca
Big Banking is out of control. Many corporate financial institutions, considered too big to fail, received a share of a trillion dollars of taxpayer money. To thank us, they are hiking interest rates on existing credit card debt, lowering and cancelling small business credit lines, and imposing more and higher fees and penalties with impunity.
As taxpayers, workers, citizens and merchants we can fight back. Not with letters to the editor, nor with calls to our government representatives. There is an easy, immediate and direct path toward banking and monetary reform that benefits people, not corporations, through everyday transactions in the marketplace.
Use Cash
Today, one of the biggest moneymakers for Big Banking is cash substitution services: credit and debit cards. Users of debit and credit cards pay for the convenience these cards provide through fees, penalties and interest.
Merchants pay fees that average about $3.50 on every hundred dollars, plus the cost of those days they wait to be reimbursed by the banks. They pass these fees on to their customers in the form of higher prices. The purchaser pays the fee, whether they know it or not. So, every plastic payment is like getting money from an ATM that charges you 3.5%.
It’s this simple, the more times we use cash instead of plastic we will be wielding the power of the market to deprive banks and financial institutions of the profits that purchase the influence and power that has corrupted our financial and monetary system.
Together we can change the balance of power by doing just two things:
- Use Cash instead of plastic.
- Enlist others to do the same with simple actions.