What Bank of America’s instability means to you

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As Bank of America teeters again on the brink of insolvency, what does it mean to you and how does it impact you?

Bank of America got its latest bailout — a $5 billion emergency loan — from Warren Buffett. Thank God the money came from Buffett and not from you and me as taxpayers! Unfortunately, the big bank is now laying off 30,000 people in an effort to streamline its operations.

There’s a longtime rule of business that says employees benefit or suffer based on the competence or incompetence, the honesty or dishonesty, of their management. Bank of America is the worst combination on incompetence and dishonesty, and the fruits of that are once again being harvested off the backs of its workforce.

Bank of America, in my book, shouldn’t exist anyway to begin with. It should be busted up into smaller regional entities so it poses no risk to taxpayers in the event of a failure, much like the British have done with their big banks. But we can’t seem to get this done because of all the dirty money floating around Washington.

So let me drill this right down and let you know what Bank of America’s faltering fortunes mean to the individual customer by sharing something that’s going on in my life. Take your business elswhere because it’s not a question of if you’ll get hurting doing business with a big bank, it’s a question of when.

I have a Charles Schwab 2% cash-back credit card that has been great for a long time. Unfortunately, Schwab sold it as part of their credit card portfolio to Bank of America some time ago.

For awhile, Bank of America kept things as they were at first on the 2% cash-back card. But then in the last week, I got notification of changes to the card’s terms. They’re reducing the cash back rewards and eliminating a free identity theft recovery benefits package and a price protection policy, plus they’re reducing its travel accident insurance coverage from $1 million to $250,000.

The point is this bank is in a world of hurt and we get hurt as customers. So what can you do? There are lots of alternatives and options, including credit unions, smaller banks, online banks and local community banks. You have choice. Seize it.

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