Bank customers hitting back through social media

Social media is providing dissatisfied customers with a powerful weapon

For banking’s high-flyers, the guttersnipes of social media may seem rather insignificant. Yet banks are learning the hard way that social media is providing dissatisfied customers with a powerful new weapon when they want to hit back against provocative practices.

For years, Ann Minch of Red Bluff, California, has carried a balance of several thousand dollars on her Bank of America credit card, making minimum monthly payments of about $130, sometimes paying an extra $50 or $100. She says she’s never missed a payment.

Bank of America rewarded her loyalty by repeatedly raising her interest rate, which reached 30 percent. The bank reps refused to negotiate her interest rate when she called them. Ann Minch than turned to YouTube:

There comes a time when a person must be willing to sacrifice in order to take a stand for what’s right. Now, this is one of those times, and if I’m successful this will be the proverbial first shot fired in an American debtors’ revolution against the usury and plunder perpetrated by the banking elite, the Federal Reserve and the federal government

Ann Minch announced that she’d be dumping Bank of America, refusing to pay off her credit card debt unless she was offered a lower rate. She explained that she’d been a reliable customer even though she’d lost her job as a mental health case manager.

Social media is where many journalists, especially younger “digital native” scribes, increasingly find their stories and inspiration. As happened with Ann Minch, Bank of America became much more responsive when the story was picked up from social media by CBS, Fox and NBC. After all, these are the media outlets the banks’ big shareholders do pay attention to, and where reputation problems can quickly impact on share price and the bottom line.

Sensing the shifting tide of opinion, Bank of America called her up and reverted Ann to her previous rate.

With many more vocal online critics expressing their discontent, a wave of social media-driven movements such as Move Your Money and GetUp, are beginning to orchestrate anti-bank campaigns online.

Short URL & Title:
Bank customers hitting back through social media — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/xvy

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