Today I paid $350 in overdraft fees to my bank because their online banking was down yesterday and I was unable to transfer money from one account to another. Previously, I have paid overdraft fees because their email, SMS balance alerts fail. Other times their ATMs are down so they collect fees from me for using other bank's ATMs. They have a monetary incentive to provide bad service.

At the same time they lobby governments to approve higher fees and interest rates, they also lobby for more requirements for consumers to use banks. There is no practical way to survive without some banking relationship and the only relationship is a bad one.

Tomorrow I will join a credit union for my personal accounts and a community bank for my business accounts. At least this way I am both a customer and a shareholder and hopefully the board of directors will have my interest at heart.

I wish we, as citizens, were more organized and worked harder to protect our interests.