Whether you enjoy my columns or not, if you live in Southern Humboldt, and do business at the Southern Humboldt Community Credit Union, I hope you will take time to read this post, which I also submitted as a letter to the editor of both local SoHum newspapers.
Beginning next month, the Southern Humboldt Community Credit Union will start draining your bank account every time they send you a statement, and not just a little. Your so called “free” checking account will now cost you $60 a year. Every time you get an envelope from the credit union, they will deduct $5 from your account. This fee applies to savings accounts as well. Instead of earning interest on your money, the credit union will now send you a statement every quarter showing that they’ve taken $5 from you for the service.
The Southern Humboldt Community Credit Union takes in hard-earned money from working people like me, and they loan it it out to dope growers in the hills, to finance all of the environmental destruction going on in the forest, including special low-interest loans for water tanks. Then they launder all of that drug money and turn it into legally owned land, vehicles, phony businesses, and interest paid to the credit union, but instead of paying me interest on my money, they now have the nerve to charge me $5 every quarter for loaning it to them. That’s an outrage.
Not satisfied with the revenue they receive from the millions of dollars worth of black market income they launder, the Southern Humboldt Community Credit Union has stooped to ripping off working people who live paycheck to paycheck, and need a place to cash their paycheck. A credit union is supposed to be a safe place for working people to keep their money, but if your money evaporates while it’s there, the Southern Humboldt Community Credit Union is clearly NOT a safe place to keep your money.
When I complained about these new fees, the teller told me that there was an exception. If I was sixty-two years old or more, I would be exempt from these charges. That didn’t make me feel any better, because, first, I’m a long way from 62. Second, because it means that the Southern Humboldt Community Credit Union has structured these fees so that we working age people, in our 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, who didn’t get here when land was cheap, will now subsidize the cost of written statements graciously provided, at no cost, to the aging Baby Boomers who own most of the land and control most of the money in Southern Humboldt.
Believe me, I don’t need another reason to resent Baby Boomers. Their greed is insatiable, and their stupidity, boundless. We’ll be paying for their extravagantly indulgent lifestyle for generations to come. They’ve already cost us enough, and I don’t feel particularly charitable towards them right now.
The Southern Humboldt Community Credit Union is trying to force us all to do our banking online. Not everyone wants to see all of their personal financial information dangled around in cyberspace waiting for hackers to strike. Not everyone in Southern Humboldt has a secure internet connection to do their banking on. Internet connectivity costs a lot in Southern Humboldt, especially if you live off-the-grid, and you certainly don’t want to do your banking at the library or at a wifi cafe.
When I complained to Shon Welborn at the credit union, she suggested that I to go to the Board of Directors meeting, this Wednesday, May 18th at 3:00 pm at The Southern Humboldt Community Credit Union in Garberville to voice my complaint. Of course, most of the working people effected by this policy change, can’t afford to take off of work early on Wednesday. I hope you will attend the meeting if you can, but whether or not you can attend the meeting, please call, email, write or visit the Southern Humboldt Community Credit Union and tell them to dump these outrageous new fees before they go into effect on June first. Their number is: 707 923 2012 Thank you.
Like You've Got Something Better To Do 
Check out your options with other financial institutions and you’ll soon come to the conclusion that the members of CCUSH have it pretty sweet. Get over your pique and enjoy the friendly staff, the online experience available 24/7 and the wide range of services that CCUSH is able to offer.
Better yet, instead of complaining on mass media (believe it or not, non-member Humboldt residents could give a hoot about what policies CCUSH has) get involved by attending committee and board meetings. Run for a position as a committee member. Being a productive, contrary committe member is a heck of a lot more useful than being a negative, whining voice in the wilderness.
In short, put up or shut up.
Now I owe you my time too? If you charged the dope yuppies what it really costs to launder their money, you wouldn’t need to steal from me.
Dunning–Kruger on display from a blogger regarding the financial industry and what it takes to run a credit union.
If anyone would like to learn more about DK, this blog post is a great place to put that knowledge into a functional critique.
Right, the financial industry isn’t ripping us off, we’re just too stupid to understand why they need to steal our money.
I can tell you as a former employee of the credit union that I left for two reasons:1) working there was like being in the army because there was little or no respect for the employees and chain of command was strictly enforced to the point of absurdity; 2)most customers were held in contempt, especially if their account was small, or if they were not straight, preferably married, or if they were “stupid” as my supervisor often said enough to not want to bank online. But I feel that it is still “our” credit union and that perhaps one day it will be returned to us when more enlightened management somehow is employed so I am still a member and my account is still open. As for baby boomers, since I am one of the first of those, I will vouch that we are the most selfish generation ever to live on Earth and the only good hope is that our latest “boom” is being felt in the funeral business.
I didn’t know you once worked at the credit union! I do know that people have no control over when and where they are born. I just like to remind Boomers to leave a little bit of the world for the rest of us. That’s still kind of a novel idea to a lot of them, but if they have your sense of humor and tolerance for criticism, I don’t mind if they stick around for a while.