Spurred by anger over new fees imposed upon customers by large national banks, Bank Transfer Day on Nov. 5 was meant to draw account holders from large banks and entice them to move their money into credit unions and smaller community banks.
Gauging by the numbers, the promotion was hardly needed.
In Colorado, 890 new members joined credit unions on Bank Transfer Day, accounting for $1.8 million in new deposits, according to the Mountain West Credit Union Association.
But for real drama, we have only to look at the numbers for October. In that month alone, credit unions statewide saw a total of 14,500 new accounts created for a total of $101 million in deposits. Prior to October, the MWCUA noted an average monthly gain of 770 new members in the state.
The most substantial increases in October activity were seen at both Public Service Credit Union and Credit Union of Colorado.
For all of its 15 branches, CU of Colorado saw an uptick of 27 percent in the number of checking accounts created this October compared to the same month last year, something Doug Schneider, spokesman for the company, called "very rare."
"I haven't seen this kind of activity in 20 years," he said.
In addition to moving over checking