Free yourself from the BoA constrictor!
Just closed my 5-year-old bank account with BoA. I went to school down south not far from the Appalachian coal fields. One of my two best friends recently conducted the longest tree-sit in West Virginia history (one month!) to prevent a coal company from blowing up a mountain to strip mine it. The fact that BoA is the #1 funder of dirty coal is just one of many good reasons to get out.
I switched back to my local bank and am very happy so far. I also just got a credit card called “Green America,” one of the better credit cards out there.* Every purchase on this card donates to the non-profit “Green America” which focus on the economic solutions to the environmental crisis, as well as supporting OnePacific Coast Bank, a small community investment bank in Washington and Oregon. I suggest looking into changing your credit card companies as well as your banking company.
Don’t be fooled by “affinity cards” that profess to give money to great causes; most of these are still run by big evil corporations (even the “Working Assets” card, which seems so great — you can donate to Rainforest Action Network — but is run through MBNA, which is now owned by BoA). So do your research, and do it well.
Don’t be fooled by greenwashing (which is everywhere these days, in the most mainstream and unecological products and services). And congratulations on getting educated, getting angry, and doing something about it!
-Rebecca, 23, Maynard MA 01754
*To be honest, I think the whole system that credit cards are based on is unsustainable, but if I need credit to buy a house some day, this is the next best thing I can think of.
Rebecca Loeb submitted this to 
