A Little Subversion Diversion

When our good friend Darrin, also a contributor to NYTimes and Washington Post Editorials on money matters, came to us and said, "Hey, you know what would be fun? A site for people to let out their grievances about banks," we said, "Let's do this."

The result of Darrin's idea is "OverdraftThis.com". A site that takes the idea of Facebook, mashes it with Twitter, WordPress and a whole lot of good news and advice on financial matters.  The idea behind the site is to form a community of like-minded individuals, who are just fed up with the system of banks running you over with 200% credit rate hikes and adjustable rate mortgages, that if you or I gave out would be considered usury (here's the definition; yes, we had to look it up as well) and punishable by fines and jail time, and share advice for what works on getting your credit card or mortgage rates down without filing bankruptcy or being broke all the time. You'll also find, amongst the good advice and friendly conversations, a good amount of humor and upbeat attitudes about dealing with the dread institutions!

There are dozens of promos in the pipeline, our favorite idea being "Cash a 5 cent check at your bank and provide proof and we'll send you a t-shirt". The idea being that it takes the teller roughly 5 minutes to process a check, average wage for tellers is in the neighborhood of $25/hour, so you just cost the bank about $1.95. While it may not be the first promo on the block, keep a watch out for it!

A screen capture of OverdraftThis.com