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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is under attack by the rich banks CEOs; You must act to protect consumers everywhere

  CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY AND WORKPLACE

AlterNet / By Dave Johnson

6 Unbelievable Ways the Big Banks Are Scamming You

Five years since the crash, the big banks continue to screw over their customers.
June 19, 2013  |

It is going on five years since the financial crash and three years since President Obama signed the meager Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the big banks are still scamming and conning and ripping off their customers. What a huge surprise.

After the financial crash, we heard about a laundry list of abuses and frauds that ranged from small things, like hidden fees, to pushing minorities into subprime loans and then switching them into more expensive mortgages at signing time, to huge things like selling trillions of dollars in complicated CDO schemes and making bets on derivatives of derivatives without having the reserves to pay off what they owed when the bets went bad.

Of course, no one at the top was prosecuted and the banks were allowed to settle a host of charges (which meant that their shareholders, not the executives who made the decisions, paid the fines). The bad behavior gave these giants a competitive advantage, driving out what good companies there were. So the costly and destructive bad behavior, schemes, cons and scams continue.

1. Falsifying Paperwork, Blitzing, Lying About Payments to Force Homeowners Into Foreclosure

This week, ProPublica released a report detailing the shocking ways that Bank of America has been pushing homeowners into foreclosure. Employees lied about documentation and falsified paperwork to force families out of their homes when these customers thought they were getting a loan modification under the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). To make matters worse, the bank gave bonuses to employees who were able to reach monthly quotas of people they forced into foreclosure.

According to a lawsuit against Bank of America, the bank used “blitzing” twice a month to deny HAMP applications even when the homeowner had fully complied with the program’s requirements; it gave employees $500 bonuses each month they forced 10 or more homeowners into foreclosure; it intentionally ignored applications for 30 days, then declared them late and forced homeowners to reapply; it closed applications even when they knew the homeowner had met all criteria; and it canceled loan modifications because of “late payments” when the bank’s records shows that payments had been made on time.

Of course, as long as the government refuses to prosecute banks and bankers for violating laws, and instead negotiating “settlements”  that require bank shareholders to pay fines, bankers will see no reason to stop this kind of activity.

2. Bank Protection “Service” Puts Consumers at “Greater Risk Of Harm”

Last week  a report from the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found that the big banks are still scamming their customers with ridiculous fees that are hugely profitable for the big banks.

Three years ago the government required banks to ask their customers if it is okay (this is called “opt-in”) before they charge them for “overdraft protection” service. CFRB has been studying how this is working out, and its report shows that customers who do not opt-in to this heavily marketed “protection” service pay much, much less in fees than those who do. In other words, agreeing to use the “protection” actually puts you at a much greater risk of incurring expenses than those who are not “protected.”

According to  a McClatchy News report on a call with CFPB director Richard Cordray to discuss the report, Cordray said, “What is marketed as overdraft protection can, in some instances, put consumers at greater risk of harm.”

How much risk? People who are “heavy overdrafters” but still opt out of this service save on average more than $900 a year. But it isn’t just heavy overdrafters who are saving. According to the CFPB report “… the reduction in fees for those who did not opt in was $347 greater, on average, than for those who did opt in.” People who opt in are also more likely to lose their bank accounts, with the bank “involuntarily” closing it.

Banks have made $32 billion from these fees. So maybe this isn’t about providing a “protection” to consumers at all. As  NPR puts it, “Overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees accounted for 61 percent of total consumer deposit account service charges in 2011 among the banks in the CFPB report.”

3. Transaction Ordering

Not only do customers who opt-in pay more for this “protection service,” but the banks are still scamming them by causing the overdrafts that generate these fees. The CFPB report says that some banks still use “transaction ordering” to cheat customers out of additional fees. These banks post checks or debit transactions from large to small to trigger these fees. In other words if you write several small checks (or make debit card transactions) and then a big one that overdraws your account, they credit the large one first so each of the smaller transactions causes its own fee to be charged, even though those transactions occurred before the account ran out of money.

From the report, “The earlier in a sequence that an account becomes negative, the more overdraft or NSF transactions may occur.”

4. Forced Arbitration

Another big-bank scam on consumers is “forced arbitration” clauses in bank account, credit card, mortgage and other financial-service agreements. Forced arbitration clauses – also called mandatory arbitration or binding arbitration – require you to give up your legal right to take a big bank to court if it cheats or harms you. And if you don’t agree (which requires reading the entire agreement) you can’t get the account.

They way this works is that instead of being able to pursue your legal rights, you have to take your complaint to an arbitrator, and then must accept the arbitrator’s decision. The catch is that the bank gets to pick the arbitrator, and the arbitrators naturally know they’ll never work in this town again if they ever rule against the banks. So there is an inherent conflict of interest working in favor of these companies.

How is that conflict of interest working out for us? A 2007 Public Citizen report revealed that arbitrators working for the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) had ruled against consumers 94 percent of the time.

In another blow to the big banks, the CFPB is beginning to take steps to reign in forced arbitration clauses in consumer financial contracts.

The five-year-old Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act authorizes the CFPB and the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate mandatory arbitration. The SEC is resisting implementing their part of this law, but the CFPB is conducting a survey to determine consumer awareness of forced arbitration clauses in credit card agreements.  On its blog, the CFPB said the study will “explore consumer awareness of dispute resolution terms in credit card agreements. The survey will gather information about consumers’ perceptions, preferences, and assumptions related to arbitration proceedings.”

5. Marketing Refinancing That Costs People

Thom Hartmann has exposed yet another banker scheme. This time banks are marketing a mortgage refinancing that promises annual savings of more than $4,000. But the scheme really just adds more than $37,000 to the cost of a loan.

Basically, the mailer focuses on lowering monthly mortgage payments, while neglecting to mention that the borrower would end up paying a higher overall interest rate, and would be adding 10 more years to the overall length of their loan. Hartmann  writes,

Back in November of 2012, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sent warning letters to around a dozen of America’s largest mortgage lenders and brokers, advising them to “clean up” potentially misleading advertisements, especially those targeting veterans and older Americans.

At the time of the CFPB’s announcement, CFPB director Richard Cordray said that, “Misrepresentations in mortgage products can deprive consumers of important information while making one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives.”

And, as we also know, deceptive mortgage advertisements like this can cause consumers to bite off more than they can chew, ultimately leading to a nationwide financial meltdown.

6. Banks Trying To Kill the CFPB

Over the years, scam after scam is exposed, and nothing has been done about it. But there is a new cop on the beat, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB’s job is to police the big banks, and protect financial consumers. Of course the big banks are trying to head this agency off at the pass.

The Republican Party and its conservative infrastructure have basically been contracted by Wall Street’s big banks to obstruct and even kill this agency. Senate Republicans have been blocking the confirmation and are still trying to obstruct the nominee to head up the agency. Republicans have been filibustering the nomination of Richard Cordray to be its director and even vowing to filibuster to keep any nominee from being confirmed to head the agency. President Obama finally  made a recess appointment of Cordray in January 2012. But this recess appointment runs out at the end of the year with no end to Republican obstruction in sight.

Republicans are also  trying to defund the agency. Republicans and the (billionaire, Wall Street, oil and tobacco-financed) conservative movement have also launched a propaganda campaign against the agency. Recently, at the Senate Republican Policy Committee website, “CFPB: Unaccountable and Unrestrained,” claims, “A recent action by the CFPB to monitor consumer credit cards and the spending habits of millions of Americans is raising new concerns in a government suffering from a trust deficit.” In an example of how the right’s echo machine works, the Heritage Foundation echoes this attack, alleging that CFPB gathering data for reports like this one is an example of government “surveillance” on consumers, “amassing an Orwell-worthy database on all manner of spending, including … overdrafts …”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren – the person most credited with the creation of the CFPB – spoke at a Senate hearing on the CFPB last March on the role of the CFPB and Republican obstruction of the agency:

“I see nothing here but a filibuster threat against Director Cordray as an attempt to weaken the consumer agency,” Warren said. “I think the delay in getting him confirmed is bad for consumers, it’s bad for small banks, bad for credit unions, for anyone trying to offer an honest product in an honest market.”

“The American people deserve a Congress that worries less about helping big banks,” she added, “and more about helping regular people who have been cheated on mortgages, on credit cards, on student loans and on credit reports.”

Don’t expect much to change until we have a government that is willing to take on these financial giants. As long as we keep seeing “settlements” with these giants instead of prosecutions, and as long as we allow big money to buy influence over our government, nothing will change.

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But the banks’ CEOs have huge incomes and the power that comes with being super rich. The rich banks and corporations run  the USA and form all of the policies. Citizens must speak up and vote appropriately.

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by mrnd5 on December 9, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Advocate for your needs and concerns as a consumer, agreements with 520 campuses that enroll more than 4.3 million students, America doesn't even know how we start wars, Annual Income of META BANK's CEOs, Bank Card Tax Refunds are an interest free loan to a bank, Bank Card Tax Refunds Fails Consumers, Bank Fees for Prepaid Cards, Bank Publicity that is simply "Garbage Talk", Bank Reform and Proper Regulations are Needed, Bank Reform needed, BANK REFORMS NEEDED TO BE CAREFULLY REGULATED, Bank Regulations must be enforced, Bank Tellers at MetaBank earn wages on the average that are below the poverty level, banking in Storm Lake IOWA, BankMeta lies to keep customers from their own money, Banks are creating economic servitude in the USA, Banks Designed To Keep Consumers in Debt, Banks have created all the rules for PREPAID CARDS, Banks Lying to Consumers To Trick Them into taking on Debt, Banks regrouping, Be sure to vote and then to follow up asking elected officials to serve you as a consumer, Big Corporations and Banks run the world, Blackhawk & METABANK to be avoided, Complaints Against Meta Bank, Consumer Abuse by PayPower, Consumer Advocate, Consumer Alert, Consumer Rights Advocacy, Consumer Rights- consumers have no or few protections from predatory banking practices, Consumers act to protect themselves and others from further bank fraud and customer abuses, Consumers align to protect yourselves, Consumers are Vulnerable: Help each other, Consumers being forced to use plastic, Consumers Demand Bank Reforms That Serve Their Real Needs, Consumers Join Forces to Protect Each Other from Bank Scams and Frauds, Consumers must speak out, Consumers Need To Save Money And Stay Out of Debt, Consumers Start Talking and Learning Real Facts About Banking, Consumers suffer at the hands of METABANK, Creating Easy Preys Doesn't Make METABANK's Practices Moral, Customer Service isn't listed as being one of META FINANCIAL GROUP INC areas of interest or studied skills, Customers of METABANK continue to complain about how they have been mistreated by METABANK, Don't pay using a debit card, Don't use PREPAID BANK CARDS of any kind, Economic Servitude needs to be studied and abolished in the USA, Election reforms are needed in the USA, Fight Corruption, Financial Industry, Human Rights
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Posted by mrnd5 on December 9, 2013

https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-is-under-attack-by-the-rich-banks-ceos-you-must-act-to-protect-consumers-everywhere/

Solving Customer’s Problems Should Be of the Foremost Importance…. METABANK abused us while we were their customer

Customer Service Solves Problems To Create Loyal Clients

but NOT SO at METABANK

Make it easy for frustrated customers to contact you, get problems solved. You’ll create loyal clients.

In the past 30 days, I canceled service with three companies I’ve used for years.

Customer service was the reason. It was that bad.

 

But I kept my business with another company even though its actual service keeps messing up. That business’ customer service is that good.

Customer-service representatives are everywhere. Anyone with a phone, TV, computer, coffee maker, credit card or insurance; or who buys subscription services or makeup from shady companies advertising on TV has dealings with them.

And let’s not forget about business-to-business customer-service reps. [This is part of how METABANK performs their scam.]

Their numbers are growing by the minute. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the profession will expand 15.5% through 2020.

Call centers alone had almost 23,000 vacant jobs, more than a third listed in the past week, according to CallCenterCrossing, which calls itself the largest collection of call-center jobs. The company cites the health care law, holiday season and general economic expansion as the chief reasons for a rise in call-center hiring.

As long as companies offer things to buy and services to use, folks will need help.

[Customers have over a period of many years now indicated that METABANK and its affiliates, including the Network Branded Bank Card Association, fail when it comes to customer service. We, as former METABANK customers/clients believe, based on our own personal experience using METABANK et al., that METABANK by design treats their customers in an abusive manner. We have been scammed and lied to. We have been treated in an inhumane manner.

METABANK does not offer any kind of model that should be used as a guideline by any other entity…. METABANK relies on numbers and the population is growing rapidly.

METABANK relies on getting partner corporate entities to market their prepaid bank card  a relationship which is in fact one that will increase the rate of decline of that partner company. At first the partner company will experience an initial  spurt that may appear to be great and fabulous; this is the honeymoon, but it is a marriage that is doomed by design. METABANK only wants their partner companies’ list of customers whom METABANK will use for their own financial gain.

In establishing this partnership, METABANK promises to take care of all the collections for their partner. Collections is the dirtiest of dirty work so the partner company is happy to hand over this part of the operation to METABANK. METABANK, as we former customers have found, has an abusive customer service system by design.

When METABANK’s customer serivice representatives basically went through a list of standard lies they had been handed to use for all situation; the lies serve to blame the customer for the problems the customer had encountered using METABANK. However, by design, METABANK created a prepaid bank card which customers load with cash money, and then METABANK limits and controls when and even if a customer will be able to have access to their own money…. This scheme is predatory. It is based upon false and misleading promises.

METABANK is by design immoral. Only consumers can speak up to warn others so that METABANK can be stopped from doing this great scam on the people.]

Companies claim to know how important these front-line jobs are. They say they strive for a “customer-first mindset,” “transparency and accountability,” “positive customer relationships” and “consistent and efficient delivery of superior customer service.”

So why don’t more customer-service reps deliver? Is it the company or the employees?

Likely both.

Workers tell me they want these jobs because they like people. Yet too many companies do everything they can to not let their people talk to us.

Finding contact information can be like a game of hide-and-seek.

Some refuse to talk to you. Take Twitter: [This isn’t a model anyone should follow!!!!!]

My account has had a problem for four months. I’ve obediently followed Twitter’s directions and sent in a dozen requests for help.

I’m still waiting for an answer.

On the other hand, companies such as crowdSPRING help businesses and creative talent find each other and make it easy for customers to communicate with them.

[This concept is an old one that worked. It worked very well. This is what we as consumers expect, but this is not at all what METABANK provides. METABANK uses this concept to catch consumers and their partner companies off guard so that METABANK can get their foot in the door. What META BANK does is an IMMORAL ACT.]

This company posts its phone number on every page of its site. No doubt this springs from the philosophy of co-founder Mike Samson who tells his reps that the spoken word is better than the written word, to say “please” and “thank you” and always end with “much obliged.”

 

People who get into customer service tell me they love to solve problems.

Yet “I can’t help you with that” are the last words that a lot of people hear from a customer-service rep.

  • Those workers either don’t know how to think like a problem solver or don’t think they have the authority to help.
  • Some customer-service reps are plain mean. The other day I asked a one that I could barely hear if she might speak a little louder.   She snapped, “No, I can’t scream.”
  • When you keep getting bad customer service, you wonder why companies keep sending surveys asking how your customer-service experience went.
  • I also often wonder why companies insist that customer-service reps speak canned faux caring phrases like “Have a nice day” after they’ve been mean and obstructive.

Chief Operating Officer Zach Cusimano of Bizness Apps, which makes mobile apps for companies, says his business doesn’t coach reps to use particular phrases.

Company officials do encourage them to “throw in some love” and foster more interactions by saying, “I’m happy to help,” “Please let me know if you have any other questions,” and “Looking forward to hearing from you again.”

[However, if these statements are nothing but empty words with no real response and no action behind them then they are useless. It is our strong impression as former METABANK customers that the CEOs of METABANK have created all of the guidelines, which include a list of rote excuses for why it is always the customers’ fault for any problems they may have encountered. METABANK creates the problems by which they get rich and then richer; METABANK breaks with every expectation that any person would normally expect.

METABANK creates all the rules and retains the right to change all of the rules without notice. This is bad, but on top of that METABANK takes customer’s money and keeps us/them from having access to their own money while using the NETWORK BRANDED PREPAID BANK CARD.

The NETWORK BRANDED PREPAID BANK CARD amounts to being an interest free loan from customers to a very rich bank. The whole concept has been reversed. Potential customers are mislead into taking on such a card by the partner company who is in effect being used as a “PATSY” in this dynamic triangle of abuse of the consumer.]

I contend that more people would like their customer-service jobs and customers would be happier if they did what Jesse Richardson does.

“We love our customers,” Richardson says. She is conscious community officer for Conscious Box, a subscription service for eco-friendly products.

Seriously.

If you want a satisfying career helping solve problems for people who are frustrated, confused and sometimes angry, care for them no matter what.

Find a great company that values them and you.

In the 25 years I’ve counseled people with their careers, most tell me one thing: I want to be of service to others. Here’s your chance.

[As former customers of METABANK we had expected this kind of treatment, but METABANK and the NETWORK BRANDED PREPAID CARD ASSOCIATION act in a predatory manner so that they abuse their customers, only to move onto the next  person so they can dupe that person. The huge size of our population is how METABANK has been able to get away with this kind of scam for as long as they have. Only you can stop this kind of a scam.]

Career consultant Andrea Kay is the author of This Is How To Get Your Next Job: An Inside Look at What Employers Really Want.

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by mrnd5 on October 27, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Access Sought To Your Company's Customer List, Advocate for your needs and concerns as a consumer, agreements with 520 campuses that enroll more than 4.3 million students, Annual Income of META BANK's CEOs, Bank Publicity that is simply "Garbage Talk", Bank Reform and Proper Regulations are Needed, BANK REFORMS NEEDED TO BE CAREFULLY REGULATED, Bank Regulations must be enforced, Bank regulators shut down MetaBank payday loans, Bank Scams go international, Bank Tellers at MetaBank earn wages on the average that are below the poverty level, Banking, banking in Storm Lake IOWA, Banking in the USA in 2013, BankMeta lies to keep customers from their own money, bankmeta.com, Banks are creating economic servitude in the USA, Banks Designed To Keep Consumers in Debt, Banks have created all the rules for PREPAID CARDS, Banks Lying to Consumers To Trick Them into taking on Debt, Big Corporations and Banks run the world, Complaints Against Meta Bank, Consumers act to protect themselves and others from further bank fraud and customer abuses, Consumers being forced to use plastic, Consumers Demand Bank Reforms That Serve Their Real Needs, Consumers must speak out, Consumers Need To Save Money And Stay Out of Debt, Consumers Start Talking and Learning Real Facts About Banking, Consumers suffer at the hands of METABANK, Corrupt Practices found within METABANK, Customer Complaints Abound Regarding how METABANK treats them., Customer Service at METABANK.com, Customer Service isn't listed as being one of META FINANCIAL GROUP INC areas of interest or studied skills, Customers of METABANK continue to complain about how they have been mistreated by METABANK, Customers' Scammed Repeatedly By METABANK, Do not give up control of your own money by using a prepaid card, Does METABANK believe their customer base are unworthy?, Dollar General Pre-paid Card is Meta Bank, Don't Invest in META BANK, Don't use PREPAID BANK CARDS of any kind, fees required to talk by phone to NETSPEND, Fight Corruption, Financial Regulatory Reforms Needed, Gift Cards are an interest free loan to an unknown bank, Gift Cards May be Suspended After Purchase and without notice, Green Dot is Meta Bank and Green Dot already has many complaints from customers, Internal Audit Committee at Meta Bank, Internal Audits not able to cope with problems related to prepaid bank cards, J. Tyler Haahr, Just Curious About Meta Bank's Ad Placement, META BANK bilks their customer base, Meta Bank charges customers for spending their own money, Meta Bank denied one man his right to a fair and impartial trial. What kind of a world citizen is Meta Bank? We are tired of fighting the wars that Meta Bank causes., META BANK doesn’t serve the general public, Meta Bank is nothing but a publicity scam, Meta Bank never accepts responsibility, Meta Bank operates using many different names, META BANK same poor service as always, Meta Bank Scams Americans, Meta Bank sells VISA and Mastercard Pre-Paid Cards, META BANK: Creating all the rules in their own favor, META FINANCIAL GROUP INC fails to address customers' real needs, META FINANCIAL GROUP INC pushes blame off onto their customers for their own design issues and internal operating problems, METABANK =TURBOTAX and both are scams, METABANK as the alpha baboon in our society, METABANK average employees earn wages below the poverty level, METABANK causes the late fees for customers, METABANK CEOs create and require all of the rules, METABANK CEOs make huge annual incomes, METABANK customers are still being scammed, METABANK Customers complain about METABANK's mistreatment, METABANK fails to hear and to respond appropriately to customer's real needs, METABANK is a collections agency, METABANK is a collections agency and not a bank, METABANK is a piece of crap, MetaBank is corrupt, METABANK lies to their own customers, METABANK operates using many different names, METABANK practices are dragging the economy down, METABANK uses false awards- false testimonials, METABANK's partner company provides METABANK with access to their customer base, METABANK's practices are narcissitic, METABANK's publicity says that their prepaid card will meet your specific needs but in reality they are the exact same card just using different publicitty, Narcissism of Storm Lake IOWA, NBPCA is a scam on the American public, Ordinary customers can't get the METABANK PREPAID CARD TO SERVE THEIR NEEDS, payment cards that carry hefty costs, Payment Solutions with Serious Problems, Payment Systems, PayPower Scam, PayPower Visa by META BANK, Pre-paid Bank Cards don't work, Predatory Practices of BankMeta.com, PrePaid Bank Cards bad for consumers, PREPAID CARDS are not consumer friendly, PREPAID CARDS promoted by METABANK, Real Customer Service Builds a Genuine Customer Base, Rules Designed BY METABANK for the benefit of METABANK, Scams by banks like METABANK, Staying Competitive at What Expense, Success shouldn't be about profits - People mattter, Suspicious Activity is within Meta Bank's internal practices and policies, Terrorism within the USA, The cards and accounts are marketed aggressively using college letterhead and websites carrying the endorsement of colleges., This is not a sustainable pattern for the US Economy., Thrift Bank - the concept is a scam, to fee-paying students, travel card, Tricked by METABANK's publicity, Two problems found in METABANK's "No Credit Check" Cards, unbanked, Usury, We are all vulnerable to predatory practices of banks like METABANK, Western Union and MetaBank have joined forces, Where There Is Smoke There Is Fire
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Posted by mrnd5 on October 27, 2013

https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/solving-customers-problems-should-be-of-the-foremost-importance-metabank-abused-us-while-we-were-their-customer/

Meta Bank Scammed Me….. What does misery look like? Visuals ? ! ?

 

Have you ever considered about adding a little bit more than just your articles?
I mean, what you say is important and all. But think of if you added some great images or
videos to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with images and videos, this site could certainly be one of the very best in its niche.
Awesome blog!

Thanks for the positive input.

Images of dollar signs with a negative in front of them?

Not sure of the best way to find and post photos to show the greed and corruption that I personally experienced by using META BANK’s prepaid card.

What does misery look like?

Picture in your mind the family that is living from pay check to pay check.

What does their home look like?

What solutions appear before them that offer false promises? Why do these false promises appear like a possible and real solution? [Look carefully at Meta Bank/bankmeta.com’s home pages]

What if a trusted local business where you have been doing business for years offers you a prepaid card which their employees have found to be really good? But for you as a consumer, Meta Bank most likely using different numbers on the cards that are sold or given to employees as bonuses by their CEOs can’t believe that you as the consumer have had problems with the card they sold you because it works so well for them…. Meta Bank gets innocent employees, clerks to push their product for them and then the scam begins…. Only a full Hollywood movie could do this whole issue full justice, but most people prefer movies with lots of action and for their diversion most movie viewers want to avoid seeing the doom and gloom that is their hopeless life situation.

Hollywood movie writers may need to become involved, but it will take money and sponsors to pay to get such a movie filmed. Often products are shown in the movie…..

Visuals???? What kind of visuals would convey the message of misery and suffering in a way that would help the consumer and put an end to the misery they are enduring because of greedy banks like META BANK?

Suggestions???

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by mrnd5 on October 13, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Bank Regulatory Reforms are Needed, Banking in the USA in 2013, BankMeta lies to keep customers from their own money, bankmeta.com, Banks are creating economic servitude in the USA, Banks Designed To Keep Consumers in Debt, Banks have created all the rules for PREPAID CARDS, Banks Lying to Consumers To Trick Them into taking on Debt, Be sure to vote and then to follow up asking elected officials to serve you as a consumer, Complaints Against Meta Bank, Consumer Advocate, Consumer Alert, Consumer Rights Advocacy, Consumer Rights- consumers have no or few protections from predatory banking practices, Consumers act to protect themselves and others from further bank fraud and customer abuses, Consumers align to protect yourselves, Consumers are Vulnerable: Help each other, Consumers being forced to use plastic, Consumers Demand Bank Reforms That Serve Their Real Needs, Consumers Join Forces to Protect Each Other from Bank Scams and Frauds, Consumers must speak out, Consumers Need To Save Money And Stay Out of Debt, Consumers Start Talking and Learning Real Facts About Banking, Consumers suffer at the hands of METABANK, Corrupt Practices found within METABANK
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Posted by mrnd5 on October 13, 2013

https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/meta-bank-scammed-me-what-does-misery-look-like-visuals/

Say No to Meta Bank; Say No to the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association

CONSUMERS: “Spend Your Hard Earned Money Carefully” ….. Buying Happiness

Background:

META BANK and the Network Branded Prepaid Bank Card Association have created a product that will make you miserable. Each of the two entities mentioned above make promises to consumers that these prepaid cards will be safer than using cash. This is true for the bank, but not for consumers. It is a gimmick for the bank to get full control of your “CASH MONEY” so they can get an interest free loan from consumers. When consumers need their money the most they simply can’t get access to their own cash money once it is placed on one of those prepaid cards. META BANK brags that they are the largest provider of prepaid bank cards. META BANK makes consumers extremely unhappy. As consumers you would do yourself a great service by simply not using META BANK. Unfortunately, META BANK operates using a third party to promote their prepaid bank cards and their prepaid bank cards are sold using different names. This means that you may not realize you have opted in to META BANK’s plan, which is by design a scam of their consumers. META BANK simply moves onto the next consumer to scam them relying on a large population that is growing rapidly.

This blog was created by consumers for other consumers. We need to bond together, share the reality of our lived experiences, and serve to protect others who are people who are a lot like us, consumers who are looking for a fair deal and to be treated with respect.

META BANK’s treatment of consumers had become so outrageous that something needed to be done. It has already taken on an international scale and magnitude. META BANK is the rich stealing from the poor so that they can get richer and richer at the pain, misery and expense of the most financially vulnerable people in society.

This is a cautionary and truthful summary of what I experienced using a META BANK prepaid card.

However, we don’t want to leave you without a sense of hope. Michelle Singletary explains some ways to get your money to work for you to bring you happiness and she is spot on. Her October 4, 2013 column appears, copied and pasted below:

Michelle Singletary

Columnist Washington Post

Five ways money can buy you happiness

By Michelle Singletary, Published: October 4

You have probably heard and maybe even embrace the idea that money can’t buy happiness. I’ve said so myself numerous times.

But behavioral scientists and researchers Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton argue this is not exactly true. Money, if you spend it right, can buy happiness.

So what’s the right way?

“Shifting from buying stuff to buying experiences, and from spending on yourself to spending on others, can have a dramatic impact on happiness,” Dunn and Norton write in “Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending” (Simon & Schuster, $25). Dunn is an associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. Norton is an associate professor of marketing at Harvard Business School.

Truthfully, I needed a break from all the dreary talk about the federal government shutdown and concern the country might default. So “Happy Money” is the Color of Money Book Club selection for this month.

I’m always trying to find research that looks at how people can do better with the money they have. I plan to use this book in my financial classes, where folks believe that if they just made more money, their level of happiness would increase. They could afford to buy better stuff, a larger home or cooler car. Yet studies show that more doesn’t increase your long-term happiness.

Dunn and Norton strive to show how to spend money in less typical but more pleasing ways. They offer five principles you can use to buy happiness:

●Buy experiences. As frugal as I am, my husband and I decided many years ago to set aside two weeks a year, every year at the same time, to take a luxury vacation with our children. My oldest has gone off to college, but she still wants to be included on these family vacations. As Dunn and Norton write: “Research shows that experiences provide more happiness than material goods in part because experiences are more likely to make us feel connected to others.” [META BANK has robbed us as consumers of opportunities like this because they withheld our money from us when we needed it the most. META BANK is not a friend to consumers.]

●Make it a special treat. Don’t overindulge yourself, the authors say, because “abundance, it turns out, is the enemy of appreciation. This is the sad reality of the human experience: in general, the more we’re exposed to something, the more its impact diminishes.” [Think about this: “Abundance is the enemy of appreciation.”  You don’t need to keep spending money on things to be happier especially if buying things puts you into a state of debt…. “Keeping up with the Joneses” needs to be practiced in reverse. Purposefully down scale, downsize your image from all those Joneses…. Don’t worship the false God of money, greed and materialism. Life is best with less, but you should be in full control, real control of your hard earned cash money. Don’t hand over that right to an anonymous entity like META BANK.   META BANK is motivated by greed and profit increasing at all level regardless of the rest of the genuine needs of humanity]

●Buy time. If you can afford it, you might decide you’d rather hire someone to cut your grass than do it yourself. You might spend a little more on an item rather than drive across town to save 10 percent. I’m a reformed bargain shopper. I realized I was wasting a lot of time going from store to store trying to save money. “We too often sacrifice our free time just to save a little money,” the authors write. “Many of us wish we had more free time to do more of what we love.” [Be sure that you get the service you have paid for…. META BANK prepaid card is not a genuine or honorable service. META BANK has scammed consumers over a period of many years. This is their sole purpose and they scam consumers by their own design.]

●Pay now, consume later.

[Please note Singletary is NOT promoting putting your cash money on a prepaid bank card, a gift card or a debit card here…. Please read carefully.]  

“Consuming later provides time for positive expectations to develop,” Dunn and Norton write. Paying for a vacation in advance may help you enjoy it more because by the time you take the trip you won’t be so focused on the cost. At the same time, fight the power of now. This is especially true when it comes to paying with plastic. In one study cited by the authors, 30 people were asked to estimate their credit card expenses before opening their monthly bill. Every participant underestimated how much he or she had spent on credit by an average of almost 30 percent.

●Invest in others. I generally hate spending money. But when I helped a friend’s daughter by buying her books for college, I was elated. I was investing in her education, and that was an awesome feeling. My husband and I often get teased for our frugality, but we counter by telling people we are cheap for a purpose. We like spending money when it makes a difference in someone’s life. Dunn and Norton say their research shows that spending even small amounts of money on others can make a difference in your happiness level. [This means having control over how you spend your own money. Give directly to the person you wish to help.]

I love the five principles of happy money because they aren’t about getting more money but getting more out of the money you have. Let me leave you with this from Dunn and Norton: “Before you spend that $5 as you usually would, stop to ask yourself: Is this happy money? Am I spending this money in the way that will give me the biggest happiness bang for my buck?”

I’ll be hosting a live online discussion about “Happy Money” at noon Eastern on Oct. 31 atwashingtonpost.com/discussions. Dunn and Norton will join me to answer your questions. Every month, I randomly select readers to receive copies of the featured book donated by the publisher. For a chance to win a copy of this month’s selection, send an e-mail tocolorofmoney@washpost.com with your name and address.

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by mrnd5 on October 13, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Bank Publicity that is simply "Garbage Talk", Bank Reform and Proper Regulations are Needed, Bank Regulations must be enforced, Bank regulators shut down MetaBank payday loans, Bank Scams go international, Banking, banking in Storm Lake IOWA, BankMeta lies to keep customers from their own money, bankmeta.com, Banks are creating economic servitude in the USA, Banks Designed To Keep Consumers in Debt, Banks have created all the rules for PREPAID CARDS, Banks Lying to Consumers To Trick Them into taking on Debt, Be sure to vote and then to follow up asking elected officials to serve you as a consumer, Blackhawk & METABANK to be avoided, Complaints Against Meta Bank, Consumer Advocate, Consumer Alert, Consumer Rights Advocacy, Consumer Rights- consumers have no or few protections from predatory banking practices, Consumers act to protect themselves and others from further bank fraud and customer abuses, Consumers align to protect yourselves, Consumers are Vulnerable: Help each other, Consumers being forced to use plastic, Consumers Demand Bank Reforms That Serve Their Real Needs, Consumers Join Forces to Protect Each Other from Bank Scams and Frauds, Consumers Need To Save Money And Stay Out of Debt, Consumers suffer at the hands of METABANK, Corrupt Practices found within METABANK, Creating Easy Preys Doesn't Make METABANK's Practices Moral, Customer Complaints Abound Regarding how METABANK treats them., Customer Service isn't listed as being one of META FINANCIAL GROUP INC areas of interest or studied skills, debit card fraud is always a possibility, Disabled Veteran abused by METABANK, Do not give up control of your own money by using a prepaid card, Don't Invest in META BANK, don't take on more debt to pay off the first debt, Don't use PREPAID BANK CARDS of any kind, Economic Servitude needs to be studied and abolished in the USA, fees related to gift cards, fees required to talk by phone to NETSPEND, Get Debit dot com is Meta Bank, Gift Cards are an interest free loan to an unknown bank, Green Dot is Meta Bank and Green Dot already has many complaints from customers, Higher One has agreements with 520 campuses that enroll more than 4.3 million students, Integrity, Internal Audit Committee at Meta Bank, J. Tyler Haahr, Jackson-Hewitt and METABANK are partners, Just Curious About Meta Bank's Ad Placement, marketing is basically Meta Bank's major strength just behind collections, META BANK bilks their customer base, Meta Bank charges customers for spending their own money, Meta Bank operates using many different names, META FINANCIAL GROUP, META FINANCIAL GROUP INC & PREPAID CARDS FAIL CONSUMERS, METABANK, METABANK as the alpha baboon in our society, METABANK causes the late fees for customers, METABANK CEOs make huge annual incomes, METABANK customers are still being scammed, METABANK customers are still complaining about the abuse they have received from METABANK, METABANK is a collections agency and not a bank, MetaBank is corrupt, METABANK lies to their own customers, METABANK operates using many different names, METABANK practices are dragging the economy down, METABANK uses both Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes, METABANK uses false awards- false testimonials, METABANK uses shills- stooges to market their product, METABANK uses the rules for their own gain, METABANK's partner company provides METABANK with access to their customer base, METABANK's practices are narcissitic, METABANK's publicity is a lie and filled with false promises, Michelle Singletary gives good advice to consumers, narcissism in US banking, NBPCA is a scam on the American public, NETSPEND is METABANK, Nothing and no one has yet been able to put a stop to META BANK's scam, Ordinary customers can't get the METABANK PREPAID CARD TO SERVE THEIR NEEDS, PayPower Visa by META BANK, Pre-paid Bank Cards don't work, Predatory Practices of BankMeta.com, PREPAID CARDS are not adequately regulated, PREPAID CARDS are not consumer friendly, PREPAID CARDS promoted by METABANK, Publicity or Factual, Steve King (R-IA) received large campaign donation from James S. Haahr of Meta Bank, Storm Lake IOWA, Terrorism within the USA, The cards and accounts are marketed aggressively using college letterhead and websites carrying the endorsement of colleges., This is not a sustainable pattern for the US Economy., travel card, unbanked, Usury, Western Union and MetaBank have joined forces, Where There Is Smoke There Is Fire, Why does METABANK lie to their own customers?, Xoom and Meta Bank are one in the same, You may be dealing with Meta Bank under a different name
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Posted by mrnd5 on October 13, 2013

https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/say-no-to-meta-bank-say-no-to-the-network-branded-prepaid-card-association/

Netspend, Turbo Tax, and METABANK fail consumers

Bank Card Tax Refunds Fail Consumers

Consumers need clear and succinct information about all of the implications that exist for them regarding the use of PREPAID BANK CARDS by METABANK

The real problem is that the banks, especially METABANK the creator of NETSPEND and the partner of TURBOTAX, have created all the rules regarding how their product is applied….

What is most offensive is that METABANK and banks that operate using METABANK’s practices have retained the right to change all the rules at any time. This is hidden in the pages and pages of fine print that follow the parts of the agreement that have been designed, targeted to attract consumers.

If consumers actually had or understood fully the terms they were actually agreeing to, consumers wouldn’t opt into the products offered by METABANK, NETSPEND a subdivision of METABANK, banks that operate using METABANK’s practices, and any of their corporate partners such as TURBOTAX.

Read the recent online post to learn more about how PREPAID BANK CARDS are used to scam consumers. Consumers report the following problems

 

PROBLEM WITH NETSPEND CARDS THAT YOUR TAXES ARE DEPOSITED TO.

Recently myself and a few others have filed for our taxes via Turbo Tax which was great but at the end prior to submitting your taxes to the IRS you are ask to sign up for a Pre-paid card to have your taxes deposited on.

This is done if you don’t have a bank account.

Recently my friend received her taxes back on that card she has been waiting desperately to receive her funds in order to pay her bill.

Now that her funds were put on the NetSpend card they are refusing to let her withdraw funds she was told to make multiple withdraws in which she had to pay 6 withdraw fees in the amount of $3.00 each plus she is charged for each withdraw from NetSpend.

When she called and asked if she could go to a bank to withdraw funds from her card they replied with no.

She then asks if she could transfer the money from her NetSpend card to her other card that doesn’t have fee’s they refused.

They replied she could only transfer funds from one NetSpend card to anotherNetSpend card.

I even called because I was making to sign up for NetSpend myself to receive my taxes to pay my bill and they told me there is a charge to ask questions about funds, deposits, transactions.

 

This is very frustrating because we worked hard for our money and deserve it.

(This was also my major complaint as a former customer of METABANK. Bank reforms are needed that actually protect consumers. Banks seem to be self-regulating at this time and taking advantage of the chaos that seems to be present in our US Senate and US House of Representatives. Consumers must demand laws that protect us because METABANK and any bank that operates using the same or similar practices are creating misery for consumers. On the other hand if consumers all wrote to all of the proper authorities, we may be able to get the proper controls in place that actually protect us in this downturned economy. The writer of this complaint has been placed in a seriously dangerous economic  situation due to the practices of our banking system. If you think that this can’t happen to you, please think again. You are being studied and you will be marketed to, targeted at your achilles tendon by these banks. Trust us when we tell you that the CEOs of METABANK are making over $700,000.00 in income per year while they are abusing the most vulnerable people. There is absolutely nothing fair nor noble in what banks like METABANK are doing. Hardworking people are being bilked for every penny they have earned through their own labor by banks like METABANK.)

I face eviction, even losing my job if I am not able to withdraw my hard earned money.

Not one time did I read on Turbo Tax that we would be denied withdrawing our money or even transferring it to another card?

 

This is virtually robbery and we need your help.

I am one step away from losing everything.

How can people do this to another person?

 ( We have been wondering this too!!! How can METABANK,banks like METABANK, NETSPEND and TURBOTAX do this to hardworking  human beings…. American Citizens, you must do more than complain online.)

Response by zr700

  • 3 months ago ( i.e. March 1, 2013)
  • NetSpend doesn’t have a list of ATM’s that they are partnered with that has free withdrawls?

  Response by nextonever

  • 3 months ago ( i.e. March 1, 2013)

That’s my point their virtually robbing you of your money and denying you withdrawing your entire refund.

Every time you withdraw you have the atm fee plus NetSpends fee.

All atms  were I live will only allow you to withdraw $300 with a fee of $3.00 plus the added the cards fee.

You can’t go to a bank to get a cash advance on your card either.

( This is true!!! To get the money off of a prepaid card of some sort that is promoted as a gimmick to get you to opt in to this form of a refund, the bank issuing the prepaid card must do a direct deposit, i.e. that issuing bank has access to all of your very personal financial data…. This makes all of us very vulnerable to unscrupulous banking systems that have time and time again proven themselves to be PREDATORY by their very design.)

Other pre-paid cards allow you to.

( Not necessarily true. There are no laws in place to protect consumers and the banks no longer operate in the traditional sense that we have known banks to be protectors of consumers’ assets on behalf of the consumer.)

Next if you call NetSpend they will charge you .50 Cents for every question you ask about you funds.

(This has been one of our complaints. However, we were told that this had been resolved. Apparently, we were told this prematurely…. Consumers must speak up in important places to people who can change laws so that the laws actually protect us as consumers!!!!!!!)

(Please note that METABANK and the NETWORK BRANDED PREPAID CARD ASSOCIATION in 2009 paid lobbyists in DC more than any other entity in the country or the world, even more than health provider insurance companies paid to lobbyists, to get these prepaid cards on the open market. These prepaid cards are an interest free loan to the bank and awful for consumers. Consumers must contact their elected officials and lobby for themselves because we have been grossly abused for years and years.)

The laws governing banking at this time are inadequate to be able to protect consumers properly….. if you vote, you must also contact your elected officials

Leave a comment
by mrnd5 on April 30, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Bank Card Tax Refunds are an interest free loan to a bank, Bank Card Tax Refunds Fails Consumers, Banks are creating economic servitude in the USA, Consumers are Vulnerable: Help each other, Consumers being forced to use plastic, Consumers Demand Bank Reforms That Serve Their Real Needs, Consumers must speak out, Consumers Need To Save Money And Stay Out of Debt, Consumers Start Talking and Learning Real Facts About Banking, Consumers suffer at the hands of METABANK, Corrupt Practices found within METABANK, Creating Easy Preys Doesn't Make METABANK's Practices Moral, Customer Complaints Abound Regarding how METABANK treats them., Customer Service at METABANK.com, customer service of METABANK, Do not give up control of your own money by using a prepaid card, Don't Invest in META BANK, Don't pay using a debit card, Don't use PREPAID BANK CARDS of any kind, Economic Servitude needs to be studied and abolished in the USA, fast paced banking systems, fees required to talk by phone to NETSPEND, Financial Regulatory Reforms Needed, Gift Cards are an interest free loan to an unknown bank, Gift Cards May be Suspended After Purchase and without notice, NETSPEND is METABANK, NETSPEND scams consumer
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Posted by mrnd5 on April 30, 2013

https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/netspend-turbo-tax-and-metabank-fail-consumers/

How METABANK ruins the lives of their customers on so many levels… a scientific study to be applied to the way METABANK treats their customers

Killer Stress: A National Geographic Special   

Below you will find the transcript of this National Geographic Special that explains how stress is a killer.

Being a customer os METABANK is stressful. We established this blog to alert others and to allow them to protect themselves.

What many former customers of METABANK have found is that METABANK scammed them and then lied to the customer, and attempted to push the blame for the problem back off onto the customer. Customer after customer has reported that METABANK took control of their money using misleading promises that a prepaid bankcard would be safer and more secure. The prepaid bankcard gives all control of a customer’s money over to METABANK; the prepaid cards bring in lots of money for METABANK. The prepaid bank cards are safer and more secure for METABANK, but not for METABANK customers.

METABANK CEOs make in the range of $700,000.00 annually. METABANK brags that they got started as a “thrift bank” that is as a bank who sought “to serve” the underbanked” and “un-banked” in our society. This meant that METABANK seeks to establish a relationship with their customer base that would allow METABANK CEOs to be the “Alpha” primate while their customer base in general is in a subservient position. METABANK lures in partner companies and customer using false promises; this is a form of aggression against their customer base because of the way that METABANK has designed a product that repeatedly fails to meet customer’s needs.

I was struck by the fact that METABANK was so ready to lie to me about why I couldn’t access my own money and that they worked hardest at trying to push the blame for the problem off onto me as their customer. Of course, online, I would learn that METABANK by design fails customers; this is what makes METABANK’s CEOs so rich.

Those who are abused by METABANK and any system that operates in a similar manner would be well advised not to do business with METABANK. It turns out that there are health consequences for any and all METABANK customers. Please read the following transcript:

Created by PBS2

Aired at 11:00 PM on Monday, Apr 12, 2010 (4/12/2010)

Transcript

00:00:02

Saplosky: Chronic stress could do something as unsubtle and grotesque as kill some of your brain cells.

00:00:08

Narrator: The impact of stress can be found deep within us, shrinking our brains, adding fat to our bellies, even unraveling our chromosomes.

00:00:19

Blackburn: This is real.

00:00:20

This is not just somebody whining.

00:00:22

[Baboon shrieking] Narrator: Stress– savior, tyrant, plague– its portrait revealed.

00:01:01

This program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

00:01:08

Thank you.

00:01:11

Narrator: All of us have a personal relationship with stress.

00:01:15

But few of us know how it operates within us or understand how the onslaught of the modern world can stress us to the point of death.

00:01:30

Fewer still know what we can do about it.

00:01:42

But over the last three decades, stanford university neurobiologist robert sapolsky has been advancing our understanding of stress– how it impacts our bodies and how our social standing can make us more or less susceptible.

00:02:00

Most of the time you can find him teaching and researching in the high achieving, high stressed world of brain science.

00:02:13

But that’s only part of his story.

00:02:15

For a few weeks every year or so, sapolsky shifts his lab to a place more than 9,000 miles away, on the plains of the masai mara reserve in kenya, east africa.

00:02:37

Robert sapolsky first came to africa over 30 years ago on a hunch.

00:02:42

He suspected he could find out more about humans, stress and disease by looking at non-humans.

00:02:50

And he knew just the non-humans.

00:02:54

Sapolsky: You live in a place like this, you’re a baboon, and you only have to spend about three hours a day getting your calories.

00:03:00

And if you only have to work three hours a day, you’ve got nine hours of free time every day to devote to making somebody else just miserable.

00:03:10

[Baboons shrieking] they’re not being stressed by lions chasing them all the time, they’re being stressed by each other.

00:03:18

They’re being stressed by social and psychological tumult invented by their own species.

00:03:24

They’re a perfect model for westernized stress-related disease.

00:03:28

Narrator: To determine just what toll stress was taking on their bodies, sapolsky wanted to look inside these wild baboons– at the cellular level for the very first time.

00:03:39

..

00:03:42

In the most unassuming way.

00:03:46

Sapolsky: Basically is what you’re trying to do is anesthetize a baboon without him knowing it’s coming because you don’t want to have any of this anticipatory stress, so you can’t just, you know, get in your jeep and chase the baboon up and down the field for three hours, and finally, when he’s winded, dart him with an anesthetic.

00:04:07

The big advantages of a blow gun are that it’s pretty much silent and hasn’t a whole lot in the way of moving parts.

00:04:16

But the big drawback is it doesn’t go very far.

00:04:22

So what you spend just a bizarre amount of time doing is trying to figure out how to look nonchalant around a baboon.

00:04:32

[Blows] got him.

00:04:34

Time?

00:04:36

Ok, he is wobbling now.

00:04:38

Whoop, there he goes.

00:04:41

Narrator: From each baboon blood sample, robert measured levels of hormones central to the stress response.

00:04:48

Sapolsky: Well, to make sense of what’s happening in your body, you’ve got these two hormones that are the work horses of the whole stress response.

00:04:55

One of them we all know, adrenaline.

00:04:58

American version, epinephrine.

00:05:00

The other is a less known hormone called glucocorticoids.

00:05:04

It comes out of the adrenal gland along with adrenaline.

00:05:07

And these are the two backbones of the stress response.

00:05:11

Narrator: That stress response and those two hormones are critical to our survival.

00:05:19

Sapolsky: Because what stress is about is somebody is very intent on eating you or you are very intent on eating somebody and there’s immediate crisis going on.

00:05:30

Narrator: When you run for your life, basics are all that matter.

00:05:34

Lungs work overtime to pump mammoth quantities of oxygen into the bloodstream.

00:05:40

The heart races to pump that oxygen throughout the body so muscles respond instantly.

00:05:48

Sapolsky: You need your blood pressure up to deliver that energy.

00:05:51

You need to turn off anything that’s not essential.

00:05:54

..

00:05:56

You know, you’re running for your life.

00:05:57

This is no time to ovulate.

00:05:59

Tissue repair, all that sort of thing.

00:06:01

Do it later if there is a later.

00:06:03

Narrator: When the zebra escapes, its stress response shuts down.

00:06:08

But human beings can’t seem to find their “off” switch.

00:06:13

Sapolsky: We turn on the exact same stress response for purely psychological states.

00:06:17

Thinking about the ozone layer, the taxes coming up, mortality, 30-year mortgages, we turn on the same stress response and the key difference there is we’re not doing it for a real physiological reason and we’re doing it non-stop.

00:06:34

Narrator: By not turning off the stress response when reacting to life’s traffic jams, we wallow in a corrosive bath of hormones.

00:06:43

Even though it’s not life or death, we hyperventilate.

00:06:48

Our hearts pound.

00:06:50

Muscles tense.

00:06:52

Sapolsky: Ironically, after a while, the stress response is more damaging than the stressor itself, because the stressor is some psychological nonsense that you’re falling for.

00:07:01

No zebra on earth, running for its life, would understand why fear of speaking in public would cause you to secrete the same hormones that it’s doing at that point to save its life.

00:07:15

Narrator: Stress is the body’s way of rising to a challenge, whether the challenge is life-threatening, trivial or fun.

00:07:24

Sapolsky: You get the right amount of stress and we call it stimulation.

00:07:28

The goal in life isn’t to get rid of stress.

00:07:30

The goal in life is to have the right type of stress because when it’s the right type, we love it.

00:07:35

[People screaming] we jump out of our seats to experience it, we pay good money to get stressed that way.

00:07:44

It tends to be a moderate stressor, where you’ve got a stressor that’s transient.

00:07:50

It’s not for nothing roller coaster rides are not three weeks long.

00:07:52

And most of all what they’re about is you relinquish a little bit of control in a setting that overall feels safe.

00:08:03

Narrator: But, in real life, for so many of us primates, including robert’s baboons, control is not an option.

00:08:18

Sapolsky: You get some big male who loses a fight, and chases a sub-adult, who bites an adult female, who slaps a juvenile, who knocks an infant out of a tree all in 15 seconds.

00:08:32

Insofar as a huge component of stress is lack of control, lack of predictability, you’re sitting there and you’re just watching the zebra and somebody else is having a bad day and it’s your rear end that’s going to get slashed.

00:08:47

So tremendously psychologically stressful for the folks further down on the hierarchy.

00:08:54

Narrator: One of robert’s early revelations was identifying the link between stress and hierarchy in baboons.

00:09:03

Some baboon troops are over 100 strong.

00:09:07

Like us, they have evolved large brains to navigate the complexities of large societies.

00:09:13

Survival here requires a kind of political savvy– with the most cunning and aggressive males gaining top rank and all the perks– females for the choosing, all the food they can eat, and an endless retinue of willing groomers.

00:09:33

Every male knows where he stands in society– who can torture him; who he can torture; and who, in turn, the torturee can torture.

00:09:46

Sapolsky: Well, this sounds like a terrible thing to confess after 30 years, but I don’t actually like baboons all that much.

00:09:52

I mean, there’s been individual guys over the years who I absolutely love, but they’re these scheming, back-stabbing machiavellian bastards.

00:10:01

They’re awful to each other, so they’re great for my science.

00:10:05

I mean, I’m not out here to commune with them.

00:10:07

They’re perfect for what I study.

00:10:09

Narrator: 22 Years ago at the age of 30 robert sapolsky’s landmark research earned him the MacArthur foundation’s genius fellowship.

00:10:21

His early work– measuring stress hormones from extracted blood– led to two remarkable discoveries.

00:10:29

A baboon’s rank determined the level of stress hormone in his system.

00:10:37

So, if you’re a dominant male, you can expect your stress hormones to be low.

00:10:43

And if you’re submissive, much higher.

00:10:49

But there was an even more astonishing find in sapolsky’s sample: Low rankers–the have-nots– had increased heart rates and higher blood pressure.

00:10:58

This was the first time anyone had linked stress to the deteriorating health of a primate in the wild.

00:11:05

Sapolsky: Basically, if you’re, you know, a stressed, unhealthy baboon in a typical troop, high blood pressure, elevated levels of stress hormones, you have an immune system that doesn’t work as well, your reproductive system is more vulnerable of being knocked out of whack.

00:11:20

Your brain chemistry is one that bears some similarity to what you see in clinically depressed humans.

00:11:27

And all that stuff, those are not predictors of a hale and hearty old age.

00:11:37

Narrator: Could this also be true for that other primate?

00:11:41

As robert sapolsky was monitoring stress in baboons, professor sir michael marmot was leading a study in great britain that tracked the health of more than 28,000 people over the course of 40 years.

00:11:57

It was named for whitehall, citadel of the british civil service, where every job is ranked in a precise hierarchy– the perfect laboratory to determine whether in humans there might be a link between rank and stress.

00:12:14

Man: I mean, that’s the thing about stress.

00:12:16

I think you’ve got to look at it in both acute terms and chronic terms.

00:12:18

And I think I’ve been under chronic stress in this organization simply because I’m a square peg in a round hole.

00:12:25

Narrator: Kevin brooks is a government lawyer.

00:12:30

His rank–level seven– means he has little seniority in his department.

00:12:34

He lives the life of a subordinate.

00:12:38

Brooks: I think what I was most aware of at the time was the workload and how I had most of it under control, but one of my cases wasn’t wholly under control, I’d let it slip, and it was a bit like, you know, being in a car and hitting an ice patch and skidding.

00:12:55

But nonetheless I came in monday morning, and my immediate manager, let’s call him ben– ben wants a word with you.

00:13:03

So we find a room, he shuts the door, then he says, you know what you’ve done, you know what happened while you were away?

00:13:09

We couldn’t find one of your files.

00:13:12

Do you know what that meant?

00:13:13

He just gave me a darn good kicking, you know?

00:13:16

Psychologically, he did me over.

00:13:18

And at the end of it, it was more threats, it was, right, this may be a disciplinary matter.

00:13:22

So I left the room, crossed over the corridor to my own room, and I just burst into tears.

00:13:29

..and wept.

00:13:35

Narrator: Sarah woodhall also works for the government.

00:13:39

Unlike kevin, she is a senior civil servant.

00:13:42

Woodhall: There are about 160 people reporting to me ultimately one way or another within the sector.

00:13:49

I do really enjoy working in civil service.

00:13:52

It’s quite a dynamic environment, it can be quite exciting.

00:13:58

I like working with lots of people, so, yeah, I do really enjoy my job.

00:14:04

Narrator: Such dramatically different reflections dramatize one of the most astounding scientific findings in the whitehall study.

00:14:12

Marmot: Firstly, it showed that the lower you were in the hierarchy, the higher your risk of heart disease and other diseases.

00:14:20

So people second from the top had higher risks than those at the top, people third from the top had a higher risk than those second from the top, and it ran all the way from top to bottom.

00:14:32

We’re dealing with people in stable jobs with no industrial exposures.

00:14:36

And yet your position in the hierarchy intimately related to your risk of disease and length of life.

00:14:44

Woodhall: I’ve been very lucky.

00:14:45

I haven’t ever experienced any problems with my health.

00:14:49

Since I’ve been in the senior civil service I haven’t had a day off with ill health.

00:14:54

So I’ve been very fortunate.

00:14:57

Brooks: In my own situation, I think that my career is pretty much tainted.

00:15:03

It’s pretty much arrested.

00:15:05

Because I’ve had– for instance, out of the last three years at work, I’ve been off sick for probably half that time.

00:15:12

Sapolsky: This particular study is sort of the rosetta stone of the whole field, because it’s the british civil service system.

00:15:18

Everybody’s got the same medical care, everybody’s got the same universal health care system, just like the baboons.

00:15:24

All the baboons eat the same thing, they have the same level of activity.

00:15:27

It’s not this stuff that, oh, if you’re a low-ranking baboon, you smoke too much and you drink too much.

00:15:32

And if you’re a low rank in the british civil service you never go to the doctor, you don’t get preventive vaccines.

00:15:38

Both of these studies rule out all those confounds, and they produce virtually identical findings.

00:15:44

Narrator: On both sides of the primate divide, there are soul-wrenching stories and life-threatening consequences.

00:15:52

For every subordinate, like kevin, living a life of baboon uncertainty, there is an alpha strutting his stuff, glorying in power– over someone else, someone unsuspecting, someone low-ranking.

00:16:17

[Blows] Sapolsky: Got him.

00:16:21

12:46.

00:16:23

Sapolsky: Do either of you see where the dart is?

00:16:26

Girl: Yeah, I do.

00:16:27

Sapolsky: Ok, guys, who do you think’s higher ranking?

00:16:30

Boy: Our guy.

00:16:31

Sapolsky: Yeah.

00:16:36

Watch carefully, make sure the other guy doesn’t hassle him.

00:16:40

Narrator: This year, robert brought his family to africa.

00:16:43

His wife, neuropsychologist lisa share-sapolsky, has also done extensive research with baboons.

00:16:51

And for the first time, they brought along their kids, benjamin and rachel.

00:17:05

Sapolsky: All the baboons are perfectly willing to get very freaked out by a human coming over and touching one of these guys.

00:17:12

But cover him with the burlap and he doesn’t exist anymore.

00:17:17

Oh, my god– he’s there, he’s there– oop, not there anymore!

00:17:24

Sapolsky: This is not quite like take your kids to work day.

00:17:26

But this is a pretty central feature of who I am by now, and who my wife and I are, and if our kids want to know where we came from, this is pretty fundamental.

00:17:41

Narrator: As in previous seasons robert measures how individuals at every level of the baboon hierarchy react to and recover from stress.

00:17:51

Sapolsky: So what we’re doing, we’re now going to challenge the system with increasing doses of epinephrine.

00:18:02

Narrator: The baboon’s response is immediately picked up in its blood– vital signs that can be deep frozen in perpetuity.

00:18:13

Sapolsky: It’s this storehouse of potential knowledge, and I got 30 years of those blood samples frozen away at this point because you never know when some new hormone or some new something or other pops up.

00:18:25

And that’s the thing to look at and start pulling out those samples back to when, you know, jimmy carter was president.

00:18:32

..125.

00:18:34

Narrator: Anticipating the long reach of stress is a recent idea, for when robert was rachel’s age, scientists believed stress was the cause of only one major problem.

00:18:47

Film narrator: This is a picture of a major american personnel problem– an ugly sore that doctors call a peptic ulcer, eating away at the wall of a man’s stomach.

00:18:59

[Dramatic music playing] those stomach pains that you talk about– the gnawing, the burning– those are obvious symptoms of gastric ulcers.

00:19:10

Sapolsky: 30 Years ago what’s the disease that comes to everybody’s mind when you mention stress?

00:19:14

stress and ulcers, stress and ulcers.

00:19:18

This was the first stress-related disease discovered, in fact, 70 years ago.

00:19:22

What I want you to do is to work on your attitude.

00:19:26

My attitude?

00:19:27

That’s right.

00:19:28

Ulcers breed on the wrong kind of feelings.

00:19:30

You’ve got to be honest with yourself about the way you feel about things.

00:19:33

Finding a new doctor sounds like a better answer to me.

00:19:38

Narrator: The connection between stress and ulcers was mainstream medical gospel until the late 1980s.

00:19:45

Then australian researchers identified a bacteria as the major cause of ulcers.

00:19:51

Sapolsky: And this overthrew the entire field.

00:19:54

This was it’s got nothing to do with stress.

00:19:57

It’s a bacterial disorder.

00:19:59

And I’m willing to bet half the gastroenterologists on earth, when they heard about this, went out and celebrated that night.

00:20:04

This was like the greatest news.

00:20:05

Never again were they going to have to sit down their patients and make eye contact and ask them how’s it going, so anything stressful?

00:20:14

It’s got nothing to do with stress, it’s a bacterial disorder.

00:20:16

Narrator: So no longer would the solution be stress management.

00:20:19

Now it could be something as simple as a pill.

00:20:24

It was a major breakthrough.

00:20:27

Stress didn’t cause ulcers.

00:20:31

Case closed.

00:20:34

But a few years later the research took a new twist.

00:20:40

Scientists discovered that this ulcer-causing bacteria wasn’t unique.

00:20:45

In fact, as much as two thirds of the world’s population has it.

00:20:50

So why do only a fraction of these people develop ulcers?

00:20:55

Research revealed that when stressed the body begins shutting down all non-essential systems, including the immune system.

00:21:04

And it became clear that if you shut down the immune system, stomach bacteria can run amok.

00:21:11

Sapolsky: Because what the stress does is wipe out the ability of your body to begin to repair your stomach walls when they start rotting away from this bacteria.

00:21:21

Narrator: So stress can cause ulcers– by disrupting our body’s ability to heal itself.

00:21:29

If stress can undermine the immune system, what other havoc can it wreak?

00:21:35

One answer comes from a colony of captive macaque monkeys near winston-salem, north carolina.

00:21:43

Shively: People think of stress as something that keeps them up at night or something that makes them yell at their kids.

00:21:49

But when you ask me what is stress, I say, “look at it, it’s this huge plaque in this artery, ” Narrator: carol shively has been studying the arteries of macaques.

00:22:06

Like baboons and british civil servants, these primates organize themselves into distinctly hierarchical groups and subject each other to social stress.

00:22:20

Stress hormones can trigger an intense negative cardiovascular response– a pounding heart and increased blood pressure.

00:22:29

So if stress follows rank, would the cardiovascular system of a high-ranking macaque– call him a primate ceo– be different from his subordinate?

00:22:43

When shively looked at the arteries of a dominant monkey– one with little history of stress– its arteries were clean.

00:22:51

But a subordinate monkey’s arteries told a grim tale.

00:22:56

Shively: A subordinate artery has lots more atherosclerosis built up inside it than a dominant artery has.

00:23:04

Narrator: Stress and the resulting flood of hormones had increased blood pressure, damaging artery walls, making them repositories for plaque.

00:23:15

Shively: So now when you feel threatened, your arteries don’t expand and your heart muscle doesn’t get more blood and that can lead to a heart attack.

00:23:26

This is not an abstract concept, it’s not something that maybe someday you should do something about.

00:23:31

You need to attend to it today because it’s affecting the way your body functions, and stress today will affect your health tomorrow and for years to come.

00:23:43

Narrator: Social and psychological stress– whether macaque, human or baboon– can clog our arteries, restrict blood flow, jeopardize the health of our heart.

00:23:55

And that’s just the beginning of stress’ deadly curse.

00:24:05

Robert’s early research demonstrated that stress works on us in an even more frightening way.

00:24:12

Sapolsky: Well, back when I was starting in this business, what I wound up focusing on was what seemed an utterly implausible idea at the time, which was chronic stress and chronic exposure to glucocorticoids could do something as unsubtle and grotesque as kill some of your brain cells.

00:24:33

Narrator: As a phd candidate at rockefeller university IN THE EARLY 1980s, Sapolsky collaborated with his mentor, dr.

00:24:39

bruce McEwen, to follow the path of stress into the brain.

00:24:48

They subjected lab rats to chronic stress and then examined their brain cells.

00:24:54

The team made an astonishing find: They found that while the cells of normal rat brains have extensive branches, stressed rats’ brain cells were dramatically smaller.

00:25:07

Sapolsky: And what was most interesting in many ways was the part of the brain where this was happening, hippocampus.

00:25:14

You take intro neurobiology any time for the last 5,000 years, and what you learn is hippocampus is learning and memory.

00:25:22

Narrator: Stress in these rats shrank the part of their brain responsible for memory.

00:25:28

McEwen: Stress affects memory in two ways.

00:25:30

Chronic stress can actually change brain circuits so that we lose the capacity to remember things as we need to.

00:25:41

Very severe, acute stress can have another effect which is often we refer to as “stress makes you stupid,” which is making it impossible for you, over short periods of time, to remember things you know perfectly well.

00:25:57

Sapolsky: We all know that phenomenon, we all know that one from back when we stressed ourselves by not getting any sleep at all, 00 we couldn’t remember a single thing for that final exam.

00:26:09

You take a human and stress them big time, long time, and you’re going to have a hippocampus that pays the price as well.

00:26:16

Narrator: So, in addition to undermining our health, stress can make us feel plain miserable.

00:26:22

Carol shively set out to find out why.

00:26:26

She began not with misery but with pleasure.

00:26:30

Shively suspected that there was a link between stress, pleasure, and where we stand on the social hierarchy.

00:26:37

Just like stress, pleasure is linked to the chemistry of the brain.

00:26:43

When a neurotransmitter called dopamine is released in the brain, it binds to receptors, signaling pleasure.

00:26:53

scanner to explore this process first by looking into the brain of a non-stressed primate, ” Shively: What we see is that the brains of dominant monkeys light up bright with lots of dopamine binding in this area that’s so important to reward and feeling pleasure about life.

00:27:14

Narrator: Shively then looked at the subordinate’s brain.

00:27:18

Shively: What we discovered is that the brains of the subordinate monkeys are very, very dull because there’s much less receptor binding going on in this area.

00:27:29

Why is that?

00:27:30

What is it about this area of the brain?

00:27:33

When you have less dopamine, everything around you that you would normally take pleasure in is less pleasurable, so the sun doesn’t shine so bright, the grass is not so green, food doesn’t taste as good.

00:27:45

It’s because of the way your brain is functioning that you’re doing that, and your brain is functioning that way because you’re low on the social status hierarchy.

00:27:53

Sapolsky: One feature of low rank is being low-ranking, the reality.

00:27:56

An even stronger feature, by the time you get to humans, is not just being low ranking or poor, it’s feeling low ranking or poor.

00:28:04

And one of the best ways for society to make you feel like one of the have-nots is to rub your nose over and over and over again with what you don’t have.

00:28:14

Narrator: Richmond, california– a town where society’s extremes can be spotted right from your car.

00:28:20

This is cardiologist jeffrey ritterman’s regular commute.

00:28:25

Ritterman: You can learn a lot about the stress and health outcome just from the neighborhoods you visit.

00:28:31

In this neighborhood, the life expectancy is quite good and most of the people are pretty healthy.

00:28:38

And as we reach the top of the hill, it gets to be a little bit less privileged.

00:28:45

And as we make this transition, the social status begins to drop, and correspondingly, in those areas, the health outcome is much worse.

00:28:57

And these people are not going to have the same life expectancy as the people in the middle class area we started in.

00:29:08

People are on guard, people are vigilant, they’re living a more stressful life.

00:29:14

This is a community that produces high stress hormones in people, and over time it takes its toll.

00:29:21

Narrator: ritterman’s patients is 65-year-old emanuel johnson.

00:29:27

guidance counselor in one of america’s most dangerous neighborhoods.

00:29:32

Johnson: Last year I think we had 47 homicides, you know.

00:29:36

In the last 4 days, we had 11 shootings, 3 deaths.

00:29:41

And I just know, nine times out of ten, it’s going to be a relative or someone that the kids know.

00:29:48

Narrator: For emanuel johnson, there is a price for chronic exposure to this stress.

00:29:54

Johnson: Five years ago I had a heart attack.

00:29:56

I’m a diabetic, too.

00:29:58

I have to work on it constantly.

00:29:59

I’ve been in this business 20 years.

00:30:01

So it’s just–it’s stressful just working the job, so over the years, you know, the cholesterol, the blood pressure, the sugar came on later, but the stress was always there, long before they came on.

00:30:15

Narrator: Emanuel johnson’s body may be telling yet another story of stress.

00:30:20

The whitehall study in england found an incredible link between stress, your position in the social hierarchy and how you put on weight.

00:30:30

Marmot: So it may not be just putting on weight, but also the distribution of that weight.

00:30:36

And the distribution of that weight– putting it on round the center– is related to position in the hierarchy, and that in turn may be related to chronic stress pathways.

00:30:48

Shively: So we said, does that happen in monkeys because they organize themselves in a hierarchy, too.

00:30:55

And it turns out that it does.

00:30:58

Subordinate monkeys are more likely to have fat in their abdomen than are dominant monkeys.

00:31:05

I think the most amazing observation that I’ve made in my lab is this idea that stress could actually change the way you deposit fat on your body.

00:31:19

To me, that was a bizarre idea that you could actually alter the way fat is distributed.

00:31:27

Narrator: Sapolsky, shively and others think stress could be a critical factor in the global obesity epidemic.

00:31:35

Even worse, fat brought on by stress is dangerous fat.

00:31:41

Shively: We know that fat carried on the trunk or actually inside the abdomen is much worse for you than fat carried elsewhere on the body.

00:31:50

It behaves differently, it’s– it is, um, it produces different kinds of hormones and chemicals and has different effects on your health.

00:32:00

Whatever it is that works for an individual, they need to value stress reduction.

00:32:07

I think the problem in our society is that we don’t value stress reduction, we, in fact, value the opposite.

00:32:13

We admire the person who not only multitasks and does two things at once, but does five things at once.

00:32:19

We kind of admire that person, how they manage that, you know, well, that’s–it’s– that’s an incredibly stressful way to live.

00:32:27

We have to change our values and value people who understand a balanced and serene life.

00:32:39

Narrator: One heartbreaking moment in history reveals that stress may, in fact, damage us long before we are even aware.

00:32:52

Holland, late 1944.

00:32:55

A brutal winter and a merciless army of occupation conspire to starve a nation.

00:33:02

It is known as the dutch hunger winter.

00:33:04

For those who survive today, these are haunting memories.

00:33:10

[Speaking dutch] Narrator: Dutch researcher tessa roseboom had heard many of those tragic memories.

00:33:43

She and her team wanted to know if there were any lingering effects.

00:33:49

Roseboom knew that our bodies respond to famine in much the same way they respond to other stressors, so she set out to see if the fetuses of women pregnant during these arduous days could possibly be affected by stress.

00:34:06

Because of meticulous record keeping by the dutch, roseboom was able to identify over 2,400 people who could have been impacted.

00:34:17

She and her team analyzed the data from those born during and after the famine and came to a surprising conclusion.

00:34:27

Roseboom: I think that you could say that these babies were exposed to stress in fetal life and they are still suffering the consequences of that now, 60 years later.

00:34:41

Narrator: Most of the dutch hunger winter children live today, all in their sixties.

00:34:47

Many still bear the scars of war.

00:34:51

Roseboom: We found that babies who were conceived during the famine have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

00:34:57

They have more hypercholesterolemia, they are more responsive to stress and they generally are in poorer health than people who were born before the famine or conceived after it.

00:35:11

Narrator: Researchers think that stress hormones in a mother’s blood triggered a change in the nervous system of the fetus as it struggled with starvation.

00:35:21

This was the fetus’ first encounter with stress.

00:35:26

Six decades later, the bodies of these dutch hunger winter children still haven’t forgotten.

00:35:33

Sapolsky: What we now know is it’s not just your fat cell storage that winds up being vulnerable to events like this.

00:35:40

It’s your brain chemistry.

00:35:41

It’s your capacity to learn as an adult.

00:35:44

It’s your capacity to respond to stress adaptively rather than maladaptively.

00:35:49

How readily you fall into depression, how vulnerable you are to psychiatric disorders– yet another realm in which early experience and early stress can leave a very bad footprint.

00:36:02

Woman: If I had had an option, I would not have opted to be bipolar, but now that I am bipolar, I’ll have to live with it.

00:36:11

[Speaking dutch] Sapolsky: What the dutch hunger winter phenomenon is about is experience, environment starts long before birth.

00:36:27

An adverse, stressful environment can leave imprints, can leave scars lasting a whole lifetime.

00:36:55

Rachel: We’re just taking fingerprints ’cause no baboon has the same fingerprint as another one.

00:37:01

So we just took honey bear’s, and I’m hoping to go over to riff and get his.

00:37:06

Narrator: During this year’s multi-generational research, robert, who has spent his career documenting stress’ effects on the individual and on the cell, tracks the trail of stress even deeper into our bodies.

00:37:21

Sapolsky: One of the most interesting new directions of stress research is taking the effects of stress down to a nuts and bolts level of how cells work, how genes work that half a dozen years ago, nobody could have imagined.

00:37:35

Narrator: The once unimaginable– genetic structures called telomeres, which protect the ends of our chromosomes from fraying.

00:37:44

As we age, our telomeres shorten.

00:37:47

Sapolsky: What’s interesting is stress, by way of stress hormones, can accelerate the shortening of telomeres.

00:37:55

So the assumption is for the exact same aged guys, if you’re a low-ranking guy who’s just marinating in stress hormones, your telomeres are going to be shorter.

00:38:04

Narrator: So how does this formidable finding apply to us?

00:38:10

San rafael, california.

00:38:12

Once a week janet lawson keeps a very important appointment.

00:38:17

She joins other mothers who share circumstances that produce chronic, unremitting stress.

00:38:23

Woman: But she loses her balance, and that’s the scary part.

00:38:26

So we just went out, actually last night, and bought a new helmet, storun Woman: We found that as she’s getting older and wanting more independence, it’s getting harder.

00:38:33

Narrator: Each of these women is mother to a disabled child.

00:38:37

Woman: As my son’s only 8 and there’s enough I can handle and I don’t allow myself to go too much out, I can’t.

00:38:43

Woman: I had a friend recently who said to me, you know, I think you really should consider putting lexie in a home.

00:38:49

And that was really stressful in and of itself ..

00:38:56

..sorry.

00:38:58

Don’t be sorry, hon.

00:39:00

So I was like, wow, how can you even say that?

00:39:03

She’s, you know, a little girlfriend.

00:39:06

She’s, um, even though she can’t really communicate, ..

00:39:14

She loves. she loves.

00:39:19

Narrator: These remarkable women came to the attention of biologist dr. elizabeth blackburn.

00:39:25

Blackburn: I don’t directly know the individuals, but I know the stories.

00:39:30

I’m a mother myself.

00:39:31

And so when I heard about this cohort, I really thought it was worthwhile finding out what really is happening at the heart of the cells in these mothers who are doing such a difficult thing for such a long time.

00:39:46

Narrator: blackburn is a leader in the field of telomere research.

00:39:51

Blackburn: We have 46 chromosomes and they’re capped off at each end by telomeres.

00:39:57

Nobody knew in humans whether telomeres and their fraying down over life would be affected by chronic stress.

00:40:04

And so we decided we would look at this cohort of chronically stressed mothers, and we decided to ask what’s happening to their telomeres and to the maintenance of their telomeres.

00:40:17

What we found was the length of the telomeres directly relates to the amount of stress somebody is under and the number of years that they’ve been under the stress.

00:40:28

Narrator: Such stressed mothers became the focus of a study blackburn’s colleague, psychologist elissa eppel.

00:40:36

Eppel: Mothers of young children are a highly stressed group.

00:40:41

They’re often balancing competing demands like work and child rearing and often don’t have time to take care of themselves.

00:40:49

So if you add on top of that the extra burden of caring for a child with special needs, it can be overwhelming.

00:40:56

It can tax the very reserves that sustain people, and if they’re stressed, if they report stress, they tend to die earlier.

00:41:05

Sapolsky: These women have shortened telomeres– decreased activity of this enzyme, and very, very rough number– for every year you were taking care of a chronically ill child, you got roughly six years’ worth of aging.

00:41:18

Blackburn: This is real.

00:41:19

This is not just somebody whining.

00:41:21

This is real medically serious aging going on, and we can see that it’s actually caused by the chronic stress.

00:41:33

Narrator: But there is hope.

00:41:34

blackburn co-discovered an enzyme, telomerase, that can repair the damage.

00:41:41

Woman: It’s what I always call the threat of hope.

00:41:45

[Laughter] Narrator: Preliminary data suggests that a meeting of minds such as this may actually have a health benefit, by stimulating the healing effects of telomerase.

00:41:58

Woman: If you don’t laugh, forget it, you can’t handle it.

00:42:03

Woman:..

00:42:06

There’s a certain level of black humor that we have about our kids that only we appreciate, we are the only ones who get the jokes, in a way we’re the only ones ..

00:42:17

Eppel: One of the questions in the stress field is what are the active ingredients that reduce stress and that promote longevity?

00:42:27

And compassion and caring for others may be one of those most important ingredients.

00:42:34

So those may be the factors that promote longevity and increase telomerase and keep our cells rejuvenating and regenerating.

00:42:44

Narrator: So perhaps connecting with and helping others can help us to mend ourselves and maybe even live longer, healthier lives.

00:42:54

20 Years ago sapolsky got a shocking preview of this idea.

00:43:01

The first troop he ever studied– the baboons he felt closest to and had written books about– suffered a calamity.

00:43:10

It would have a profound effect on his research.

00:43:14

Sapolsky: The keekorok troop is the one I started with 30 years ago.

00:43:19

And they were your basic old baboon troop at the time, which means males were aggressive and society was highly stratified, and females took a lot of grief, and your basic off-the-rack baboon troop.

00:43:32

And then about– by now almost 20 years ago, something horrific and scientifically very interesting happened to that troop.

00:43:41

Narrator: The keekorok troop took to foraging for food in the garbage dump of a popular tourist lodge.

00:43:49

It was a fatal move.

00:43:53

The trash included meat tainted with tuberculosis.

00:43:58

The result was that over half the males in the troop died.

00:44:04

Sapolsky: Not unreasonably, I got depressed as hell and pretty damn angry about what happened.

00:44:11

You know, you’re 30 years old, you can afford to expend a lot of emotion on a baboon troop, and there was a lot of emotion there.

00:44:19

Narrator: For robert, a decade of research appeared to have been lost.

00:44:25

But then he made a curious observation about who had died and who had survived.

00:44:32

Sapolsky: It wasn’t random who died.

00:44:34

In that troop, if you were aggressive and if you were not particularly socially connected, socially affiliative, you didn’t spend your time grooming and hanging out, if you were that kind of male, you died.

00:44:47

Narrator: Every alpha male was gone.

00:44:49

The keekorok troop had been transformed Sapolsky: And what you were left with was twice as many females as males, and the males who were remaining were, you know, just to use scientific jargon, they were good guys.

00:45:03

They were not aggressive jerks.

00:45:05

They were nice to the females.

00:45:06

They were very socially affiliative.

00:45:08

It completely transformed the atmosphere in the troop.

00:45:13

Narrator: When male baboons reach adolescence, they typically leave their home troop and roam, eventually finding a new troop.

00:45:22

Sapolsky: And when the new adolescent males would join the troop, they’d come in just as jerky as any adolescent males elsewhere on this planet, and it would take ’em about six months to learn, “we’re not like that in this troop.

00:45:34

We don’t do stuff like that.

00:45:36

We’re not that aggressive.

00:45:37

We spend more time grooming each other.

00:45:38

Males are calmer with each other.

00:45:40

You cannot dump on a female if you’re in ” and it takes these new guys about six months, and they assimilate this style.

00:45:48

And you have baboon culture, and this particular troop has a culture of very low levels of aggression and high levels of social affiliation, and they’re doing that 20 years later.

00:46:00

Narrator: And so the tragedy had provided robert with a fundamental lesson– not just about cells, but how the absence of stress could impact society.

00:46:11

Sapolsky: Do these guys have the same problems with high blood pressure? nope.

00:46:14

Do these guys have the same problems with brain chemistry related to anxiety, stress hormone levels?

00:46:20

Not at all.

00:46:21

It’s not just your rank, it’s what your rank means in your society.

00:46:26

Narrator: And the same is true for humans, with only a slight variation.

00:46:30

Sapolsky: We belong to multiple hierarchies, and you may have the worst job in your corporation and no autonomy and control and predictability, but you’re the captain of the company softball team that year and you’d better bet you are going to have all sorts of psychological means to decide it’s just a job, nine to five, that’s not what the world is about.

00:46:49

What the world’s about is softball.

00:46:52

I’m the head of my team, people look up to me, and you come out of that deciding you are on top of the hierarchy that matters to you.

00:47:06

Sapolsky: Well, that worked.

00:47:09

And lots of baboon poop.

00:47:13

Which under the right circumstances with the right season’s experiment is a goldmine.

00:47:21

Unfortunately this time around it’s just a cage to have to clean now.

00:47:32

I’m studying stress for 30 years now, and I even tell people how they should live differently, so presumably I should incorporate all this and the reality is, like, I’m unbelievably stressed and type “a” and poorly coping, and why else would I study this stuff 80 hours a week?

00:47:50

No doubt everything I advise is going to lose all its credibility if I keel over dead from a heart attack IN MY EARLY 50s.

00:47:57

I’m not good at dealing with stress.

00:48:00

One thing that works to my advantage is I love my work, I love every aspect of it, so that’s good.

00:48:06

Nonetheless this is pretty clearly a different place than the savannah in east africa.

00:48:13

You can do science here that’s very different and more interesting in some ways.

00:48:18

You can have hot showers on a more regular basis.

00:48:21

It’s a more interesting, varied world in lots of ways.

00:48:25

But there’s a lot out there that you sure miss.

00:48:38

It is a pretty miraculous place, where every meal tastes good and you’re 10 times more aware of every sensation.

00:48:49

This is a hard place to come to year after year without getting, I think, a very different metabolism and temperament.

00:48:58

..

00:49:02

More happy.

00:49:04

This is a hard place not to be happy.

00:49:14

Narrator: So one antidote to stress may be finding a place where we have control.

00:49:20

But how do we reckon with all the time we spend at work?

00:49:23

Marmot: I would say what we’ve learned from the whitehall study and the study of the non-human primates is the conditions in which people live and work are absolutely vital for their health.

00:49:38

Narrator: Senior civil servant sarah woodhall enjoys the benefits of control.

00:49:44

Woodhall: I don’t think I suffer from stress.

00:49:47

I don’t work a hundred hours a week.

00:49:49

I control the amount of work that I do to make sure that I can continue to deliver long term.

00:49:57

Marmot: Control, the amount of control is intimately related to where you are in the occupational hierarchy.

00:50:05

And what we have found is in general when people report to us that things have got worse, that the amount of work stress has gone up, their illness rates go up.

00:50:16

When people report to us that they’ve got more control and they’re being treated more fairly at work and there’s more justice in their amount of treatment, so things are getting better, the amount of illness goes down.

00:50:30

Woodhall: I’ve been very lucky.

00:50:30

I haven’t ever experienced any problems with my health.

00:50:33

Narrator: But not everyone is so lucky.

00:50:36

So is there a prescription for the vast majority of us who aren’t at the top?

00:50:42

Marmot: Give people more involvement in the work, give them more say in what they’re doing, give them more reward for the amount of effort they put out, and it might well be you’ll have not just a healthier workplace, but a more productive workplace as well.

00:50:58

Brooks: I’ve managed to achieve a degree of control.

00:51:02

At the moment, I’m in a really good position.

00:51:05

This is the first time where I feel I’ve had a boss who appreciates me.

00:51:08

He doesn’t dominate team meetings, he sits back.

00:51:11

He invites people to contribute.

00:51:14

He lets other people chair.

00:51:15

He’s a real manager, and he– from the start, when I returned after my latest sick leave, just six months ago, he was so positive.

00:51:22

I think I feel sufficiently empowered.

00:51:28

Narrator: Who would have imagined that robert’s baboons, roaming the cruel plains of africa, would point us humans toward a stress-free utopia?

00:51:38

Marmot: This may sound a little fanciful, but I think what we’re trying to create is a better society.

00:51:47

The implications, both of the baboons and of the british civil servants, is how can we create a society that has the conditions that will allow people to flourish?

00:51:59

And that’s where this is heading– to create a better society that promotes human flourishing.

00:52:08

Sapolsky: So what do baboons teach the average person in there?

00:52:12

Don’t bite somebody because you’re having a bad day.

00:52:15

Don’t displace on them in any sort of matter.

00:52:18

Social affiliation is a remarkably powerful thing.

00:52:22

And that said by somebody who lives in a world where ambition and drive and type-“a”-ness and all of that sort of thing dominates.

00:52:30

Those things are real important and one of the greatest forms of sociality is giving rather than receiving, and all those things make for a better world.

00:52:44

Another one of the things that baboons teach us is if they’re able to, in one generation, transform what are supposed to be textbook social systems sort of engraved in stone, we don’t have an excuse when we say there’s certain inevitabilities about human social systems.

00:53:04

Narrator: And so the haunting question that endures from robert’s life work– are we brave enough to learn from a baboon?

00:53:15

The keekorok troop didn’t just survive without stress, they thrived.

00:53:23

Can we?

00:53:34

portrait of a killeron dvd call pbs home video at 1-800-play-pbs or visit us online at shoppbs.org.

00:54:34

This program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

00:54:41

Thank you.

00:54:46

We are pbs.

Word Map

baboons know right Shively live brain guys disease humans When Woman health baboon society blood This telomeresstressed rank Sapolsky work response people pretty stress came going life social long research firstgood time amount civil make Narrator later heart years stressful hormones hierarchy troop place chronic

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by mrnd5 on March 22, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Bank Publicity that is simply "Garbage Talk", Bank Reform and Proper Regulations are Needed, Bank Reform needed, Bank Regulations must be enforced, Bank regulators shut down MetaBank payday loans, Bank Regulatory Reforms are Needed, Banks Designed To Keep Consumers in Debt, Banks have created all the rules for PREPAID CARDS, Banks Lying to Consumers To Trick Them into taking on Debt, being manipulated, Big Corporations and Banks run the world, Blackhawk & METABANK to be avoided, Consumer Alert, Consumer Rights Advocacy, Consumers align to protect yourselves, Consumers being forced to use plastic, Consumers Demand Bank Reforms That Serve Their Real Needs, Consumers Join Forces to Protect Each Other from Bank Scams and Frauds, Consumers Need To Save Money And Stay Out of Debt, Corrupt Practices found within METABANK, Creating Easy Preys Doesn't Make METABANK's Practices Moral, Customer Complaints Abound Regarding how METABANK treats them., Customer Service isn't listed as being one of META FINANCIAL GROUP INC areas of interest or studied skills, Customers of METABANK continue to complain about how they have been mistreated by METABANK, Disabled Veteran abused by METABANK, Do not give up control of your own money by using a prepaid card, Does METABANK believe their customer base are unworthy?, Don't Invest in META BANK, Don't use PREPAID BANK CARDS of any kind, fast paced banking systems, fees related to gift cards, Fight Corruption, Get Debit dot com is Meta Bank, Gift Cards May be Suspended After Purchase and without notice, Higher One has agreements with 520 campuses that enroll more than 4.3 million students, Holiday Gift Cards: have hidden fees, information systems, Internal Audits not able to cope with problems related to prepaid bank cards, Jackson-Hewitt and METABANK are partners, Jackson-Hewitt tax preparation services to be avoided, Meta Bank and Banks like it are the source of the bad economy - stop talking about any politician at any point in history, META BANK bilks their customer base, Meta Bank charges customers for spending their own money, META BANK continues same scam into end of 2012, Meta Bank denied one man his right to a fair and impartial trial. What kind of a world citizen is Meta Bank? We are tired of fighting the wars that Meta Bank causes., META BANK doesn’t serve the general public, Meta Bank is nothing but a publicity scam, Meta Bank never accepts responsibility, Meta Bank operates using many different names, META BANK same poor service as always, META FINANCIAL GROUP INC, META FINANCIAL GROUP INC continues to scam customers through the end of 2012, METABANK as the alpha baboon in our society, METABANK CEOs make huge annual incomes, METABANK customers are still being scammed, METABANK donates large amounts of money to re-elect Steve King, METABANK is a collections agency and not a bank, METABANK uses both Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes, METABANK uses false awards- false testimonials, METABANK uses the rules for their own gain, METABANK's partner company provides METABANK with access to their customer base
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Posted by mrnd5 on March 22, 2013

https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/how-metabank-ruins-the-lives-of-their-customers-on-so-many-levels-a-scientific-study-to-be-applied-to-the-way-metabank-treats-their-customers/

Pay Power is METABANK and METABANK’s practices fail consumers repeatedly

Had METABANK not taken advantage of us, made us very vulnerable, and lied to us and to the Better Business Bureau of Des Moines, this blog would never have been created.

But the fact remains that METABANK lied to us, the partner company that sold us their product and to the BBB of Des Moines, IA. METABANK took our money, our cash money because that is the only way that a card can be loaded/re-loaded, and then kept us from having access to our own money when we needed it the most. This action made us even more vulnerable than if we had been paying directly using cash. The prepaid card only is a money making gimmick that serves to make the METABANK CEOs outrageously rich… This is not a sustainable pattern for the US Economy.

Why you don’t want a PAYPOWER VISA DEBIT issued by METABANK tm

#1 Pay Power is a METABANK product.

#2 The gimmick of attaching a direct deposit that will give you the added bonus of a $20 credit isn’t enough of an incentive given the fact that you will actually be giving complete and full control of all of your assets over to METABANK, an unknown and anonymous entity that you found online.

#3  The concept of a direct deposit is okay, but it has been so abused by METABANK that in their hands it becomes like a weapon against METABANK’s own customer base.

#4 Many customers, that is former customers of METABANK, have complained for years now that METABANK keeps them from being able to access their own money when they need it the most. METABANK’s customer representatives have lied to customers repeatedly for the reasons that the customers aren’t able to access their own money. The control that METABANK wields over their customers’ accounts has gone far beyond what can be considered normal and appropriate. METABANK’s customers are a huge cash cow for METABANK and create a “living hell” for customers who must give METABANK cash money.

#5 METABANK promises to provide safety and security, but this isn’t for their customers. METABANK is working to get safety and security for themselves. Once METABANK has control of all of your assets, your cash money, then you will discover that you can’t access your own cash money. You have been taken in by false promises.

# 6 METABANK is really a collections agency and not a bank in the sense that we have always thought of banks. METABANK relies on the consumers’ previously held impression of banks as being the safest place to keep  their money. METABANK is a Member of FDIC and that statement may lull customers into thinking that METABANK will be in a fiduciary position to protect their customers’ assets…. METABANK is not and has never been able to deliver a quality product for protecting their customer base.

#7  METABANK relies on partner companies and internet ads to get  new customers so they can keep doing the same old scam to a new batch of consumers. METABANK relies on getting a new batch of customers of whom they will then begin to take advantage for their own personal gain and at the expense and misery of the METABANK customer.

#8 Marketing strategies of METABANK involve the creation of new names for the same scam on consumers. This is one way that METABANK endeavors to get around the law… METABANK “is always one step ahead of the law.”

#9 METABANK creates all the rules governing their services or as it turns out for consumers ” a lack of real service accompanied by abuses.”

#10 METABANK helped to create the “Non-Profit” NPBCA to advocate for PREPAID CARDS in DC by using Rupli and Associates. It is a way for METABANK to make themselves appear to be legitimate…. What METABANK does with the prepaid cards is to abuse consumers. The cards are designed so that METABANK has control of your cash money. Customer Fees are attached to opening up the cards while METABANK is getting an interest Free Loan from those who can least afford to give out loans.

#11 METABANK is a “thrift bank”… This term is used to indicate the lowest level of customer service and the highest level of fees for the consumer.

#12 METABANK indicates that “No Credit Check” is required, but consumers have indicated that META BANK does a credit check anyway, but without your knowledge. METABANK is consciously looking for the more vulnerable people to give them loans at a very high interest rate.

#13 By creating a direct deposit from your salary/payroll check or government check that is affiliated with a METABANK debit card, you are becoming an economic slave for METABANK. As a consumer, you must understand that you are establishing a state of economic servitude for yourself by entering into a contract with METABANK.

#14 METABANK/NBPCA is like a Cancer: they are offering training sessions around the USA. Just look at their schedule of up-coming events. You may believe that you are not going to be affected by METABANK, but it may be that you already are one of their customers. The training sessions serve the purpose of normalizing the type of actions and the way that METABANK has scammed their customer base for a period of years now.

#15 METABANK created an organization that purportedly examines customer service and that organization gave METABANK a best customer service award…. While customers continue to complain about how they were abused and taken advantage of by METABANK.

#16  METABANK never accepts responsibility for the problems they have created for others, their own customer base. By design this cannot be a sustainable way to do business, but  in the meantime, as consumers, we don’t want to become METABANK’s next victim as their system comes to a head and fails. METABANK is using a get rich quick scheme. It is not a long term solution for any bank or their customer base.

#17 METABANK has as its parent company META PAYMENT SOLUTIONS and META FINANCIAL GROUP INC… METABANK really isn’t at its core a bank in the conventional sense that will protect their customer base’s assets in a mutually beneficial arrangement. Empty promises are used to lure in customers; METABANBK has no intention of providing those services. Years of consumer complaints have proven this to be true. METABANK advertises for employees who are willing to work in a fast paced, ever changing scenario and who can deal with angry customers. METABANK expects “angry customers” because at the heart of what they are doing, even METABANK knows what they do is a fraud and an abuse of their own customers for their own get rich quick scheme.

All that we can do is to try to warn others about this problem:

METABANK relies on the internet and partner companies to push their prepaid card.

METABANK makes promises and implies services they have no intention of ever giving their customer base.

METABANK relies on keeping their customer base at a distance. Customers have been charged for phoning METABANK. Many customers say that they get the run around from METABANK when they phone. It appears to consumers that the METABANK phone representatives have been given a list of reasons for why consumers can’t access their own money. The underlying message is always that IT IS THE CUSTOMERS’ FAULT FOR WHY THE METABANK PREPAID CARD DOESN’T WORK

METABANK has never shown any kind of real and genuine response to their customers’ complaints. The customers complain about the identical mistreatment and METABANK has never ever actually addressed their customers’ input nor their real needs. METABANK’s publicity says one thing, but the actual customer service will be totally different and horrible.

Please be advised to ” DO NOT BUSINESS WITH METABANK” or with any other bank or partner trained by METABANK

The old saying that your parents used to tell you that “just because everybody else is doing something, it doesn’t make it right”…. METABANK and the NBPCA may provide training events to promote and to normalize what they are doing, but what METABANK does and how METABANK operates is immoral and an abuse against society and humanity in general for their own personal gain… Consumers are being warned to no do business with METABANK or any entity that has been influenced by METABANK.

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by mrnd5 on February 21, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Advocate for your needs and concerns as a consumer, Annual Income of META BANK's CEOs, Bank Publicity that is simply "Garbage Talk", Bank Reform and Proper Regulations are Needed, BANK REFORMS NEEDED TO BE CAREFULLY REGULATED, Bank Regulations must be enforced, Bank Regulatory Reforms are Needed, Banking, banking in Storm Lake IOWA, BankMeta lies to keep customers from their own money, Banks Designed To Keep Consumers in Debt, Banks have created all the rules for PREPAID CARDS, Banks Lying to Consumers To Trick Them into taking on Debt, being manipulated, Big Corporations and Banks run the world, but it is still Meta Bank's same service and poor quality, Complaints Against Meta Bank, Consumer Advocate, Consumer Alert, Consumer Rights Advocacy, Consumer Rights- consumers have no or few protections from predatory banking practices, Consumers act to protect themselves and others from further bank fraud and customer abuses, Consumers align to protect yourselves, Consumers are Vulnerable: Help each other, Consumers being forced to use plastic, Consumers Demand Bank Reforms That Serve Their Real Needs, Consumers Join Forces to Protect Each Other from Bank Scams and Frauds, Consumers must speak out, Consumers Need To Save Money And Stay Out of Debt, Consumers suffer at the hands of METABANK, Corrupt Practices found within METABANK, Customer Complaints Abound Regarding how METABANK treats them., Customer Service isn't listed as being one of META FINANCIAL GROUP INC areas of interest or studied skills, Customer's being scammed by Money Network, Customers of METABANK continue to complain about how they have been mistreated by METABANK, Customers' Scammed Repeatedly By METABANK, Disabled Veteran abused by METABANK, Do not give up control of your own money by using a prepaid card, Does METABANK believe their customer base are unworthy?, Don't Invest in META BANK, don't take on more debt to pay off the first debt, Economic Servitude needs to be studied and abolished in the USA, electronic banking, End Overdraft Fees, fast paced banking systems, fees related to gift cards, Fight Corruption, Financial Regulatory Reforms Needed, Get Debit dot com is Meta Bank, gift card payment systems, Gift Cards are an interest free loan to an unknown bank, Gift Cards May be Suspended After Purchase and without notice, herd behavior, Holiday Gift Cards: have hidden fees, http://wwwbankmetacom/Contact, Human Rights, If in debt, Internal Audit Committee at Meta Bank, Internal Audits not able to cope with problems related to prepaid bank cards, J. Tyler Haahr, Jackson-Hewitt and METABANK are partners, Jackson-Hewitt tax preparation services to be avoided, Just Curious About Meta Bank's Ad Placement, Just try to save, marketing is basically Meta Bank's major strength just behind collections, Meta Bank, Meta Bank and Banks like it are the source of the bad economy - stop talking about any politician at any point in history, META BANK bilks their customer base, Meta Bank charges customers for spending their own money, META BANK doesn’t serve the general public, Meta Bank is nothing but a publicity scam, Meta Bank never accepts responsibility, Meta Bank operates using many different names, Meta Bank Scams Americans, Meta Bank sells VISA and Mastercard Pre-Paid Cards, Meta Bank uses empty verbiage, META BANK: Creating all the rules in their own favor, META FINANCIAL GROUP INC, META FINANCIAL GROUP INC & PREPAID CARDS FAIL CONSUMERS, META FINANCIAL GROUP INC fails to address customers' real needs, META FINANCIAL GROUP INC is by design created to make money for their CEOs, META FINANCIAL GROUP INC pushes blame off onto their customers for their own design issues and internal operating problems, METABANK =TURBOTAX and both are scams, METABANK average employees earn wages below the poverty level, METABANK causes the late fees for customers, METABANK CEOs make huge annual incomes, METABANK customers are still being scammed, METABANK customers are still complaining about the abuse they have received from METABANK, METABANK Customers complain about METABANK's mistreatment, METABANK designed the prepaid bank cards, METABANK donates large amounts of money to re-elect Steve King, METABANK fails to hear and to respond appropriately to customer's real needs, METABANK is a piece of crap, MetaBank is corrupt, METABANK lies to their own customers, METABANK operates using many different names, METABANK practices are dragging the economy down, METABANK PREPAID CARD, METABANK uses both Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes, METABANK uses false awards- false testimonials, METABANK uses shills- stooges to market their product, METABANK's partner company provides METABANK with access to their customer base, METABANK's practices are narcissitic, METABANK's publicity is a lie and filled with false promises, METABANK's publicity says that their prepaid card will meet your specific needs but in reality they are the exact same card just using different publicitty, Money mules get METABANK PREPAID CARDS to work for them, Money Network is META BANK, More behind META BANK's scam than we may have previously realized, Narcissism of Storm Lake IOWA, NBPCA is a scam on the American public, Netspend/Meta Bank makes life miserable, Nothing and no one has yet been able to put a stop to META BANK's scam, Ordinary customers can't get the METABANK PREPAID CARD TO SERVE THEIR NEEDS, Partner company - Jackson/Hewitt uses METABANK's PREPAID BANK CARD - avoid this scam, payment cards that carry hefty costs, Please help to stop the immoral banking practices of META BANK, Predatory Practices of BankMeta.com, PREPAID BANK CARD FRAUDULENT PRACTICES, PREPAID CARDS are not adequately regulated, PREPAID CARDS are not consumer friendly, PREPAID CARDS promoted by METABANK, PrePaid Name Brand Bank Card Association a non-profit is a scam, Scams by banks like METABANK, seek revenue growth for themselves not you the customer, self-centered, self-motivated, self-serving, Stay Out of Debt, Steve King (R-IA) received large campaign donation from James S. Haahr of Meta Bank, Stop Meta Bank, Storm Lake IOWA, Success shouldn't be about profits - People mattter, Suspicious Activity is within Meta Bank's internal practices and policies, This is not a sustainable pattern for the US Economy., Tricked by METABANK's publicity, Truth, Two problems found in METABANK's "No Credit Check" Cards, Usury, Western Union and MetaBank have joined forces, What were Meta Bank's supervisors and internal auditors doing? Did they even exist? Why doesn't Meta Bank's Higher Ups ever know anything and have to push the blame around all the time?, Where There Is Smoke There Is Fire, Why does METABANK lie to their own customers?, Xoom and Meta Bank are one in the same, You may be dealing with Meta Bank under a different name
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Posted by mrnd5 on February 21, 2013

https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/pay-power-is-metabank-and-metabanks-practices-fail-consumers-repeatedly/

Tag Cards; Yet another gimmick

This blog was set up after I had been scammed by METABANK when using their prepaid card.
I cannot advise anyone to use any form of a prepaid card.
The services you ask about are not within my focus area.

Prepaid Cards basically give an interest free loan to a large corporate entity.
After getting full control of my money, METABANK wouldn’t allow me access to my own money when I needed this the most.

METABANK lied to me about why I couldn’t get access to my own money and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to push the blame for what happened to me back off onto to me. The reality is that the very design of the METABANK PREPAID CARD was established to give METABANK full access and control of my cash money.

All of the METABANK PREPAID CARDS require cash money so they can be loaded or re-loaded.
Then METABANK begins to use various lies for why their customers can’t access their own cash money.

My advice has been that consumers should also only do business using cash money.
Do not hand over control of your money to an anonymous bank like METABANK
I cannot advise anyone to enter into a preformatted contract with a bank
that retains the right to change all of the rules without prior notice to the consumer.

Given the horrible customer service that I encountered personally and which I observed personally happening to another person, one who is extremely well educated, who was told that the METABANK PREPAID CARD didn’t work because he hadn’t used it properly. I saw that no merchants would accept his METABANK CARD. This gave me the impression that the PREPAID CARD by design is faulty and seriously working against consumer’s better interests.

http://www.tagpassiton.com/about/the-card.html

I am not familiar with the term “Tag Card” so I did an online search for “Tag Card”
I cannot advise anyone to use such a product because it gives control of your money to a third party.
Why not make a cash donation directly to the agency you wish to support?

The “Tag Card” information page says that they aren’t in it for the money just to serve non-profits, but you are still giving the money to a third party, a total stranger.

“The TAG! card is an incentive to discover a new way of spending – to make shopping better for you and to make a positive difference in your community. It’s simple to use, comes with a free and handy key-fob and will save you a fortune. Guard it with your life.”

The gimmick and the enticement is that you will save money by putting some money upfront. This upfront money will become totally out of your control.

“TAG! is a community loyalty movement. That’s a real thing, although we definitely had to make it up first.” The term customer loyalty and here “community loyalty” is also another gimmick. The consumer is being encouraged to buy more from a specific vendor over other vendors because of this promise for special benefits and price reductions for the consumer. Still, cash money is handed over to an anonymous entity and therefore taken out of your control.

The term “loyalty” is a marketing term to get merchants to opt in. The term “Loyalty” doesn’t imply better service or better products for consumers.

If you want to support your local community. Go to those places and spend cash money there. Please know that many merchants have told me that for them to accept plastic cards that they must pay a fee. Meanwhile, you as the consumer also have fees attached to using those plastic cards.

Thank you for bringing this term to my attention.

By its very design, it appears to be yet another way to scam consumers.
I would be very cautious about entering into such a contract.
Keep full control of your own money. Do not hand over control of your money to a total stranger, which was METABANK in my case. METABANK has been running seminars and workshops for other banks to promote their concept. I have no idea how it is marketed in those seminars/workshops. I imagine that other banks and potential corporate entities are told that their sales will increase. In the long term, they will lose customers if they are treated the way METABANK operates which is like a loan shark, collections agency and not at all like a real bank. METABANK claims to be a “Thrift Bank”; this term should also be a cautionary term for consumers.

Are you an employee of METABANK or another agency like it?
The employees of METABANK and their affiliates are the ones who are used to push their scam. Only the highest ranking CEOs make a huge profit. Many of the METABANK employees live at or below the poverty level.
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by mrnd5 on February 20, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Advocate for your needs and concerns as a consumer, Avoid This Service, Bank Publicity that is simply "Garbage Talk", Bank Reform and Proper Regulations are Needed, Bank Reforms that actually protect consumers are still needed - Elizabeth Warren is needed, Bank Regulations must be enforced, Bank Regulatory Reforms are Needed, banking in Storm Lake IOWA, bankmeta.com, Banks have created all the rules for PREPAID CARDS, Big Corporations and Banks run the world, but it is still Meta Bank's same service and poor quality, Complaints Against Meta Bank, Consumer Rights- consumers have no or few protections from predatory banking practices, Consumers act to protect themselves and others from further bank fraud and customer abuses, Consumers align to protect yourselves, Consumers are Vulnerable: Help each other, Consumers being forced to use plastic, Consumers Demand Bank Reforms That Serve Their Real Needs, Consumers Join Forces to Protect Each Other from Bank Scams and Frauds, Consumers must speak out, Consumers Need To Save Money And Stay Out of Debt, Consumers Start Talking and Learning Real Facts About Banking, Consumers suffer at the hands of METABANK, Corrupt Practices found within METABANK, Customer Complaints Abound Regarding how METABANK treats them., Customer Service isn't listed as being one of META FINANCIAL GROUP INC areas of interest or studied skills, Disabled Veteran abused by METABANK, Don't Invest in META BANK, Don't pay using a debit card, don't take on more debt to pay off the first debt, Don't use PREPAID BANK CARDS of any kind, Economic Servitude needs to be studied and abolished in the USA, fees related to gift cards, Fight Corruption, Financial Advice, getting out of debt, gift card payment systems, Gift Cards are an interest free loan to an unknown bank, Gift Cards May be Suspended After Purchase and without notice, Holiday Gift Cards: have hidden fees, innovative banking practices, Internal Audits not able to cope with problems related to prepaid bank cards, Tag Cards an unnecessary evil for consumers
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Posted by mrnd5 on February 20, 2013

https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/tag-cards-yet-another-gimmick/

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