When you put your money in the bank, you assume it’s going to be safe. Everything about the average bank branch is designed to make it look like a secure place to keep money.
There are cameras, security screens in front of the tellers and maybe even armed guards. We know from movies that bank vaults have heavy steel doors with elaborate locks, and safe deposit boxes show us miniature versions of that.
All this is just the physical security that stops thieves walking in and helping themselves to cash. On top of that there are laws and government schemes designed to protect savers if the bank itself runs into problems.
Your main protection against bank failures is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which was set up in 1933. During the Great Depression over a third of US banks failed, and many people lost everything they’d saved.
FDIC’s goal was to make sure that, in future bank failures, even if people lost money they wouldn’t be completely wiped out.
The way it works is that if a bank collapses, everyone who didn’t manage to get their money out of it on its way down will have their lost funds replaced by FDIC, up to a maximum of $250,000.
That’s actually fairly generous; in the UK, which has a similar scheme, the guarantee only covers up to £85,000 ($108,000).
It doesn’t cover everything, however, and if you’re lucky enough to have more than $250,000 saved, you could still lose everything above the protected amount.
Related: How Some People Got Rich During The Great Depression. You Need To Learn This Fast
If the existence of FDIC has persuaded you that bank deposits are well protected, here’s something you might find disturbing. 2023 was the biggest ever year for bank failures. Starting with the March collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, five financial institutions that held more than half a trillion dollars between them went under, and many people lost a lot of money.
FDIC paid out just $16.3 billion in compensation, meaning less than 3% of those banks’ assets were covered by the scheme. Bank failures are a real danger, and do you want to bet your savings on this year being any better?
We’re coming up to what could be the ugliest and most destructive presidential election in history, with the economy still fragile and the president taking some dangerous decisions in an attempt to boost his fading poll ratings.
There’s a high risk this year will be worse than last. If you have savings you need to make sure they’re protected. Here’s how to do it:
Pick the Right Bank
The first thing to be aware of is that not all financial institutions are covered by FDIC.
All actual banks are, and so are federal credit unions, but many state credit unions aren’t. Non-traditional “neobanks”, like internet-only banks, might be backed by a traditional bank and covered by its FDIC membership, but some aren’t.
⇒ 3 Things to Get Done Before the 2024 Economic Collapse
Before you trust a financial institution with your money, make sure qualifies for FDIC protection. Otherwise you could lose everything – and non-traditional banks are the most likely to fail.
Put Your Money in Insured Products
FDIC insurance only covers some types of accounts. If a bank is holding money in one of those, it’s protected. The qualifying accounts are:
- Checking accounts
- Negotiable order of withdrawal accounts
- Savings accounts
- Money market deposit accounts
- Foreign currency accounts
- Time deposits (including certificates of deposit)
- Cashier’s checks, interest checks and other negotiable instruments
Anything else – including stocks, bonds, Treasury securities and most other investments – isn’t covered, so if the bank goes down you’ll lose them if you can’t withdraw them in time.
The ones that will catch a lot of people are insurance and annuities. They can have a large cash value, and they’re totally exposed if the bank collapses.
Use Ownership Categories
Even accounts that qualify for FDIC insurance come in different types. FDIC covers seven different ownership categories:
Single accounts. These are standard bank accounts owned by one person.- Joint accounts. These have more than one owner, and all owners have equal withdrawal rights.
- Some retirement accounts, including IRAs.
- Employee Benefit Plan accounts.
- Accounts belonging to a corporation, partnership or unincorporated association.
- Revocable and Irrevocable trust accounts. These will contain wording like “In trust for” or “Payable on death”.
- Government accounts.
Single accounts. These are standard bank accounts owned by one person.If a bank fails, all the accounts you have with it in the same ownership category are counted as a single account – so if you have three single accounts with $250,000 in each you’re only covered for $250,000.
However, up to three ownership categories can be counted separately; if you have a single account, a joint one with your partner and an IRA, with $250,000 each, you’re covered for the whole $750,000.
Spread the Risk
If you have multiple accounts consider holding them with different banks. Even if both banks fail at the same time, they’re counted separately for compensation. Going with the example above, if you have a single account, a joint one and an IRA in each of two banks your FDIC cover grows to $1.5 million.
Related: 10 Great Depression Era Strategies For Saving Money
One thing to look out for is that some brick and mortar banks also have an internet branch that operates under a different name. FDIC doesn’t care about the name; if your physical and online banks are part of the same organization, it counts them as the same bank.
The goal is to distribute your savings so that all of it comes in under FDIC’s $250,000 per account cap. That way, as long as FDIC itself is still going, everything’s covered.
Research Your Bank
Before you put your money in a bank, do some research. Look into its credit ratings with the three big agencies – Moody’s, Fitch and Standard & Poor.
Check FDIC’s own ratings; these use a six-point test to calculate how stable a bank is. A high-scoring bank is at less risk of failure.
Bigger Can Be Better
Small, new banks can be very attractive, because they often give great deals to attract customers. They might pay higher interest rates, or provide other bonuses. That makes them look like a better option than older, more conservative banks.
The government doesn’t see it that way, though. There are a few banks – for example Bank of America, Citi, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo – that the government classes as “too big to fail”.
Related: The Desperate Measures the Government Is Secretly Resorting To
If one of those went down it would do massive damage to the economy, so if they’re struggling the government will do whatever it can to bail them out and keep them afloat. We all saw that in 2008, and while it was painful it’s better than being caught in a bank failure.
Don’t Panic
If you hear rumors that your bank is in trouble, be ready to act – but don’t spread the rumor and don’t rush into anything.
When banks have problems, and all their customers rush to rescue their cash, that can cause a run on the bank and cause the very thing everyone’s worried about. Usually, the bank fails faster than everyone can withdraw their cash.
Don’t Trust the System
The FDIC system is actually pretty good, but it isn’t perfect. Insulate yourself by keeping some of your savings somewhere else. This is where that old prepper standby, gold, comes in.
In the long term gold will gain value; it always does. There’s a finite amount of gold and people are always finding new things to do with it, so demand is guaranteed to keep rising and that drags the price up.
Bank failures can be scary, but if you know what you’re doing they don’t have to be a disaster for you personally.
For most of us, having more than $250,000 in a checking account is a daydream anyway; where we need to take precautions is in IRAs and similar long-term savings.
Just protect those against the risk of a collapsing bank – putting them in one of the “too big to fail” institutions is the obvious way – and you can get through a year like 2023 without having to worry too much.
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First things buy food, survival food stuffs, seeds, tools, clothes, gas top the vehicle off.
Then buy gold and silver.
Post SHTF go after the elitist who caused the messes when no one will save them, waterboard them, it was your America.
SHTF no law and order, the armed guards, law enforcement and military will be more worried about their own families to care.
Digital currency block chain computer farms will become another fiat money scam that it always was to begin with.
The Chinese owned farmlands will be targeting military bases. The Chinese secret labs around major cities will unleash more potent COVID viruses.
Plandemics will abound as your America has been sold out to the highest bidder. You will own nothing an worship the UN backed by China’s CCP.
Shut down the southern border, drill for oil.
WWIII is the only way these liberals can get out of the tax and spend mess of BIDENOMICS has done to us.
This post will be deleted by the website.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
I agree Claude,
Mean tweet Trump warned America what would happen if we all voted for sleepy Joe, Let’s Go Brandon. And yet many of you voted in Bidenomics.
What part did some of you not understand?
Now what are preppers going to do?
FDIC is broken.
The Math Behind Deposit Insurance, And Why It’s The Beginning Of The End
Make sure you use recycled sewage water when you waterboard the “elite”
Make sure they use the Tijuana sewage spill water from the San Diego area.
It has been 50 some years the Mexican sewage crisis has plagued So Cal.
The Tijuana sewer plant has been in disrepair for years, residents have been sickened by dirty water at their ocean beaches, plenty of disease to go around.
The corrupt evil Mexican drug cartels sh*t on America by profiting from sex trafficking people. At the same time the broke down political system there sends poop waste across the border for Americans to deal with the problem.
It is better to be number ONE, than be Number TWO, if you get my drift.
If you like your bank and want to still do business with it I would suggest adding up all of your monthly bills then add an extra $100 to $200 to it and keep only that amount in your bank account.
Keep the rest of your money at home in a strong box or somewhere else that is safe and you can get your hands on it if need be.
This way should the bank collapse, you won’t lose everything.
Yeah banks like B of A suck big time, they will charge every fee they can before they give you any money back.
A credit union is a better option, usually local and not a wide network that can collapse and erase all your electronic digital currency.
You’re correct, B of A has a bad reputation.
Thank you. I hear it is a good idea to keep cash in a file box in the garage, with a pile of other file boxes around it – not in a dresser drawer. Slightly less convenient, but much more secure.
As long as it’s in a safe place protected from fire, water, and rodents both four and two legged ones, you should be fine.
Check your banks score with Weiss rating.
old saying do not put your all eggs in one basket. louse lips sink ships
Do lice actually have lips??
Gold is a natural hedge, but it is priced quite high right now. Any thoughts on holding silver (as a payment mechanism) if SHTF? 1/2 oz or 1oz rounds or bars? Am I wrong to think silver may be a solid option to gold, especially as it is in smaller value increments?
There are options where fractional gold or silver can be purchased for exactly that reason: buying smaller items post SHTF. You can buy small bags of silver bars that are 1/10 oz. each through Local Silver Mint in Weare, NH; you can buy Valcambi bars in gold or silver that can break down fractionally; there are even 1oz. coins that can break apart into quarters. These would have to be barter transactions I would think though because shops aren’t set up to accept precious metals routinely.
Thank you, those are good ideas. There is also pre-1965 silver dimes and quarters, better known as “junk silver”.
The value of gold and silver is being manipulated by the secret societies such as the world banking and federal reserve bank systems, run by foriegn bankers. The US Fed Reserve Bank should at least be run by American patriot bankers.
The gold and silver prices should be much, much higher. Right now these prices are being subsidized more likely by Sheeple American taxpayer’s paying the world’s debt. Which in return the elite powers here have been borrowing money from our enemies like China to keep the system afloat until Trump resets the MAGA commonsense approach to economics of business.
In return of good faith of our debt Bidenomics is giving our valuable American Farmland to our debt holder China’s CCP.
Drill for oil our money making engine that the UN vegan, antigun anti-liberty activist want us to bow down to the UN globalist.
Next abolish the UN, tear down the UN building for starters.
America funds a large percentage of NATO, while other countries contribute less then their required 2% since Bidenomics took tyrannical power. Weakening our economy by flooding illegal through an open border of future Demoncrat replacement voters. The plan is to make all patriotic Americans homeless, you will own nothing but the elites will keep their marbles.
Why do we have too many military personnel and base presence around the world? China may think they can replace America, maybe but their economy depends on Americans one sided trade to fund their military for world dominance.
Too many American Sheeples keep buying cheap China garbage products that are overpriced for what we get.
They control our food supply buying up food processors like Smith Foods. They control the drug base items to make our medicine. While supplying fentanyl to the dumb idiotic druggies dying of fentanyl poisoning. Innocent fentanyl poisonings will continue until we get a strong president in charge to rollback the undoings of the Biden’s, Obama’s.
A shame 3 American service personnel died this week to incompetence of our Pentagon and high ranking officials worried about their union jobs. The military needs to learn to fight not lean to skin colored appointed than be qualified to fight our enemies.
Afghanistan withdrawal gave secret technology and $$billions of dollars$$ in weapons to the enemy.
Obama’s term had an American drone fly into Iran controlled air space to be reversed engineered. Currently shooting $20K drones by $$million dollars$$ worth of missiles is not sustainable even by Bidenomics standards.
Who will we vote into the 2024 presidential slot of leadership?
We can get rid of that thing once SHTF!
Robert, buy pre65 silver(junk silver). It is 90% silver and demands a smaller premium. It would be ideal for small purchases. Talk to Money Metals Exchange for more information. They are good people as I have dealt with them. Your on the right track. Good luck.
The only problem I see with this is that more than likely, in an SHTF situation, most fools are not going to know about pre-1965 silver coins. And if you try to give them a silver dollar to pay for something, they’re only going to look at it as one dollar.
Look into, “goldbacks”!
The problem comes with small transactions, of which you will probably make many. Silver is much better suited for such transactions where there’s a perceived difference in value in bartered items. And remember in other country currency collapses, barter “change” was made with ammunition.
All those are great ideas but Gold and Silver will be around long after they collapse. One can buy GoldBacks which are usable when SHTF they come in domination’s of $ 1,5,10,20,50
$4 for 1/1000th oz is about double the current spot price of gold ($4000/oz), and MUCH more expensive than buying gold rounds or even Valcambi fractionals in 1/100 oz or even gram weights. Most Goldbacks I have seen are specific to the few states that allow them as currency. What am I missing?
Best thing we ever did was ditch the banks for a Credit Union. For fractional gold, Britania’s or Franc’s can be a better price at times than 1/10th or 1/4 oz eagles or maple leafs. I live closer to Canada, so maple leafs get my nod, if I lived closer to Mexico, I would choose Libertads. YMMV
Spot price for 1-troy ounce of gold in the US on 1/31/24 was about $2,055 around 2pm. The spot will change up and down throughout the day. The issue with buying gold in fractional amounts is not the spot price, but the premiums the dealers tack on. The higher the weight purchased, usually the premium is lower as a percentage. Essentially, the spot price is the wholesale price. The price with the premium added is the retail price.
I purchase both gold and silver, gold mostly in fractional weights, silver in one ounce or higher weights, but sometimes fractionals. But I am willing to pay the the slightly higher premiums as I cannot always afford to buy larger weights.
I might note that goldbacks are not all they seem cracked up to be. The amount of gold in each goldback is essentially the same tiny amount regardless of the denomination of the note.
I did not buy mine to spend now but to hold on for when everything tanks, however even if the Gold Back is made in a certain state they are still good wherever you live. I got mine from Alpine Gold.
Ok, but how are you going to buy something for dollars with a 2500 dollar gold coin?
I’m guessing that in an SHTF situation, and we are bartering with precious metals, people are going to charge by the ounce and not the dollar. The dollar will be meaningless.
I can’t agree more with Southern Nationalist.A high quality
safe that is fireproof and has a manual dial is the best way
to secure anything of value. Yes I understand that they are
expensive but in the event that your bank or the whole
system collapses you’ll be in better shape than most.
Most banks offer free cashiers checks or money orders to
account holders.That is how you can pay out of town bills.
A few year back I asked the branch manager of our bank
if they had a plan in case of a long term power outage.
She said that there was a plan but it was confidential and
they couldn’t tell anyone what it was.
Our money in a bank is nothing more than 1s and 0s on
a computer screen.
With a click of a mouse a hacker can make it all go away.
For those that aren’t aware a provision in the Dodd Frank
Act allows banks to take the money of depositor’s and use
the money to keep the bank afloat.
Something Evil Comes This Way.
When you deposit or cash your pay check or retirement
benefit get it out off the bank immediately.
A cyber attack will happen in the blink of your eye and will
be devastating to anyone with money or valuables in a bank.
It may sound corny but “If you don’t hold it you don’t own it”
Years back
I agree. Hold cash and silver at home. Keep only 6 months’ of bills in the bank.
No one will come to help us in these Bidenomics years as police and emergency services are being defunded.
But the illegals are being funded by taxpayers to stay here scot free.
Age 16-40 are usual males, not a lot of females but they are catching up to males. The Blue Sanctuary States actively are suppressing citizens from having nonlethal protection devices. As they deny citizens the right to own guns and ammo to defend their property, family and homes.
In the Bidenomics world of justice defund the real police, letting George Soros and son, plus other elites, to give power to their corrupt DA’s. Who let criminals off, no jail time but jail the honest citizen defending their life from these lunatic criminals walking the streets free.
Right now Europe that has knocked America for it’s illegal policies during Trump’s border wall against illegal invasion.
Europe is now planning to build their walls, razor wire and planned deportation.
Time to deport the Congress Squad members too. One Squad member married her own brother to stay in the USA.
Time to revoke the baby anchor born here stay here as far back as a 100 years back, they reparations to us Americans. Deport their daisy chain relatives ASAP!
The illegals broke the laws and deport all the border activist who champion the illegal mess too.
There is no free lunch in reality, except for Bidenomics where we taxpayer’s pay for the free lunch.
The 10 to 40 age males coming across our open border are not here for jobs, they are recruits for terrorist offense against us.
All it takes is one demented lunatic like Let’s Go Brandon to do executive orders to stop drilling for oil and stop building the border wall.
A lot of you liberals out here voted for this tyrannic lunatic who is selling out our country.
We got the third world lunatics, criminals, rapist, pedophiles inside our country due to Obama running behind the scenes of the Biden administration.
You vote for Michelle Obama that will be Obama’s extended long terms in presidential office with no accountability. Shame on you liberals.
For the plan by the un, cfr, who to take down america
total failure
keep your weapons and plan your protection
Train, prepare , for the reason is clear
put then in place during the marshall law and set up global control
this is why invasion into all the countries
so they will cry out for help during the collapse
and the disaster
no communication , no speak , no tell , no help untill complete failure
The FDIC is a JOKE!!! it only has enough to cover less than 3% of all the accounts eligible for coverage!!! Not even with a Treasury bailout will there be enough!!! The author better go back to school and take banking and finance 101!!!! Any one who knows anything about this area will tell you that banks can be a DEAD horse and cryptos even worse if an EMP ever hits and the grids (Three of them) go down!!!! There are other factors out there that need to be considered but safe deposit boxes are out also!!!
Feel Good Failure
no protection at all
but everyone feels like they are secure
false sense of protection in the banks, investments, and system sinking fast
do the research on the money markets around the world
Here in Brazil, there is a lot of warning about a possible solar storm this year. With the risk of running out of Internet and GPS signal. Are these news circulating in your country?
Not in the common media.
I usually get that kind of information from NASA , but the Washington Post had an article on it. The sun is starting to “wake up”. The worst will be in July of next year. That is when the sun will be at it’s peak. The next solar eclipse will really be awesome. When the moon blocks the “circle” of the sun you will be able to see flares with the naked eye. Those are Coronal ejections. We are not supposed to have any coronal mass ejections, but I don’t think we would be told even if the government knew it was coming.
Why is the best place to buy gold coins?
Where is the best place to buy gold coins?
sd bullulion
sd bullion is good. So is ITM Trading and APMEX. APMEX usually has a bit higher premium, but their service is excellent as ITM.
If you have a safe like Liberty with an electronic lock, you will not be able to open it if an emp happens. I have a liberty safe and I found that they have an emp proof replacement lock. It would be sad to have all your guns, gold and silver locked in a safe that you can not get into when you need to. Just something to think about.
Smoke wrench.
Not quick and easy though.
Fact : everything in the bank will stay in the bank
the cd,stocks,investments will be dissolved and you will be given credits in proportion to the assessed value after failure and collapse
which like the dollar could be as little as 10% of value
Then the authoritys in charge will be assembled and put in charge of you
they will take what they want , and leave yo broke , bare, and poor
Then since the authority in charge will hate god, love self, take all for self
Thinking themselves to be wise in thier own eyes , and doing what they think is wise , they will serve self , do what serves thier interest , and become fools
To Truly Protect Your self
Get Debt Free, Own Everything you have , pay off your debt quickly
spend all that you can on paying bills, paying off items you can keep , and set up items for protection , barriers, hardened containers, hardening your land , make your life more self suffecient , Like the bible says ( owe no man nothing except the debe of love )
Jesus Christ : Said only 2 commandments apply and by keeping them you will keep the ten commandments exodus 20:2-17
Love God with all your heart , Love your neighbor as yourself )
philipians 2-4-17 , deut 5:6-21 , only thru self examination , conffession , repentance , change can you do this .
As long as you serve self , you will commit the desires of self , fulfil the lust, passions of self fulfilment
Plan , Prepare, Prevent , Provide for others best
I keep only enough in the bank to cover my bills. Only leave enough in the bank that you can afford to lose.
Most folks don’t realize that the FDIC does NOT have anywhere near enough money to cover even a fraction of the accounts they theoretically insure. If a bunch of banks crash, the FDIC will go broke very fast.
Moreover, banks that crash do not have to depend on the Feds bailing them out. The law, enacted after the 2008 recession, allows banks to bail-in. In other words, since the law considers “your” deposits to actually belong to the bank, the bank can simply convert the money to pay their bills. In return, they will give you non-voting stock in what is a failing company. No, you will not get hard copy stock certificates either.
In 2023, when several large banks crashed, the Feds decided they would bail-out those banks as the government wasn’t quite prepared for the backlash they would have gotten from we, The Great Unwashed. Greece and Cyprus showed them what the banking public thought of bail-ins, so the US will try to avoid bail-ins until they have zero choice. Don’t trust any bank or credit union. Remember, they are in business to make money for their shareholders and top executives (who are usually the same people as shareholders).
This information is not a “conspiracy theory.” Research for yourself.
I highly recommend everyone listen and read David Web’s documentary and FREE book, The Great Taking.
Gainesville Coins has been reliable for me …