What happens if your bank goes under? Be prepared!

In my wanderings last night, I found this excellent post regarding what you need to know if your bank collapses. It features one person’s experience after last year’s NetBank failure and buyout you’ll find helpful.

What interested me most was that though this man’s funds were insured, he could not access them for three weeks. Yes, the webpage showing his funds was there, but that was it; he couldn’t get to it or use it to pay bills. He ended up depending upon his parents and fiance, and the couple of hundred dollars he had in his wallet at the time of the failure. This reminded me of the big blackout we had several years ago; $20 bought me a big bag of apples and a jar of peanut butter that held me over until the power began to return and I was able to cook once more. Never in my life have I been so glad there were greenbacks in my purse.

While I highly recommend you read the entire post, here’s the advice. Like my grandpa always says…don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

1. Never keep more than $100,000 in any deposit account. If you have more than that much to save in deposits, distribute it over several different banks.

2. If you maintain an emergency financial fund (which is always a good practice), consider housing it at a separate institution from your primary account.

3. Always keep essential deposit accounts at FDIC-backed institutions.

4. Check your bank’s stability using Bankrate’s “Safe & Sound” ratings, or another rating system if you prefer.

5. As part of a standard home emergency kit, keep some cash in the house in a safe place — several hundred dollars, if you can. Storing your savings in your house doesn’t make sense, but having some cash to get you through in the event of any kind of trouble — bank trouble, natural disaster, or otherwise — is smart.

6. Be an informed consumer! Keep up with the financial news, and of course we believe Wesabe Groups are a huge help as well. Financial topics are overwhelming and can be hard to follow, but the more you learn, the better-off you’ll be.

The comments are worth reading as well. Personally, though this has little to do with banking, I’d recommend (having learned firsthand) keeping foods you can eat without cooking around, especially protein-rich foods, because you’ll need it in case of a power outage or other disaster that takes out the electricity. Make sure you have canned fruits and veggies, too, so you are sure to get as many of the necessary vitamins and minerals as you can. Having bottled water on hand should go without saying.

Also, if you can, you should make sure you have a grill or portable stovetop that operates without electricity. Gas, charcoal, solar, whatever, but get one. Thankfully, I had running water during the outage, but we were under a boil-water advisory, leaving Remmy and me out of luck as far as drinking water went. Fortunately I had plenty of bottled water in the apartment. Even a small grill will help out, because then you can boil water, heat up your canned goods or at least make pasta and toss it with some EVOO and dried herbs and any veggies you have floating around.

These small grills are not expensive, and though it’s late in the season, you might still find a few small grills for a bargain price at garage and thrift sales.

Finally, try to pick up a weather/emergency radio, something I’ve been asking my Hubby to do for about two years now. During the power outage, I had not only the car radio, but a small, battery-operated one that allowed me to at least keep tabs on the news, advisories, and so forth. Frankly, most important to my neighbors and myself at the time was ascertaining whether or not this was another terrorist attack, it being only two years after September 11. That was the first thing on everyone’s mind when not only our power went out, but the few working cellphones couldn’t raise anyone else in the area, and who can be blamed for that? Radios are good not just for information, but peace of mind.

Remember the Boy Scout motto and be prepared!