LOS ANGELES-Bank Transfer Day may have been a success, but Kristen Christian, the event's founder, isn't rushing to back any of its imitators.
"I'm honored by the movements that come from the heart," she said, citing similar movements in the UK and Australia. But others, such as Balance Transfer Day, she said, are "really just an attempt to make money."
Balance Transfer Day, for intance, attempted to replicate Bank Transfer Day's success, this time with the push aimed at consumers' credit card debt. Its Facebook page called on consumers "currently carrying an outstanding balance on one or more of their credit cards to transfer their balance to a card with 0% APR on Dec. 11, 2011."
The movement aimed for a grassroots appeal, but was later revealed by multiple media outlets and blogs to be run by Michael Germanovsky, a paid consultant and writer for Credit-Land.com and BestCreditOffers.com.
"This is not actually a movement," said Christian, speaking as part of a CUNA webinar. "This is a marketing ploy to bring new credit card members to big banking institutions, so I definitely would not recommend that credit unions tout Balance Transfer Day as a movement of any sort."
Balance Transfer Day struggled to achieve even a fraction Bank Transfer Day's success, and Christian said later that the public is smart enough to spot a phony versus the genuine article.
"When the American public witnesses something like this, it takes away faith a little bit that there are good people out there that genuinely just want to make the world a better place," she said. "With Bank Transfer Day, people put two and two together and realized that I wasn't benefitting from that. The only benefit I received was the satisfaction of knowing my efforts were going to make our world just a little bit better."
Still, the event has boosted Christian's public profile, including a planned appearance at CUNA's GAC in March.
