If Google opened a commercial bank, would you open an account with them?

No I wouldn’t trust them
I’d keep all my money under my bed

No, because it would be one more bit of power. I don’t trust any corporation.

Google is not your friend. They are in business to make money for their stockholders.

@Marina Where do you keep your money? Banks and credit unions are corporations too?

I’m sure I’d love to try out the free beta and then the real thing when it’s released. As long as they stick to “don’t be evil”, it’ll be better than any other institution out there.

I’d bank a small amount of money with them and give things a try. If after a year things were still working out and everyone else seems to be enjoying the party, I’d consider using them for regular banking.

I trust my bank a reasonable amount, and I’ve switched between banks a couple times and keep coming back to these guys (HSBC, one of the major UK banks).

If Google were reasonably good to me like these guys have been; restoring funds to my account within an hour when I’d been a victim of fraud, sending me an SMS with my balance whenever my card is used, and the other useful services that make me feel safe with my money, I would certainly consider Google as a bank.

Lloyds TSB also did the SMS banking thing, but they don’t allow you to do wires online. Lame.

I don’t love my bank; a corporation is out to make money, as @Marina says. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re always going to get screwed. I’ve had some bad experiences, some good ones, and the rest is reasonably plain sailing. Just don’t keep all your eggs in one basket.

@richardhenry Right. I use a credit union for much of my business. They are actually, for the benefit of their members unlike commercial banks. I use a bank too. I do business with corporations. That does not mean I trust them. Google, in particular, has the potential for great abuse of power and essentially no regulation or oversight of any kind (unlike many other industries).

@Marina Things are the opposite way in the UK. We have building societies instead of credit unions, but they’re not particularly easy to use from day-to-day and are really more geared to long-term savings and suck a little bit. If you want to get things done, you have to use a bank.

@richardhenry I used to read books set in England and the people were always able to run overdrafts and talked to their banker like friends. I assumed that was fiction, right?

@Marina I get on with our business bank manager quite a lot actually. She won’t give us anything for free though.

they are data miners. they will record my purchasing behaviour and sell the date to other firms so they can exploit me.
I will not trust google beyond their search engine.

Might as well. They’re into every other frickin’ thing I do on the web.

Unless you religiously employ TOR (or the fledgling iPREDator) for all of your Internet dealings you might as well assume Google knows almost all there is to know.

At least if they were to open a bank it’d be regulated to a degree and come with some form of FDIC guarantee.

I would if they would give me free money to open an account. Hubby and I have recently opened several accounts at banks strictly because they will deposit $75.00 or $100 in our account if we sign up for direct deposit. I have changed the dd for my Social Security twice in the last 3 months to take advantage of these programs. As soon as the promotion time is over, I close the account and put my money back in my main, interest bearing account.

@richardhenry Not all corporations are out to make money. Nonprofits, and even credit unions, by legal terms, are corporations.

No, I’d be worried about data protection.

@FrogOnFire What? Credit unions are out to make money, it just happens that you get a small slice too. Non-profits are also generally out to make money, they just pass on a chunk of the funds.

My question her though, is since when did “making money” become evil? There’s nothing wrong with making money by providing something that people want, be it a service or product (like a business), supporting a cause (like a non-profit), or making money for yourself and others (like a credit union).

The key thing to remember is that there is money to be made without being underhanded, and a lot of corporations realize that. A great long term business strategy is actually “don’t piss everyone off”.

*here. Damn edit time.

Google knows us better than our moms. Everyone pretty much posts their entire lives to Google. (Youtube, Gmail, Picasa, Calendar..) But I would give it a shot. I love Google and use almost all their services all the time. If things still go smoothly after a while I’ll stick with them. I don’t really care if they’re a big corporation.