Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Anybody Remember???

Anyone remember a bank that would give a Weatherby rifle in place of interest???

Someplace in Colorado. Would have been the 1980's I believe.

Found one in Michigan:



TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. --Open a bank account, get a gun.

North Country Financial Corp. is exchanging firearms for deposits, giving away rifles and
shotguns in lieu of the interest that normally accompanies accounts.

Put as little as $869 in a 20-year certificate of deposit, and the Traverse City,
Mich.-based bank will hand over a Weatherby Inc. Mark V Synthetic rifle that normally lists for
$779. Deposit more, and you have a choice of six Weatherby shotguns or limited-edition rifle
with walnut stock and oak-leaf engravings.

The bank has 28 branches, mostly in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and the guns-for-CDs
program is a potent weapon in the fight for Americans' savings at a time of shrinking bank
deposits.

Banks across the country are offering everything from $50 gift certificates and books to
casserole dishes and clocks --even toasters -- to lure back customers and stem a seven-year
decline in deposits as Americans shifted money into stocks and mutual funds.

U.S. time deposits, including CDs, totaled about $1.05 trillion at the end of last year,
down from $1.17 trillion in 1990, according to the Federal Reserve. In the decade, assets in
mutual funds surged to $6.82 trillion at the end of November from $1.07 trillion at the end of
1990, the Investment Company Institute said.

Offering freebies for deposits gives banks "a way to get the customer in front of us,"
said Ken Lewis, president and chief operating officer of Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp.,
which has more deposits than any other U.S. bank. Just getting customers back in the door
"gives us an opportunity to sell other products as well," he said.


Lifestyle
North Country's arrangement with Weatherby in Atascadero, is the brainchild of Ronald G.
Ford, the bank's chairman and chief executive.

"It's a high-end product that fits the lifestyle here," said Ford.

The 53-year-old Ford, who owns seven Weatherby rifles and shotguns, hunts black bear and
white-tailed deer in Michigan -- and elk and mule deer in Colorado, pheasant in the Dakotas and
moose in Canada.

North Country, which started offering the Weatherbys more than 10 years ago, displays the
guns on its branches' walls. In the Upper Peninsula, where some schools close for the start of
hunting season in November, guns on the walls don't necessarily raise eyebrows.

"I'm not thrilled that they're giving out rifles, but I wouldn't join picket lines
against it," said Marj Jackson Levin, president of Michigan Citizens for Handgun Control in
Birmingham, Mich., a Detroit suburb. "I can't say that they shouldn't be giving guns away."


Guns vs. clocks
The program has brought in millions of dollars of deposits from customers in every U.S.
state, said Rose Garvin, a North Country Bank & Trust manager and federal firearms license
holder. It eventually led to other giveaways, such as grandfather clocks and golf clubs, but
guns are still the most popular.

North Country advertises its CDs in hunting and gun enthusiast magazines, attracting both
hunters and collectors. Its costliest giveaway, available with a $14,911 deposit in a three-
year CD, is Weatherby's Athena Grade V Classic Field 12-gauge shotgun. It comes with
oil-finished stock and rose and scroll engravings on the side plate, and carries a suggested
retail price of $2,919.

The same $14,911 deposit in an average three-year account paying 5.48 interest yields
$2,588 at the end of the term, $331 less than the price of the gun.

By contrast, $869 placed in a CD at that same rate for 20 years returns $1,656 of
interest, more than double the price of the $779 Mark V Synthetic.

Cost aside, the Weatherby is "a very excellent product," said Ford. And customers are
satisfied with the program. None of the guns was ever turned against his bank in a robbery.

i remember the advertisements very well. however, i always thought i could do better with mutual funds, so i never let the bank have my money.

Yep, it was a bank in Colorado. Don't remember the name, but they were still advertising that offer (Purchase a CD and get a Weatherby rifle instead of interest)in the early/mid 1990's.

If my faded memory is correct, it was the Bank of Boulder. I was much younger then and remember wishing I had ANY money that I could put on interest for a Weatherby. Now I have several Weatherbys and still no money I see a pattern developing here!! Russ

I remember the offer and thought long and hard about it. I did the math and it was cheaper to just buy the rifle and get interest; the money needed to open an account for 10 years and get "0%" interest just was not worth the rifle.

I think it was the Bank of Boulder.

Yes. I believe it was in Colorado, but had some pretty onerous restrictions as to when you could get your cash back.

I think you'd have been better off at that time to invest the capital and buy your own Weatherby.

P.S. There was also a car dealer who'd give you a Weatherby, IIRC, if you bought a new car.

It was the Bank of Boulder and it has changed it's name to First Bank of Boulder. Don't know if they still do the promotions now. Bear

many banks in centrell Ill did the same thing in the 60's and 70's. Wish I had the money then.

It is a fool's game that the bank wins. Those who fall for it are the same ones who think they are scoring BIG when they get a tax return.

I recall a bank letting you buy a Browning BAR for 2X retail price, and then returning your $$ after several years.

Thems smart people right there!