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Date: Sep 3, 2007
THE ARTICLEFacebook students force HSBC U-turnBritish university students have forced international banking giant HSBC to back down over the charges it intended to put on student overdrafts. More than 5,000 students joined forces in an online campaign to get HSBC to reverse its decision to charge students a whopping 9.9 per cent interest rate on student overdrafts. The bank also said it would refund any overdraft interest charged this month. Most banks offer students zero interest for the first year of any overdraft. HSBC decided to go against the grain and hit students with its charges. However, a post on the social networking site Facebook, titled “Stop the Great HSBC Rip-Off!!!” encouraged thousands of students to protest. Andy Ripley, HSBC's head of product development, tried to put a brave face on the humiliating U-turn by telling reporters that: “Like any service-orientated business, we are not too big to listen to our customers.” The bank had little choice as it faced a public relations disaster. September is the month during which new university students enroll in their courses and start new bank accounts. HSBC could have seen a mass exodus of students. The anger on Facebook was very clear. One entry read: "I am so disgusted with HSBC right now - it actually makes my blood boil. Never before have I lost so much faith in an organization.” HSBC’s reversal also avoided a planned student demonstration outside the bank’s headquarters in London. WARM-UPS1. BANKS: Walk around the class and talk to other students about banks. Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your original partner(s) and share what you found out. 2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently. 3. HSBC: Discuss these comments made about HSBC:
4. BANK SERVICES: In pairs / groups, talk about your experience in banks of the following:
5. U-TURN: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘U-turn’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. 6. COMPLAINTS: Brainstorm a list of complaints you have with banks. With your partner(s), discuss what people can do about these complaints if they joined forces. 7. QUICK DEBATE: Students A think students should pay interest on overdrafts like everyone else. Students B think the opposite. Change partners often. Share your findings. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article: |