Students protest against HSBC
October 6, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
Students in the UK have launched a protest against one of the UK’s leading banks, HSBC, and the protest has been quickly gaining popularity through the Facebook website.
Students are now threatening to boycott HSBC over new regulations that will mean the end of the hugely popular three year interest free overdraft facility on graduate accounts with the bank.
Many graduates have benefited from this three year interest free overdraft facility with the HSBC over recent years, enabling them to enjoy a financial lifeline without paying interest between leaving university and starting work.
However, the bank has stated that many of these accounts were abused, and this combined with high levels of bad debt have resulted in the bank having to make a commercial decision to scrap the three year interest free overdraft facility.
However, students are arguing that the reason they joined the bank in the first place was to be able to take advantage of these popular graduate accounts. The protest comes at a bad time for the bank, which along with other banks in the UK, is now vying for the business of new students that are starting university as the academic year kicks off.
One student stated: “They’ve shot themselves in the foot to be quite honest. Why would they want to alienate themselves from graduates who’ll be earning high salaries in years to come?”
Another stated: “I am so disgusted with HSBC right now – it actually makes my blood boil… Never before have I lost so much faith in an organisation. As soon as I can I am closing my account, moving my ISA and finding a new decent bank.”
Tom Smith
6th October 2007
