NUS wins award for Facebook campaign

The National Union of Students has been rewarded for its campaign against the high-street bank HSBC after it came to light that they had been “ripping graduates off” by imposing interest rates on their overdrafts once they ceased to be students.

The issue was that from August graduates who had been able to take advantage of a the £1,500 interest fee overdraft as students, were suddenly being expected to pay up to £140 a year in interest charges or alternatively use the ‘premium’ monthly service that means graduates only have to pay £120 if they still had an outstanding overdraft. It was estimated by NUS that the graduate overdraft charges would have cost graduates £20 million in the first year alone.

The NUS took up the cause, as many other banks have a policy of phased withdrawal and the NUS believed that graduate clients of HSBC should also be given that chance, especially given the current economic climate.

The campaign to stop the “Great HSBC Graduate Rip-off” started on the social networking site Facebook, and their hard work to force the bank to reconsider its policy was recognised recently when they won a Third Sector Excellence award for the ‘Use of Digital Media’ in a campaign.

The president of NUS Wes Streeting said, “the campaign success itself has saved students and graduates millions of pounds and is regularly cited as the first time a social networking site has been used to effect a major change in behaviour by any business, let alone a multinational like HSBC.” He also commented that the award was “fantastic news for NUS and shows how much we have improved and developed in recent times.”