In Pursue of Interest

学生としてこちらで銀行口座を開くと、おそらく多くの方が成り行きで学生用の口座を開設させられます。しかしこの学生口座、恐るべき低利なのです。ではどうすればいいのでしょうか---

As I opened my student bank account, I was shocked by its interest rate. It was just 0.4%... I felt as if I were in Japan. In the age of this drastic tuition raising, students' funds are yielding nothing... Indeed it is clear that students are not beneficial customers to banks, but what a cold treatment it is!!

I decided to negotiate. Since I had funds for the fu*kin' high tuition for the first year in my account, I had negotiation power to the certain extent. I told a bank officer that I was intending to close the account and open new one at another bank, with proper reasons: 1) the extremely low interest rate, 2) the bank requires $10,000 deposit to issue a credit card (my university credit union only requires $25), 3) international students cannot get any reward points at the bank.

Then, the officer showed me an interest rates table for a "general" person, not a student. And they finally offered me the general rates. My rates have risen to 2-3%, more than 50 times than the rates they first offered... What a difference!! It's worth a small trip, hundreds of bananas, thousands of Poland Spring water bottles!!

Well, my fellows, don't give up! Negotiate!