Episode 244 B

EPISODE 244
LEVEL B2

 

READING COMPREHENSION

 

ONLINE BANKING

 

Following her recent conversation with Timothy, Julia is coaching her grandmother on using internet banking.
„Let’s have a look at my online account, shall we?” she says, encouragingly. Her grandma says:
„Sure!”, so Julia logs into her account by giving her customer number and her password.
„Now, the first thing we can do is view a statement for the account. I can view up to 6 months of transactions. Alternatively, I can also view a statement for my credit card.”
„And what transactions can you perform?”
„For starters, I can transfer money between accounts – I just click here to make a transfer. If I don’t want the transfer to go immediately, I can make it a scheduled transfer; later I can cancel it or amend it (= correct it) if I need to introduce any changes. I can also make a standing order, a regular payment or actually a series of payments at regular intervals from my bank account. It is always the same amount of money though. My phone bill is different every month, which is why I pay it by direct debit. I can arrange it online as well.”
„Is that when you give a business permission to take money from your bank account at agreed times, and the whole payment operation sort of happens without your involvement? I pay my gas bill like that!” says grandma.
„Well there you go”, Julia is happy. „You’re half way to being an expert on internet banking already!”

 

More contexts for the new words:

• The account was in debit at the end of the year.
(= more money had been spent than was in the account at that time)
• When I last checked, the account was in credit.
(= there was money on it)
• I paid with my debit card rather than with the credit card; I don’t like to be in debt.
(= a card which can be used as a method of payment; the money is taken from your bank account immediately)

 

 

EXERCISE 1
Match the expression halves.

1) an online                    a. a statement
2) to log into                  b. account
3) a customer                c. debit
4) to view                       d. money
5) to transfer                 e. number
6) a standing                 f. order
7) a scheduled              g. transfer
8) to pay by direct       h. your account

 

EXERCISE 2
Use the expressions from today’s lesson to talk about:
1. your bank account
2. your online banking habits
3. the banking operations you have performed this month.

 

ENGLISH IN USE

Look at this sentence from the text:

 

My phone bill is different every month, which is why I pay it by direct debit.

Again, we’re using the relative pronoun „WHICH” here. Again, it refers to the whole preceding clause („my bill is different every month”), or to the whole idea expressed in it. It indicates that this whole clause is a reason for something – here, for the fact that Julia pays these bills by direct debit. You’ll find some more examples below.

 

I don’t really like yellow, which is why I never buy any clothes in this colour.
She was sick a lot last semester, which is probably why she failed the exam.

 

Remember that, again, „what” cannot be used here in place of „which”.

 

 

IDIOM CLOSE-UP

 

A/ Is your account in debit again?
B/ I’m afraid it is. But I really hate BEING IN THE RED!

If you’re in the red, you are in debt. The opposite is ‘to be in the black’ – when you are in credit.

 

PHRASAL VERBS CLOSE-UP

 

1. If you can bank on something or someone, you can count on it happening, or on the person doing something.

 

They’re banking on him to win the match.
You can bank on my support in the elections.

 

2. When you RIP someone OFF, you charge too much money for something. The related noun is: a RIP-OFF.

 

They always rip you off at Harrods.
Tourists are worried they’ll get ripped off.
Our meal in the centre was a complete rip-off.

 

EXERCISE 3
Transform the sentences so that they mean the same. Use the words in brackets.

1. I don’t expect him to be there.

[BANK] …………………………………………………….
2. Sam’s tickets cost much less than ours – I think we’ve paid too much.

[OFF] …………………………………………………….
3. At the end of the month, I always owe money to the bank.

[RED] …………………………………………………….

 

 

NEWS

 

MIND YOUR PASSWORD!

We all know that you shouldn’t write down your PIN number anywhere, in case it might get stolen and misused by criminals, but are you just as vigilant when it comes to your online banking password? Many of us have received emails, allegedly from our bank, demanding password confirmation. You are asked to enter a website – which is a spitting image of the bank’s website – and enter your personal details, together with the password. And despite numerous public campaigns alerting us of this type of activity and stigmatizing it as blatant fraud, still a surprisingly high number of bank customers are taken in. So please remember: your bank will never send you emails asking for password verification. All such attempts are a scam.

 

GLOSSARY
– vigilant – careful
– allegedly – according to the emails themselves
– spitting image – exact copy
– blatant – obvious, shameless
– fraud –cheating
– scam – dishonest plan to make money

 

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