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RBS IT cockup: This sort of thing can destroy a bank, normally

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Re: RBS IT cockup: This sort of thing can destroy a bank, normally

#41

Post by prehensile »

andyking wrote: post #2

I have been affected by this over the past week or so. I've been on holiday, and came back to a house with no fresh food, and no working bank account to pay for any, so I've been eating processed shite out of the freezer like a student for four days, and it's making me feel a bit poorly, not to mention the freezer is starting to look a little bare. I haven't had breakfast for days, and I have about two meals left if…

This thread is relevant to my interests: I'm totally going to switch when I can actually get at my cash. If the problem has been because of cuts to & outsourcing of IT staff, we can only assume there'll be more of them.

So, here's a question: does anyone know what the frontline IT setups of other UK banks are like? There'd be no point in jumping to an outfit which has similarly weak infrastructure.

Re: RBS IT cockup: This sort of thing can destroy a bank, normally

#42

Post by adrianhoward »

andyking wrote: post #2

I have been affected by this over the past week or so. I've been on holiday, and came back to a house with no fresh food, and no working bank account to pay for any, so I've been eating processed shite out of the freezer like a student for four days, and it's making me feel a bit poorly, not to mention the freezer is starting to look a little bare. I haven't had breakfast for days, and I have about two meals left if…

Can any British readers recommend any alternative banks?

Consider building societies.

I've been very happy with the Nationwide for twenty odd years. Online banking is pretty good. Also, because of their organisational structure, building societies seem to have weathered the various banking stupidities of the last few years considerably better then some.

Re: RBS IT cockup: This sort of thing can destroy a bank, normally

#43

Post by adrianhoward »

petercooper wrote: post #39
rlpb wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Surely this isn't acceptable in 2012? If you depend so much on one single provider then you have a problem, not the system. Get some redundancy. Get at least one other bank account. Get a credit card, or two. Keep some emergency cash lying around.

Get a credit card, or two. This is the thing. Credit cards are the perfect solution here (and in many other situations), but there's a hard core of people who have some sort of ethical disagreement with them.

there's a hard core of people who have some sort of ethical disagreement with them

I (as a matter of choice) don't have any credit cards. I have no ethical problem with them. I do have an excellent idea what the results of my incredible lack of will power and a credit card will be though :-)

Re: RBS IT cockup: This sort of thing can destroy a bank, normally

#44

Post by StavrosK »

AlexMuir wrote: post #19
pja wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Co-Op? (Although rumour has it that they're going to completely replace their computer systems either this year or early next year so that might be a case of jumping from one basket case to another!) RBS appears to have fouled up the scheduling of their overnight batch run in a way that meant large tranches of transactions simply weren't going through the system. Fixing the problem has taken days (which may be do…

The Co-Op run Smile, the internet bank. They've got a great premium current account. However, I've applied six times online (the only way you can). I'd wade through all my details, previous addresses, employers details, passwords, pin numbers - the works. Took at least 20mins a time - then I'd go to the final page and get a generic "There has been an error with your request, please return to your previous page." And…

The co-op's online banking system is horrible. They used to have it designed so that entering your password multiple times would lock you out of your account, even if you were entering your password correctly but the system was having problems and couldn't verify it for some reason.

I had to call them to reset the password every time the account got locked because of system errors on their part. The current system isn't much better, with the password field at login not accepting backspaces.

Re: RBS IT cockup: This sort of thing can destroy a bank, normally

#45

Post by marbletiles »

timthorn wrote: post #27
JonWood wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from Natwest to First Direct a couple of months ago, and have had a great experience so far. Their online banking isn't quite so nice as Natwest's, but that's more than made up for by the amazing phone service. I've had to call a couple of times (once to replace a lost card), and almost instantly been put through to someone who can solve my problem.

First Direct has no 2FA barrier to online banking, which is one of the key reasons I moved to them from Barclays (who were mostly a decent bank in fairness).

Same here, although they have recently changed the wording of their T&Cs to include 2FA. I asked them about this, and they said they were considering its introduction. (HSBC already has it).

Also, they use that "second letter from your password" style of login, and I'm not sure how they're doing that without keeping the plaintext of the whole password somewhere.

Re: RBS IT cockup: This sort of thing can destroy a bank, normally

#46

Post by Terretta »

adrianhoward wrote: post #42
andyking wrote: post #2

I have been affected by this over the past week or so. I've been on holiday, and came back to a house with no fresh food, and no working bank account to pay for any, so I've been eating processed shite out of the freezer like a student for four days, and it's making me feel a bit poorly, not to mention the freezer is starting to look a little bare. I haven't had breakfast for days, and I have about two meals left if…

Can any British readers recommend any alternative banks? Consider building societies. I've been very happy with the Nationwide for twenty odd years. Online banking is pretty good. Also, because of their organisational structure, building societies seem to have weathered the various banking stupidities of the last few years considerably better then some.

For personal and small business banking that crosses borders, I'm partial to HSBC's systems and practices which feel somewhat less unethical than most, though I cannot attest whether those are the same in their UK home as they are in the smattering of branches in New England.

Re: RBS IT cockup: This sort of thing can destroy a bank, normally

#47

Post by ars »

prehensile wrote: post #41
andyking wrote: post #2

I have been affected by this over the past week or so. I've been on holiday, and came back to a house with no fresh food, and no working bank account to pay for any, so I've been eating processed shite out of the freezer like a student for four days, and it's making me feel a bit poorly, not to mention the freezer is starting to look a little bare. I haven't had breakfast for days, and I have about two meals left if…

This thread is relevant to my interests: I'm totally going to switch when I can actually get at my cash. If the problem has been because of cuts to & outsourcing of IT staff, we can only assume there'll be more of them. So, here's a question: does anyone know what the frontline IT setups of other UK banks are like? There'd be no point in jumping to an outfit which has similarly weak infrastructure.

If you're going to switch, why wait? You can have more than one account at a time.

Open the new one, and start using it. When you have access to your old account, write yourself a check and deposit it in the new account.

It's that easy. You don't have to officially "close" the account and withdraw the cash.

Once your balance is zero in the old account, give them a call and confirm that you want it closed, but at least in the US banks will auto close zero balance accounts after a little while.

Re: RBS IT cockup: This sort of thing can destroy a bank, normally

#48

Post by yread »

sorry for OT, but this

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Re: RBS IT cockup: This sort of thing can destroy a bank, normally

#49

Post by corford »

andyking wrote: post #2

I have been affected by this over the past week or so. I've been on holiday, and came back to a house with no fresh food, and no working bank account to pay for any, so I've been eating processed shite out of the freezer like a student for four days, and it's making me feel a bit poorly, not to mention the freezer is starting to look a little bare. I haven't had breakfast for days, and I have about two meals left if…

I'd strongly recommend Nationwide. Their staff are always friendly and helpful, it's a building society and their online banking site shits all over Natwest's offering (I had a NW account up until a year or so ago).

Re: RBS IT cockup: This sort of thing can destroy a bank, normally

#50

Post by TomGullen »

I despise Natwest.

First problems with them at University, they gave away free 5 year railcards to all students who opened a student bank. No one I knew got one, you only got it if you went through a laborious complaint process. Once I realised I did not have my card after several months I complained, and they refused to issue me one because I waited too long even though it was their fault for not dispatching it in the first place like they promised.

Second problems was with their disgusting ethics when I fell upon hard times.

Third time was when I went travelling and they lied to me straight up about the fees I would be charged using my card abroad, which caused problems. (They did settle with me afterwards and give me some money back, but it was another laborious mission).

Throughout, general appalling service speckled with useless calls from customer service research departments asking me how long I had to queue for in my recent visit and other pointless questions. Flacid attempts at 'caring for customers'.

I'm at a stage now where I can move from them, and will do soon. I'm always happy to spend time telling people about my experiences with them and my recommendation to completely avoid them if possible.

I know banks are not exactly beacons of ethics and good business in society. My expectations for banks is low because of this yet Natwest consistently have managed to go to new depths.

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