Nat West bank - one try and then locked out!

dorsetlady

I just tried to log in to my Nat West savings account. I must have made a typo when entering the PIN or password and it locked me out first time! :mad: I now have to wait for an activation code to be posted! I am so mad as I needed urgent access to my account. Once I have the money out I won't be having a Nat West account again.

AHAR

Do they no longer offer the ability to regain access by providing some details from your card(s) and some other personal info?
I don't remember the specific details of what I had to do but I managed to get back in this way last year when I was stuck abroad by the Iceland volcano and needed to move some extra spending money out of my savings account. I'm sure I'd only had one failed attempt too - maybe they do this for connection attempts from outside UK?

dorsetlady

They said that because I don't have a debit card with this account that there is no other way but to wait for the code. I just can't get over the fact that they only let me try once! :mad:

stclair

dorsetlady wrote: »

I just tried to log in to my Nat West savings account. I must have made a typo when entering the PIN or password and it locked me out first time! :mad: I now have to wait for an activation code to be posted! I am so mad as I needed urgent access to my account. Once I have the money out I won't be having a Nat West account again.

Whats the urgency?

callum9999

Could it be possible someone else put your account number in by mistake and tried twice unsuccessfully, then you came along and got it wrong - from their perspective - for the third time?

I've thought about this a few times because if you keep trying it with random numbers, surely you could end up locking random people out of their accounts?

Anubis_2

This happened to me, so I re-registered for online access, online. I managed to get back in using new details.

dorsetlady

callum9999 wrote: »

Could it be possible someone else put your account number in by mistake and tried twice unsuccessfully, then you came along and got it wrong - from their perspective - for the third time?

I've thought about this a few times because if you keep trying it with random numbers, surely you could end up locking random people out of their accounts?

No, I'm sure that isn't the case. When I phoned them they said I'd only had one try because I don't have a debit card! What relevance this has I don't know. As soon as I can get access I'll definately close the account - what if I make a mistake next time - another long wait for an activation code?

jalexa

dorsetlady wrote: »

When I phoned them they said I'd only had one try because I don't have a debit card

?

That's sounds implausable as an explanation. Possibly the sort of half-baked "invention" customer service advisers delight in.

If true it's no basis for future use, though I strongly suspect another explanation. I like to takle "idiocy" differently. Why not apply for a Natwest Basic Bank account? Then you will have online access with a free "loss making" debit card.

Before that, and once access is restored, test the "one try" explanation. If the explanation is "false" make a formal complaint concerning the quality of the advice. That issue upheld would merit some ex-gratia "compo".

agrinnall

I have a NatWest Savings account with no debit card so as I don't have an immediate need for access to the money in it I thought it worth the risk of a small experiment. I typed one of my password characters incorrectly and got the following message:

Customer advice, please address the following issues:

The customer number, PIN or password has been entered incorrectly. Please re-enter carefully to avoid temporarily losing access to online banking and Telephone Banking.

I then re-entered with the correct details and logged in OK. This is exactly what I expected to happen, having worked on RBS systems using 2 factor authentication in the past the norm is to allow 3 attempts before being locked out.

As I see it there are only 2 explanations for what happened to you.

1) A temporary fault with the system that caused you to be locked out after 1 attempt (in which case the details you entered were probably correct) - I would have expected other people to be affected by this unless it was a very short fault.

2) What Calum9999 said, someone else had tried twice already and yours was the third attempt, and the customer service rep was wrong in what you were told. You could try making a complaint as jalexa suggests, you might get some sort of compensation for it.

stclair

dorsetlady wrote: »

No, I'm sure that isn't the case. When I phoned them they said I'd only had one try because I don't have a debit card! What relevance this has I don't know. As soon as I can get access I'll definately close the account - what if I make a mistake next time - another long wait for an activation code?[/QUOTE

You could have done what ever you need to do via phone so I dont see what the problem is.

agrinnall

stclair wrote: »

dorsetlady wrote: »

No, I'm sure that isn't the case. When I phoned them they said I'd only had one try because I don't have a debit card! What relevance this has I don't know. As soon as I can get access I'll definately close the account - what if I make a mistake next time - another long wait for an activation code?[/QUOTE

You could have done what ever you need to do via phone so I dont see what the problem is.

Several issues that I can see:

1) My quote from a failed NatWest login suggests that if you get locked out of online banking it also locks you out of telephone banking.

2) You shouldn't (and my experiment shows you don't) get locked out after 1 failed try so why did the advisor say that's what had happened?

3) Most importantly, if it was possible to do it by phone why didn't the advisor offer to do that while the OP was on the phone to them?