Natwest Technical Issues

itchybutt

I paid my wages into Natwest yesterday morning before I found out what was happening and they are still not showing yet.

meliek

just this second signed in via iphone app and i have had a payment go out but not in..this is what happened yesterday so hopefully it wont be long before they ae in again

mel

anneatkins

Loopgames wrote: »

Are they having problem this morning too? Expected some money today and isnt showing online!

Yep. People are missing their pay again today. Twitter is rife with it already.

wannabehermit

I heard something vaguely on the radio yesterday about Natwest branches staying open until 7 as balances weren't updating didn't expect it to still be a problem today. No wages for DH and no tax credits for me showing. But I take it from this thread that it's more than just not updating, it's actually that the credits haven't gone in?

Wyre

Agricolae wrote: »

I'm not sure if a decent explanation has been attempted yet in this thread for the problems. To be fair, most people are more interested in when this will be fixed rather than what happened, but I know that some people appreciate an explanation that deviates from the generic responses given on the phones.

Six months ago NatWest had similar outages. At the time I worked on the phone lines and the amount of abuse I got was pretty bad when people realised I couldn't help them. When this happens it hits people living on the poverty line much harder and the number of stories I heard about not being able to buy nappies, baby food, metered gas and electricity etc. was phenomenal.

The thing to realise is that the front line staff are not well briefed about the minutiae of the problem, and we should not expect them to be. So don't be harsh on them if they're unable to offer much of an explanation.

Speaking of which, the explanation... (please note this is an "educated" guess using general banking knowledge).

The first thing to understand is that banks do not process all payments in the same way. Broadly speaking, there are two categories of payment processing:

1. Real-Time: Payments which are requested and made (almost) instantly, e.g. when you send a payment on your online banking, or transfer money between accounts.

2. Batch: Payments which are "queued" up on day x and then processed overnight so they credit an account on day y. This is called batch processing because it is done in batches which are submitted at regular intervals after business hours.

This covers payments made via the BACS infrastructure. This is a huge number of transactions. Nearly all wage payments and government benefits are paid via BACS, and Direct Debits are also paid via BACS (but in the opposite direction).

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Ok, so now that we know the difference between the transaction types, and we already know that people's wages/direct debits/benefits are affected, we can guess where the problem lies - batch processing. There has very likely been a system problem which has affected batch processing and probably had a "ripple" effect on other bank systems.

I cannot really say any more other than that the last time I heard there was no ETA on when things would be back to normal, but the department in charge of resolving the issue believed that things would be mostly resolved by 3pm today. This is the same message you would have been hearing from staff when you have phoned the main lines. They will simply give the latest updates they are aware of.

I am hoping and praying that when I go into work tomorrow, the problems have been fixed.

Thanks for this, but I can confirm that placing cash in your account (normally instant) is also not working as I paid in £250 yesterday and it is still not showing, and I can still not pay my now late bill.

scattykat

None of mine in and I've been told by 8am it will be sorted, just come off the phone to them

anneatkins

callum9999 wrote: »

Then go into the branch and get some money out then. Loads of people seem to be handed up to £300 just for asking for it (it will be taken out of your account eventually of course!), but if you can prove it's your payday I'd imagine you'd be guaranteed to get it.

This incident has really astounded me though. I had no idea so many people with babies and toddlers don't bother to keep food in the house!

Have *one* kid first and then tell me how that can never happen.

You are an ignorant, judgemental person. Before I had kids, I never was out of stuff or broke, either.

Also, NO ONE SAID empty cupboards, but how long you suppose fruit and milk last? They need 3+ servings of these every day. 3 kids = 9 servings a day! Have you ever counted the apples in a bag, or anything?

Also, not all of us scrounger get housing benefit, council tax benefit etc.

There's also childminders for those whose work clashes with school, school clothes (like I have just run out of detergent you have spare laundry detergent?), little fees for everything every time you turn around and transportation costs.

If lets say I only gave my kids apples as their fruit/veg to keep things simple.

So far, that is [STRIKE]27 apples[/STRIKE] oh oops, if we are only using apples for this illustration instead of veg too, make that 45 MINIMUM in 3 days to meet their daily requirements. (5x fruit/veg a day. We buy the small kidsize apples)

That's 144 oz of milk.

27 slices of bread (MINIMUM) for 3 days (grain)

and minimum of 36oz protein product like meat or quorn or whatever.

Now, this is not even enough food for most kids who will then want snacks, so add more fruit/veg whatever.

You got that in your cupboards? In coinage in your house? I darned sure can't and BY the WAY, your cheap bag of pasta, would have don them and my husband all of 2 dinners. So the cheap bag of pasta is gone too.

You sound like someone who cannot see anyone else's perspective, so why not call your own Mum and ask if she ever had a hard time providing for you. I am sure unless your family was well off, she has and would be ashamed of what you're saying to other Mums who haven't got their housekeeping funds.

robin_banks

I'm contracting and get paid weekly. If my wages weren't in today it wouldn't be a massive problem.

The inability to money from my savings to my current account is a massive problem. I can't do it. I'm leaving Nat west. Glitches are one thing. 24 hrs of system failure, large scale disruption and mixed messages are another thing entirely.

robin_banks

scattykat wrote: »

None of mine in and I've been told by 8am it will be sorted, just come off the phone to them

Tbf they said.something similar yesterday.

Cell

Mini-statements and main statements do not tie up and I am unable to transfer money across accounts and pay bills.

Alas the problems continue:

Important Information for our customers mess age timed at 06:30 on 22 June


Unfortunately we are once again experiencing technical issues with our systems and account balances have not updated properly overnight. This means where money has gone into a customers account, there may be a delay in it appearing on their balance.

We can assure our customers that this problem is strictly of a technical nature and we continue to work hard to resolve this.

We also recognise this is an unacceptable inconvenience for our customers, for which we apologise.

Staff in our branches and at our call centres are ready and available to answer any questions and help where they can.