MSE News: NatWest customers in lurch after meltdown

Midzone

Santander constantly gets bashed on here BUT I can't speak highly enough of them - one bank who are working on improving and getting things right - not like some banks who are happy to sit back on their laurels.

I have the 123 current account, credit card, savings and ISA not one problem.

Look at the interest rates Natwest offer - pretty pathetic!

DJ1UK

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Transactions disappearing are because they're having to "roll back" some of the data files previously loaded, in order to process other files that should have been loaded beforehand, but failed. Once the earlier files are loaded, I'm sure we'll see these later transactions reinstated.

Yes agree, just strange that all transactions from last Weds through to today all show ok, with exception of Fridays which did show but are now 'missing'.

So I have DDs that came out Thurs, Mon and Tue all showing but one that came out on Fri not showing... but it has been recieved by the requester.

Will see what tomorrow brings ...

sarahowen

There have been some really useful tips on here - the gift card idea is a really good one that I shall be utilising. Another back up bank account is also a good one. I shall have to uncover one of my old accounts and try to use that.

I have to say I am surprised at some of the less than supportive comments on this thread. The MSE I know (remember) has always been incredibly supportive. Hope those with problems get things sorted soon. I bank with Natwest but haven't encountered any problems so far. Possibly because all my payments in and out happen at the end of the month...

datostar

Midzone wrote: »

Santander constantly gets bashed on here BUT I can't speak highly enough of them - one bank who are working on improving and getting things right - not like some banks who are happy to sit back on their laurels.

I have the 123 current account, credit card, savings and ISA not one problem.

Look at the interest rates Natwest offer - pretty pathetic!

They aren't involved in high-risk casino 'investment' banking either and concentrate on retail and business banking. Santander UK is now bigger on turnover than Santander Spain and as of today, albeit downgraded, Santander has a better credit rating than the Spanish Government. They don't seem to be involved in the latest brewing scandal around interest-rate swaps linked to business loans either.

Toe-Jam

Just got some money out of Ulsterbank, was pretty painless, however my balance is completely wrong now, and feels like walking in the branch and getting free money at the moment!, as they computers are totally down and they are just writing the account details on paper and handing out the cash.

Olive_Oyl

I have just been totally humiliated not once but twice . My debit card has been declined despite funds in the account , and the card working over the weekend.

The supermarket staff advised me this has been going on most of the day .

Nat West tell me this is a new problem as of 6.30 pm this evening .

" 99% of accounts " running normally ? They are having a laugh !!!!!!

TheBanker

DJ1UK wrote: »

So I have DDs that came out Thurs, Mon and Tue all showing but one that came out on Fri not showing... but it has been recieved by the requester.

You will probably find the DDs have all been paid. The usual process is:
1. File received overnight from BACS
2. Entries applied to accounts
3. Any unpaid DDs reported back to BACS in a file (for example DDs claimed on closed accounts, cancelled DDs, insufficient funds etc)

If the bank want to pay the DD they send anything back to BACS - they only send a rejection if they don't want to pay it.

Assuming the process stopped after step 1, the DDs will have been paid. It will be an interesting task for whichever poor person at Natwest has to sort out all the DDs which should have rejected (cancelled, drawn on closed accounts etc) as officially they will be out of time to reject them now.

A similar situation applies to cheques. They can't decide which cheques not to pay until they've been applied to accounts. As they can't apply things to accounts, they won't know what to reject and I suspect the whole lot will have been paid. Paid cheques don't require any action by the bank so by default all cheques are paid; the bank needs to reject any cheques they don't wish to pay.

I expect Natwest will end up writing off millions of pounds due to having paid items which should have been returned. Unless the other banks agree to accept late returns, but that in turn could pass the loss to the other bank if the funds have already been utilised by the beneficiary.

TheBanker

Olive_Oyl wrote: »

I have just been totally humiliated not once but twice . My debit card has been declined despite funds in the account , and the card working over the weekend.

Happened to me. Whilst I can understand that this is normally embarrassing, I don't think it's 'totally humiliating' if it happens at the moment. The shop staff and anyone else present will be fully aware of the issues and will realise it's down to the bank, not you.

The Sainsburys cashier on Saturday warned me that my debit card would be declined before I even put it in the machine. She said I was the third customer in the last hour who'd tried to pay with a Natwest card and none of them had gone through.

Olive_Oyl

TheBanker wrote: »

Happened to me. Whilst I can understand that this is normally embarrassing, I don't think it's 'totally humiliating' if it happens at the moment. The shop staff and anyone else present will be fully aware of the issues and will realise it's down to the bank, not you.

Thanks for the reply TheBanker . My card has worked fine until tonight, and the staff gave me no warning that it may be declined so you can imagine my embarrassment not so much with the staff but the long queue of customers behind me , especially as Nat West have said in the press that the issues are nearly resolved which they are obviously not .

purplebutterfly

I currently have transactions showing up until 21st - then nothing until they start up again on 25th.

Hopefully my ingoing payments will reappear soon as they were there on Friday. Still over my overdraft limit until they do though