MSE News: Co-op, Halifax and Lloyds customers hit by banking chaos

callum9999

Stuart_W wrote: »

I've banked with the Co-op since before time began, and can't remember a time when I've noticed a problem like this affect me, being unable to access my money.

I'm of an age where I can remember going to my local post office or co-op handybank (a little counter somewhere inside a co-op food shop) to cash a cheque - an old fashioned but effective manual system of getting at my money.

If the credit card system went down in shops, manual card processing would take place (remember those little carbon-paper receipts anyone?).

Has the notion of any kind of manual back up system completely left us? When the computer says no are we just stuffed?

Mistakes will happen and systems will fail. Manual backup worked well in the past. Some method should be reinstated.

Having all of my banking with the Co-op has never been a problem in the past. If the notion of manual backup has been eradicated , then sadly innovate is right, the backup method is now down to the individual to have a back up account of some sort.

Although, I thought Co-op and Halifax/Lloyds were different systems - is it just coincidence that they have both failed at the same time? Not much point in a back up if the back up fails at the same time.

When we had a series of power cuts in my last job we took all card payments manually. I wouldn't see the point in doing it every time a bank goes down though. Considering most eople are hopefully sensible enough to have at least 2 accounts, I wouldn't think it would be worth the effort to go through that for a handful of people.

opinions4u

Contingency is everything.

A bit of cash. More than one card. Use of different banking groups.

My main fallback to my debit card is three credit cards with different banking groups. And a £10 note in my wallet.

I believe Co-op will continue to use LBG systems when they acquire the Lloyds TSB branches next year. So a contingency of a Co-op card for Halifax, Lloyds or BoS customers may be worthy of review and change.

blossomhill_2

innovate wrote: »

After the Natwest/RBS meltdown earlier this year, it is soul-destroying to see that some people still have all their eggs in one basket - - - i.e. still rely on a single bank for money

This is 3 banks - I have dealings with two of the 3 - how would you suggest we predict which ones won't be hit?

pinkdalek

Contingency is a great thing.

Simple things such as accepting cheques in such times of crisis would have solved many poor customers' embarrassments and stresses. Cheque payments were accepted (with guarantee cards) when bank systems crashed in the past.

Why should people have to own 3 or 4 accounts here there and everywhere just incase. There should be more robust systems in place for when things like this occur.

BugsyBrowne

opinions4u wrote: »

Contingency is everything.

A bit of cash. More than one card. Use of different banking groups.

My main fallback to my debit card is three credit cards with different banking groups. And a £10 note in my wallet.

I believe Co-op will continue to use LBG systems when they acquire the Lloyds TSB branches next year. So a contingency of a Co-op card for Halifax, Lloyds or BoS customers may be worthy of review and change.

Please don't tell me you leave a £10 note in your wallet just incase the banking system have a melt down as you really would be weird or have I read this wrong.

scooby359

Well, that fizzled out pretty quickly.. Got all worried when I saw "BANKING CHAOS!!" ""TODAY'S SHAMBLES!!" "CUSTOMERS WILL BE PRAYING!!"

.. but then, oh, it's all working again an hour later.

Maybe leave it a bit longer before before inciting mass panic, and leave the crazy headlines to The Sun eh?

innovate

blossomhill wrote: »

This is 3 banks - I have dealings with two of the 3 - how would you suggest we predict which ones won't be hit?

I don't have any foolproof answer - all I can suggest is that people spread their risk over as many banks / building societies / card companies as makes sense, and as they can.

TBH, I wouldn't have associated the Coop's systems with Lloyds and Halifax until today. Perhaps we need a list like the FSCS £85K list on which supermarkets/other agents use which bank's IT systems.

pinkdalek wrote: »

Why should people have to own 3 or 4 accounts here there and everywhere just incase. There should be more robust systems in place for when things like this occur.

I would agree, we shouldn't need to have to make provision for the failure of our banks. However, fail they do, shockingly, as has been proven numerous times over the last few years. So leaving it to the banks to sort us out isn't really an option.

I fully expect there will be further shocking failures - temporary or permanent ones.

You can take a number of different approaches to protect yourself from the effects of the next bank failure, such as

• rely on your bank(s) to see you right [not an option really, see above]
• spread your risks (e.g. more than one current account, more than just debit cards, at least one VISA and Mastercard each, may be also an AMEX card, no more than £85K in any single institution at any point in time)
• hope they won't fail
• diversify your assets - don't keep all your money in bank/BS accounts

but sadly, there's nothing that will protect you 100% from a bank failure.

Brighthopefortomorrow

yorkiepudd wrote: »

Exactly why we have 2 seperate accounts. 1 with the Co-op and 1 with, errrr the Halifax. Damn, both of them don't work :eek:

Yes we have three, can you believe it they are with the Halifax, Lloyds and the Coop, good job we didn't need money out today.

peachyprice

This is the second time this has happened to co-op in the last 6ish months, you'd think they'd have learned something from last time. Oh wait, they did, this time they put a message on their telephone banking line, whoopy do.

opinions4u

BugsyBrowne wrote: »

Please don't tell me you leave a £10 note in your wallet just incase the banking system have a melt down as you really would be weird or have I read this wrong.

Nah, the vast majority of my spending is on a card though.

The tenner is just in case I have the overwhelming desire to buy something low value or where cards aren't accepted.

Happens about twice a month.