HSBC Technical Issues - Wages Not Paid

cifpower

HSBC seems to have a big technical hiccup this morning.

I should have been paid today and my employer banks with HSBC. It didn't arrive so I called my boss. He double checked the BACS file and the account details were right and the settlement date is today.

However, the bank told him that there was a glitch which meant monies weren't debited so people have not been paid today.

A quick check on twitter and lots and lots of people lambasting HSBC for not receiving their salary just before a bank holiday weekend.

agrinnall

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34084767

It's been on 5Live news too.

cifpower

So its not BACS but and HSBC failure. And now their Commercial Banking website has gone down. If past is prologue these kind of things aren't resolved quickly.

stclair

Technology today eh 😀

bsms1147

stclair wrote: »

Technology today eh ��

Intended or unintended irony? Either was I smiled at ��.

I assume it's an emoji or similar and won't display to most people

nyermen

Money has been deducted from employers as I understand, it hasn't then arrived at the other end. If they're using a Payment engine, they're fire and forget. The backoffice system deducts the money and fires off the payment for BACS. Somewhere between that system and the BACS interface has failed.

I've been wondering about HSBC's payments system for a while - I made a payment to Apple, who were adamant they'd received their money, but it wasn't taken from my account for another month.

cifpower

HSBC have tweeted to say they are investigating alternative ways to ensure credits are received today. Which would mean splitting up the batches and sending each transaction within as a faster payment? That would take a while. They would probably prioritise salary credits.

cifpower

HSBC have tweeted to say most credits will appear this evening with the remainder showing up overnight

10pence

cifpower wrote: »

HSBC have tweeted to say they are investigating alternative ways to ensure credits are received today. Which would mean splitting up the batches and sending each transaction within as a faster payment? That would take a while. They would probably prioritise salary credits.

BACS system is used for direct debits, direct credits and faster payments - this runs along the same software line. But, it's only their commercial line that's affected.

HSBC could in theory use internal transfers for HSBC to HSBC accounts; this will be labour intensive - checking, deleting transactions from the system. Or, an audit nightmare in other words.


One thing I have noticed and HSBC telephone banking refuse to comment upon is VISA debit card transactions aren't registering use from available balances. For example: you have £100 credit, spend £50 via VISA card (chip & pin) it should show £50 available balance. Currently this doesn't seem to be happening.

If anyone else with an HSBC VISA card can confirm my findings it would seem HSBC could be delaying registering those authorizations. Another, can of worms?

Archi_Bald

10pence wrote: »

For example: you have £100 credit, spend £50 via VISA card (chip & pin) it should show £50 available balance. Currently this doesn't seem to be happening.

This is not unique to HSBC and totally normal. Not all retailers report all transactions to the banks straight away, for a variety of reasons. So banks don't always know that you used your card and can't adjust your available balance.

If you want to know how much you can spend, you have to keep records yourself of what you spent.

10pence

Archi_Bald wrote: »

This is not unique to HSBC and totally normal. Not all retailers report all transactions to the banks straight away, for a variety of reasons. So banks don't always know that you used your card and can't adjust your available balance.

If you want to know how much you can spend, you have to keep records yourself of what you spent.

These transactions are for 3 different shops (supermarkets and petrol station) all chip and pin and in the past those 'pending' transactions have shown as 'deducted' from available balance. This happens whether I use HSBC or Barlcays debt cards. Since yesterday and the problem with HSBC they do show this.

Be aware I do not mean deducted form the account I mean pending and/or authorised via CHIP/PIN. An online purchase completed last night has shown as 'deducted' from available balance. The card ones haven't.

For the record, the receipts have been kept and I'm fully aware of how much has been spent. These are shops that have been used in thr past and once checked the monies spent showed in the available balance. Use of online banking apps had shown the monies not taken, phone HSBC who understood what I meant mentioned the card was accepted but declined to comment on why it hadn't registered on the available balance.